Dale Kaplan-Stein has had enough.
The veterinarian and founder of the nonprofit St. Francis Pet Care in downtown Gainesville says the sidewalk in front of her business is now home to more than a dozen tents, open-air drug use, garbage dump and public restroom.
Kaplan-Stein said the growing homeless encampment on Southeast Fourth Place began to proliferate about a month ago after police cleared a similar camp across South Main Street at Haisley Lynch Park.
“I built the St. Francis Pet Care clinic to help the east side. They always want development on the east side, and then they (city officials) don’t do anything about this,” she said, sounding frustrated. “I was there yesterday and I saw people smoking crack on the road. There’s more people there and it’s getting very hostile.”
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Gainesville Police Department Public Information Officer Brandon Hatzel said Tuesday that the department is aware of the encampment and that they have received complaints. He also said that officers have been dispatched to the area in the past.