Recommendation 1:
Define and assess Community assets in "hot spot" areas.

• City of Jacksonville should define physical assets in 'hot-spot'areas for use for after-school and summer programs. Schools (closed or open) should be looked at as a priority with Community Centers, Libraries, Churches and other public/private facilities filling in the gaps. Facilities should be used as leverage to attract non-government partners for capital and programming needs.
• City of Jacksonville should locate property (raw land, existing commercial/industrial structures, abandoned properties school facilities) for building/retrofitting as a gymnasium/multi-use facility. Hot spot areas should be given priority.
• Recommendation was made that the goal should be for all public facilities to have public, private and neighborhood components for operations and programming for maximum $$ and other resource leveraging.

Cost: $5 million

 

Recommendation 2:
Establish the Jax Journey Taskforce (JJT)

• Establish a functioning body of key government service providers that collaborates with JSO on enacting and monitoring non-police strategies designed to impact violent crime within Jacksonville neighborhoods.
  Membership would include:
  –Mayor's staff member to lead JJT
  –JSO
  –Municipal Code Compliance (Zoning and Property Safety)
  –Public Works (Streets and Drainage, Solid Waste, etc.)
  –Parks
  –JEA

Cost:  $2.3 million

 

Recommendation 3: 
Crime-Free Multi-Family Housing

• These recommendations are for reducing crime and improving general safety in multi-family housing communities. The group operated under the premise that there is much that can be done on many levels by: the owners/managers, the residents themselves, the police and government. The recommendations are broken down into these groupings.
• The JSO Crime-Free Multi-Family Housing program alone would take us a long way toward our goal. This program serves as the centerpiece for our recommendations.
• Support the JSO in the implementation of its Crime-Free Multi-Family Housing (CFMFH) program and encourage all apartment communities to participate in the effort.
• Ask City Council to consider making resident services programs in properties located in high crime areas a priority for Public Service Grants, Community Development Block Grants or other City funds; Make a five year commitment for funding.
• Encourage HUD to:
  • Require its subsidized properties to participate in the JSO'sCrime-Free Multi-Family Housing program
  • Stay in closer touch with its property managers
  • Request that HUD be notified of all criminal acts on their properties
  • Encourage or require properties to take advantage of HUD's Neighborhood Network Coordinator program
• Review the existing property safety code to ensure inclusion of CPTED & HUD housing
• Enact legislation to impose a civil penalty or user fee on owners of apartment complexes with calls for police services over a threshold amount concerning. The penalty or fee would be waived for owners of complexes certified in and actively participating in the JSO'sCrime-Free Multi-Family Housing Program. Owners cited for excessive calls for police services could elect to participate in the Crime-Free Multi-Family Housing Program in lieu of paying the penalty or fee established by this legislation.
• Recommendations for Property Owners:
  • Become certified in the JSO Crime-Free Multi-Family Housing Program
  • Implement Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) strategies
  • Develop and enforce leases that prohibit criminal acts by leaseholders and make leaseholders responsible for their guests. The lease standards must be strict and uniformly enforced.
  • Provide social service programs or partner with health, education, social services or faith based programs to enable residents to improve skills and transition to higher levels of housing. Where possible, space should be made available for these services to take place.
• Recommendations for Jacksonville Sheriff's Office:
  • Provide more frequent policing in high-crime developments during peak hours of criminal activity
  • Ask officers to knock on doors and get to know as many residents as possible, with the knowledge and concurrence of property owners, managers
  • Encourage police personnel, preferably the beat officer, to attend resident organization meetings and discuss crime information and crime prevention measure, as often as possible

Costs:  Very few of the recommendations require City funding. Outside of staff time to promote, coordinate, train and track participation, most of the costs are shouldered by the property owners. Most, if not all of the costs that are not borne by the owners, could be funded through local, State and Federal housing programs.

 

Recommendation 4: (Added April 10)
Establish new Oversight Board for funding and monitoring of all Parks and Recreation programming in Community Facilities (Community Centers, Libraries, Schools, Churches, etc.) with the intent of holding both City and non-profit programming accountable for outcomes and leveraging private dollars.

•  lExpand current role of the Parks Advisory Board (to emulate Jacksonville Children's Commission or Jacksonville Housing Commission model) to oversee annual evaluation and funding for Parks programming.
• lMonies that are already appropriated for these activities in various parts of the City (CDBG funds, Recreation and Community Services, Children's Commission, other grant sources, etc.) should be pooled into one fund and appropriated on an annual basis.
• lEvaluation criteria should be established (or  successful models replicated from existing agencies) for funding decisions and success monitoring.

 

Recommendation 5: (Added April 10)
Recommendations for the City to support economic development activities that would lead to safer and stable neighborhoods; that would cut down on crime and murder.

• These  recommendations are for reducing crime and improving general safety in commercial corridors in hot-spot neighborhoods. 
• Overarching all recommendations, City support should be strategically focused, in neighborhoods where residents are most engaged in the development and management of the service, invested in strategies that leverage city funds.
  • Charge the Mayor's Sustainable Communities Department Director to institute a Task Force to further develop our recommendations for neighborhood based economic development strategies.
  • Charge and fund the Housing and Neighborhood Department to develop incentives and planning support for focused neighborhood commercial revitalization.
  • Support neighborhood centers that co-locate services for job, jobs placement and income support services. 
  • Support and expand the capacity of neighborhood-based, resident-led organizations to redevelop strategic "hot spot" property that "builds" our way out of crime; and to provide community organizing services that increases resident and business involvement in commercial corridor revitalization efforts.  The City's Planning Department should review zoning issues and conduct visioning sessions for 'hot spot' commercial corridor areas.  Encourage JTA to coordinate location and design of Transit Oriented developments (TODs) with neighborhood and business organizations.
  • Continue proactive enforcement of property safety violations, aggressively move toward proactive enforcement of zoning codes, and increase funding for abatement measures.
  • Funding recommendations:
    • Increase funding for the Northwest Jacksonville Economic Development Fund and create a similar economic development resource for other redeveloping neighborhoods of Jacksonville. 
    • Earmark funding streams to support these recommendations using CDBG, CRA/Tax Increment financing, general revenue and other state and federal resources.
    • Educate and encourage nonprofits to use the State Community Contribution Tax Credit to leverage city funds.
    • Enhance efforts of the JEDC marketing and public relations arm of the Enterprise Zone Board to education and implement the incentives and tools of the Enterprise Zone and Empowerment Zones.
  • Support enhanced trash and cleanliness efforts through expanded city sanitation pick up schedules, JSO inmate crews, Clean it up/Green it up and private clean up efforts as demonstrated by the Springfield model efforts. 
  • Require JTA to fund and implement trash pickup and beautification of bus stops.
  • Enhance efforts of the JEDC marketing and public relations arm of the Enterprise Zone Board to education and implement the incentives and tools of the Enterprise Zone and Empowerment Zones.
  • Care should be given to funding and siting of social service programs that may discourage economic redevelopment or intensify unwanted activities in commercial sites, corridors and areas.