JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A shooting outside the Sulzbacher Center in downtown Jacksonville this past January is prompting a big change at the East Adams Street facility.

The shooting left a man with critical injuries, and as a result, the Jacksonville city council will now consider a bill that would set aside $100,000 to pay Jacksonville Sheriff’s officers to provide security.

Councilman Ron Salem drafted the legislation, which was formally introduced last week. He remembers the day of the shooting well.

“This guy walked in, was not a regular person that came on the campus and apparently was targeting one of the homeless,” Salem said.

The Sulzbacher Center provides services and assistance to those experiencing homelessness, and according to Salem’s bill, “The appropriation provides resources for JSO officers to address security concerns raised by recent incidents occurring outside the facility. The Sulzbacher Center has reported employee turnover due to safety concerns and has requested additional security support.”

Speaking about the legislation, Salem said, “Cindy Funkhouser with Sulzbacher determined they needed about $130,000 to get them through the end of the year, and then they would attempt in their budget and fundraising to cover it after that, if it was deemed necessary.”

“I was able to find $100,000 and said, ‘Make this work,’” Salem added.

When News4JAX stopped by the facility Monday, a JSO vehicle was parked out front, meaning the security additions had already started.

“I think the police car itself is a deterrent in addition to the officer in uniform carrying a gun,” Salem said. “I know churches and other people are doing similar things to protect themselves.”

A Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office spokesperson confirmed to News4JAX that previously, JSO staffed the center with officers as a matter of security at their request. This changed early last year, and a private security company replaced the JSO officers.

As things currently stand, JSO said the current staffing level is one daily position for approximately 8 hours. Salem said this is about saving lives and making sure employees and clients know they’re being protected.

“It could have been catastrophic in that incident,” Salem said. “Multiple people could have been shot, so we’re very pleased that was not the case. And hopefully we can prevent it in the future.”

Sulzbacher takes the security of the people we serve and our staff very seriously. We have 24-hour private security personnel and protocols in place at both campuses.

However, the isolated incident that happened on Jan. 12 was very distressing and had never happened before. We are grateful to JSO for their quick response and all their subsequent support. After discussions with the board, they decided that the incident has necessitated that we supplement our current private security with JSO staff at the Urban Rest Stop program that operates on our downtown campus.

Sulzbacher agreed to take on the Urban Rest Stop in 2019, as it was a priority of the City of Jacksonville’s Downtown Homelessness Task Force. Having an additional 100-150 extra people on our already busy campus seven days a week is a service to the entire downtown community.

We will continue to cooperate closely with law enforcement as they investigate this situation while working to identify additional measures to help prevent anything like this from happening again.

We are very grateful to Councilmember Salem for this legislation that enables us to pay for extra JSO security through the rest of this fiscal year. As we move forward, we remain focused on the people we serve, and the staff and volunteers who do this very challenging work.