Forward progress
The Open Arms Village transitional housing program for women is set to open by 2027.
Jill Beck, who will serve as executive director of the Open Arms Village for women program, on April 14, 2026, stands inside the building at 1712 SE Lake Weir Ave., Ocala, that is being revamped to provide transitional housing for homeless women. [Photo by Andy Fillmore/Ocala Gazette]
The Open Arms Village transitional housing program for homeless women suffering from addiction is set to open by 2027 on the grounds of Compassion United Methodist Church in the Druid Hills area of southeast Ocala. The new facility will accommodate up to 22 women in safe, stable housing in a revamped building on the church grounds at 1712 SE Lake Weir Ave.
The women’s outreach will be a partner to the Open Arms Village men’s program based on the campus of St. Mark’s UMC in northeast Ocala.
Jill and Micheal Beck have been co-pastors of St. Mark’s UMC since 2019 and also co-pastor Compassion UMC as well as Wildwood UMC.
Jill Beck assumed the position of executive director of the Open Arms Village program for men in June 2025 after the former leader was arrested and charged with fraud and grand theft of $100,000 or more. The former executive director did not comment when questioned about the charges by the “Gazette” at the time. Beck also will serve as executive director of the Open Arms Village for women.
Compassion UMC has occupied the corner of Lake Weir Avenue and Southeast 17th Street for about two years. The site for many years housed Druid Hills UMC, which hosted a popular annual pumpkin patch. Beck is overseeing the revamp of an existing building on the campus, which will have eight double occupancy rooms, a spacious day room and a special interlock security main entrance to control visits. The project cost is estimated at $650,000 and the owner of the property is listed as Board of Trustees of the Annual Conf. Of the United Methodist Church, Inc., according to building permit related documents.
Karla Greenway, executive director of the nonprofit Interfaith Emergency Services, which provides a wide variety of services, including helping the homeless, wrote in an email message that a facility for women in addiction crisis is needed in Ocala. Greenway is a board member of the Open Arms Village for men program.
“This is needed very much. Addiction is a prevalent problem in our nation and in our community, and there simply aren’t enough resources to serve those who want the help,” she wrote.
“Research shows that residential treatment has a higher rate of success. Besides that, many of those struggling with addiction are homeless and it’s nearly impossible for someone experiencing homelessness to get sober or maintain sobriety. This women’s program will have high standards for those who participate, and I am confident it will save and transform lives.” she stated.
The nonprofit Open Arms Village for men opened in 2016 on the St. Mark’s UMC grounds and has graduated 520 men from a six-month program with case management that requires clients to have a 30 hour to 40 hour a week job. Clients must complete the program clean and sober, be employed and be ready to be a productive member of the community.
The Open Arms Village program addresses the “deeper, root causes” of homelessness and addiction and has a 74% success rate of graduating clients, based upon housing, employment and sobriety, according to its website.
For Beck, a women’s facility is not only needed but a “dream” come true to help struggling women. She said her passion to help women in crisis is fueled by having lost her mother to drugs and alcohol and a prior marriage that was marked by domestic violence.
Placing the half-way residence in the location has not been without controversy, however. Beck said at least one neighboring interest voiced protests against the facility, which received necessary re-zoning in an Ocala City Council vote on Jan. 21, 2025.
There is an existing women’s “sober living” facility on nearby Southeast 18th Street, which is operated by Oxford House of Florida, an organization that began in 1975 in Silver Springs, Maryland, according to its website. According to Ocala Police Department records, there have been no calls this year for service to the address. In 2025, there were two calls, one involving a missing person and one involving a disturbance with a trespass warning issued. In 2024, there were two calls related to 911 call hang- ups, one for an obscene phone call and one for a disturbance. A woman was arrested for battery in one of the incidents.
To learn more about the Open Arms Village program, go to openarmsvillageocala.org
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