Sarasota Livin'

Neighborhood meeting regarding Attainable Housing.  The meeting will be held on Thursday, 
April 21, from 6:30 to 8:00 pm in the City Commission Chambers in City Hall.  

About the Meeting:  
The City has contracted with Economic Research Associates (ERA) of Washington D.C. 
to provide research toward the development of a Workforce Housing Program 
(also known as Attainable Housing) for the City.  Patrick Phillips, president of ERA,
 will be leading these efforts.  ERA's work program is broken out in four phases:  
    * Project Kickoff and First Round Reconnaissance;
    * Review of Best Practices;
    * Economic Analysis; and 
    * Project Report and Briefing Local Officials.  
The purpose of this first meeting will be to introduce the study and seek 
neighborhood input regarding Phase I. 

I attended this meeting with other neighborhood people. Mr Phillips seemed like a knowledgeable person and we had some good discussion on the issues.

The problem is there are no easy solutions. Sarasota is a great place to live more and more people want to live here. Downtown is especially attractive and people are willing to spend lots of money to live there.

Downtown won't be the solution to the affordable / attainable housing problem. If there are any homes / condo's for sale in the downtown / bayfront district for under $250,000 please give me a call. I will buy it sight unseen.

I think areas like Bayou Oaks and Central Coconut are where it is still possible to build or rehab housing for sale or rent that would be considered attainable and even affordable. It may require allowing townhouses allow the North Trail on the block or two in from US 41.

Another very important issue. Everyone at the meeting agreed that having diversity was a very important goal for Sarasota. That means all races, incomes and age groups need to be able to live in Sarasota... the problem just becomes where...

I would love to see a housing inventory done as part of this project. It would be great to know by neighborhood what percent of the housing stock was available in different price ranges - both "market value" and "market rent." It would seem that is the first step in helping to solve the problem. If large parts of the City are only available to high income / equity people -- that will give a picture we can react to.