VOLUME 6 ISSUE 19
McKenzie’s Moment Celebrity Golf Invitational
$2
Pg B1
MAY 9 - 15, 2025
Concerns grow about defunding vital senior support services
Ocala/ Marion County PIT count numbers released The Point in Time, or PIT, census assesses the number of homeless people in an area, with the survey taken on a single day. By Andy Fillmore andy@ocalagazette.com
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reliminary data from the 2025 US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s required annual census of homeless people in Marion County, which is taken on one day and is known as the PIT, or Point in Time count, has been released by the city of Ocala. According to an email released by James Haynes, director of the city’s Community Development Services, Jan. 25, 2025, count teams documented encounters with 231 people in different types of shelters and 160 people living unsheltered, for a preliminary total number of homeless persons at 391. “We feel that the number of sheltered and unsheltered is reflective of the homeless persons and families in Marion County at that point in time,” Haynes noted in the email in part. The PIT count was overseen by the Ocala/Marion County Joint Office on Homelessness Prevention. According to charts available at the Florida Department of Heath website, flhealthcharts.gov, the homeless estimate total for Marion County for 2024 was 378 and in 2023 the estimate was 454. The highest count in the last 15 years was taken in 2012, at 1,032, the chart indicates. See PIT count numbers, page A9
Glenda Thomas, the Nutrition and Outreach Director for Marion Senior Services, right, helps Nelda Uter, a driver, left, load up hot meals for her route during the Meals on Wheels program at Marion Senior Services in Ocala, Fla. on Wednesday, May 7, 2025. The program serves about 280 clients Monday through Friday on numerous routes around Marion County.
In Marion County, the Meals on Wheels program offered through Marion Senior Services is at risk. By Jennifer Hunt Murty jennifer@ocalagazette.com
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ong before the federal Department of Government Efficiency was formed by President Donald J. Trump, senior advocacy groups were sounding an alarm that they needed more, not fewer, resources to meet the needs of a growing population of senior Americans. In a March 25 announcement, the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS) announced “a dramatic restructuring in accordance with President Trump’s Executive Order, Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Workforce Optimization Initiative.” The announcement said the “restructuring will address this and serve multiple goals without impacting critical services,” saving the taxpayers $1.8 billion per year through a reduction in workforce, “downsizing from 82,000 to 62,000 fulltime employees.”
The federal budget proposal released May 2 proposes a 22.6% reduction to nondefense discretionary cuts and a 26% cut to the HHS budget. With this restructuring, programs previously funded through the Administration of Community Living, under the Older Americans Act (OAA) since 1965, have been left hanging and are notably not mentioned in the 2026 budget. See Senior support services, page A8
Family of deceased inmate say his death ‘could’ve been prevented’ with prompt medical care By Caroline Brauchler caroline@ocalagazette.com
F Michael Watkins
or nearly two hours, Michael Watkins lay doubled-over in agony on the f loor of his Marion County Jail cell, begging for help from his jailers, according to witnesses and family members.
“The inmates told us that they all started beating on the bars and screaming for their jailers,” said Watkins’ sister Elisabeth Feltz. “When they finally came, they said, ‘Are you going to let this man lay here and die before you take him out?’” Watkins, 37, eventually was taken to AdventHealth Ocala Hospital, where he died on
Jan. 31, 2021, after undergoing emergency surgery for an obstructed bowel. Jail staff told Watkins’ family that they weren’t aware of him having any medical issues until the day he was rushed to the hospital. But Watkins’ family strongly disputes that account. “I myself had called and told them, so I know they knew (about
his medical issues),” Feltz said. Watkins’ death is one of 31 known fatalities that have occurred since 2021 at the Marion County Jail, leading to greater scrutiny about the level of care provided to inmates by the Marion County Sheriff ’s Office, which oversees the facility. See Medical care, page A2
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