Demonstrators have props removed by city workers during event

2022-05-14 21:23:10 By : Ms. Mica Ma

City workers abruptly broke up a demonstration earlier this month to highlight problems with rent increases in Jacksonville by clearing furniture placed on display in front of City Hall.

Florida Rising, a coalition of organizers across the state focused on guaranteeing affordable housing for Floridians, organized the event and placed 26 pieces of furniture as a visual representation of the over 2,600 evictions that have occurred in the Jacksonville area from the end of December until the second week in April. The organization also hosted demonstrations in other major cities, including Miami, Orlando and Tampa.

Christina Kittle, Florida Rising’s Duval County lead organizer, said the best word to describe how the event went was “ironic,” Kittle said.

“Clearly our city has the capacity to respond quickly to our needs as a community. We are seeing it right now,” Kittle said as the workers threw the pieces of furniture on the trailer. “This is exactly what it feels like [to be evicted.]”

State Rep. Angie Nixon, D-14, said Brian Hughes, Chief Administrative Officer for the city, called the workers to remove the furniture. Hughes stood across the street from City Hall at James Weldon Johnson Park while the furniture was removed before entering City Hall when the path was cleared. 

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Protesters called out “shame” repeatedly and followed him as he walked into the building.

City officials said activists were blocking the entrance and exits to City Hall, which is a fire hazard.

“These were not props,” city spokeswoman Nikki Kimbleton said in an email. “These were large household items (furniture), dozens of pieces, blocking exit, entry doors and stairways to a public building, violating fire codes. The organizers were asked multiple times to move the items from the right of way but they refused to do so.”

Kimbleton said she was unsure if the organizers will face fines for the city’s removal of the pieces of furniture.

“We talked to officials. We let them know what was happening. We got the OK,” Kittle said. 

Kittle said the police present at the event were aware of the furniture placed in front of the building and did nothing to stop the group at any point during the demonstration. 

Ultimately, Kittle said, the city did them a favor by removing their props.

“They just did our job for us,” she said.

The people who came to remove the furniture did so while middle school teacher and Jacksonville Community Action Committee organizer Monica Gold was speaking about the impact unstable housing or unsafe housing has on teachers, students and their families.

Gold said she was disappointed that she didn’t get to finish what she had prepared to say during her allotted time due to the interruption. She was the last speaker, though, so the event wasn’t entirely disrupted.

Kittle said she was especially disappointed in the timing of the workers' appearance because teachers "already get disrespected."

“I thought it was pretty ridiculous and really demonstrated what we were talking about to begin with,” Gold said. “We didn’t get to finish what we were even saying. They don’t want to hear what we have to say.”

Gold said she has not been evicted, but she has faced “unlivable housing conditions” before, including an apartment with mold that a landlord refused to have cleaned.

“There are second-, third-, fourth-, fifth-generation Floridians who have to leave our state because they cannot afford to live here,” Nixon said. “It’s a problem.”

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In addition to the demonstration, Florida Rising has been circulating an online petition, which had about 340 signatures as of Monday. The petition calls on elected officials to declare a housing state of emergency for Jacksonville and put a freeze on rent increases. 

Kimbleton said the city has worked to improve housing conditions in Jacksonville already, assisting “residents with rent, evictions and more before, during and following the pandemic.”

Specifically, she said, the city has helped in “the tens of millions of dollars distributed for the mortgage, rent and utilities program, the ERAP program [and] money distributed in other ways.”

Before the unexpected action of the day, speakers including Fernando Figueroa, a member of Teamsters Local 512, and Shayne Tremblay, with IBEW 177, spoke about the importance of more affordable housing as well as landlord accountability.

“You can tell that being a landlord is not a real job because you can completely fail at maintaining a property and still collect a rent check,” Tremblay said.

Figueroa said he moved to Jacksonville 12 years ago and has seen rent prices and the homeless population both increasing every year. This is a problem statewide, he said.

“I’m a worker, like most of y’all,” Tremblay said. “We the workers built this city and keep it going. Workers make Jacksonville the city it is. With workers being so important, don’t you think we deserve some basic human rights?”

And: Priced out of Florida: Jacksonville renters fight sharp increases; some priced out altogether

Florida Rising’s eviction rate data shows Districts 1, 9 and 10 — represented by Joyce Morgan, Garrett Dennis and Brenda Priestly Jackson respectively — have the highest number of evictions. 

These council members also did not respond to interview requests in time for publication.