When she was manager of a Palatka Huddle House, she would give coffee to homeless men who stopped by the restaurant. Now Kim Justice, 50, has been homeless for about a year.
Cold on Saturday morning, she said she was hoping a friend would take her out for coffee. She sees it as full-circle fate. She helped others then, and others help her now.
The St. Francis House, a Gainesville soup kitchen and shelter, provides help for Justice and the city’s homeless population — specifically shelter from the cold.
Forty-five degrees is the magic number. If the temperature dips below that, the shelter opens its doors to up to 65 people and gives them a cot to sleep on.
If the shelter is full, the Alachua County Housing Authority pays for the homeless to stay in motels, like Sunshine Inn and Rush Lake, until it warms up. As of Friday, nine people had chosen that option.
The temperature dropped to 28 degrees on Thursday and Friday night. It was the kind of cold that, if you’re dressed like Justice, wearing a sweater, capri jeans and flip-flops, you shiver so hard it starts to hurt.
Tonight and Tuesday night are predicted to have the same freezing temperatures.
But it was only 47 degrees at 7 p.m. Justice still had an hour to wait until she’d be let into a lobby where stacks of blankets and a Christmas tree awaited her. She said she’s always been able to get into the St. Francis House during cold weather.
“It’s well taken care of on cold nights,” she said.
The van she usually sleeps in is a Hilton compared to her previous home of a tent in the woods. But Friday night, it was too cold for her to wait for her bed on wheels.
Her friend, who owns the van, couldn’t leave work until 11 p.m., so she checked in to the shelter.
Justice secured her cot by waiting in line two hours before the shelter’s sign-in time.
But before she slept in vans and on cots, she was the manager of a Huddle House, a Southern restaurant chain that boasts its country fried steak and never stops serving breakfast.
She remembers giving free coffee and dinners to two homeless men who would often stop in just for a warm place to sit.
She said drunk customers always ordered more than they could eat, and she gave those meals to the homeless men, too.
Helping them warmed her heart, like the coffee she served.
But she never thought she’d end up in the same place.
Justice said the shelter offers more than just a warm bed — it gives peace of mind. The shelter provides blankets, pillows, toiletries, a shower and breakfast.
“We get to relax,” she said.
Justice said without shelters like the St. Francis House, the streets would be cold and frightening for her.
“People will steal from you left and right.”
But at the shelter, she feels safe.
She brought snacks for the wait: chocolate glazed doughnuts given to her by the Salvation Army and an oversized coffee mug full of water.
“I wish I had some coffee,” she said as the temperature slowly descended with the sun.
Not everyone opted for sleeping at the shelter, even when newspapers warned it could be less than 30 degrees that night.
Leon Blunt said he was content with sleeping in his tent with his six blankets, two electric blankets and sleeping bag.
“When it comes down to a man like someone in my position, I’d rather see someone else take that spot [in the shelter],” he said. “I’ll just wait here patiently because I know the Lord will take care of me.”
However, it’s not entirely because of his generosity that he wants to let someone take his place. Nor is it completely because of his criminal record, although the St. Francis House requires every person to get clearance from police before they can sleep there.
He said it’s the smell. He said that some of the men don’t bathe for months, and the sweaty odor only gets worse as the building heats up.
Justice said she’s never noticed the smell and said the St. Francis House is clean.
But men and women sleep in different rooms. She sleeps in the lobby, and men sleep in the dining room.
Blunt waited outside the Holy Trinity Episcopal Church on Friday night, breathing in the cold air and waiting with about a dozen men for dinner provided by the church.
A born-again Christian, Blunt is looking for work in plumbing, tree management, roofing — anything he can find.
But Blunt said not many places are hiring, and his criminal record often disqualifies him. He was released from prison on Sept. 24 after spending two years there for minor offenses, including buying and selling stolen property.
He said the many mistakes he made when he was younger have followed him from prison to the job market.
“That past follows you the rest of your life,” he said.
But as far as the cold goes, he said he’s all right. He has his tent, his spot, and he knows which organizations hand out food on any given day.
He said families never have to sleep on the streets on a cold night. Shelters and relief organizations make sure families and children have a roof over their heads.
“They make an extreme effort for that,” he said.
But he chose to stay outdoors.
He said he spends a lot of his time reading at the downtown library. But when it gets dark, he goes to his tent and the layers of warmth. Then, he gets up at 5:30 a.m. and looks for work.
“Sometimes I get work, sometimes I don’t,” he said.
Day after day, he goes through the same routine. His concerns about the weather are thrown to the wind. He said he trusts God to take care of him and to keep him warm.
“The days that I don’t see sunshine, it’s not bad,” he said, “because the storm doesn’t last always.”
