An example of twin-sized shelter beds. | Noah Hertz, Jacksonville Today
Published on August 14, 2026 at 2:13 pm
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The nonprofit Sulzbacher and the city of Jacksonville are finalizing an agreement to provide 32 shelter beds for single women experiencing homelessness.
City Council recently voted 17-0 to authorize $413,900 for the Jacksonville-based provider of housing and essential services to unhoused people convert office space at its Downtown center into dormitory space.
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Brian Snow, president of housing and human services for Sulzbacher, says the beds are in response to the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department’s PATH team — short for Providing Assistance to the Homeless — noting an uptick in unhoused single women over the last two years in Duval County.
“We really started as a community … saying, ‘Hey, we need to get these women off the streets’ because we know that all single women are victimized in some form or fashion on the street,” Snow told Jacksonville Today.
Sulzbacher partners with the JFRD task force to locate shelter and services for homeless individuals 24 hours per day.
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“So if they call at 11 o’clock on a Saturday night, they encounter somebody on any side of town, we’ll be able to take them in immediately on the spot,” Snow said.
Documents filed with Ordinance 2026-0542 break down how Sulzbacher will spend the new city funding.
Of the total amount, $392,501 will be reimbursed to Sulzbacher at $1,022 per month to pay for operating expenses. Snow says this will go to pay for frontline advocates that ensure the shelter residents have access to basic needs, and for case managers.
About $21,400 will go to equipment computers, beds, linens, foot lockers and security cameras.
The program budget says Sulzbacher has a goal to link at least 90% of the clients to benefits, housing resources and healthcare.
According to Snow, it will take 60 days for the new dormitory to get up and running and start accepting women after the agreement with the city is signed.
Unhoused by the numbers
In the same meeting Tuesday, the council voted unanimously on legislation appropriating $150,000 to the Salvation Army for its Homeless to Work program, designed to provide secure housing accommodations in tandem with workforce and career development opportunities.
The nonprofit Changing Homelessness’ latest Point in Time Count, released earlier this year, shows that people experiencing homelessness in Northeast Florida increased 14% since the prior year.
But overall the numbers had decreased by 42% since 2016.
Snow, who’s worked for Sulzbacher for 23 years, says much of the increase in unhoused women is due to economic pressure. And a big part of that is the rising cost of rental housing.
“Based on everything that we can tell right now — and there’s been an increase in families as well — it appears that a lot of it has to do with the rental rate,” Snow said. “A lot of these have been first time homeless folks. They’re people that could no longer afford the rental rate. And really just didn’t have a support system like some of the rest of us to fall back on — family.”
