The council approved Mayor Donna Deegan’s transition initiative plan, dedicating millions toward housing.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jacksonville city leaders took a big step toward curbing homelessness Tuesday night. The city council approved Mayor Donna Deegan’s $25 million transition initiative plan.
The mayor’s transition plan checks off a lot of the things that may sound familiar from her speech on the day she was sworn in.
There’s money to address Jacksonville’s infant mortality rate and youth literacy. However, the biggest chunk of the money is going toward housing.
Housing has been a key issue the past few months – the mayor met with constituents in a subsidized apartment complex and the city council created a committee to specifically address homelessness.
The transition initiative plan puts more than $6 million toward emergency rentals, down payment assistance, and helping people find places they can afford. Not to mention several hundred thousand toward homelessness initiatives.
An associate director with Family Promise of Jacksonville says she’s been getting nonstop phone calls from families in a bind.
“When you have a mom who is calling you and she’s sleeping in the car with four children, especially lately when it’s been rainy and cold – or in July, when the heat index at 11 o’clock at night will be 85, 90 degrees, that’s really hard to have to say to the mom, we don’t have a solution for you at the present time,” said Beth Mixon.
Nixon says families with multiple kids are finding it hard to find multi-bedroom homes/apartments, and they cost more, naturally.
“Very often landlords want to have so many people in a bedroom,” said Mixon. “So, the days of putting five kids in one bed is pretty much not accepted by landlords. Families often need two, three bedrooms, or even four bedrooms.”
The majority of the funding for the mayor’s initiative will come from the general fund and the American Rescue Plan money the city received during the pandemic.
