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Most of Jacksonville's homeless have never been through it before

Reflected in a mirror, Jasmine Jackson reads to two of her children in the bedroom the siblings share in their new rental home on Jacksonville's Northside. Jackson and her three children were homeless for three months last year.
Bob Self
/
Florida Times-Union
Reflected in a mirror, Jasmine Jackson reads to two of her children in the bedroom the siblings share in their new rental home on Jacksonville's Northside. Jackson and her three children were homeless for three months last year.

When multiple unfortunate circumstances collided in her life in 2022, Jasmine Jackson and her three children suddenly had no place to live but the family car. They were homeless.

She had never been in such a situation before. She had had a career in finance and been the family breadwinner. Yet, here she was. She was angry, afraid.

Like Jackson, about 71% of the Jacksonville-area people surveyed in an annual homeless count in January were experiencing homelessness for the first time. The causes behind their crises were many, ranging from rent increases or lost jobs to, in her case, a marital breakup and unemployment.

Read the rest of this story at the Florida Times-Union, a WJCT News partner.