Dear State, Gainesville and UF Leadership (Governor Desantis, Congresswoman Cammak, Mayor Ward, UF President Fuchs, UF Board of Trustees and Safety Leaders),

Thank you for your responses to my first email a week ago.

After engaging with other parents over the past week, I realized that there is no time to waste to address the escalating homelessness and safety situation in Gainesville, particularly around the University of Florida (UF) campus. While I appreciate those of you who have responded and indicated to be “looking into” the situation; we need concrete steps to protect the community and bring back a normal sense of safety.

Over the past week, we have collected feedback from countless concerned parents, and the response is undeniable: the situation is far worse than what has been reported to authorities. I have attached a summary of a few of their accounts for your review that include break-ins to student apartments, a shooting by a sorority house, loitering in apartment recreational areas, squatting, harassing of young ladies, regular bike and scooter theft and other scary situations. One anonymous submission explained a shocking reality (included in the attached file as well).

Gainesville has become a dumping ground for homeless individuals from other cities/locations. They are drawn here by  favorable weather, “ friendly policies,” and healthcare access, and worse, some jurisdictions are allegedly funding one-way tickets to ship their problem this way. This is unacceptable. Gainesville—a small city anchored by UF, the nation’s 5th-ranked public university—cannot and should not bear the burden of other communities’ failures.

The crisis has reached an alarming point, evident even in local media like the Alachua Chronicle, which published a cartoon on the issue: God Bless. If it’s making headlines, it’s past the time to act.

I’m sure we all understand that there are many different reasons why people could be homeless, however, drug addicts and people with mental illness will not benefit from wandering the streets and neither will the local community.

I am encouraged that Mayor Ward has offered to meet with me, and I will be scheduling that call with other concerned parents who want to participate. But this issue demands more than a local effort, it requires state-level intervention. Governor DeSantis and his administration are needed to help stop the flow of homeless individuals into Gainesville and hold other localities accountable for offloading their problems onto Gainesville. We cannot allow UF—the “Ivy of the South” and this economic powerhouse for the state and the country—decline because of an unsafe environment.  Safety around campus is certainly part of the selection criteria of students and parents when choosing a university and student safety and security should be a top priority.

Here are recommendations in the short term that should be relatively easy to implement at the local level:

1. Expand UF Police Jurisdiction: Extend UFPD’s jurisdiction 3 to 5 miles around campus, with constant patrols in student-heavy areas, even visiting apartment complexes around the city where students live. Visible law enforcement is not optional, it’s a necessity.
2. Station Police Strategically: Deploy police vehicles at key intersections and problem areas across the city, ready to respond at a moment’s notice. Presence deters crime.
3. Bicycle Patrols: Put officers—or an authorized volunteer force—on bikes around and beyond UF campus to take on unruly behavior and reassure the public.
4. Ban Street Begging: End street begging. It is degrading, it fuels dependency and creates opportunity for violence (per the feedback enclosed).

On the state level, we need Governor DeSantis support to address the root causes of this problem:

1. Stop the Influx of homeless to Gainesville: Stop other localities from shipping their homeless to Gainesville, there should be heavy financial penalties for anyone sending a person with a one-way ticket to Gainesville.
2. Relocate Homeless Centers: Move centers far from UF, with no direct transportation access to campus. Their proximity is a recipe for disaster, this is a big contributor to what we are experiencing today.

This crisis is real and one of the biggest problems the Gainesville community is dealing with. Gainesville cannot afford to be “nice” at the expense of resident and student safety. We’re ready to work with you, together we can solve it with real action plans, accountability and execution.

Sincerely,