JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Mayor Lenny Curry, Sulzbacher CEO Cindy Funkhouser, members of Jacksonville’s City Council, and City officials cut the ribbon on Sulzbacher Center’s new Urban Rest Stop Social Services Bus today.
Described as the final piece in the Center’s Urban Rest Stop Program, the mobile unit will now travel into downtown homeless camps to connect with those in need of case management and housing services. Noted as bringing “Housing and Hope on Wheels,” the bus compliments Sulzbacher’s Healthmobile - launched in 2020 - which provides health outreach services to the City’s homelessness.
Mayor Lenny Curry described the day as a time to recognize the needs of every Jacksonville citizen - “regardless of zip codes” - which includes the City’s homeless.
The Mayor also acknowledged the City’s “amazing” non profits assigned to his Downtown Homelessness Task Force which includes Changing Homelessness; City Rescue Mission; Clara White Mission; Trinity Rescue Mission; Downtown Vision; Family Promise; Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office; Mental Health Resource Center; Salvation Army; Jacksonville Transit Authority and Sulzbacher. Since 2016, representatives from each organization have collaborated with the Mayor’s office to identify the needs of those struggling with living on the streets.
“Out of that task force, we develeoped the Urban Rest Stop System, housed here, which provides crucial support servie to help the homeless in our community,” he said. “Since Rest Stop has opened, homelessness in Jacksonville has dropped by over one-third.”
Mayor Curry called the bus the “final piece” for broadening the City’s outreach for case management and referral services to “community members in need.” The Mayor also advocated the next adminstration to continue with “this most important work.”
According to Eileen Briggs the Center’s Chief Development Officer, Sulzbacher provides short-term, emergency housing for men, women, and families with children along with comprehensive case management services which includes street outreach, meals, laundry, showers, safe shelter, veteran’s services, computer access, career training and placement, medical care, and permanent housing referrals.
Briggs expressed her excitement for the Social Services Bus as the “final piece of the puzzle,” along with her gratitude for the Mayor’s Homelessness Task Force.
“Over the last several years, we’ve been able to reduce homelessness by 35 percent,” she said. “This is the final piece of the Urban Rest Stop Program at Sulzbacher’s where people can go during the day to get off the streets and connect with the services that they need.”
Sulzbacher Center for the homeless opened in 1995 supported by the City of Jacksonville, several area businesses and the United Way of Northeast Florida. Named after I.M. Sulzbacher, a member of Jacksonville’s City Council who devoted himself to the plight of the homeless, the Center prides itself on providing a “continuum of care approach,” not “just a meal and a bed.”
For more information, visit www.sulzbacherjax.org
Emergency Housing For Men
Sulzbacher Downtown Campus
611 E. Adams Street
Jacksonville, FL 32202
(904) 394-1356
Walk-in Hours: 7 days a week
Requirements: State ID, Tuberculosis Clearance Card
Sulzbacher Village: A Community for Women & Families
5455 Springfield Blvd. • Jacksonville, FL 32208
(904) 394-4950
Walk-in Hours: Monday through Thursday: 8am-11am
Requirements: Birth Certificates and Social Security Cards for all family members
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