Deferred prosecution agreements allow defendants across Alachua County to complete community service hours or donate to selected nonprofits in exchange for dropped charges.
Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, both deadly, left widespread damage across Florida’s Gulf Coast. While Gainesville remained mostly unscathed, the eastern part of the city still struggled to receive aid and prepare for the worst.
The Israel-Gaza conflict has been a source of controversy for several decades but was most notably amplified after Oct. 7, 2023, when the militant group Hamas launched an attack on southern Israel. The attack killed 1,200, mostly civilians, with 250 taken as hostages to the Gaza strip.
Less than 9% of cisgender female UF students reported feeling very safe walking on campus at night. Yet despite concerns, UF outsourced a private company to manage Title IX reports, stopped using two campus-wide violence prevention programs, and renamed and moved its gender equity office, all in the past two years.
For many undocumented immigrants, fighting the stigma of being undocumented while finding adequate resources can be a difficult process. The Keeping Families Together program could create a pathway to make it easier for undocumented individuals to stay in the U.S.
Mientras el programa migratorio Keeping Families Together está en cuestión, organizaciones se juntan para ayudar a los inmigrantes.
In a unanimous decision from Continuum of Care members April 15, Taskforce Fore Ending Homelessness was named as the new lead agency for Keys to Home. Based in Fort Lauderdale, the nonprofit is responsible for working with other CoC service providers and strategizing to prevent and end homelessness. As a lead agency, it will also assume responsibilities to secure Housing and Urban Development and Florida Department of Children of Families funding.
North Central Florida’s disability resources are scattered across the region and are becoming more accessible to underserved communities through outreach and partnerships. Despite a majority of counties carrying low numbers of visually impaired children in comparison to their populations, counties like Putnam, Bradford and Levy are seeing larger numbers.
North Central Florida counties are at risk of losing over $1 million of federal funding for homeless service providers if a replacement lead agency is not appointed by June. Keys to Home is a Continuum of Care — a coalition of homeless service providers — representing Alachua, Bradford, Gilchrist, Levy and Putnam counties. To obtain federal funding for new and existing programs, the coalition is required to have one representative agency coordinate a proposal for annual funding cycles.
Beyond the resources the city offers for female wellbeing, Gainesville women like Nicole have taken an approach of their own, pushing to connect deeper within their circles and strive for individual relationships with other women rather than relying on across-the-board solutions, she said.
The attention around homelessness in Gainesville has heightened after recent sweeps on homeless encampments and city commission decisions to allocate 30 beds to GRACE Marketplace in the next 90 days, move $700,000 to homeless support services and prepare for the sale of the vacant Gainesville Fire Rescue station. House Bill 1365 aims to prevent city and county governments from allowing people to sleep in public. As the bill moves through the Florida Legislature, members of Gainesville’s homeless population, the city government and residents met Feb. 22 at a general policy meeting to discuss the city’s approach to these issues.
Porters Quarters is a historically Black neighborhood in East Gainesville founded in 1884 by Canadian physician Dr. Watson Porter, who only sold real estate to African Americans. As the neighborhood continues to battle gentrification among student housing and downtown expansions, the lack of communication between the city and the neighborhood worries residents. The most recent construction has left residents perplexed.
The country’s outbreak of gang violence has escalated since an attack at a television network in Guayaquil Jan. 9 spiraled the nation into fear. After the country’s powerful drug lord, José Adolfo Macías Villamar, known as “Fito,” escaped prison Jan. 8, Ecuador’s president, Daniel Noboa, declared a 60-day state of emergency for what he’s coined an “internal armed conflict.” For Gainesville’s Ecuadorian community, the violence back home has left a lingering pain.
From July 1 to Dec. 31, 2023, there were 83 incidents where shots were fired, killing a total sum of seven people. From Jan. 1 the start of 2024 to Jan. 15, there have been 13 incidents where shots were fired, resulting in the deaths of two people, according to a data report shared by Alachua County’s Criminal Investigation Division. The city implemented efforts to combat firearm misuse during 2023, yet attempts have continuously clashed with state law.
A poco más que una hour de manejo al norte de Gainesville, en el condado rural de Baker, se encuentra uno de los cinco centros de detención de ICE en Florida.
Solutions by The State News
