Making Houses Affordable
While the difficulty of working families finding housing is not exclusive to Sarasota, it is a growing problem for the county. In a survey conducted last summer by the Workforce Housing Coalition of Sarasota County, eight out of ten employees reported that they would "expect problems buying a home today."
How serious is the challenge of affordable housing? In August, the National Association of Realtors announced that second-quarter median price of an existing single-family home in Sarasota was $367,800, 34.3 percent higher than a year ago. In comparison, the national median price for an existing single-family home was $208,500, a 13.6 percent increase from the same time period in 2004.
The Workforce Housing Coalition, composed of local businesses, agencies and civic leaders, has been meeting for months to look at the problem and discuss possible solutions. Among the organizations stepping up to help is The Gulf Coast Community Foundation of Venice, a public, not-for-profit organization celebrating its 10th anniversary.
In a ground-breaking effort for a community foundation, the group decided to purchase 146 acres of land east of I-75 at Laurel Road for $16.1 million to build a neighborhood for work-force housing. The location, says foundation President and CEO Teri A. Hansen, is "dead-center in the middle of Sarasota County, central to everything, with easy access to I-75 and jobs throughout the region." While plans for the neighborhood are only preliminary, Hansen said the organization is "aggressively pursuing our goal to turn dirt by the fall of 2006."
Why is a foundation stepping in to help? "If a foundation can't address a community problem, who can? We need the families that need these homes," says Hansen.
The foundation is actively involving community civic lead-ers in helping design what Hansen hopes will be a model workforce neighborhood - one that is well built, of good quality and replicable. "We want developers to say, 'I could do that, too; I could meet my profit motives and meet the needs of the community at the same time.'"
Vengroff William & Associates, a Sarasota-based collections company with offices worldwide, is also doing its part for affordable homes. According to Harvey Vengroff, founder and chairman, the company has bought, renovated and leased about 35 workforce homes in the past two years.
"We've been buying homes for under $100,000 and going in and renovating them with new kitchens, bathrooms, air and electrical," says Vengroff. "It gives people a good, affordable place to live and it turns around the neighborhood."
Through a lease-purchase agreement, employees can purchase the home after one year of responsible payments. Then after five years, the family is entitled to full appreciation on the value of the house. | 