Officials with the Jacksonville Housing Authority and the city break ground Friday on new affordable housing in Durkeeville. | City of Jacksonville
Published on June 6, 2025 at 3:50 pm
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Jacksonville officials and community leaders broke ground on five new affordable homes in the Durkeeville neighborhood on Friday morning.
The City of Jacksonville, the Jacksonville Housing Authority and First Coast Construction held a ceremony to break ground on the homes that will be built on Grothe Street, north of Kings Road and west of I-95.
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“This is one of those neighborhoods that has been disinvested for so long, and it’s truly such a historic and wonderful neighborhood. We just wanted to make a statement here to say that this is just the beginning. We are investing in this neighborhood, in affordable housing, especially because it is just so critical,” Mayor Donna Deegan said.
The groundbreaking came after a quarter of those surveyed for a recent University of North Florida Public Opinion Research Lab (PORL) poll said the most important problem facing Jacksonville is housing costs.
Among the 742 registered Duval County voters surveyed, crime came in a distant second as the top issue at 12%, followed by education, transportation and infrastructure, each with 9%. The economy and property taxes each received 8%.
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When asked about the new poll on Tuesday, Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan said she can’t remember the last time a poll was done where crime wasn’t number one in terms of people’s concerns.
“I think that speaks to what a great job JSO has done in terms of bringing the violent crime numbers down, but I think also it speaks to the level of pain that our community is feeling over affordable housing. So we really have to continue to address that, and this gives us a great impetus to continue to do that,” Deegan said.
