A series of recent events, from an assault on a teenager in Hemming Plaza to the resignation of homeless advocate Wanda Lanier, have thrust local homeless issues into the spotlight. Some Downtown merchants are thrilled with a new push for police presence near the Downtown core, but nonprofit agencies are concerned about the fate of their long-term solutions to the homeless problem.
by Liz Daube
Staff Writer
A daytime walk past Hemming Plaza typically reveals several small groups of seemingly homeless men, many clustered around games of checkers or slouching on benches. On Thursday, however, the Downtown park was almost empty. Two or three men with worn clothes sat quietly reading. Men and women in suits glided through on their way to lunch. And uniformed police officers calmly paced the perimeter, watching.
The park’s newfound vacancy is a triumph for some Downtown business owners, who are finally getting the steady Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office patrols they’ve requested for months. The change comes just days after two events heightened public controversy over Jacksonville’s homeless issues: A 16-year-old boy was punched by a homeless man in Hemming Plaza on Saturday, and homeless advocate Wanda Lanier resigned citing a lack of support from city leaders on Monday.
The patrols have resulted in two arrests for public drinking so far, according to Lt. Adam Brown, who’s in charge of Downtown patrols for JSO. He said police officers have always patrolled the area regularly, but he decided Monday to start keeping one or two close to the park each day.
“After we made the first couple (arrests), it kind of cleared it out,” said Brown, looking around the quiet park. “As you can see, the word got out.”
Brown said the extra patrols were not a reaction to Saturday’s violent incident. The “extra push” for police attention in the area is the result of general trend-watching, he said, and it won’t create additional costs for JSO.
“It’s just shifting resources,” he said.
The focused patrols have thrilled La Cena owner Jerry Moran. He recently posted an online video of a man defecating in broad daylight in front of Moran’s Laura Street restaurant.
“Finally, we got the City’s attention,” said Moran. “I haven’t had to make a call about Hemming park in over a week.”
Moran, who often calls the police when he sees people sleeping or drinking in Hemming Plaza, has been part of a push by merchants for stricter law enforcement near the park. In Moran’s opinion, homeless criminal behavior – panhandling and public drinking and sleeping are unlawful in Jacksonville – is a major reason why people don’t visit the area.
He and other Downtown business owners have discussed their needs with City officials and homeless advocates periodically in recent months. But while most people involved with the issue agree that Jacksonville’s current system of temporary shelters and services is not solving the problem, few agree completely on how to address the issues – and who should be responsible when efforts don’t move forward.
Lanier said her organization, the Emergency Services and Homeless Coalition, has very different goals when compared with the Downtown merchants. ESHC is the lead agency designated by the federal and state governments for planning, establishing priorities and allocating funds for homeless services in Duval and Clay counties. Lanier oversees $5-6 million in annual housing funds for local programs that assist the homeless.
She said ESHC has major changes in mind that aim to effectively end local homelessness in about 10 years, while the business owners have specific, short-term law enforcement requests. Lanier has been pushing for about $300,000 in City funding for the past two years to begin implementing ESHC’s 10-year plan. Although City Council adopted the plan officially in August, her funding requests have not been included in the City budget.
“I just kind of came to a realization last week,” said Lanier, who has lead ESHC since it became an incorporated nonprofit in 2000. “I can’t do it by myself. We can’t do it without funding, without leadership at the City level.”
One of the primary elements of ESHC’s 10-year plan is permanent, affordable housing combined with supportive services like counseling and medical care. The plan was developed by a task force of community leaders ranging from government officials to business representatives to the formerly homeless. More than 200 similar plans have been adopted throughout the nation, although Lanier said less than a fourth of them are funded and making significant progress.
City Council President Michael Corrigan said he’s not sure whether the 10-year plan is the only way to address Jacksonville’s homeless problems.
“We’re trying to figure out how to address the situation,” he said. “Collaboration is the key ... In my three-and-a-half years in government, it’s become very clear to me that the need for services far exhausts the availability of funds. That’s the tough part of being a community leader: deciding where the funds go.”
Susie Wiles, Mayor John Peyton’s communications chief, said rumors that Peyton told Lanier she’d never get funding for the 10-year plan were false.
“That simply didn’t occur,” said Wiles. “It is accurate, however, that an $80 million program this year was simply not feasible.”
The plan’s affordable housing component called for spending up to $90 million to build 800 housing units over five years. Wiles said the mayor’s office will continue to listen to new solutions for the homeless situation, and the City’s Housing and Neighborhoods Department and public service grants are directed toward some of the 10-year plan’s goals.
Vikki Wilkins, who owns the UPS Store on Hogan Street with her husband, said she understands Lanier’s frustration with city government. Wilkins’ goals have been focused on law enforcement and public safety, while Lanier’s focus is more on helping the mentally and physically disabled. But, Wilkins said they’ve shared a lot of common ground.
“She was working with us ... We agreed that they need a place for them to go,” said Wilkins, who wants a daytime center for homeless people to use with bathroom facilities, seating and social workers to help them with work placement. “This (additional patrolling) is still just a Band-Aid. It didn’t fix the problem, it helped improve the Downtown business district,” she said. “It’s a victory, but then she (Wanda) is leaving because there’s just so much more work, and she just felt that she can’t work for something when she’s just been told nothing’s going to happen.”
Sherry Burns, executive director of the I.M. Sulzbacher Center for the Homeless, said she’s “concerned” about the future of ESHC’s long-term plan. Her nonprofit receives funding from the City and ESHC to provide shelter, meals, healthcare, counseling and other services to homeless men, women and children.
“I don’t know where the plan goes from here,” she said. “It’s laid out. It certainly is a blueprint with priorities set and a timeline and plan to get it all done, but really we can’t (implement it) without the assistance of the administration.”
Attorney Bill Scheu, who led the task force that created the plan, said communication and resources will be key as attempts to put the plan into action go forward.
“Ultimately, the blueprint to end homelessness is the best solution. It’s a housing solution,” he said. “I think the problem is a lack of understanding about the homeless.”
Scheu said the closing of many mental institutions in recent decades has had a major impact on the increase in homelessness. Lanier agreed. She said most of Jacksonville’s homeless are “absolutely incapable of working.”
“It (the 10-year plan) is not a public giveaway. It’s not an entitlement,” said Lanier. “There is public perception that we’re just going to give another handout to those who don’t deserve it ... I think truly the public just believes that population of people who have fallen through the cracks are not deserving.”
When the mentally and physically disabled receive a homeless agency’s help and arrange welfare checks, Lanier said, they can then pay about $200 – or a third of their monthly funds – toward their housing.
“The way we’re doing things now (with temporary shelters) is wasting a lot of money,” said Lanier. “We try to approach it not from a value system or an ideology, but from a dollars and cents approach ... but I think we still have not been able to overcome that very rigid ideology in this community.”
Wilkins estimates that the “criminal” homeless people who have used her back door as a toilet only make up “25 percent” of the homeless population, but she wants that type of behavior stopped before housing efforts move forward. She mentioned the father of the teenage boy who was hit on Saturday is, by coincidence, a formerly homeless man who has written about his experiences on a blog. During media interviews, the man said he was concerned about the mental health of the man who hit his son. Wilkins said she has sympathy for the mentally ill or handicapped, but not when they harm others.
“If it takes him five years to figure out he has to go get help, he doesn’t need to be in our park in the meantime,” she said.