JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Four months to the day after breaking ground on five new affordable homes on Grothe Street in the Durkeeville neighborhood, the city of Jacksonville held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Monday for homes on Hart Street in the Daisy Home development.
The city of Jacksonville and the Jacksonville Housing Authority celebrated the completion of five new single-family homes in historic Durkeeville at 9:30 a.m.
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“This is one of those neighborhoods that has been disinvested for so long, and it’s truly such a historic and wonderful neighborhood,” Mayor Donna Deegan said at a groundbreaking ceremony in June. “We just wanted to make a statement here to say that this is just the beginning. We are investing in this neighborhood, in affordable housing, especially because it is just so critical.”
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According to Deegan, there were 24,000 residents on the waitlist for affordable housing in June.
“It’s been a long time since the city and JHA have had a working partnership, and so it’s really important that we are on the same page and that we’re working in tandem to see, where can we find funds, how can we be a good partner, and how can we create more of that affordable housing?” Deegan said.
The groundbreaking came after a quarter of those surveyed for a recent University of North Florida Public Opinion Research Lab (PORL) poll said the most important problem facing Jacksonville is housing costs.
Among the 742 registered Duval County voters surveyed, crime came in a distant second as the top issue at 12%, followed by education, transportation and infrastructure, each with 9%. The economy and property taxes each received 8%.