Upon entering The Giving Closet Project’s boutique space at Northwestern Legends Elementary School in Jacksonville’s Moncrief neighborhood, you’ll find dignity stitched into every item on the shelf.
“We are standing right now in our Duval hub children’s boutique,” said Founder and CEO of The Giving Closet Project Jennifer Finnegan while walking with News4JAX through the space.
Every item on the shelf -- whether it’s a clean hoodie, a pair of socks, or a school uniform-- is meant to remove a barrier that could keep a child out of the classroom. An example of this is the price tag on its clothing: Free for families who need it.
“It’s often an invisible barrier, but it is one of the main reasons why kids don’t get to go to school,” Finnegan said.
Seventy-five percent of the children who were referred to the nonprofit for help this year are experiencing housing instability.
“Student homelessness has risen up to 33%. It’s doubled since the 2018–2019 school year,” Finnegan said. “You just don’t realize the struggles that our families are going through and that our moms are facing and with the housing crisis that we’re in. I mean, our families are the hidden homeless right now, right? They’re living in the woods. They’re living out of their cars, and it’s just, it’s devastating.”
Each care package includes a week’s worth of outfits, new shoes, underwear, socks, and hygiene products, customized based on referrals from schools and social workers.
The Giving Closet Project has quietly become a safety net for thousands of Jacksonville students facing homelessness and housing insecurity.
But after losing $150,000 in state funding through Gov. Ron DeSantis’ budget vetoes, the organization is now leaning heavily on the community to survive.
“We were very excited to hear that everything had passed through the House and the Senate. We really thought we were going to get it,” Finnegan said of the state funding.
The organization has become a lifeline for families struggling with homelessness, housing instability, and affordability.
Last year, the organization served more than 2,000 students in Duval County alone.
“Every dollar that we don’t receive or that we aren’t able to raise is another child that we’re not able to help, right? And so the money that we’re looking for here would have gone directly towards making sure that more children had clothes and other wraparound services,” Jeff McCain said, the Board President of the nonprofit.
To make up for the shortfall, the organization is relying on back-to-school donation drives and is actively seeking private donors and community support.
“We clothe children in every zip code in Duval County,” McCain added. “Organizations like ours, if we could get more support from the community that’d be great. Because we’re small, we just don’t get noticed.”
The Giving Closet Project says this mission goes far beyond clothing; it’s about giving students the chance to succeed.
“Nobody should have to live in their car. Nobody should have to be living in the woods and getting ready for school in a port-a-potty or in a gas station bathroom,” Finnegan said. “And this is the reality, and it’s not just happening on the north side or on the west side. It’s happening all over our city, and we cannot as a community just keep turning a blind eye as if it’s going to go away by itself. It’s not. It’s going to take the state, the cities, the churches, the other community organizations and corporate partners to truly come together, get creative, stop having meetings just to have meetings or check in a box, and really start getting to the root causes and coming up with some creative solutions to help fix this crisis we’re in.”
How to Help: The Giving Closet Project has helped more than 18,000 students over the last nine years. They say their most urgent needs right now are:
- Financial donations
- Support at their annual gala
- A permanent location
- Basic hygiene supplies like body wipes and new underwear
To find out how to support their mission, visit givingclosetproject.org.
While some local nonprofits have seen state support pulled, Florida is still investing $235 million this year into two key affordable housing programs:
Both are funded by the Sadowski Trust Fund, created in 1992.
A 2021 law ensures money from the trust must go toward affordable housing, but it does not require the state to fully fund SHIP and SAIL.
Still, according to Mark Hendrickson of the Sadowski Coalition, DeSantis has fully funded both programs every year he’s been in office, helping fill gaps left by limited federal dollars.
“Floridians have great state leaders who continue to prioritize the creation of housing that is affordable. This year, our leadership in the Legislature crafted a budget that fully funds Florida’s State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) and State Apartment Incentive Loan (SAIL) programs, which are both extremely effective at producing housing that is affordable, and the budget that Governor DeSantis signed kept that full funding. Creating housing that is affordable remains critical for our families, seniors, and workforce, and continued full funding of the SHIP and SAIL programs is the smartest way for us to work on meeting the housing need in the state,” Hendrickson said.
