Seth Johnson
Alachua County and the city of Gainesville discussed gun violence, homelessness and economic growth during a joint meeting on Monday.
The two governing boards passed a motion to reevaluate funding for the city’s Heir’s Property Assistance Program. The Gainesville Community Reinvestment Area (GCRA) Board oversees the project and decided to sunset the program following what it considered little success.
Many of the program’s funds have not been touched and only seven families have been assisted in total. The GCRA decided to allocate the program funds to its downtown strategic plan. The downtown plan, totaling $12 million, has been approved by the Gainesville City Commission, but Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut said she hadn’t realized the Heir’s Property Assistance Program would be cut to bolster the downtown plan.
The Heir’s Property Assistance Program aims to assist owners of heirs’ properties—whose owners have died either with or without a will—to get clear titles to those homes. The GCRA said there were 833 heirs’ properties in Gainesville as of 2020.
County Commissioner Anna Prizzia also brought up the importance of the program along with Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker. The city voted unanimously to reconsider the financing.
Mayor Harvey Ward said he wrote the program and advocated for it as a commissioner several years ago. But he said the money is accumulating without use.
“I believe they’re great ideas, but they’re not working,” Ward said. “They’re just not happening.”
Chestnut made the motion to reevaluate the heirs program. The motion directed staff to look at other cities to perhaps find a more successful model.
“The problem is there, the need is there, and I don’t think we can afford to sacrifice a neighborhood just to put all of the money downtown,” Chestnut said.
Following two gun violence prevention presentations, one by the city and one by the county, county Commission Ken Cornell made a motion to set aside $150,000 for the issue.
The motion directs staff to return during the budget season with a way to use the funds, and Cornell said the commission could allocate more if needed. The motion passed unanimously.
The commissions also spoke on homelessness. Ward and Cornell said the commissions may need to speak again in May, before budget season is fully in swing, to hash out the budget for GRACE Marketplace. Last year, Alachua County had to provide funding to fill gaps left by the city.
Ward said the city and county need to move away from a dollar-for-dollar approach, saying the county has more resources to allocate than the city.
The meeting lasted from 3 until almost 10 p.m. By the end, the city commission lacked a quorum to take action on the homelessness issue.