With a backpack full of goodie bags, Jennifer Moises, the case manager at Grace Marketplace, approaches a cluster of tents to survey 25-year-old Duncan Anderson. During the questioning, Anderson revealed his last stable home was back in 2006. “At 16, I made a mistake in my life and went to jail,” Duncan said. “I’m never going back.”
The Pavilion, which some tenants jokingly call Faux Diddley Plaza, is a shelter for the homeless. The concrete structure holds 56 beds at a time, and when temperatures drop below 45 degrees Fahrenheit, the Welcome Center opens for warmth against the cold.
Brenda Chamberlain, database coordinator for the Alachua County Coalition for the Homeless and Hungry, works on volunteer logs and surveys for the census count. The census started at 5:45 a.m. on Thursday and ended at 9 p.m.
For three months, 35-year-old Sisco Black and his wife have been homeless. When they first came to Grace Marketplace, they relied heavily on the amenities, but now they have become self-sufficient.
Occupy Gainesville was set up by a group of homeless people to ensure a community atmosphere. This band of tents sits right outside the fences of Grace Marketplace and was included in the homeless census. Residents of Occupy Gainesville can still use the amenities Grace offers while living across the street on a sepate patch of land.
Peter Dannenhoffer, 52, eats a toaster pastry for his morning breakfast. Even though Dannenhoffer lives in Occupy Gainesville, a tent community outside of Grace Marketplace, he is still able to get something to eat within Grace’s fences. “Grace provided me a place to live immediately after I became homeless,” Dannenhoffer said.
A garden was planted and tended to by a resident of Occupy Gainesville named Tygur. According to Executive Director Theresa Lowe, Tygur was one of the original occupants of the tent community and set up this plot of land to become more self-sustainable.
The usual sound of birds wasn’t what woke the residents of Grace Marketplace Thursday morning.
Grace Marketplace, 2845 NE 39th Ave., held their annual homeless census count on Thursday that lasted from 5:45 a.m. to 9 p.m.
The Alachua County Coalition for the Homeless and Hungry, headed by Executive Director Theresa Lowe, offered goodie bags for those who participated in the census. The bags were filled with a meal replacement shake, fruit snacks, a water bottle and other snacks, including a Rice Krispies Treat.
The coalition armed volunteers with binders filled with blank surveys in hope that the homeless would take a few minutes to answer questions about their current living situation.
The homeless census is completed every year on a specific day across the state and is called the Point-In-Time survey. Residents in both Grace Marketplace and Occupy Gainesville, a tent community across the street, were included in the census.
Lowe said there are three main reasons why the census must be done. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the coalition’s biggest funder, requires a census to take place in order for funding to be received.
Lowe said the results of the census will help open the public’s eye to homeless communities. The census also raises more awareness to potential donors in hopes of receiving additional funding to improve conditions at Grace Marketplace.
“I didn’t have what I needed when I got laid off,” said Richard Baily, 46. “So, here I am.”
Similar stories of lost jobs, familial problems and addiction are found within the people who live in and around Grace Marketplace.
Local labor union representatives gathered in front of Gainesville City Hall on Thursday to protest a bill that would allow Gov. Ron DeSantis to appoint an independent governing board for Gainesville Regional Utilities.
WUFT News News and Public Media for North Central Florida from the University of Florida in Gainesville
