In 2016, Greg Cruz, a former gang member, felon and single father of four, began making a dozen sandwiches at a time on his kitchen counter and taking them to Sarasota’s City Hall to hand out to homeless individuals.
That simple act became part of the origin story of Streets of Paradise, a local nonprofit that has provided meals, home furnishings and resiliency services to Sarasota’s unhoused community for nearly a decade, operating almost entirely with the devoted support of volunteers dedicated to its “Love-Act-Repeat” philosophy.
Though Cruz did not found the organization alone, his personal history and visibility made him inseparable from the group’s identity.
That’s why his abrupt firing last week stunned supporters and unleashed a wave of anger online…