Sarasota considers a new approach to workforce housing

A city commissioner suggests the city build and hold its own workforce housing developments. Staff is now working on a plan.

By Andrew Warfield
| 5:00 a.m. February 24, 2023
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Lofts on Lemon, which opened in fall 2022, is an example of what a city-owned workforce housing apartment complex might look like.

Manatee-Sarasota

Despite new comprehensive plan amendments and staff working to identify locations where zoning changes may create workforce and affordable housing opportunities, real progress in Sarasota’s housing shortage remains years in the making.

How to have a more immediate impact on creating workforce housing in the city was a topic of discussion during the City Commission’s Jan. 30 workshop. Free to engage in a more free-flowing exchange than permitted during regular meetings, commissioners embarked on some out-of-the-box brainstorming on how to bring hundreds of affordable rental residences on line at one time.