The News4JAX I-TEAM is looking into the issue of large homeless camps around Northeast Florida.
This follows the clearing Tuesday of a homeless camp off Blanding Boulevard near Wells Road in Clay County.
The I-TEAM reached out to the county and was told that going forward, this will be a private property issue, and if homeless people return, the property owner will have to reach out to the Clay County Sheriff’s Office for assistance.
But this is not just a Clay County issue. Similar camps are popping up all over the region.
The I-TEAM reached out to the mayor of Jacksonville and received this statement from his office:
“When notified by the public that they have observed a camp, the City of Jacksonville will reach out to both Changing Homelessness and Sulzbacher. Changing Homelessness sends out their mental health team (comprised of members of Changing Homelessness, Mental Health Resource Center and JSO) to assess the situation and introduce resources to the individuals. If necessary, Sulzbacher also sends out their Health and Hope on Wheels medical bus for services.
“The Urban Rest Stop is the most important referral made as connecting persons to the Urban Rest Stop introduces them to the critical resources and services to end their homelessness.”
The I-TEAM also spoke with Dawn Gilman, the CEO of the organization Changing Homelessness. Gilman said the biggest contributing factor to this is a lack of affordable housing.
“What you are seeing in Jacksonville, Florida, is being repeated across every city in the country. So there are resources available, but they are limited,” she said. “The real limiting factor is affordable housing, meaning people are living in encampments because they can’t find or afford housing they can rent that is not in the woods or in a tent.”
Gilman added that her group, for the first time this year, will not be doing a homeless count of the population because of COVID-19 concerns. But she did add that larger encampments are becoming more common and noticeable.