At least 50 homeless people were displaced last week when the City of Ocala leveled a tent city.
The encampment was on city-owned land just west of Pine Avenue and north of Northeast 14th Street. There were approximately 30 tents there, and the police department had noted an increase in property and violent crime, including a stabbing the week of Jan. 25, a city spokeswoman wrote in an email to the Star-Banner. The property was overwhelmed with trash, abandoned tents, furniture, bicycle parts, broken toys, shopping carts, fire pits, wooden pallets, electronics, tires, empty beer and soda cans, and various types of broken glass and pottery. Areas of human waste were also observed, the email said.
Volunteers scoured Marion County one day last week to determine the number of homeless people living outside in camps and tent cities. It was part of the federally required annual 24-hour Point In Time (PIT) count.
The PIT count, required for the distribution of federal funds to local agencies that battle homelessness, was spearheaded locally by Maj. Robin Ford, a 31-year veteran of the Ocala Police Department who is serving as temporary manager of the City of Ocala/Marion County Joint Office on Homelessness.
According to Ford, the count is designed to be a 24-hour snapshot of the number of homeless persons in the area. The counters asked where the people they encountered had slept on Jan. 27, 2021.
Teams will fan out across Marion County on Jan. 27 to count unsheltered homeless people living outdoors alone and in homeless camps as part of the annual federally required Point In Time (PIT) count.
The count will be combined with the number of people living in emergency and transitional housing on the count day, and that grand total will become the basis for distribution of federal funds to a group of local help agencies known as the Continuum of Care.
Ashley Dobbs, marketing and communications manager of the City of Ocala Office of Strategic Engagement, stated in an email that due to the pandemic, the count will be abbreviated and counters will wear masks and be provided with sanitizer and wipes. Specific details of the count plan are pending approval from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).