JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — It’s now been nearly one year since Florida’s ban on public sleeping and camping officially went into effect, with local legislation creating penalties across Jacksonville.
Leaders with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office say the results have been night and day, in no small part thanks to Downtown Vision’s Homeward Bound program. The program is funded by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office solely through money criminally seized, at no cost to taxpayers - relocating people living on the streets in Jacksonville to their hometowns.
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“I think since October 1st, [we’ve] spent about $85,000 on that program,” Commander Jimmy Ricks with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said Thursday morning. “I think that’s helped us out tremendously because that gives an opportunity for the homeless person to get back to a support system, their family system that can help them get off their feet.”
According to Commander Ricks, the Homeward Bound program has gone hand in hand with local enforcement to tackle public homeless encampments across the city, with over 1,200 warnings and roughly 385 arrests made since the public camping ban went into effect on October 1, 2024.
JSO says the efforts have made the streets safer for everyone, though Ricks acknowledged there’s still much work to be done.
According to the 2025 Point in Time survey – which keeps counts on the amount of people experiencing homelessness – there are still 290 unsheltered homeless individuals across Duval County.
“Do I still get calls every day? Yes, I do get calls every day,” Commander Ricks acknowledged. “But I do see, as you drive downtown, a lot of people are like, ‘hey, what happened?’ But what happened was the actual ordinance. Being able to force the law and it’s nudging people into those services and I think it’s being very successful right now.”
Now, Commander Ricks says the hope is to continue working at this issue, still with more work to be done - hopefully cleaning up downtown’s streets and boosting the heart of Jacksonville’s economy for downtown business owners alike.
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