JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Monday morning, Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan unveiled the city’s new plan to mitigate homelessness and address Florida HB 1365, the new state law that makes it illegal to sleep in public spaces and goes into effect on Oct. 1.
Watch the full presentation below.
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“Without this plan, we will be at risk of lawsuits, starting Jan. 1,” Deegan explained. “So, we need to get on this and we need to get on it quickly.”
The city’s plan includes 12 recommendations. The mayor said the plan not only follows the new law but ultimately is designed to help people move into permanent housing in the long run. Deegan said the plan has the potential to achieve “functional zero” in Jacksonville.
Functional Zero is the term used to describe when the number of people who become homeless is the same number as those who find permanent housing during the same year.
She was joined by Councilman Michael Boylan, Undersheriff Shawn Coarsey, Sulzbacher Center CEO Cindy Funkhouser, and Changing Homelessness CEO Dawn Gilman. The plan calls for cooperation from city leaders, homeless shelters, and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
Some of the recommendations unveiled in the plan include: increasing homeless outreach teams, building a shelter village (known as a “ModPod” for a pilot of 100 beds next to the Urban Rest Stop, contracting with hotels to make up to 200 rooms available, increasing shelter bed capacity by working with the existing shelters, more case management support to help people get back on their feet, improving the Homelessness Management Information System (HMIS), and making sure bed availability is entered into Client Track. This way, police and agencies will have real-time access to available beds.
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Other aspects of the plan involve expanding the Homeward Bound program, which helps homeless residents in Jacksonville relocate back to their permanent homes. Another initiative is to implement a 24/7 intake plan at the shelters. Cindy Funkhouser is the CEO of Sulzbacher Center and explained why this is so important.
“Right now, all of the shelters only intake people during the workday, not at night and not on weekends,” Funkhouser said. “That’s always been a huge problem because nights and weekends are really when JSO needs you the most. And we’ve never had the funding to be able to cover those hours and that’s what this gives us.”
One person who was there for the mayor’s meeting was Horace Gordon. He later told News4JAX he’s experienced homelessness on and off for nearly 50 years and has seen the way some unhoused people have been treated over the years.
With regard to the city’s new plan, Gordon said he’s staying cautiously optimistic but wants people like himself to be heard.
“I’m 100% disabled veteran, Air Force service with two top-secret security clearances,” Gordon said. “I just like to see everybody treated nice and good and fair, and considerate.”
The mayor’s proposed 2024-2025 budget allocates $10 million toward this initiative with an anticipated total cost of nearly $14 million. The city is now calling on the private sector to close the gap. The city said this plan is going to be presented to the council the first week of August.
Click here to view the full plan with all 12 recommendations and cost estimates.