For more than a decade, Grace Marketplace has been providing housing, meals and other services to Gainesville’s most vulnerable.
Executive Director Jon DeCarmine said Grace was founded because he saw a gap in homeless services for those living on the street.
“We were in a spot as a community where we kept seeing visible homelessness and we kept wondering why people wouldn't use the shelters that we had. And when we looked more closely, we realized that the shelters really weren't built for the people who we were seeing out on the street," he said.
Grace’s approach is to operate a low-barrier shelter that can provide all essential services someone may need to get housing. Since Grace opened, DeCarmine said they’ve seen a 40 percent reduction in overall homelessness and an over 50 percent reduction in people living on the street.
“The community was skeptical of whether a large homeless services campus would solve the problem. And I think 10 years in, now we've seen the evidence that it will begin to address the problem," he said.
Grace will be holding a 10-year celebration on Thursday at 8 a.m. at the Gainesville Women’s Club.