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VOLUME 113 ISSUE 80
FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 2019 Published by Campus Communications, Inc. of Gainesville, Florida
Not officially associated with the University of Florida
LIVING IN GAINESVILLE: AFFORDABLE HOUSING (PART 3 OF 4)
Few options, failed solutions for residents seeking affordable housing UNITS CAN TAKE YEARS TO FIND By Taylor Girtman Alligator Staff Writer
Caroline Keefe / Alligator Staff
Michael Powers, 31, sits at his dining table where he is about to eat a baked chicken dinner for himself and his three sons. He lives in East Gainesville public housing but dreams of moving to Savannah, Georgia.
Michael Powers has bought a new washer, but he still hangs his clothes outside to dry. A grey rolling chair doubles as his dining room seat at night and his barber’s chair during the day. He pointed to the March calendar and laughed — he has been too busy raising his children to change it. He dreams of a house with a fenced green yard and a car but has never lived in a home like this. Powers, 31, lives in Woodland Park, a subsidized public housing neighborhood at 1900 SE 4th St., with three of his nine children in a three-bedroom apartment. “It’s not always the most comfortable,” he said. “Unfortunately, I may never really get out of here.” Powers uses a public housing voucher from the Gainesville Housing Authority to afford his $200 rent, which is 30 percent of his monthly income as a barber. Without the voucher, Powers and his sons would be sleeping on couches or still living in a
moldy 1960s trailer in Waldo, Florida. High housing costs have led to about 15,000 cost-burdened households, which means those families pay more than 30 percent of their income toward rent. An average two-bedroom unit costs $17.19 hourly, while the median hourly wage is $15.95 in Gainesville, according to 2017 data from the UF Shimberg Center for Housing Studies. “I’m successful right now because I’m not where I used to be,” Powers said. As of 2018, there were 3,403 affordable units offered in three ways: Section 8 housing vouchers, public housing and state- and federal-assistance programs. If a family can’t find affordable housing, alternatives can be homelessness, staying with friends and family or relocating. Powers said he can’t work at a barbershop without reliable transportation, and his bus doesn’t run on Sundays. A fiveminute car ride can take an hour and a half on the bus, so his clients have their hair cut in his dining room. “Just today I made enough money to
SEE FEATURE, PAGE 8
‘How could this happen?’ Vigil held for UF student who died by suicide
More than 100 people attended the event in honor of Sophia Visent By Lakshmi Gomez Alligator Staff Writer
A girl smiling ear to ear raised her arms in the air in front of the Walt Disney World Cinderella Castle at Magic Kingdom. She was wearing Mickey Mouse ears with her blonde hair tucked behind her face. She
looked happy in the framed photograph. The picture was placed at the bottom of a tree that was wrapped in yarn at her vigil Wednesday night. Friends and family walked up to the tree as tears streamed down their faces to hang pictures of Sophia Visent on clothespins. Visent, an Uruguayan first-
generation 22-year-old UF environmental management senior, died by suicide last week in Miami. More than 100 people gathered on the Plaza of the Americas to celebrate her life. Candles lit the way as 16 of Visent’s closest friends and family members walked to the front of the crowd to read letters they
wrote to her about their favorite memories. Nicole Visent, one of her older sisters and a 23-year-old UF business administration junior, said she wanted Visent to be remembered for her joy, persistence and patience. “She was a person that was just so filled with this tenacity...
this spark that only she could carry,” Nicole Visent said. Sara Hoffen, a 22-year-old UF international business master’s student and Visent’s friend, said she remembers the day she went tailgating with Visent at fraternity row. Visent wore heart-shaped glasses as they snuck into a DJ Pauly D concert by pretending to be in a sorority.
SEE UF VIGIL, PAGE 8
Ocala man accused of threatening to shoot up UF campus in rap song HE HAS A $50,000 BOND By Katherine Wallace-Fernandez Alligator Staff Writer
A man who allegedly threatened to “shoot the whole campus up” during a Gators game in a rap song was arrested Tuesday, deputies said. On March 22, Christopher Maurice McCallum, 27, of Ocala, posted a rap song
Q&A with Pete Alonso
under the name Wb Jun on his Facebook page, according to an Alachua County Sheriff’s Office warrant affidavit. The post has been viewed about 35,000 times and shared by 318 users. In the song, McCallum raps about an ongoing feud between unknown groups from Ocala Shores and Gainesville. He rapped the lyrics “catch you at a Gator game and shoot the whole campus up,” the report said.
The Alligator’s Jake Dreilinger and Sam Campisano interviewed the Mets’ star rookie, a former Gator, pg. 14
He also said in the song that he doesn’t want to see the group from Gainesville at a March 23 concert by Kenyata Bullard, also known as Yungeen Ace, at the 8 Seconds nightclub, at 201 W. University Ave., the report said. Multiple shootings have occurred at or nearby Bullard’s concerts, the report said. In June, Bullard’s brother Trevon Bullard and two teenagers were killed in a driveby shooting in Jacksonville. On March 11,
Sold-out show
Hasan Minaj spoke in Accent’s last show of the school year, pg. 9
three Jacksonville men were arrested after a shooting in Waycross, Georgia that killed one of Bullard’s friends and injured another. McCallum was charged with sending a written threat to conduct a mass shooting, the report said. He remained in the Alachua County Jail Thursday in lieu of a $50,000 bond. @katwf98 kwallace-fernandez@alligator.org
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Turlington dancer ‘laying down the law’ Dennis Kane was arrested, again, pg. 4
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