JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Faith leaders and city leaders are coming together Monday night to talk about two important topics in Jacksonville: affordable housing and homicides.
The Interfaith Coalition for Action, Reconciliation and Empowerment (ICARE), which consists of 38 faith congregations, plans to acknowledge Sheriff T.K. Waters and the efforts of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Gang Unit to significantly reduce the city’s murder rate.
In addition to that, Mayor Donna Deegan will also be at the annual Nehemiah Action Assembly at Abyssinia Missionary Baptist Church to hear the group’s thoughts on the city’s affordable housing crisis.
They want to ask Deegan to work with ICARE to develop an affordable housing trust fund.
“Over the last few years, the affordable housing crisis in Jacksonville has really accelerated,” said Pastor Adam Gray, lead pastor of Riverside Church at Park and King and secretary of the executive board for ICARE. “For people who are making less than the area median income ... we have 40,000 units that we need for people to be able to live ... that we don’t have. It’s creating a huge problem.”
ICARE says the affordable housing crisis has been devastating for families in Jacksonville, especially those who make 50% or less of the area’s median income — such as bus drivers, nursing assistants, security guards, janitors, housekeepers, seniors living on a fixed income and single-income families.
Jacksonville has only half of the affordable homes needed for these families, ICARE said.
“These are people who deserve the essential dignity of a place to call home, and this is a way to create those kinds of units and housing for them,” Gray said.
Gray said adults are living at the Sulzbacher homeless shelter because they can’t afford a place to live, despite having full-time jobs.
He also shared the story of a woman in his congregation who has a Master’s degree and a full-time job at a school but is still paying more than half her income for housing each month.
“We looked all around the country at what kind of solutions actually create the best return as far as affordable housing for communities, Gray said. ”And we found this idea called an affordable housing trust fund."
Gray said the trust fund begins with city money as a permanent grant rather than a revolving loan fund. And then it can attract investment from private companies and nonprofits.
“That kind of trust fund creates the most impact dollar-for-dollar for the kinds of folks that we would like to see be able to afford housing here in Jacksonville,” Gray said. “This kind of city grant into a trust fund can then create incentives for developers to build housing they would not otherwise build.”
He said it works because the city wouldn’t be expecting the money to be paid back.
Last year, Deegan committed $10 million to start Jacksonville’s affordable housing fund in her proposed budget, but the plan was rejected by some members of City Council.
“We are asking the mayor tonight to start the process of building this and implementing this in Jacksonville,” Gray said.
