Jacksonville’s plan to address homeless encampments still a work in progress

Across the biggest city in Northeast Florida, the unhoused are increasingly prominent in public parks, right-of-ways and commercial sectors.

And help for homeowners and entrepreneurs dealing with the downstream consequences won’t be immediately forthcoming, with Jacksonville leaders betting on a long-term strategy.

Mayor Donna Deegan notes that under state law passed earlier in 2024, the city can be sued starting at the beginning of next year for not having a program in place to address the problem.

To that end, she says Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department (JFRD) teams “are in training and are starting to reach out to people to try to connect them with services, telling them about the new state law, that they cannot stay where they are, and that they need to avail themselves of various services.”

The Mayor noted that she wants more money for shelter beds from the City Council, saying that the city’s 500 shelter beds are “mostly full right now.”

“So that’s going to become an issue for us,” Deegan added.

“But what we’ve started right now with those JFRD teams, they are in training in order to make sure that they can reach out to people, make sure we help them to secure their belongings, make sure that we get them to a place where they can receive the services they need. And we’re continuing to work on a five-year plan that will that will help us to in a comprehensive way address that issue.”

Arresting homeless people is a “last resort,” the Mayor said, and is not something the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office wants to do either.

State law is explicit in expecting localities such as Jacksonville to have a plan in place that will take less than five years to effectuate. HB 1365 bans counties and municipalities from permitting public sleeping or public camping on public property without explicit permission, compelling these localities to round up the homeless and put them somewhere.

The legislation contemplates encampments that ban drugs and alcohol and include rehabilitative social services as a way of enforcing the prohibition against rough sleeping. The camps could only be in one place for 365 consecutive days.

Deegan has said she does not want such camps, which would include behavioral health services, like substance abuse and mental health treatment resources. But with weeks to go before people can sue the city for inaction, it’s unclear if slow-walking fulfillment of the state expectation satisfies the spirit or the letter of the law.

City Councilman Ron Salem discussed the issue with Florida Politics as well.

The Republican hopes that 100 new shelter beds will alleviate some of the problem, though he added that the city’s focus is in dealing with problems downtown first, meaning that the rest of the city’s issues will be part of a subsequent phase with no timeline for substantial fulfillment.

Meanwhile, problems persist. Reports are that Citizens Insurance employees downtown were “attacked” by a homeless person. The insurer of last resort is trying to relocate to the Southside in the hopes of avoiding the problem, and the recent incident is the latest in a string of issues for the company in the urban core.