Our Unhoused Neighbors Belong in Jacksonville’s Future

People are more than their hardest season

Unhoused neighbors are veterans, parents, workers, survivors, older adults, young people, people with disabilities and people rebuilding after medical, financial or family crises. They have skills, humor, faith, memories, responsibilities and hopes. A respectful city does not describe a human being as a problem to be moved. It identifies the housing, health, safety and income barriers that can be solved.

The candidate’s statement about sharing meals and conversations is a personal account supplied by the campaign. It should not be mistaken for a survey or a claim that any individual endorses the campaign. Its purpose is to explain a governing principle: listen directly, protect dignity and include people with lived experience when services are designed.

The regional data is a warning—not a definition of anyone

Changing Homelessness reported that the January 2026 Point-in-Time Count identified 1,146 people experiencing homelessness across Baker, Clay, Duval and Nassau counties: 767 sheltered and 379 unsheltered. That was 137 more people than the comparable 2025 count. The organization cautions that the count is a one-night snapshot shaped by weather, volunteer capacity and relationships with unhoused neighbors.

Those numbers describe a regional service challenge; they do not explain every person’s circumstances, and they are not a Jacksonville-only total. Policy should combine the annual snapshot with coordinated-entry information, shelter capacity, eviction data, housing availability and direct input from people receiving services.

Six connected actions for housing stability

1. Prevent displacement earlier through mediation, benefits navigation, legal referrals and targeted short-term stabilization before a household loses housing.
2. Create one coordinated access path for identification, documents, shelter, health care, veteran benefits, disability support, employment and housing navigation.
3. Expand safe shelter and interim options with clear standards for sanitation, accessibility, security, transportation and respectful treatment.
4. Connect housing with voluntary behavioral-health, substance-use, medical and peer-support services through qualified providers.
5. Build landlord partnerships, repair suitable housing, use lawful rental assistance strategically and measure housing stability after placement.
6. Include unhoused and formerly unhoused residents in program review, while protecting privacy and compensating formal advisory work lawfully and transparently.

Public safety without criminalizing poverty

Being unhoused is not itself a crime. Jacksonville can enforce laws against violence, threats, trafficking, illegal dumping, property damage and other dangerous conduct while refusing to treat poverty as proof of criminality. The same rules should protect housed and unhoused residents alike.

A workable response pairs trained outreach with clear public-space standards, available service options, sanitation, storage, transportation and follow-through. Moving someone from one block to another without a safe destination does not create stability. Ignoring unsafe behavior does not create compassion. Good government must be humane, lawful and operationally serious at the same time.

Work, purpose and the right support

Many unhoused residents already work or have work histories. Others face barriers involving identification, transportation, disability, trauma, child care, criminal records or long gaps in employment. The city should coordinate—not duplicate—existing workforce, veteran, nonprofit, housing and health systems.

A practical pathway can include document recovery, transportation, a mailing address, benefits screening, training, work clothing and tools, employer partnerships, supported employment and follow-up after placement. Jacksonville Housing also operates voluntary self-sufficiency programming for eligible participating households, demonstrating how housing, training and employment goals can be connected rather than treated as separate problems.

Measure whether the system actually helps

Contracts and programs should report understandable outcomes: prevention of first-time homelessness, time from assessment to placement, successful exits to permanent housing, housing stability, returns to homelessness, connection to benefits and care, veteran outcomes, shelter safety and resident experience. Public reporting must protect personal information.

The goal is not to celebrate activity while people remain stuck. It is to shorten the time a neighbor is unhoused, prevent more families from reaching crisis and help people regain safe, stable lives. Jacksonville should publish what works, correct what does not and respect the independent roles of service providers, Jacksonville Housing, the regional Continuum of Care and other public agencies.

A passage for the campaign address

To every unhoused neighbor: you are part of Jacksonville. I have sat down, shared food and listened to many of you. I have heard intelligence, humor, pain, faith and determination. Those conversations strengthened my respect for you. They also strengthened my belief that City Hall must listen before it labels, coordinate before it promises and follow through after the cameras leave.

I will not turn your hardest season into a punch line. I will not confuse being poor with being dangerous. I will work for prevention, safe shelter, identification, health care, voluntary treatment, employment and a real path toward stable housing. We will protect neighborhoods and public spaces, and we will protect your dignity too. You are not outside our city’s future. You are our neighbors. Together, we win.