JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – At 57 years old, Tony Felk’s life is starting to bloom, much like the flowers outside his new Westside apartment.
He has a place for his wheelchair, a kitchen stocked with groceries, and his own bedroom. The bed is fit to accommodate the spinal condition which makes standing and walking, at times, very challenging. This is a huge turnaround from where he was this time last year.
“When they gave me this, that was a Christmas present to me,” Felk said. “My last Christmas, I was on the street. Now I can look around and now, I can just say, ‘I’m blessed.’”
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Felk admitted his life has been far from perfect.
He said he was a troubled teen, which ultimately led to several stints in prison. In time, his health began to fail. He was diagnosed with Lumbar Disk Disease, which caused chronic pain. He also has arthritis in his spine. The diagnoses led to his needing a cane or wheelchair to get around.
Felk’s life changed this past October, when the city of Jacksonville announced its partnership with Ability Housing for a pilot program aimed at security permanent, supportive housing for those who are chronically homeless.
According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the term “chronically homeless” includes several criteria. Such as a homeless individual with a disability who:
- lives in a place not meant for human habitation, a safe haven, or in an emergency shelter, and
- has been homeless and living as described for at least 12 months or on at least 4 separate occasions in the last 3 years, as long as the combined occasions equal at least 12 months and each break in homelessness separating the occasions included at least 7 consecutive nights of not living as described.
The pilot program is funded by a $500,000 grant and provides affordable housing and case by case support services. Its initial launch is helping 25 chronically unhoused individuals, including Felk. When he was referred for the program, Felk was recovering from a seizure in the ER at UF Health Jacksonville. Felk remembers the day the case manager came to his room to tell him the good news.
“I’m thinking he’s a doctor or something, and he said, ‘Well, you ready’?” Felk recalled. “‘Am I ready for what’? He said, ‘we got you a place’. ‘What place? What are you talking about?’”
A short time later, Felk was seeing his new place for the first time. Thinking back to that moment still gives him pause.
“Just being able to be back in my own place was, you know, it was heartfelt,” Felk said.
Felk now has health insurance, other supportive services, and a case worker who checks in with him, a woman he refers to as “his angel”.
Felk said he’s not taking anything for granted. Having been a troubled teen, he hopes to share his story with young people, in hopes of inspiring them to make good choices for themselves and their futures.
“Go to the detention center and tell them the things that I’ve been through,” Felk said. “And to show them, if they all keep going this way, then what’s going to happen? They’re going to be that way. Try to build a life for yourself instead of destroying it, destroying your life.”
Above all, he hopes others will hear his story and feel encouraged to help themselves. And allow themselves to be helped.
“My thing is, is to believe in yourself,” Felk said. “If you can’t, if you don’t believe in yourself, how can you expect for anybody else to believe in you?”
Shannon Nazworth, President and CEO of Ability Housing said the organization is in talks with the Jacksonville City Council and Mayor Donna Deegan’s office to continue the pilot program and hopefully expand it.
To learn more about Ability Housing, click here.