Even before St. Francis House announced to the public that it would shutter its downtown Gainesville shelter in April, homeless service providers coordinated to create pathways for the people left unserved by the closure.  

The Task Force Fore Ending Homelessness, Alachua County’s lead agency for the Continuum of Care that coordinates homeless providers, approved $35,000 last week in extra Rapid Rehousing funds for Family Promise of Gainesville.  

Jacob Torner, vice president of programs for the TaskForce, told Mainstreet that the funds come on top of what Family Promise already receives and will ensure the homeless families at St. Francis House continue to have access to services and shelter. 

“We appreciate St. Francis House for its continued service to families and Family Promise, without even a hesitation, stepping up immediately to the plate,” Torner said. “We’re committed to ensuring that no family has to return to the streets as a result of the closure, but also that families do have a place to seek refuge.” 

Torner said two local domestic abuse organizations also received Rapid Rehousing funds. The TaskForce has had regular meetings with the involved organizations to discuss how the people get served. 

St. Francis House publicly announced last week that the downtown shelter would close. The nonprofit has focused on families, women and children at its shelter, but also provided cold night shelter and services like laundry, phones and meals. The shelter was bought by the nonprofit in 1993. 

Many in the homeless services community expected the closure. St. Francis House started trying to sell the shelter building several years ago and recently sold its Sunrise Inn in an effort to stabilize finances. 

Lauri Schiffbauer, executive director at St. Francis House, released a letter on Monday thanking the community for its messages of support since the closure announcement. The letter emphasized that the nonprofit would continue to serve women and children through the Arbor Home, a transitional housing program. 

“At this time, we must consolidate our services to stabilize, rebuild, and ultimately return stronger — better able to serve our community,” Schiffbauer said in the letter. 

Schiffbauer told Mainstreet that Family Promise would have funding to help 40 people rehouse while St. Francis House continues to provide case management. She said the partnership has been excellent.

Schiffbauer said the downtown shelter is too costly to keep operational, calling the expenses outrageous. Even though fundraising has also increased, it hasn’t kept up with costs, like a $3,400 monthly garbage bill. She added that the day services (like food and laundry) were just managing people’s homelessness, not solving the problem.

St. Francis House wants to double down on people and families entering for long-term help and case management. She said these 98% of these people are homeless for the first time after a one-time cost threw their lives out of sync. On the other hand, homeless individuals using day services rarely talk with case managers to enter rehousing programs. Schiffbauer said the vast majority are chronically homeless and qualify for service at GRACE Marketplace.

Schiffbauer said staff have reached out to other food providers and given information to people using their services about where to go for meals or beds after the closure.

She said St. Francis House is looking for facilities without the unsustainable operational costs of the current shelter. But moving forward on a new site will need to wait until a sale. The downtown shelter is listed for $2.9 million.

Darius Williams, the new CEO of GRACE Marketplace, said its shelter has seen no impacts yet from the closure announcement—and the St. Francis House shelter remains open as it winds down for an April 16 closure. 

GRACE Marketplace only serves adults. With Family Promise equipped to help with families, Williams said GRACE has set aside six women’s beds in case of additional occupants in the coming weeks. Plus, a new GRACE shelter with 20 beds aimed at mental health, substance abuse and employment services guests will open soon, he said, providing more flexibility.  

Williams said the overnight shelter population has been hitting capacity, but long-term beds are available. He said GRACE staff believe many of the adults served by St. Francis House might not make the trip up to their shelter, staying in the downtown area instead. 

The area around St. Francis House’s downtown location is known for having a large population of homeless individuals, with tents along a side road in 2024, causing public concern. Soon after, the city cleared the tents and closed Haisley Lynch Park on the other side of South Main Street, coordinating to place nine or 10 individuals staying there in GRACE Marketplace. 

Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward told Mainstreet that people will be left reeling from the closure, but he said the TaskForce and other service providers are already working to minimize impacts and knew the closure would be coming.  

“There’s a whole lot of prep work that has gone in among the homeless services community to be ready for this when it finally went down,” Ward said. 

Ward said the next conversation is addressing families who are homeless and living in cars or moving from couch to couch—a more visible form than panhandlers or people sleeping on sidewalks. 

Ward said he’d like to see if stakeholders could turn empty buildings, especially schools, into family centers with education and health assistance and perhaps short-term housing. He said it’s a conversation worth having. And the school district will end up with some unused buildings after its school board voted to finalize a new rezoning plan on March 12. 

Torner said the TaskForce has a safety net in place, and it wants to further support family homelessness. The TaskForce is hosting a Collaborative Summit on Family Homelessness on March 30, with capacity already reached.  

Torner said 130 people will gather at Santa Fe College’s Blount Hall and hopefully leave with action items that lead to change.  

“Anytime you’re talking about a child in a household, there’s a whole other layer of support services that we have to be able to provide and meet the needs for,” Torner said.  

He said innovative housing, like in empty schools, needs to gain momentum. Alachua County Public Schools will be one of the presenters at the summit next week, but Torner said these innovative plans will need multiple stakeholders, including the city and the neighborhood surrounding a school that might be used.