JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Nearly two years after Jacksonville was expected to have a five-year plan to address homelessness, the city is still working to finish it.
Now, City Council members are considering a third deadline extension.
On Monday, the City Council Rules Committee voted 6-0 to advance a proposal that would give the Homelessness Initiatives Commission until Feb. 1, 2027, to complete its strategic plan.
Councilwoman Ju’Coby Pittman abstained, citing her role leading the Clara White Mission, a nonprofit that serves people experiencing homelessness.
The city created the commission in March 2024 to identify gaps in services, find funding, and develop a coordinated approach to helping people secure stable housing.
The plan was originally due Dec. 31, 2024. Jacksonville later extended the deadline to December 2025 and then Oct. 31, 2026.
News4JAX reporter Briana Brownlee and photojournalist Jesse Hanson reached out to Councilman Jimmy Peluso, who introduced the latest extension, to find out why the city has repeatedly pushed back the deadline.
Why has the plan taken so long?
Peluso said the city did not give the commission a straightforward way to pay for the consultant it needed to develop the strategy.
“When we crafted it and created this commission, we didn’t necessarily give it like the parameters to spend money,” Peluso said. “And in this case, they had to get a contractor to do this five-year study.”
He said the commission wanted professional help but spent considerable time working through the city’s hiring and payment process.
“They want to get it done professionally, took a long time to get that contractor on board and figure out how we pay them,” Peluso said.
According to Peluso, Jacksonville addressed that funding issue about a year ago. However, the commission has not completed its work.
What is the plan supposed to change?
Peluso said Jacksonville previously relied on the Continuum of Care, a federally established framework that brings together local organizations working to address homelessness.
He credited those organizations for their work but said they weren’t always coordinating their efforts.
The commission’s strategy is supposed to bring service providers, public safety agencies, hospitals and other organizations together to identify resources, address service gaps and help people remain housed.
Peluso said Jacksonville has expanded some shelter services while the commission develops its recommendations. But when asked whether the city’s current efforts still amount to temporary fixes, he acknowledged that concern.
“That’s what the five-year plan’s supposed to do is, hey, how do we make sure that … if somebody gets picked up by JFRD or JSO, that they go to, like, a long-term plan to make sure they’re off the street for years?,” Peluso said.
Why does the delay matter?
The nonprofit Changing Homelessness counted 1,071 people experiencing homelessness in Duval County during its January 2026 Point-in-Time Count, compared with 967 in 2025.
That’s an increase of 104 people, or nearly 11%.
The annual count captures homelessness on a single night and does not represent everyone who experiences homelessness throughout the year.
Jacksonville is also navigating a Florida law that took effect in October 2024, restricting cities and counties from allowing people to regularly camp or sleep on public property.
Peluso argued that the state has placed additional responsibilities on local governments without providing sufficient resources to address homelessness.
“This is not an issue that you solve overnight, and frankly, the State of Florida has created more mandates and provided no solutions or funding on how to solve problems with homelessness, so it now relies on us at the county level,” Peluso said.
He said some people have moved into parks and other areas since the state restricted public camping. That is Peluso’s assessment; the available count does not establish whether the law caused those changes.
What happens next?
The Homelessness Initiatives Commission is scheduled to meet Wednesday, Oct. 21, from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Edward Ball Building, 214 N. Hogan St., in downtown Jacksonville.
According to the city’s meeting notice, commissioners plan to discuss funding, gaps in homelessness services and an update from the consultant developing the strategic plan.
The proposed deadline extension still needs approval from the full City Council.
If council members approve it, the commission would have until Feb. 1, 2027, to finish its work.
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