Ocala’s Office of Homelessness Prevention Makes a Difference in Improving Lives

OCALA, FL (352today.com) – The City of Ocala‘s Community Development Services Manager and Deputy Director Robin Ford provided the quarterly report for the Office of Homelessness Prevention at the Ocala City Council meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025.

“We had a great year for the fiscal year 2024-2025,” said Ford. “We served 939 clients, including 113 children. Our housing outcomes for our outreach, which we run with three individuals, 81 percent of the clients that were in our project that we exited, we exited to stable housing, permanent housing destinations. We provided 3,531 services to clients during the fiscal year, and that’s often more than one service per client.”

The Office of Homelessness Prevention also worked tirelessly to prevent homelessness, and a lot of the calls that come into the office were from people that still have housing, but are in need of rental or legal assistance, something other than housing at that particular moment, said Ford. The office also handled 2,771 prevention assistance calls to their office, with the majority of the calls coming in from their main line. They receive calls not only from citizens, but from shelters, other service providers, as the office tries to keep the most up to date information, so they can have those resources available.

Shelter and stability

During the last fiscal year, the office worked with Marion County and all of the service providers within Marion County, to house 235 people, who were literally homeless, living outside, in a vehicle or in an emergency shelter, said Ford.

“Seventy-two homeless clients were diverted out of homelessness through our Ticket Home program, and that’s when someone presents at a shelter or at the Interfaith Engagement Center, and they start talking to a case manager or they talk to one of our people, ” said Ford. “They say, ‘I have family in Kentucky, but I kind of burned that bridge and I don’t think I can go back there.’ Our people or some of the case managers will make that phone call to see if they’re welcome to come back home, rather than be homeless here. We don’t send people to other jurisdictions to be homeless, but if we can make contact with someone. Maybe it’s a recovery bed in another area that has an opening, we’ll send them to that recovery bed.”

New beginnings 

During the current quarter, 16 homeless clients have been diverted from homelessness through the city’s Office of Homelessness Prevention’s Ticket Home program. It’s not just housing issues that the client is facing–these are people that aren’t using emergency services or taking up shelter space, and it actually saves the city money, said Ford. A total of 36 clients have moved into stable housing during this quarter.

“The thing that we’re anxiously awaiting more than anything else is the (Ocala nonprofit) Saving Mercy duplexes, which are opening Dec. 17,” said Ford. “We are moving some clients in tomorrow. They’re doing kind of a staggered move-in. They’re doing a little bit at a time. I think seven clients may be moving in tomorrow. But we’ve also been over there today trying to assist them by putting the last of the furniture in, in each one of those duplexes.”

The larger Mercy Village complex is scheduled to open this winter, most likely in February, said Ford. Saving Mercy is going to provide two permanent supportive housing apartments in the duplex section, with 18 income-based apartments also in the same duplex section, and those are people for the most part, the Office of Homelessness Prevention has referred to Saving Mercy.

Mercy Village, which is the tower, will provide 30 permanent supportive housing apartments, as well as 29 income-based one-bedroom apartments, and those are going to run from the mid-$700s to the mid-$800s as far as what they will cost, said Ford. Those are all one-bedroom apartments, which are very hard to find in Marion County, said Ford.

“We’re working hand-in-hand with Carrfour and Mercy Village to try to get our most vulnerable clients into those 30 beds for permanent supportive housing,” said Ford.

Accuracy and understanding

The Office of Homelessness Prevention will start their Point-In-Time Count on Jan. 21, 2026, something that’s conducted annually. It will be done differently this coming year, however, said Ford.

“This year we’re going to start on the 21st and work into the evening and do our downtown areas of the North Magnolia corridor. some of the other areas that we’ve mapped out as frequented by people experiencing homelessness,” said Ford. “We’re going to do that into the evening hours, and then the next day we’ll do the encampments, like we normally have, the interchanges and truck stops, and things like that. We’re hoping to expand a little bit more.”

Last year, the PIT count was conducted on the coldest day of the year, and it did alter the count’s number, with more people going to the shelters because of the weather, said Ford.

The office’s goal when working with Marion County is to make homelessness rare, brief and non-reoccurring for all the residents of Marion County, and the Office works throughout the entirety of Marion County, not just the City of Ocala, said Ford.

As far as the city goes, they should be very proud of Saving Mercy, said Jim Hilty Sr., Ocala City Councilman Dist. No. 5.

“That was a project started 10 years ago under John Zobler’s (former Ocala city manager) leadership, and the city continued to pick up supporting that program.” said Hilty Sr. “Obviously, understanding the need.”