Gainesville Sun
There will be more people like 84-year-old Robert Noebel out on the streets of Gainesville, unless community leaders remain vigilant about affordable housing and homelessness.
Last week, Noebel was evicted from the Palms of Archer mobile home park after falling behind on rent and fees. A Sun reporter caught up with him as he sat outside the park while a steady rain fell on his life’s possessions.
He was able to make some money selling his things — only to have his former roommate allegedly take it, according to a police report. As a GoFundMe campaign established to help Noebel secure a residence succinctly puts it, “No 84 year old should be homeless.”
Even as progress has been made in reducing homelessness in Alachua County, a lack of affordable housing for older residents on fixed incomes is a problem. Housing for seniors should be a priority of local officials.
They could use help from the Florida Legislature, which must stop raiding money from the state’s Sadowski affordable housing trust funds to use for other purposes. This year will hopefully be different, as Gov. Ron DeSantis and state Senate leaders support spending all $322 million from the funds on affordable housing statewide. Proposed legislation would require that to be done moving forward.
The funds are an essential source of revenue for local housing initiatives, including money for the construction of subsidized multifamily housing, as Anne Ray of the University of Florida’s Shimberg Center for Housing Studies wrote in a guest column last month for The Sun.
Ray’s column detailed how Alachua County’s subsidized developments provide 4,177 affordable apartments, including units specifically reserved for senior citizens. But there aren’t enough apartments to meet the demand; the recently built Arbours at Tumblin Creek complex for seniors, for example, was leased up months before opening and has a waiting list of more than 100 people.
Ray recommends that local government fast-track permitting for such housing and protect existing subsidized housing from being lost to other development. She also called on local funding to be provided for these projects.
Support should also be given to programs that move people from homelessness into housing, through groups such as Family Promise, GRACE Marketplace, Peaceful Paths and the United Way of North Central Florida. These efforts have helped reduce homelessness locally by around one-third since 2014.
City and county officials also have to decide on GRACE’s request for a five-year contract and funding to move people from the neighboring Dignity Village tent encampment into housing. Separate attacks Monday at the encampment and GRACE show that further delays are unacceptable.
Officials must also work to keep our community affordable for residents who struggle to pay utility bills and other costs. The United Way’s most recent ALICE survey found that half of Alachua County residents have less income than the amount required to afford basic expenses here.
Elderly residents such as Robert Noebel shouldn’t be at risk of homelessness because our community has failed to take these problems seriously enough.
Article last accessed on March 12, 2019. A print-ready version is available here.