Barancik Foundation Supports Affordable Housing Complex in Sarasota

June 13, 2022 – Sarasota

Sarasota County faces a historic shortage of affordable housing that affects families who must bear the burden of increased costs and businesses who struggle to attract talent to the area.

Coupled with rapidly increasing rents, many rental property owners are selling their properties to take advantage of the hot real-estate market – depleting an already lean supply of affordable housing. Additionally, housing insecurity creates an unstable environment for children to flourish in their education to reach upward mobility in professional careers.

A recent report from United Way Suncoast shows that an estimated 20,000 local households are spending more than 50 percent of their income on housing costs, well above the widely considered standard rent-to-income ratio of 30 percent.

Options are poised to become more varied after the completion of an ambitious housing complex in North Sarasota. Community Assisted and Supported Living, Inc. (CASL) is partnering with Gracewater Community Development and Blue Sky Communities to develop affordable housing at a 114-plus acre parcel near Emma E. Booker Elementary, which was awarded by Sarasota County in 2021. The Gracewater mixed-income community will include about 370 affordable rental units.

The vision is to create a self-sustaining community that will include a medical clinic, grocery store, and wrap-around services for families like childcare and afterschool centers. Proponents of affordable housing with onsite support services reason that this type of development can help address low-income residents’ needs, provide stability for families, and promote social and economic mobility.

For the past 23 years, CASL has served thousands of individuals with housing for the homeless, permanent supportive housing for disabled persons, and traditional affordable/workforce housing. A key to the success of CASL’s supportive housing is the provision of wrap-around support services provided by CASL’s case management staff. Additionally, the layering of critical community partnerships that provide access to life-skills training, assistance with medical and behavioral healthcare, community-based service coordination, move-in assistance, transportation, and other services essential to meeting basic human needs.

By providing residents with access to counselors, social workers, and other professionals, these developments aim to help residents overcome their challenges in securing stable housing. In addition, these onsite services can also provide residents with the opportunity to connect with other community resources, such as job training programs and educational opportunities. As a result, affordable housing with onsite support services can offer a lifeline to struggling families to make ends meet.

In 2017, CASL and Blue Sky collaborated to build Arbor Village, an 80-unit homeless/disabling condition community centrally located in Sarasota. More than 70% of Arbor’s residents had been homeless. The 92% percent retention rate for Arbor after one year, with a 350-plus person waiting list, prompted both entities to continue to develop more units.

Construction is expected to begin in 2024 when permanent financing is completed, and leasing will begin in 2025. The project has recently caught the attention of philanthropic efforts in the region and received a $250,000 grant to support the housing from Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation.

CASL will provide case management services to individuals and households who require supportive services. These supportive services help stabilize “at-risk” families to ensure they can obtain all resources necessary to remain in housing.