{"id":268192,"date":"2025-10-01T03:47:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T03:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/268192\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T03:47:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T03:47:10","slug":"jacksonville-homeless-shelter-closure-leaves-70-people-without-housing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/268192\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacksonville homeless shelter closure leaves 70 people without housing"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. <\/strong> \u2013 A homeless shelter on Jacksonville\u2019s Northside has closed, leaving about 70 people without a place to sleep.<\/p>\n

Overflow Health Alliance is now empty and no longer able to serve those in need. A letter obtained by News4JAX instructed a person using the facility\u2019s transitional housing program to vacate with all their belongings by the end of the day.<\/p>\n

Marcus Harden-Givens, chief operating officer of Overflow Health Alliance, says the shelter had been providing vital services to the community but has faced significant obstacles.<\/p>\n

\u201cQuite frankly, I think that our shelter in the short time that we were open, we did more than any of the shelters that has been here in the past 30 years,\u201d Harden-Givens said.<\/p>\n

He explained that the shelter had about 200 beds available and that residents were satisfied and felt like family. However, Harden-Givens says the organization has struggled to obtain a certificate of occupancy due to opposition from city and state officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, we have two city officials and a state representative that have opposed against the shelter being opened, so we have had to close now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He added that attempts to engage with State Representative Angie Nixon and Councilwoman Ju\u2019Coby Pittman have been unsuccessful.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve tried to contact…Councilwoman Pittman, several times since then, and both of them have denied coming over to try to make things work out, to see our policies and procedures. They\u2019ve never even asked for that,\u201d Harden-Givens said.<\/p>\n

Phil Perry, chief communications officer for Mayor Donna Deegan\u2019s office, responded to questions about the closure through email.<\/p>\n

\n

The Building Inspection Division, Code Enforcement, and JFRD met with the organization and their architect over the summer and explained the code requirements that they need to follow to be in compliance with building and fire code. Everyone agreed at that meeting that the next step is for them to go through the process of obtaining a certificate of use (COU), which they cannot operate without.<\/p>\n

The ball remains in their court to make the necessary adjustments to this application and complete the process. Nothing has been submitted or filed since that meeting. We have also held off on issuing any code violation citations so they can complete the COU application process and work through it with a magistrate judge. We have not issued any cease-and-desist orders either.<\/p>\n

The organization made claims about fees up to $20,000 to move this process forward. Any cost of that size may come from the private contractors they hired but it does not come from the city. Fees related to their permit and COU are only a few hundred dollars.<\/p>\n

While we appreciate the organization\u2019s desire to help the community, there are building and fire codes that must be followed to keep people safe. The City of Jacksonville has guided the organization at each step, and we will continue to be as helpful as possible.<\/p>\n

Phil Perry, Chief Communications Officer City of Jacksonville<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

State Representative Angie Nixon also responded via email, expressing concerns about the shelter\u2019s plans and permitting process.<\/p>\n

\n

While I am a strong advocate of access to affordable housing and creating innovative ways to help those dealing with homelessness, Overflow Alliance continually altered plans and tried to circumvent opening up the facility the correct way.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They initially wanted to house people in tents on the property where it is known to flood. I went out my way to set up a meeting with the CEO of the Sulzbacher and Mr. Harden-Givens and his team to learn more about the facility and their plans and to offer advice. On that tour I learned that there was no real policies or plans in place to maintain the safety and wellbeing of those clients and we were lied to about where they were in the permitting process. The organization also didn\u2019t reach out to the community about it.<\/p>\n

My office began receiving communications from residents and business owners, therefore I decided not to support the project.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Upon further researching their organization, I learned that they have multiple complaints of failing to pay and complete contracts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Not only that, I was continually harassed by Mr. Harden-Givens via text messages, he has driven by me and yelled expletives and more.<\/p>\n

State Representative Angie Nixon<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Harden-Givens disputed Nixon\u2019s claims.<\/p>\n

\u201cI say that that\u2019s a political lie. Angie Nixon came in with the CEO of Sulzbacher not to intentionally see what we could do or how they could help our organization. They came in to intentionally see what was wrong with it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He questioned why Nixon and others have not returned to the property since their initial visit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you had an intention on helping us, why didn\u2019t you come back? Why haven\u2019t you come back?\u201d Harden-Givens asked.<\/p>\n

The shelter\u2019s closure has left many in the community concerned about where the displaced residents will find shelter.<\/p>\n

We are waiting on a response from Councilwoman Ju\u2019Coby Pittman\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 A homeless shelter on Jacksonville\u2019s Northside has closed, leaving about 70 people without a place…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":268193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,3188,723,7065,7310,8901,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-268192","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-fl","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-housing","12":"tag-jacksonville","13":"tag-northside","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115296865132584807","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}