In the midst of this holiday season, we are hopeful for joy and connection. However, many local families are navigating an affordable housing crisis like we haven't seen in our region for many years.
Why? A perfect storm creating a critical housing situation has been brewing for years. A global pandemic, a hot housing market, and wages that have remained fairly stagnant while the costs of living have increased, are three of the main reasons that we are at a tipping point.
Just before Thanksgiving, more and more families were walking through our doors in tears, saying that they were being evicted, their rent had skyrocketed, and/or they had nowhere to go. What's important to understand here is that while money is available to support housing costs in our community, there is no inventory. Our region has not kept up with the growing demand for affordable housing. Where can our teachers, our hospitality and healthcare workers live, if they can't afford to live where they work?
So what do we do? Funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) are coming from the federal government. In a recent Sarasota County Commission
meeting (20:17 - 1:31:42), an inspiring cross section of community advocates made the plea that a large portion of those funds be allocated to
building more affordable housing. Below in this newsletter, our own Community Liaison, Christina Russi, makes a similar urgent call to action from her view on the front lines of this crisis.
To quote our co-founder, Dr. Kay Glasser, "Many people do not stop to consider the fact that the quality of life of Sarasota rests upon the quality of life of its people." Over the holidays, let's stop to consider what kind of community we want to live in. We are in a moral gut-check moment. Let's do the right thing.
