Jacksonville unveils 12-point plan to battle homelessness

Jacksonville officials unveiled a 12-point plan Monday that they hope will address the state’s new bill banning the homeless from camping on sidewalks or public property.

The five-year plan will increase shelter admissions, expand the number of shelter beds, set up hotel space as an option, and institute a common database on every client so facilities and police can share it.

The plan is the work of a 21-member Homelessness Work Group that included city officials, homeless advocates and shelter managers, who began to meet long before the bill was passed.

Mayor Donna Deegan said the plan achieves what she calls “functional zero” — making the number of people who become homeless equal to those who find permanent housing.

“It also means turning homelessness into a rare, brief, one-time occurrence in a person’s life,” Deegan said at a news conference. “Our working group was ahead of the curve when they began this work in January. As the bill moved through the legislative session, we adjusted our plans to ensure Jacksonville complied with the eventual state law and that it still fit within our overall efforts to address homelessness.”

The number of unsheltered people in Jacksonville is estimated at 566, although city officials say the number is probably higher. That count is 43% higher than 2023, according to Changing Homelessness, a nonprofit organization that supports efforts to end homelessness in Duval, Clay and Nassau counties.

The new law

The controversial new law , which will take effect in October, bans counties and municipalities from allowing sleeping or camping on public grounds without a permit, citing concerns over sanitation. It allows local governments to designate property for sleeping or camping if it meets certain standards. But the sites can be used for only a year and not harm values of nearby properties or safety.

Rep. Sam Garrison, R-Fleming Island, sponsored the bill in the House. Supporters characterized it as compassionate response to the shortage of shelters and supportive housing by providing an alternative to sleeping on the streets.

Democrats argued the state would provide limited resources to local governments to carry out the measure, which they said provided no strategy for people to overcome homelessness. The bill also allows people in the community to sue a city for failing to address the problem adequately.

Jacksonville’s proposed 2024-25 budget allocated $10 million for the plan, and the city is seeking an additional $4 million in private sector, Deegan said. The overall five-year strategy is being finalized and will be released when completed, city officials said.

The plan calls for:

• Identifying a point person within the Mayor’s Office to oversee the plan.
• Expanding and improving the homelessness management data collection system.
• Increasing homeless outreach teams to ensure that all parts of Duval County are covered daily and nightly.
• Increasing shelter beds by working with existing shelters.
• Entering available shelter beds into a daily tracking system.
• Developing a “no wrong door” strategy for intake, emphasizing that all doors are open.
• Contracting with providers for housing-focused case management support.
• Contracting with hotels to secure up to 200 noncongregate shelter beds.
• Contracting with a developer to create a noncongregate shelter village for a pilot of 100 beds adjacent to the Urban Rest Stop or another location.
• Developing a 24/7 intake plan for staff and policies.
• Expanding the Homeward Bound Program, which helps residents move back to where they lived before becoming homeless.
• Expanding and increasing permanent supportive housing programs, which provide long-term housing coupled with supportive services.

The plan will improve existing parts of the system “from good to great,” said Dawn Gilman, CEO of Changing Homelessness. The plan also supports the city’s shelters so they can maximize their capacity and serve the city’s most vulnerable residents, she said.

“The plan is very heavy in what we call the front door — how do we identify someone who is homeless; how do we identify them quickly; how do we get them quickly to a safe place?” said Gilman, a member of the work group. “One of our main concerns is their nighttime safety, then get them connected with all of the services that they need to move them from not having a home to moving into a home.”

Jacksonville is ahead of other Florida cities in preparing for the new state bill, said Cindy Funkhouser, head of the Sulzbacher center, the largest homeless resource provider in Northeast Florida. While the new bill is “a danger to our most vulnerable population,” she said Jacksonville is proactively looking to address the issue that does not include building a big temporary site to place them, as the law allows.

“No one wants a huge tent encampment — that’s horrifying,” said Funkhouser, another member of the work group. “What this plan is doing is giving a lot of other options. … And people were asking, shouldn’t we just increase shelters? We should not just increase shelters; that is not the answer to homelessness. We have to build housing, and we have to give people on the street options. That is the reason why we put other options in there.”

The plan in detail

The city’s plan will expand the homelessness management data collection system, which is used to coordinate services, manage operations and better serve clients. That means all homeless shelters and aid agencies as well as police will have access to know “what is actually happening day to day with the folks we are trying to serve,” Gilman said.

More homeless outreach teams will be brought in by shelters and aid agencies across the city to ensure intake, counseling and other help is available day and night.

“We need more of those. We need 24-hour outreach teams. We need to be able to outreach at (the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office) when they are releasing people to the street,” Funkhouser said. “We need to be able to outreach to the hospitals. so having added outreach teams is critical.”

The plan seeks to increase shelter beds in the next year at the city’s four facilities, by making sure they use all the space they have as well as add 136 more. Another recommendation is tracing how many are available day and night, with realtime information available to staff at all four shelters.

The city will contract with hotels to secure up to 100 rooms, each with room for two, to quickly provide more shelter opportunities. As more homeless clients get help, the number of rooms secured for use could fall, said Joshua Hicks, the city’s affordable housing and community development director.

“It could actually end up saving the city money in the long run,” Hicks said.

City officials said they want to avoid setting up a tent city, so they will set up a shelter village with 100 beds, possibly at Sulzbacher’s Urban Rest Stop.

“There are a lot of people on the street who will not go into traditional shelters because they have high acuity; they have mental illness,” Funkhouser added. So to be able to provide individual rooms, that is critical to getting their buy-in to coming off the street.”

During the news conference, homeless veteran Horace Gordon questioned the mayor.

“If you don’t do nothing else for the homeless, try to keep them alive,” he said from a wheelchair. “I would appreciate it.”

“We are working to get housing and we are working to get more services,” Deegan responded. “I hear you and I hear your frustration. There are laws that we have to comply with, that we do not have any control over. But we also want all of our citizens to feel safe, including you.”

Gordon also complained about police arresting homeless people. But with more spots for them in shelters, and outreach teams working day and night, a night in jail might not be the choice, said Strategic Partnerships Director Tracye Polson.

“They know real-time where a bed is available, and they are able to transport that person to a safe place to sleep that night,” Polson said.

The plan’s last recommendation is to expand development of new affordable housing units. Deegan said the city has almost 4,000 on track by 2025.

This story was updated July 23, 2024, to clarify the proposed funding.

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