JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – With the Florida public sleeping ban set to go into effect on Oct. 1, Jacksonville organizations are hopeful a new proposal from Mayor Donna Deegan will allow them to give people without homes the support they need to find a safe place to live.
“There’s people in our community, who tonight will not have a place to go inside to sleep,” said Dawn Gilman, CEO of Changing Homelessness.
Mayor Donna Deegan’s new $10-million budget 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.
“Right now, in Duval County, we don’t have a lot of coverage. Not all the time coverage for people going out and working with communicating with folks who are unsheltered. This will allow us to do more of that, making sure that people know where there are services and support available and sort of getting them into that system identifying who’s new,” Gilman said.
Gilman said part of the new plan will be something people won’t see. She said it would first help with the homeless management information system which monitors three counties. It tracks the inflow of people.
According to Gilman, the proposed funding would give more resources to outreach teams, coordinated entry teams and housing case managers.
Weekly, Gilman and her team track the number of people experiencing homelessness.
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Gilman said as of the week of July 22 there were 2,337 people experiencing homelessness, which makes up 1,290 households.
Deegan’s funding will also help build places for people experiencing homelessness to get back on their feet.
“Then there’s another chunk of money that is to build what I would call almost a temporary emergency shelter, meaning it would be either pods or containers,” Gilman said.
For now, they can go to Changing Homelessness or to City Rescue to find a place to be housed.
When Sherri Mac came to the City Rescue, she was in and out of experiencing homelessness for years. Now she is the receptionist.
“You know, it was wonderful. I walked through my program, I studied, and I did what I was asked to do, and I attended chapel. And I just felt like I was, you know, able to rekindle relationships with the Lord and start to rekindle relationships with my family and my children,” Mac said.
She now lives at the shelter, around what is really a little village, or neighborhood of people building their lives back together.
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According to statistics from Changing Homelessness’s point of contact data collection survey, the number of people experiencing homelessness saw a slight increase of 5% from 2023 to 2024. It also says there was a 20% decrease from 2022 to 2023.
With the new law changed to ban public sleeping, Paul Stasi, Executive Director, plans to expand even more by opening up more beds at the shelter.
These are steps in the right direction to finding a home for everyone — but some of the issues come down to cost.
“I think the biggest resource that we still need is low-income housing in safe areas. But aside from that, we are all working together with the outreach plans with JSO with the city and with all the other nonprofits so that we can be as effective as possible. So, I think we’re in pretty good shape. But the biggest thing, like I said, is the low-income housing,” Stasi said.
Click here to find information on Changing Homelessness. Click here to find information on City Rescue.