JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Romeo Brunson said he doesn’t want pity — he wants a fair shot.
A job. A meal. A chance to be treated like a human being.
“You mean to tell me you don’t want to hire me because I look like a bum and I look homeless?” Brunson said. “I want help.”
Brunson has spent the last 10 years homeless in Jacksonville. For him, the daily struggle isn’t just about finding a place to sleep — it’s about not having enough food to eat and the barriers that keep people like him locked out of opportunity.
“We’re supposed to have the resources here, downtown in the heart and soul of the city,” he said. “We don’t have resources here. We have to go across town to look for jobs and food. We should have all of that here.”
His experience is part of the reason why the City Rescue Mission launched its “24-Hour Conversation on the Bench” — a public awareness campaign that puts its CEO, Paul Stasi, on a bench downtown for 24 hours straight, rain or shine.
It’s a visual reminder of what unhoused people endure every day and a call for change.
“Sometimes they are our invisible neighbors,” Stasi said. “There are a lot of stereotypes out there. We want the community to understand who we’re helping — and hopefully inspire more people to join us in serving those in need right here in Jacksonville.”
Early Friday morning, amid rain and wind, Stasi spoke with News4JAX reporter Briana Brownlee and photojournalist Jesse Hanson during his 24-hour sit.
“What it really has done is confirm for me the face of homelessness,” Stasi said during a live interview. “Homelessness could be anybody. We are all just one paycheck away from a real serious situation.”
The Rescue Mission provides nearly 90,000 nights of care and serves around 250,000 meals annually. But even those efforts can’t fully cover the gaps in the city’s network of services — a point echoed by healthcare provider Michael Peacock, who has spent over 30 years working with the unhoused.
“It needs to be more organized,” Peacock said. “So that we can take one individual and see what each organization can provide.”
For people like Romeo, that kind of collaboration can’t come soon enough. Every day brings a new version of the same uphill battle.
“And then the next day we got to wake up again and do it all over again and figure out how we are going to eat,” he said.
And as the days add up, so do the questions.
“Do they really care about the homeless?” Brunson asked. “Are they going to do something about it?”
You can stop by the bench in person or submit questions for Stasi to answer on the YouTube stream.
Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.