The Marion County Veterans Treatment Court is among 32 diversionary or pre-trial programs that serve Floridians with mental or physical difficulties – for example, substance addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder – stemming from their military service.
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.