Strengthening Our Community’s Journey Toward Affordable Housing

Living in a community with abundant affordable housing options is an aspiration shared throughout our region. Achieving that aspiration will require dedication and commitment from multiple sectors working closely together to identify and implement solutions tailored to the Suncoast and its residents.

Recently, The Patterson Foundation joined the Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation, the Community Foundation of Sarasota County, and the Gulf Coast Community Foundation to commission an extensive report on this crucial topic through the lens of Sarasota County. Developed by the Florida Housing Coalition, the Sarasota Housing Action Plan offers a blueprint toward creating more opportunities for people in our region to live with dignity.

The Action Plan includes an in-depth analysis of the key factors influencing Sarasota’s current housing landscape, such as the inventory of affordable housing and wages relative to housing costs. Based on this research and conversations with key stakeholders, the Action Plan proposes five action items to boost the affordable housing market to serve the community’s residents and workforce.

The action items all share one common factor: Collaboration between the public and private sectors is essential for long-term success. A challenge as multifaceted as affordable housing isn’t the responsibility of any one domain or industry, but rather one that is shared more broadly.

Much of The Patterson Foundation’s efforts are focused on ways to foster wide participation within a community as it identifies and works toward bold aspirations for its quality of life. Supporting the Sarasota Housing Action Plan’s creation presented several clear opportunities to fulfill that mission, namely:

• Helping our region navigate and work toward this pivotal goal at a time when community-level leadership, willingness, readiness, capacity, and culture are aligned and poised for progress
• Joining several dedicated foundations in our region to fund the extensive work and research featured in the report
• The Action Plan’s blueprint cannot be followed by any one sector or entity working in a silo — the action items call for shared, focused effort and commitment

Evolving our affordable housing to strengthen the people who live, work, and play along the Suncoast will take a coordinated, strategic, long-term endeavor. With a wealth of community knowledge and insight informing its content, Sarasota Housing Action Plan can serve as the spark behind our journey toward it.

Download and read the Sarasota Housing Action Plan.