Letter: Low-barrier policy at GRACE endangers UF students and local residents

Letter to the editor

To the editor:

I am the parent of a current UF student and an alumna. Recent events, including Gainesville’s reported rise in violent crime, GPD’s reported delay or non-response in a stalking case involving a UF student, and a string of public reports describing repeat homeless offenders, have caused me and other parents to be very concerned about safety. I am writing to urge common sense safeguards such as identification checks, criminal background reviews, drug screening, and treatment for drug addiction at the homeless shelter, GRACE Marketplace (GRACE), along with an increase in GPD funding.

GRACE is a nonprofit, largely publicly funded, low-barrier, “housing-first” campus. GRACE’s site states, “There are no requirements and no barriers to getting help here” and “stable, permanent housing is the only solution to ending homelessness.” Although locals are “prioritized,” in practice, anyone can enter, including people with violent criminal records. North Central Florida has roughly seven major Florida correctional institutions within about an hour of campus. Those institutions release inmates to the county they name as their residence. Because GRACE does not require ID, a criminal background check, or sobriety, individuals who cannot enter other Florida shelters often choose Gainesville. That is the magnet effect. GRACE also provides residents with free or discounted RTS bus passes, providing quick, easy access throughout Gainesville, including the student core.

Statistics regarding the rate of violent crime are extremely concerning:

• FBI Uniform Crime Report figures for 2024 put Gainesville’s violent-crime rate at 738 per 100,000 (1,085 incidents), more than double a commonly cited national rate of about 359.
• A 2025 Wasatch Defense Lawyers review of 26 college towns, using FBI and local data from May 2023 to May 2025, ranked Gainesville first at 179 reported crimes per 10,000 residents.
• Gainesville Police Department NIBRS figures for January 1–June 30, 2026, show the problem is not “crime in general.” Violent incidents rose from 414 in the first half of 2025 to 506 in the first half of 2026, a 22 percent increase, about 4.9 percent above the three-year first-half average of 482.

Homicide, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault all increased, while property crime and total reported crime declined. A drop in overall crime does not cancel an uptick in violence. That increase does not prove that the homeless or residents at GRACE caused the rise. However, it does make it reasonable to ask whether City and County housing-first policies are creating an unreasonable risk of harm to Gainesville residents.

As an additional taxpayer cost, at the Aug. 25, 2026 meeting, County Commissioner Mary Alford acknowledged that “more than half of the people sitting in our County jail are estimated to be unhoused, and at $127 per person per day, that adds up pretty darn quick.” Over the past year, public arrest reports and local coverage have repeatedly described people listed as homeless, and in many cases associated with GRACE, who were charged with new offenses, noting that defendants are presumed innocent unless convicted.

It is critical to note that most Florida shelters screen. GRACE’s failure to screen has made this college town the statewide destination for people barred elsewhere. A no-screen campus is not safer for the homeless. Some unsheltered people will stay on the street if they believe GRACE is unsafe.

Mayor Harvey Ward and both the City of Gainesville and Alachua County Commissions have supported the low-barrier, housing-first model. However, President Trump’s Executive Order 14321 (7/24/2025) takes a different view. It states that “endemic vagrancy, disorderly behavior, sudden confrontations, and violent attacks have made our cities unsafe,” and that surrendering cities to disorder “is neither compassionate to the homeless nor other citizens.” Section 3 directs federal agencies to prioritize discretionary grants for jurisdictions that enforce rules on open drug use, urban camping, loitering, and squatting, and that move people who cannot care for themselves into treatment. Section 5 directs an end to support for Housing First policies that deprioritize accountability and fail to promote treatment, recovery, and self-sufficiency.

GRACE’s 501(c)(3) status does not put the City or County outside federal grant rules because it accepts discretionary HUD, HHS, and other federal funds. On Oct. 23, 2025, the City Commission voted to transfer GRACE’s campus, valued at about $4.6 million, to GRACE for $1; another two parcels were transferred in November 2025 for perpetual use as a Continuum of Care facility. On Oct. 16, 2025, the City Commission extended GRACE’s FY2026 services agreement at $2,050,000 ($1.7 million general fund and $350,000 GCRA) (Agenda Item 2025-798). GRACE’s then-CEO told the Commission the City’s share was about 36 percent of a $5.1 million budget, including in-kind donations.

On Aug. 25, 2026, GRACE’s interim CEO asked the County Commission to block an outreach contract he said would replace the County’s housing-focused approach with a “treatment-first model championed by the Trump administration.” A GRACE attorney called that treatment approach “antithetical” to the National Alliance to End Homelessness’s model. The County approved the $350,000 grant, but only after ordering the TaskForce for Ending Homelessness to revise its RFP to emphasize the housing-first model instead of requiring treatment-as-a-condition and the federal encampment framework, the opposite of what EO 14321 tells HUD and HHS to reward. Thus, the County appears to be willing to risk future access to federal funds by rejecting treatment-first policies.

To address the rise in violent crime, the City must also approve an increase in GPD funding. Even 300 officers would be only about 2.0 per 1,000 residents in a city of roughly 151,000. National averages run about 2.3–2.4; southern cities are closer to 2.5.

The City and County must condition public funding on written rules at GRACE: identification, background checks, and drug screening at intake; no recent violent felony convictions or active violent charges at GRACE, with supervised treatment or reentry offered elsewhere.

Compassion and student safety are not opposites. Gainesville should not be the place violent felons are drawn to when virtually every other shelter says no. Public safety demands nothing less.

Melissa Bell, Jacksonville

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