Program areas at St Francis House
Main Street Shelter. Our main location can provide emergency shelter to eight families at a time, which is generally 35 to 40 people each night. While residing at the shelter, guests receive three meals a day, are assigned an individualized case plan, and receive other supportive services including rental and utility assistance. Additionally, the Main Street Shelter offers a free meal, case management services, and basic needs to anyone in need (known as day guests), between 9:00 am 12:00 pm daily. If the temperature drops below 45 degrees or there is a severe weather emergency (hurricane, tornado, etc.), the City of Gainesville will allow the Main Street Shelter to open for Cold Night Shelter, in which we have space for an extra 60 clients.
Sunrise Apartments. Sunrise Residence Inn was established by St. Francis House in 2000. Sunrise is a permanent housing program that assists homeless working individuals whose goal is to become self-sufficient. Since affordable housing is difficult to find in Gainesville, the program at times also invites persons who receive disability income to participate. Some residents use the program for a year or two, then move on to private housing. Others, who have fixed incomes, have lived at Sunrise since it was opened. Residents work with a case manager based on their personalized case plans.
Arbor House. Arbor House provides affordable housing in a communal setting to working mothers with children. There are 13 rooms available for rent; residents enjoy their own room, but share bathrooms, kitchen, and living room spaces with other tenants. Each family works with a case manager to design a plan to move to self-sufficiency. Low-income families who cannot afford market rent benefit from this set-up since they work as a community to achieve similar goals. The extended time families can stay at Arbor House, in accordance with their case management plan, allows mothers to pursue education and skills, and thus, increase their incomes.