JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A “cardboard city” was setup Friday night behind the Lakewood United Methodist Church as a way of kicking off National Hunger and Homeless Awareness Week.
Volunteers, staff and families with the organization Family Promise of Jacksonville were there to spend the night.
“They spend the night outside as if they were homeless,” explained Shaun Nelson, board president of Family Promise. “Whatever the weather is -- is what it is.”
Because homeless people and families can’t choose.
“It’s an opportunity for families to come experience what it might be like to be homeless,” said Mark Landschoot, the organization’s executive director. “So families can sleep in their cardboard, can sleep in a tent, they can sleep out on the ground or in their cars.”
Family Promise says it’s shining a light on the number of families in Jacksonville that will spend the night outside on the streets, or in a wooded area. They even offer people a simple meal, like they might find in a shelter.
Family Promise believes homeless shelters can actually break up families.
“There may be a female shelter and a male shelter, so could you imagine, being separated from your child just to find shelter,” Nelson said. “Our goal is to keep families together and take them from homelessness to housing.”
This marked the group’s 11th annual event to raise awareness of homelessness.
Organizers say they bring struggling families back, after they have gone through the Family Promise program, to share their experiences with others and where they are now.
The families served by Family Promise have an 82% success rate.