JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — It is estimated that Jacksonville has about 3,400 homeless people. However, there aren't enough shelter beds to compensate, with only around 1,100 to provide, according to Changing Homelessness, a homeless prevention agency based in Jacksonville. Lisa Barton, First Coast News' 2021 12 Who Care recipient, leads by example by "meeting where they're at."
"It seems like once they [people who are homeless] hit the streets, if you don't capture them with those first 72 hours of being homeless, it's just like a rippling effect," Barton said. "They just kind of get stuck in that situation."
Barton says she usually keeps a pair of shoes in her trunk just incase she runs into someone in Downtown Jacksonville who doesn't own a pair. Essential items that are often taken for granted like a pair of socks or something to eat is when Barton comes and steps in. To Barton, paying it forward is her calling. Her pedigree of community service spans over 20 years, but she upped the ante in 2020.
"Each and everyone of us [has] a gift and talent we were blessed to come on Earth with," Barton said.
Barton's gift is providing shoes to neighbors without a home in Jacksonville by organizing a shoe drive known as Sole-to-Soul. Additionally, Barton runs a non-profit organization called The Village of Hope and Healing. Her efforts do not stop at shoes. Barton stays ready to serve: offering food, paying for a bus ticket or helping someone apply for veterans assistance. Barton even keeps a storage unit full of donated clothes, just in case.
"One of us cannot do all of everything," Barton said. "It takes all of us to collectively make a change. It's about meeting them where they're at and identifying their needs."
Through her work, Barton is inspiring her family and friends to be a part of the solution to solving homelessness in Jacksonville. Her goal, she says is to also help them transition out of the streets. Barton's older sister, Stephanie Smith-Narcisse, says words cannot express how proud she is of her.
"I always tell her, 'You know, I can't do all that but I just want to get in where I fit in,'" Smith-Narcisse said.
Barton says she's seeing the fruits of her labor; the people she's served, she says, are paying it forward. To Barton, seeing people look out for one another gives her hope and restores faith in humanity. Slowly but surely, she's creating the village and envisions people caring for others.