JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Eastside of Jacksonville, known to neighbors as 'Out East,' is in the shadow of EverBank Stadium.
As Jacksonville City Council prepares to vote on a $1.4 billion public/private stadium deal, neighbors "Out East" are praying they will be getting much needed upgrades. Neighbors like Gregory Lawson, who was born and raised on Van Buren Street.
Lawson's home hasn't had significant work done to it in decades. He has plywood for floors and a dusty box fan that sounds like an airplane getting ready to take off.
"This is the way we get cool," Lawson told First Coast News while holding a cup of ice from a cooler by his feet. "I'm down below with the devil burning, it's really hot."
Lawson has no relief from the heat in his home. He is disabled, has hypertension, diabetes and congestive heart failure.
The home he inherited from his mother is in desperate need of repair, but he is unable to finance and physically do the work.
"I've did a lot of repairs, but I can't do it all on my own. Not on what they gave me," Lawson, who is on a fixed income, said.
Mikki Utsey, Lawson's niece, gave First Coast News a tour of his home. She showed us a hole in his hallway ceiling and appliances caked in rust.
Lawson said when he's not at doctor's appointments, he spends his days in a chair enveloped by the glow of fluorescent light from a massive flat screen TV, which he said was gifted to him. He has no stove or refrigerator and cooks in his chair.
"I cook here, [this] is a hot plate, yeah to cook here because everything in the house was very old," Lawson said. "I've been promised things you know; it hasn't surfaced."
The Out East native hopes help can be included in future improvements to Jacksonville's Eastside as part of the Jaguars' stadium deal. Lawson knows he has at least one person on his side.
“I'm out here, I could feel the pain... I know what poverty is," Tellisa Robinson said. "And when you get set in poverty, you set in your mind you okay, you content we live in.... it's time for us to change that."
Robinson grew up Out East, too, next door to Lawson.
"I used to hold my mother's hand from the peanut man to the fruit man," Robinson said. "It was very, very vibrant."
Robinson said the vibrance is gone, but she wants the ugly to shine bright in the eyes of the Jaguars and city.
“We need y'all to come back in here and look inside our hearts and in our homes," she said.
"I love and appreciate her. She's doing the right thing and I love her," Lawson said.
Robinson said she has been working to establish relationships with the city to help neighbors and her own business, East Coast Striping & Painting.
A member of the Jacksonville Small & Emerging Business Program (JSEB), Robinson said she is still having a hard time finding work.
"I'm struggling with just getting capital and contract work, what I've been asking for from day one, but it's really, it's an issue," Robinson said. "But, my main issue is getting these homes fixed up and up to par. That's my main issue."
On Thursday, city council will discuss an amendment to the $300 million dollar community benefits agreement. Specifically, carving out $94 million from the $150 million in city dollars. The $94 million would be discussed in July as part of the separate bill and would not be a part of Tuesday's final stadium deal vote.
Lawson wants council to think of him and other neighbors when debating when and how to use the money.
"My house is in a shambles, the whole block is in a shambles and we would really appreciate them to come and fix our homes," Lawson said.