B
o Diddley Community Plaza, a centerpiece in downtown Gainesville, will soon shut down for nearly a year while the city renovates the popular area. While the prospect of a cleaner and more inviting plaza sounds wonderful, one issue came to mind after reading about the renovations: Where will Gainesville’s homeless go?
If you walk through Bo Diddley, you’ll notice the homeless sleep on the sidewalk along the west side of the plaza. Closing the plaza for a year will certainly expel anyone from sleeping in the area, and something tells me that once the plaza reopens, the homeless will no longer have the ability to camp on the sidewalk.
All is not lost for Gainesville’s homeless, as the city has a new option for them: Grace Marketplace. It’s a place for homeless men, women and children to get back on their feet. Grace Marketplace provides temporary shelter, job training, medical care and other assistance to those in our community who are most in need. Grace is a step in the right direction, but it’s not a permanent solution.
With the closure of Bo Diddley threatening the loss of a popular spot for the city’s homeless, we have a responsibility to take permanent action.
The best solution for helping is providing opportunities to end chronic homelessness, and that’s going to need serious action from UF. Through providing job training, medical care and other social services, UF can make an integral difference in the lives of the homeless. However, another idea might work, and it involves tiny houses.
The construction of tiny houses for the homeless is an idea taking root in communities throughout the U.S. Tiny houses range in size from 80 to 1,000 square feet, and in some communities, the compact size is being used to help those in need. Portland, Oregon, is a great example of the small house movement. The city is building tiny houses at a cost of $12,000 each and leasing them to homeless men and women at an extremely low rate in an attempt to help people get back on their feet. Portland isn’t alone. A fraternity at the University of Alabama in Huntsville is also building 500-square-foot houses for the homeless.
Portland and Huntsville are great examples of what can be done when communities decide to take action on a serious problem. If the city of Portland and a fraternity in Huntsville can make a change, so can UF, Gainesville and Alachua County.
Outgoing UF President Bernie Machen recently joined the board of Grace Marketplace. Although this gesture is a step in the right direction, UF can and should be doing more to help the homeless community in Gainesville. UF is the economic engine that drives our community, yet it’s far too easy for all of us to ignore the plight of individuals spending their nights on the cold, unforgiving city sidewalk next to Bo Diddley.
It would be incredible to see UF partner with Gainesville to locate and purchase available land to eventually construct tiny houses on the property. Homeless men and women could then rent the homes for a low cost, and social workers at places like Grace Marketplace could help the homeless find and maintain jobs to get their lives back on track.
We have a responsibility to help our community. Perhaps the Bo Diddley Community Plaza renovations provide us with the opportunity to take tangible action to solve a crisis. A tiny house revolution cannot completely solve homelessness in Gainesville — nor can a fully funded Grace Marketplace — but if various organizations at UF do what they can to help, we can make an enormous difference.
Joel Mendelson is a UF graduate student in political campaigning. His columns appear on Wednesdays.
[A version of this story ran on page 7 on 12/3/2014]
[The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the Alligator.]
