Gainesville’s Empowerment Center Oversight Advisory Board discussed Wednesday how to govern the tent city around Grace Marketplace, called Dignity Village, after the city acquires the land from the state in the next few weeks.
The board focused on issues including law enforcement jurisdiction; water, trash receptacles and bathroom availability; and whether Dignity Village should remain separate from Grace Marketplace, a local homeless shelter.
Currently, Dignity Village forms a “U” around the outer perimeter of the shelter’s fenced-in area. The residents have organized it into eight blocks, represented by small plastic placards labeled A through H.
Because it is off the grounds of the shelter, residents do not have a strict set of rules to follow and have formed a self-governance system. Once the city acquires the land, the questions will start flowing.
Should the advisory board appoint a paid position to manage the area? Should a charity organization run Dignity Village as a separate entity from Grace? Should Grace undertake monitoring of the area and provide additional services to the encampment? Or should it remain as it is, with a few respected people who live in the village keeping tabs on everyone?
Current resident Nicholas Shaffer, 32, said he thinks the best option for Dignity Village is self-governance with organizational support from the board. The residents already have formed a community, modeled like a city within a city. He said the best way to keep everything under control is to create a ballot of people who live there and have residents vote to elect leaders.
That way if there is a problem, residents will have a designated person to ask for help, he said. That person, in turn, would interact with the board and law enforcement to communicate the needs of the encampment.
“It’s very much like old school America here,” Shaffer said. “You know your neighbor, you know their schedules. We look out for each other and take care of the community.”
County Commissioner Mike Byerly said that working on safety and security with law enforcement, alleviating water and sanitation issues, and determining a leader are the most pressing issues for the board. He said residents expressed their needs to the board.
“Now we need to move pretty quickly to help,” he said.
Shaffer lived in the village in August and September. He returned in December and still lives there now.
“When you talk about camping rules, it scares the crap out of me,” he told the board. “We’re not camping. This is home.”
[A version of this story ran on page 5 on 3/12/2015 under the headline “Advisory board discusses issues in tent city surrounding shelter”]
