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After a controversial Florida law banned people from sleeping and camping on the streets, the Homeward Bound program was put forward as a potential lifeline.<\/p>\n
It offers a chance for homeless people to leave Jacksonville and reunite with their loved ones for free. But is the program leading to real change, or just a change of address?<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n On a frigid Tuesday morning, the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office bike unit patrolled the streets of downtown.<\/p>\n A part of their daily routine involves interacting with people who are homeless or in transition. Officers point them to resources and for those not from the area, officers offer a way home.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Anchor Tenikka Hughes went out with the JSO Bike Unit. Officer Senterfitt agreed to get mic\u2019d up and wear a GoPro as he made his rounds.<\/p>\n RELATED: Jacksonville police tout Downtown homeless effort successes nearly 1 year after public camping ban<\/a><\/p>\n He encountered multiple people on the street who were homeless. In one instance, he engaged with someone sleeping on a bench. In the exchange, Senterfitt learned the person was not from Jacksonville and informed them about the Homeward Bound Program.<\/p>\n Senterfitt explained, \u201cIf you have family within the United States that\u2019s willing to take you, we will give you a free bus ticket to go up there to them. Is that something that interests you?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cVery much so,\u201d the person responded.<\/p>\n The Homeward Bound<\/a> program relocates people living on the streets of Jacksonville to their hometowns or where they have a support system, free of charge.<\/p>\n It\u2019s paid for by JSO through money seized from criminal investigations, at no cost to taxpayers. The program has been around for years but was pushed into the spotlight after Florida\u2019s ban on public sleeping and camping<\/a> went into effect in October 2024.<\/p>\n JSO District One Commander Jimmy Ricks said that while enforcing the law, officers raise awareness about the program and other resources.<\/p>\n \u201cThis program and this law has allowed us to nudge people into services and it\u2019s helping them,\u201d Ricks said.<\/p>\n The nonprofit Downtown Vision<\/a> administers the program in partnership with the Sheriff\u2019s Office. CEO Jake Gordon said after participants clear JSO\u2019s background check, they help them get a Florida ID, handle travel arrangements, and confirm there will be someone meeting them at their destination.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t just wanna send people out and they don\u2019t have a safe place to land,\u201d Gordon said.<\/p>\n Gordon said more than 800 people have taken advantage of the program since October 2024, traveling to 49 states. One of them is 53-year-old Christopher Hicks.<\/p>\n RELATED: \u2018A tremendous reduction\u2019: NE FL unsheltered homeless population fell 49 percent since last year<\/a><\/p>\n By phone, he told Anchor Tenikka Hughes that he came to Jacksonville in November for a warehouse job that fell through, ended up in a shelter, and used the program to get to Atlanta in January.<\/p>\n Hicks said he was now staying with a friend in Atlanta and looking for work there. When asked if he felt more stable having someone there with him versus being alone in Jacksonville, Hicks said yes.<\/p>\n Hughes asked Gordon, \u201cWhat about critics who say you\u2019re only moving people, you\u2019re not fixing the actual problem?\u201d<\/p>\n Gordon said, \u201cThis is a voluntary program, so they want or need help and then, you know, there are a lot of other programs that we need to make sure they\u2019re getting the support that they need, but generally this program helps people just get home and they\u2019re very happy when they\u2019re home,\u201d Gordon said.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n Commander Ricks said the program has led to noticeable changes downtown too.<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t solve homelessness,\u201d Ricks said. \u201cBut downtown is much safer. Last year alone, we were at 18% at the end of the year, and most of the year we were 20% down in violent crime and property crime.\u201d<\/p>\n Ricks also said, \u201cThey\u2019re not having the same type of crimes happen because there\u2019s not the encampments that are in public view. There\u2019s not people getting approached as much, because there\u2019s not as many homeless downtown.\u201d<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n As for Hicks, when asked if he was glad he took advantage of the program and happy he was able to get to Atlanta, he simply said: \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n Since the public sleeping and camping ban went into effect in October 2024 through the end of January of this year, JSO gave out 1,642 warnings and made 592 arrests.<\/p>\n In that same time, 802 people used the Homeward Bound program. Action News Jax asked but was told there\u2019s really no way to keep track of how many people may be coming into Jacksonville through similar programs in other cities.<\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a controversial Florida law banned people from sleeping and camping on the streets, the Homeward Bound program…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[344,79660,79658,79661,79656,116,118,117,79657,79659,1872],"class_list":["post-167675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-action-news-jax","tag-anchor-tenikka-hughes","tag-christopher-hicks","tag-commander-ricks","tag-homeward-bound","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jake-gordon","tag-jimmy-ricks","tag-jso"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}