Terry Debrule survived Winter Storm Enzo in January under an outdoor staircase where he said he felt safer than at a homeless shelter – despite temperatures in the low 30s.
“I don’t go to those shelters, people get stupid, and then I wanna get stupid,” Debrule said, referring to violence he says he has experienced in low-barrier shelters. He says shelter violence can make his path to recovery, and away from homelessness and prison, more difficult.
Florida passed a law in October 2024 making it illegal for people to sleep on public property. Debrule decided to take his chances with the law–and the weather–on that January night instead of going to one of Gainesville’s two cold shelters, one of which is only accessible to men under special circumstances.
Alachua County was placed under a rare freeze watch and a winter storm warning on the night of Jan. 21st until early the next morning, with temperatures dipping below freezing. As a result, the City of Gainesville activated its Cold Night Shelter (CNS) Program, something it does when temperatures go below 45 degrees.
GRACE Marketplace and St. Francis House, the city’s primary homeless shelters, host the program, funded by a federal Community Development Block Grant with $25,000 set aside for CNS. So far this year, the CNS program has been activated at least ten times.
The Weather Channel warns that cold wind chills as low as 15 degrees can cause frostbite on exposed skin in just 30 minutes, and that wind chill values may cause hypothermia with prolonged exposure. It also warns that young children, the elderly and the homeless are particularly vulnerable, recommending to “take measures to protect them”.
Despite the dangers of the cold, Debrule and others were determined to avoid the shelters and found alternative protection to wait out the storm. While hundreds choose either GRACE Marketplace or St. Francis House as their sanctuary, others stay away, regardless of the weather, highlighting their extreme apprehension.
GRACE Marketplace is a non-profit, low-barrier shelter, meaning entry requirements are reduced to serve as many guests as possible. During cold snaps, the shelter provides heaters and overnight security for guests. GRACE prohibits journalists from speaking to its residents.
GRACE is partially funded by the City of Gainesville and has grown over the past 10 years. Since 2014, GRACE Marketplace has been able to reduce 40% of all homelessness in Alachua County and unsheltered homelessness by about 53%, according to the organization.
Jon DeCarmine, GRACE’s founder and outgoing CEO, says the only solution to homelessness is housing. In 2023, GRACE Marketplace housed 276 people and served more than 3,000. DeCarmine says the goal is to get people out of the shelters.
Allan Dudley, a homeless man who last stayed at GRACE Marketplace about four years ago, praised the shelter as a temporary place for refuge but said no one should rely on it as a long-term solution.
He said the weather was treating him “really bad, but I got blessings. A lady came over and bought me a hotel room for five days.”
“Right now, I’m homeless, but it’s my fault that I’m homeless, nobody else’s. But I think GRACE Marketplace is really good,” Dudley said. “You gotta take advantage of the opportunity they’re trying to give. You can’t just go over there to live. That’s not your home.”
Dudley used to live at Dignity Village, a tent city behind GRACE Marketplace that shut down at the end of 2019. He said security was an issue.
“Oh my God, there was no law,” he said. “If you’re green and don’t know anything about street life, don’t go back there.”
DeCarmine posted a blog explaining the closure in 2019, saying “Our community recreated the tent city but added the basics of public health - clean water, bathrooms, showers, and trash pickup. Campers could walk 100 feet to GRACE for meals, laundry, computers, medical services, and a dozen other agencies ready to help,” he wrote.
Jerry Shelnutt and Jennifer Damato are also unhoused and slept just outside the City Church of Gainesville during the winter storm, also refusing to return to the shelters.
“The only reason we’re being safe is because we’re in the city church,” Shelnutt said.
“Yeah, the people at the city church are really good to us,” Damato said.
They stayed at GRACE Marketplace 10 years ago, before Dignity Village closed, and said they have not forgotten some of the disturbing experiences during their one-month stay.
“It is tragic,” said Myles Gibbs, a case manager in GRACE’s housing specialist team. “Things at the facility are always getting better. We’re always finding ways to improve upon the process, and that is part of the process.”
“We recently had an office put right next to the office area, so there’s a staff person sitting with them throughout the night. Monitoring the situation, making sure people aren’t getting aggressive, making sure drug abuse isn’t taking place within the shelter,” Gibbs said.
“There’s a whole outreach team, their job is to go out into the community, connect with people like Terry who don’t want to come in the shelter, but still work with them,” Gibbs said.
The Street Outreach team connects people to housing by building relationships and providing services and supplies. “They also will continually try to convince people like Terry, saying ‘Hey, your life is in danger,’ on a night like tonight. ‘Come back.’ A lot of it is regaining that trust. The results speak for themselves,” Gibbs said.
The City of Gainesville’s Community Resource Paramedicine Program (CRP) is an extension of Gainesville Fire Rescue (GFR) and collaborates with GRACE. GFR paramedics and EMTs reach out to those struggling with the healthcare system and link them to GRACE outreach teams. According to Gibbs, much of the faculty at GRACE is specifically trained to de-escalate conflict with residents 24/7.
“We don’t have any police officers or security guards or anything like that. It’s all just staff. We don’t get involved in any physical altercations,” said Anyelo Barrios, a volunteer coordinator at GRACE.
“We try to get in between and break it up when an argument arises. We try to stop it before it can become any kind of safety concern,” he said. If conflict escalates, then authorities are contacted: “We just try to mitigate and de-escalate.”
“GRACE was set up to solve the homelessness crisis in this area, to house as many people as possible,” Gibbs said. “We track all of our incidents. When you do something like that, you’re gonna run into tough areas. But I think the best thing about working there is GRACE is the only place I’ve worked where if you take an issue to management, they will solve that. They will change the policies. They will make things better.”
John “JT” Thomas, GRACE’s new CEO replacing DeCarmine, said communal living is not ideal anywhere. However, the team members at GRACE are familiar with its residents and only ban guests from returning under extreme, repeated circumstances.
“People just have bad days,” he said. “When I have a bad day, I get to have a bad day in private.”
Thomas said local government should play a role in social services and is grateful to the City of Gainesville, which has played an essential role in helping GRACE Marketplace grow.
St. Francis House, unlike GRACE Marketplace, is a family-oriented shelter requiring a blue card to enter, issued by the Gainesville Police Department to prove an individual is free of arrest warrants and is not a registered sexual offender or predator.
Although Jennifer Damato can stay at St. Francis, she won’t leave her partner behind.
“They won’t take Jerry. I have really bad PTSD from a past relationship, so I can’t sleep without him next to me,” she said, wrapping her hands around his arm.
According to Algera “Pastor” Lavan, St. Francis House’s lead client advocate, men are not allowed to reside at St. Francis, except in rare exceptions for fathers and close family. These protections provide a smaller, safer shelter option for some of Gainesville’s homeless women and children.
Allan Dudley is trying to get custody of his daughter and approval to stay in St. Francis with her. “My housing specialist started off at GRACE Marketplace. He’s awesome,” Dudley said. His specialist is working to qualify him to enter with his daughter amid tight restrictions.
With winter coming to a close, the concern around cold weather will slowly morph into hurricane season preparation. Even still, Terry Debrule will stay outside.
Standing at the intersection of Diamond Creek and Southwest 13th St, Archer Road, Debrule says he has siblings scattered throughout Florida and has stayed with his sister and brother before.
But “After three weeks, I gotta go,” he said.
