Jacksonville's Five-Year Homelessness Plan Heads for a Third Deadline Extension as Duval's Homeless Count Rises

Jacksonville's long-promised five-year strategic plan on homelessness is on track for a third deadline extension. On Monday, Oct. 19, the City Council Rules Committee voted 6-0 to give the city's Homelessness Initiatives Commission until Feb. 1, 2027, to finish the plan, according to News4JAX. The plan was originally due Dec. 31, 2024. The full City Council still must approve the change.

The delay comes as the number of people counted as homeless in Duval County rose this year after two years of declines, and as Florida cities and counties continue to adjust to a 2024 state law that bars them from allowing people to regularly camp or sleep on public property.

Who is writing the plan

The City Council created the Homelessness Initiatives Commission in March 2024 under Ordinance 2024-111-E. It is an advisory body that oversees and recommends how money in the city's Homelessness Initiatives Special Revenue Fund is used, and it was charged with identifying gaps in services and funding and building a coordinated approach to stable housing.

The commission has seven members, chaired by Shantel Greene, along with three liaisons: Council member Jimmy Peluso, a Jacksonville Sheriff's Office commander and a Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department captain, according to the city's website.

Rather than write the strategy itself, the commission is relying on an outside consultant. The city sought proposals in early 2025 for a consultant to produce a five-year homelessness strategic plan tailored to Duval County's homeless and chronically unhoused populations. City meeting agendas show the consulting firm Advocates for Human Potential, known as AHP, presenting to the commission in June 2026 as part of what the city calls the strategic plans contract.

A deadline that keeps moving

The deadline has shifted several times since the commission was formed. The dates, according to News4JAX:

Peluso, who introduced the latest extension, told News4JAX that a central problem was structural. When the council created the commission, he said, it did not give the body clear parameters to spend money, so commissioners had to find a contractor and work through the city's process for paying one. He said that issue was resolved about a year ago, but the work still is not done.

"This is not an issue that you solve overnight," Peluso said, according to the station. He also pointed to Jacksonville's past reliance on the local Continuum of Care, the network of organizations that coordinates federal homelessness funding, whose members he said were not always working in step. He added that the state has handed local governments new mandates without funding.

Council member Ju'Coby Pittman abstained from Monday's vote because she leads the Clara White Mission, a nonprofit that serves people experiencing homelessness.

What the money looks like

A council committee record indicates the commission has about $1.8 million available to spend, and that the selected consultant, which is not local, agreed to provide an on-site presence and take part in commission meetings. Specific programmatic spending would come back to the council as separate legislation.

The city's homelessness special revenue fund grew from $2.2 million in 2024 to $4.3 million in the budget year that ended Sept. 30, Action News Jax reported in August. Mayor Donna Deegan's proposed budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year included $4.7 million for homelessness programs and $6.3 million for affordable housing initiatives, according to News4JAX. The city also approved $1.3 million in 2024 for 96 new shelter beds, and in August the council considered $413,900 for 32 additional beds for at-risk women at the Sulzbacher Center, Action News Jax reported.

The homelessness numbers

The January 2026 Point-in-Time Count, conducted by the nonprofit Changing Homelessness, found 1,071 people experiencing homelessness in Duval County on a single night, up from 967 in 2025, an increase of 104 people, or nearly 11%, News4JAX reported. Across the four-county region the count covers, which includes Baker, Clay and Nassau counties, volunteers counted 1,146 people, according to Jacksonville Today.

The 2026 increase followed two years of declines, including a roughly 20% drop in 2025, Action News Jax reported. Changing Homelessness CEO Dawn Gilman suggested that the count was taken during a deep freeze, which may have moved more people into shelters where they could be counted. The count captures only one night and does not include everyone who experiences homelessness over the course of a year.

Measured against 2024, the overall count is still down about 11%, but the number of people counted in shelters has stayed virtually stagnant over those two years despite the added beds, Action News Jax reported in August. In a statement to the station, the mayor's office said there is not a one-size-fits-all approach to homelessness and that more remains to be done.

The state camping ban

Florida's House Bill 1365, signed in 2024, took effect Oct. 1 of that year and prohibits counties and cities from allowing people to regularly camp or sleep on public property. Beginning in January 2025, residents and businesses gained the ability to sue local governments that fail to comply. Jacksonville's own 2024 response plan, drafted by a work group convened by Deegan, called the law an unfunded mandate that left the city at risk of being sued.

Peluso told News4JAX that since the law took effect, some people have moved into parks and other areas. The station noted that the count does not establish whether the law caused that shift. He also acknowledged that some of the city's recent shelter expansions may amount to temporary fixes rather than a long-term strategy.

What's 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., with funding, service gaps and an update from the consultant on the agenda. The extension to Feb. 1, 2027, now goes to the full City Council. If approved, it would be the third time the city has pushed back the plan that was meant to guide its approach to homelessness for the next five years.