Jacksonville Human Rights Commission

The Jacksonville Human Rights Commission, known at City Hall as the JHRC, is the city agency that takes discrimination complaints in Jacksonville and Duval County. According to the City of Jacksonville website, the JHRC investigates complaints of alleged discriminatory or unfair practices in the areas of employment, housing and public accommodations. The city dates the commission to 1967, and its offices and monthly meetings are both in City Hall on Duval Street.

Investigation is only part of the job. The same page describes training on anti-discrimination law, studies of human relations issues and community conversations meant to build understanding among racial, ethnic, religious and cultural groups in Jacksonville. The About JHRC page states the purpose in three parts: promote fair treatment and equal opportunity, promote mutual understanding and respect among all economic, social, racial, religious and ethnic groups, and eliminate discrimination against and antagonism between racial, religious and ethnic groups.

The staff office is at 117 W. Duval Street, Suite 350, inside City Hall on the Northbank, phone 904-255-5397, open Monday to Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Visitors go through security and check in on the first floor before going up. The same suite houses the city's Equal Opportunity/Equal Access Office, which the EO/EA page places on the 3rd floor of the St. James Building, the building that houses Jacksonville City Hall.

The Human Rights Ordinance is the local law the JHRC enforces, codified in the Jacksonville Municipal Code. The housing, employment and public accommodations pages each cite Chapter 60 of the code, plus a subject chapter in Title XI: Chapter 402 for employment, Chapter 406 for public accommodations and Chapter 408 for housing. Federal law runs alongside it, with Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act for jobs and the Fair Housing Act of 1968 for housing.

The list of protected traits is long. The JHRC home page names race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, marital status and familial status. The public accommodations page goes further, adding ancestry and spelling out sex as including pregnancy. A place of public accommodation, in the city's words, is any establishment, service, place or building which offers, sells or otherwise makes available to the public any goods, services, facilities, privileges or advantages. In Jacksonville terms that reaches a restaurant in Five Points, a hotel on the Southbank or a store in Mandarin.

Two limits appear on every complaint page. A charge filed with the JHRC is not a lawsuit, and the JHRC does not accept or investigate anonymous complaints. Someone who files is a named party to an administrative process run out of City Hall, which is a different path from going to court.

That part of the ordinance took Jacksonville years. According to Action News Jax, in 2012 the City Council voted against expanding the Human Rights Ordinance, and in 2016 two expansion bills were withdrawn. In February 2017 the council voted 12-6 for a bill sponsored by council members Aaron Bowman, Tommy Hazouri and Jim Love that added the words sexual orientation and gender identity to the existing HRO which prohibits discrimination for public accommodations, employment and housing. Mayor Lenny Curry returned the bill without a signature, which made the expansion law.

The 2017 Jacksonville bill also carried compromises that got it through a council that had rejected the idea five years earlier. It exempted religious organizations from complying and expanded the exemption for small businesses from 15 or fewer employees to 50 or fewer, according to the same report. A referendum proposal, pushed for years by then council member Bill Gulliford, was voted down on the council floor.

Three years later the expansion nearly came undone over drafting. Watermark reported that on May 1, 2020, Florida's First District Court of Appeal found that while Jacksonville had intended to add sexual orientation and gender identity protections to its existing HRO, the additions were never actually completed in the code text. The council moved quickly: on June 9, 2020 it passed the HRO again by a vote of 15-4 to reinstate protections in employment, housing and public accommodations, and Curry, who had not supported the 2017 expansion, said he would sign it once the council corrected the technicality.

Every JHRC complaint starts with a pre-interview questionnaire. The housing and employment pages direct people to fill out the questionnaire and email it to JHRCComplaints@coj.net, or to call 904-255-5397 to have a form sent. Staff use the facts gathered in that first evaluation to decide whether the JHRC files a formal charge of discrimination against the organization identified.

Deadlines differ by subject. For housing, the housing page allows a complaint with the JHRC within one year of the alleged discriminatory act, and the dwelling has to be located in Jacksonville/Duval County. For public accommodations, a complaint must be filed within 180 days. Employment is the most layered, as the employment page explains: charges for acts in the past 180 days are typically investigated locally by the JHRC, charges for acts 181 to 300 days old are forwarded to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's Miami District Office, and charges for acts 301 to 365 days old go directly to the Florida Commission on Human Relations in Tallahassee.

Size thresholds matter too. An employment charge requires an employer with 15 or more employees, or 20 employees for age-related charges, and the job has to be in Jacksonville or elsewhere in Duval County. A housing charge can name a property owner, property manager, developer, real estate agent, mortgage lender, homeowners association or insurance provider. Housing exemptions cover owner-occupied buildings with no more than four units and single-family housing sold or rented without the use of a broker, along with certain housing for older persons.

The commission itself is a citizen board. The About JHRC page describes an appointed body of 11 members who broadly represent the diverse population of the City of Jacksonville. Commissioners are appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by the City Council for an initial term of up to three years, and may be reappointed for one consecutive three-year term. That is the same mayor-nominates, council-confirms pattern used across Jacksonville's boards.

As of October 9, 2026, the page lists nine current commissioners: Jose Acevedo, Victoria Croy, Barry Farmer, Allana Fortè, Jamaal Brown, Mahesh Shivamallappa, Monica Richardson, Angela Timberlake and Andrea Williams. Nine names against 11 seats indicates two vacancies at the time of checking. Last verified: October 9, 2026, on the City of Jacksonville website.

The commission meets on the second Tuesday of each month, unless otherwise noted, from 11:15 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. at City Hall in the Lynwood Roberts Room at 117 West Duval Street. Meetings follow Florida's Government-in-the-Sunshine Law, and changes are posted in advance on the city events calendar.

The JHRC also polices the city government's own house. Its Equal Opportunity/Equal Access Office handles the City of Jacksonville's equal employment compliance, working under Title XI, Chapter 400 of the Ordinance Code and Mayor's Executive Order 2017-01, according to the EO/EA page. A city applicant, employee, supervisor or manager who believes the anti-discrimination policy was violated may contact the office within 30 days of the act for a consultation. The office also prepares the city's Equal Employment Opportunity Plan, which keeps Jacksonville agencies eligible for federal awards and grants.

The Title VI page covers federally assisted city programs, where the City of Jacksonville prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin and works to assist people with limited English proficiency. The JHRC posts the city's Title VI policy, complaint procedures, its limited English proficiency plan and its Americans with Disabilities Act transition plan, so a complaint about a city-run program in Duval County also runs through the Duval Street office.