Jacksonville's Mayor recognizes the impact on municipalities that unhoused people create, but she also describes a state mechanism to tackle homelessness as an "unfunded mandate" that frustrates stakeholders already engaged with the issue.
"This is an unfunded mandate," said Mayor Donna Deegan. "So it is something that we will have to continue to get creative around."
Deegan made the comments on WJCT's First Coast Connect.
This week, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed off on HB 1365, sponsored by Republican Sen. Jon Martin and Republican Rep. Sam Garrison of Clay County.
The bill requires local jurisdictions to pick a piece of public property and wrangle people who are camping or sleeping in public spaces toward that location. Local camps must include clean restrooms, running water, security on premises and bans on drugs and alcohol. It bans counties and municipalities from permitting public sleeping or camping on public property without explicit permission.
Deegan acknowledges that "it is an issue we have to deal with."
"People don't feel safe when they're walking around the streets," Deegan said. "And there's a lot of folks that are on the streets, and we want those people to have places to live."
"I don't love the idea of a tent city. I do understand that we need to find more places for folks to be and we need them to be off of the streets," se continued said, adding that "it's very hard to ask people to go someplace unless you have a place for all of them to go."
"And so that's what we have to really focus on. We're gonna have to focus on, how do we create that? How will we fund it?"
Yet despite what Deegan calls "a frustration for a lot of us that are already working on these problems and trying to get solutions," she believes "we'll get there because we are both very focused on finding solutions there and we will."
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