Living in Gainesville, there’s something you’re going to encounter on the streets that you should be ready for.
No, I’m not talking about the ravenous, beer-bloated Gator fans or drunken sorority girls crying on the side of the road (although you’ll meet those, too). I’m talking about the overwhelming and aggressively sponging homeless population.
When I moved here in 2008, I was surprised by the sheer amount of them, as well as the ease with which they approach passersby.
Although Gainesville was recently named one of the meanest cities by the National Coalition for the Homeless, it doesn’t stop street dwellers of all kinds from making it one of their favorite stomping grounds.
We’ve got all kinds here: young, traveling crust kids who choose to be homeless; slightly demented but harmless crazies who can’t stop running; and of course, crackheads without pants. And they’ve all got a story. Maybe they just got out of the hospital and need money for medicine, maybe their family was killed by ninjas and they need money for karate lessons, or maybe their “grandmamma always told me just ask for 75 cents.”
It’s easy at first to think you should give a little something — after all, do unto others. But after a while, it becomes obvious that there are just too many to have sympathy for them all, and sometimes you have to think back to those DARE days as a kid and just say no.
Of course, how you choose to dole out your funds is a personal choice. Many feel their money should be earned, either by having their car cleaned or listening to a pan handler play guitar. For some people, it’s enough if they’re enticed to laugh.
Teaamont Hadez Cuningham goes for humor. He’s gained quite a reputation in town and online for his “ninjas killed my family” sign. He said he’s been using that line for the past 15 years and it definitely helps.
“I get enough to get weed, the herbal cigarettes I smoke and some food,” Cuningham said. “I don’t drink and luckily I don’t pay child support.”
Cuningham said he just came back to Gainesville a couple weeks ago, this being his fourth visit.
“It used to be a lot cooler,” he said. “When I first came here, drug dealers were everywhere and they didn’t mind meeting new people.”
Still, Cuningham said he loves being here and thinks Gainesville has a great atmosphere for people like him. He doesn’t think people giving handouts should care who they give it to or what they use it for.
“Don’t assume,” he said. “Even if you don’t think you’re helping, you are. Maybe they [spend your money on drinks] because they have a lot of things they’d like to forget.”
Nury Dominguez, a 20-year-old Santa Fe business major, disagrees. She said she’s met Cuningham before, and she didn’t think his act was very funny. In fact, she’s over the homeless.
“I feel like especially they come to me and have conversations with me,” she said. “I just don’t have anything for them. I used to be nice, but it got to the point that it was really annoying.”
She’s not alone.
“Most of them are oxygen thieves, they just sucking up someone else’s air,” said Eugene Primus, who doesn’t consider himself homeless because he often stays with a friend.
Primus is often found sleeping in front of American Apparel, his “special spot,” and is familiar to many club-goers who have seen the man cleaning up after their mess.
Eugene has been in Gainesville for 22 years and helps set up and clean various clubs around downtown each night of the week. He cleans cars by day, because he said he was raised to believe you should work for what you get.
“A lot of people in this town have no get up and go, they just want handouts,” he said. “I work for my s--- so people can’t say I owe them nothing.”
Max Tipping, the executive director of the Alachua County Coalition for the Homeless and Hungry, said if you want to help, handouts are OK, but if you want to make a bigger donation, it’s better to come to him and his organization, and it’s needed.
He said the last count in January put the homeless population at 1,292 people, 242 of those are children under 18.
He said many of the groups and organizations they work with desperately need volunteers.
Anyone interested in making a donation or volunteering his or he time is asked to contact Tipping directly, at 352-378-0460.
