Community members and advocates gathered downtown on the corner of North Main Street and Northwest Second Avenue at 4:30 p.m. Monday to protest what the Alachua County Labor Coalition called discriminatory housing practices at Bivens Cove.
A group of about 30 protesters gathered outside the Collier Companies on North Main Street to protest what they said is a new policy for the company to no longer accept housing vouchers from tenants.
The Alachua County County Labor Coalition led the protest against what they said was discrimination against disabled people and veterans, and a violation of a city ordinance.
According to the ordinance, it’s illegal for a landlord to prevent someone from renting their property based on their race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status or disability.
“On the website, it said that the firm was no longer accepting housing vouchers and so that s when we started doing the House meetings and we organized protests,” Paul Ortiz, a history professor at the University of Florida.
Richard MacMaster: UF food contract should require fair wages, working conditions gainesville.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from gainesville.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
For years, University of Florida students and agricultural coalitions have been pressuring campus administrators with some success to insist that UF s main food vendor pay workers better and work toward offering more sustainable food options.
Now, with the vendor s contract coming up for review in the coming year, they are bringing even more pressure to bear.
A letter sent to UF administrators this week outlines several demands for the contract.
It was sent by the Food Justice League, a local activist organization, and the Agricultural Justice Project, a Gainesville-based nonprofit rooted in local communities nationwide. The letter featured 41 national and regional supportive signatures, including some members of the Gainesville and Alachua County commissions, the county s school board, the Alachua County Labor Coalition, UF faculty and graduate student union branches and a number of nearby farms.