The Sarasota Housing Authority this month held a grand opening for its latest affordable housing development called Cypress Square.
The development at 1672 21st St. in Sarasota's Newtown area added 84 affordable units that will be rented to local residents making as little as 30% of the area median income up to 80%, or about $73,000 for a family of four.
The development included one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom units with rents ranging from $1,640 for someone making 80% of the area median income or as low as $617 for someone making less than 30%.
While the Sarasota Housing Authority has completed construction on the $33 million Cypress Square, several other projects are already in the works, and the agency's chief executive William Russell remains hopeful the SHA will make serious progress on several more this year.
What is the Sarasota Housing Authority?
The Sarasota Housing Authority was founded in 1938 and was one of the first public housing authorities created in Florida. The organization created 635 affordable units in its first 40 years of operation.
Currently, the Sarasota Housing Authority helps more than 2,400 local families through administration of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development voucher program, commonly referred to as Section 8, as well as management of several existing developments.
Since 2009, the Sarasota Housing Authority has developed 565 units in eight projects, including Cypress Square. Other developments SHA helped build are: McCown Towers in downtown Sarasota that includes 175 affordable units; three phases of Janie's Garden totaling 226 units; Lofts on Lemon where 128 affordable units were built in 2022; and Amaryllis Park Place with 84 units built for low-income seniors also in 2022.
What will the Sarasota Housing Authority build next?
Russell, the president and CEO at SHA, said the public housing agency has several projects in progress, including a Cypress Square Phase 2, which will be directly south of Phase 1, replacing barracks-style housing built more than 50 years ago.
Russell had previously expressed optimism that the SHA could expand several affordable housing projects if additional funding could be secured.
Sarasota County Commission denies funding for highly ranked Housing Authority projects
Though the SHA applied for an additional $7 million from the post-Hurricane Ian federal Resilient SRQ money for Cypress Square phase two and $7 million for the second phase of Lofts on Lemon, the agency received nothing.
The Sarasota County Commission denied the two funding requests, even though they were among the most highly ranked applications. The housing authority also requested funding for a third project, which also was not selected.
Resilient SRQ is the nickname for tens of millions of dollars in Community Development Block Grants from HUD directed to Sarasota County after Hurricane Ian brought devastating flooding to the area in 2022.
While not downplaying the impact of the funding denial, Russell said there were a lot of competitive projects for a limited amount of money.
What would the money denied by Sarasota County have been spent on?
The funding request for Cypress Square Phase 2 would have enlarged the project from 108 units to 144 units. The additional funds would also have been used to build a clubhouse for youth programming and a fourth building on the property the Housing Authority already owns.
Russell said the organization still plans to build the clubhouse at a later date but will prioritize development of the 108 units in three buildings.
The additional funds for Cypress Square Phase Two received the second-highest score among all projects that had submitted funding requests. The housing authority also had the third and fourth highest-rated applications based on scoring by county staff of the 19 applications for Resilient SRQ funding, Russell said.
Still, Russell said the final site plan for Cypress Square Phase 2 was moving forward with the anticipation that financing deals will be completed by the end of 2024.
"Construction could start immediately after that," Russell said.
Lofts on Lemon Phase 2
A 100-unit development called Lofts on Lemon Phase 2 has been in the works for some time.
There will still be 100 units in the project, but because of the construction cost increases, the project will likely be only one-bedroom units. Russell had sought to decrease the unit count to 93 to provide some two-bedroom units in the development.
Russell said he expects the financing package — a combination of Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, $10 million in state funding and $7 million from the American Rescue Plan Act awarded by the Sarasota County Commission — will close early in 2025.
The $7 million awarded by the County Commission has an expiration date for when the funds must be spent, which is by Dec. 31, 2026.
Russell said because of increased construction costs, the project has been scaled back from what was first envisioned.
Plans had originally called for three levels of structured parking under five levels of affordable housing east of the first phase at 801 N. Lemon Ave.
He told the Herald-Tribune more recent plans have ground-floor parking with a single parking deck under four levels of residences.
Sarasota Housing Authority plans Central Gardens
The planned 39-unit Central Gardens project would be in a four-story apartment building across from the Janie's Garden apartments along Central Avenue in Newtown. The SHA also owns Janie's Garden.
Russell said the timing of Central Gardens is now "up in the air."
"Honestly, we are reevaluating how we can finance the deal," he said. "We will definitely develop it, but we are in discussions with our development partners how to do that."
Central Gardens was another project that did not receive funding from Resilient SRQ funds despite being highly ranked by county staff.
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