Data collected by the Journal-Courier shows calls to Jacksonville Police Department about people who are homeless have almost doubled compared to the same period last year.
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Data collected by the Journal-Courier shows calls to Jacksonville Police Department about people who are homeless almost doubled in May compared to the same time last year — though arrests stayed about the same.
In May 2025, Jacksonville police were called for 25 incidents involving a homeless person. Of those incidents, 22 resulted in an arrest. Last month, 44 calls resulted in 18 arrests.
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Jacksonville Police Chief Doug Thompson said he wasn’t aware of any increases because his department didn’t start tracking the number of incidents involving homeless people until this year. Internal data from the department shows that police have had 174 interactions with someone claiming to be homeless since Jacksonville City Council passed a no-camping ordinance, though the ordinance isn’t yet being enforced, Thompson said.
The no-camping ordinance, passed in early February, allows officers to issue a $25 fine — which doubles with each infraction — to people sleeping on public property.
RELATED: City passes homeless no-camping ordinance, promises to review if needed
Instead of enforcing the ordinance, the department so far has used it as a reason to talk to homeless people to direct them toward services in town, Thompson said.
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“We had an issue with trying to get them services because they could tell us they didn’t want to talk to us,” Thompson said. “Now, if they’re camping or if they’re doing something that violates that camping ordinance, we have the opportunity to make contact with them, identify who they are, and then assist them in trying to get the services, which is what the goal of this is.”
Issuing a fine likely won’t happen when an officer interacts with someone violating the ordinance for the first time, he said, noting there haven’t been any instances of public camping since the ordinance passed.
Capt. Justian Corliss, head of The Salvation Army in Jacksonville, said he isn’t sure what’s behind the increase in phone calls, either.
Corliss is a member of the Unhoused Steering Committee, which wants to track data about how many homeless are in Jacksonville through weekly surveys, which he believes could answer questions about Jacksonville’s homeless population.
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Corliss said his assumption is that increased awareness of the homeless population in the wake of the no-camping ordinance’s passage could be at the root of the increased calls to police.
“We haven’t completed our documented survey yet, but … I would correlate what’s changed between last year and this year, the biggest thing that’s changed is that the community has come out with the ordinance,” Corliss said. “And so that would be a correlating effect of how are people perceiving the unhoused.”
Before the no-camping ordinance passed, data reflected a drop in calls made to Jacksonville police about homeless people compared to the same time in 2024.
RELATED: Police calls about homeless see dramatic drop in Jacksonville
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The committee was supposed to start its survey in June, but it doesn’t yet have enough volunteers and needs to hire an unhoused street outreach coordinator, Corliss said. Volunteers must pass a background check, train for four hours a week and be able to walk 3 miles unaided, he said.
“Our goal was to get 16 volunteers for that program,” he said. “I think we’ve identified four.”
Survey data would be valuable in understanding what services are needed in town, Corliss said. Funding has ended for The Salvation Army’s emergency transitional housing program; the organization’s office, which is about a 30-minute walk from downtown, had two or three people using its daytime homeless shelter until it closed in March.
“We have a very small staff, and it became too burdensome on the staff to do their regular day-to-day jobs as well as try to maintain an open center that was only serving two to three individuals,” he said.
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While Corliss coordinated with Jacksonville Public Library and New Directions warming and cooling center to make sure people had somewhere to go during the day, data would be the most useful tool to figuring out how best to help Jacksonville’s homeless, he said.
The Salvation Army still is providing meals and food to people who need it, Corliss said.