ICARE 2025 Community Problems Assembly

Last night 9 members of Riverside Avenue Christian Church gathered at Christ the King Catholic Church in the Arlington neighborhood. There we heard updates about the work of the ICARE (Interfaith Coalition for Action, Reconciliation, and Empowerment) coalition, which is made up of 38 churches from around Jacksonville who work together to help put pressure on public officials in order to build a more just city.

This year, ICARE is continuing to work in two areas: affordable housing and adult civil

citations. Here's some of what we learned:

Affordable Housing

Goal: There is not enough affordable housing in Jacksonville for low-income families. 1 in 4 families in Jacksonville who rent are paying over half of their income on housing costs. We need a solution - an affordable housing trust fund is a dedicated source of funding used to build, develop and preserve affordable housing. There are over 850 affordable housing trust funds in the US that generated a total of 3 Billion dollars for affordable homes.

Update: Mayor Deegan committed at the 2025 Nehemiah Assembly to work with ICARE to create an affordable housing trust fund to create more affordable housing. We want to ensure this fund would create homes for everyone from working professionals to essential workers. We believe that increasing the amount of affordable housing would provide an economic benefit to our city. Families who spend a large chunk of their income on housing have little money left over for other expenses.

Adult Civil Citations

Goal: Currently, JSO issues civil citations to youth, saving over 600 children a year from arrest. Civil citations hold them accountable without branding them with a criminal record. However, Duval County does not have civil citations for adults. The one of the top misdemeanors that someone is arrested for in Duval County is driving with a suspended or revoked license.

Update: State Attorney Melissa Nelson has agreed to work with JSO to develop an adult civil citations program. Sheriff Waters said he is not in favor of adult civil citations. However, ICARE leaders are committed to work towards this goal.

We also received an update about a goal that was achieved a few years back:

Reducing Murders and Saving Lives

Goal: ICARE pressed Sheriff Waters to revamp Jacksonville’s Group Violence Intervention program. As a result, JSO increased the agency’s resources to address the problem. In 2024, the number of murders dropped by 50%. This means 60 lives were saved. This has not happened in at least two decades in Jacksonville. This is an amazing achievement for our city.

Update: So far this year, the murder rate has consistently been down at least 30% from the average. We believe the numbers show that Jacksonville has turned a corner.

If you are interested in getting more involved in the work of ICARE, there are research and action meetings coming up on December 1st at 6:30pm on zoom.