JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - With the rate of homelessness on the rise, the Sulzbacher Center in Jacksonville is constructing a new building designed to combat the growing trend, and it's slated to open on the city's Northside in May.
The new Sulzbacher Village near N. Pearl Street will house about 310 people, including single women, female veterans and two-parent families in studio, one bedroom, and two bedroom permanent housing units. Health options will be offered to the community on the first-floor as well.
“The pediatric clinic will be open to the whole community, it will have dental, primary care, optical, behavioral health, the whole nine yards,” said Sulzbacher President Cindy Funkhouser.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released its annual Point in Time count showing its first increase in homelessness in seven years.
According to the report, there are 553,742 homeless people across the country during local tallies conducted in January 2017. That amount is up nearly 1 percent from 2016, up for the first time since 2010.
More than two-thirds of the people the Sulzbacher Center serves are women and children. They said women and children have been the fastest growing homeless population for the last several years.
The report also cites lack of affordable, low-income housing as the primary reason for the increase, something Funkhouser said she sees.
“Think about it, if you have someone that’s making minimum wage, the most they can afford is around $400 a month and in Jacksonville, the average rent is around $900,” Funkhouser said.
Funkhouser said moving women from the current Adams Street location will also help the male population, increasing its occupancy at that location by 30 percent and will allow for medical respite expansion as well.
The Village is set to open May of 2018.