Total of 210 units planned to be built, with developers pledging affordable status to remain in effect for 40 or more years
Allocating funding from the last “bucket” of federal money that Sarasota County Government received in 2025 to respond to unmet needs related to the 2024 storm season, the County Commission on Jan. 13 approved four projects, with the potential that a fifth could receive partial funding.
The total granted to the four affordable, multifamily housing initiatives was $26,924,752, as shown in a document that The Sarasota News Leader received, at its request, from the county’s Office of Financial Management (OFM) after the meeting. Steve Hyatt, a division manager in that office, oversees what is called the Resilient SRQ Program.
The allocation to the fifth project would be $3,075,248, the document noted.
Altogether, the total number of affordable housing units the commissioners agreed to was 210, the document said; the projects would entail 276 units altogether.
The commissioners had received 16 applications totaling $104,896,465, as noted in Hyatt’s Jan. 13 PowerPoint presentation. Yet, on Nov. 18, 2025, they ended up granting $4,073,275 to a North Port project out of the prior Resilient SRQ federal funding, for the county’s response to Hurricane Ian’s impacts in September 2022, a county staff memo reminded the board members. Therefore, by calculation of The Sarasota News Leader, that put the revised total sought from the remaining 15 applications at $100,823,190.
Yet, the commissioners had only $30 million to award to the affordable, multifamily housing projects. They settled on that figure in April 2025, out of the nearly $210.1 million that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) had granted the county in January 2025.
All of the funding has to be used within six years, county staff has stressed; if any is left, that must go back to HUD.
Hyatt did note that all of the projects proposed would meet the HUD priority of providing assistance to low- to moderate-income residents. Those are members of the community making up to 80% of the Area Median income (AMI) for the North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). For the 2025 fiscal year, 80% of the AMI was put at $86,100 for a household with four people.
Annually, HUD issues an updated range of Area Median Income levels for each MSA in the United States.
Narrowing the choices
During the Jan. 13 discussion, Commissioner Joe Neunder was the first board member to announce his full support for the two initiatives submitted by Mark Vengroff, whose family has become known in the community for its affordable housing endeavors.
Formally, Vengroff’s company is One Stop Cares.
Neunder characterized Vengroff as “the gold standard” among affordable housing builders. Addressing him in the audience within the Commission Chambers of the Robert L. Anderson Administration Center in Venice, Neunder said, “Mark, you’re an amazing man; your product; business model.”
Neunder recommended that both of Vengroff’s proposals win funding. One, the Venice Avenue Apartments initiative, sought $11,224,752. The second, for the Orion Flats Apartments planned for Sarasota, was seeking $3,580,369.
Next, Commissioner Teresa Mast said she understood that Community Assisted and Supported Living (CASL) had reported that it could lower its request for its Rosedale initiative in North Port from $15 million to $11.2 million. Thus, she expressed support for that application.
Mast included on her list with it Vengroff’s apartment project in Sarasota; the Parkside Villages initiative of Family Promise of South Sarasota County, at $2 million, for Venice; Harvest Tabernacle of Sarasota’s Lakeview Village undertaking proposed for Sarasota, at $2.5 million; and the Sarasota Housing Authority’s McCown Tower in Sarasota, at $7 million.
In reading through all of the applications, Mast explained, “I was very focused on having the work being done by local individuals that I know have set a precedent in this community …” She added that she also factored in the quality of the individual projects; the developers’ history in the county; the funding the developers already had secured; “the ability, in several cases, of stopping the cycle of poverty,” plus considerations about helping homeless individuals in the community and the locations where the developments would be built.
Next up, Commissioner Mark Smith proposed the same CASL project that Mast had suggested. He also expressed support for the Family Promise and Harvest Tabernacle applications.
His top priority, however, Smith said, was No. 14, known as Ekos Cocoanut, submitted to the Resilient SRQ staff by Sun Foundation, also known as McDowell Housing Partners. That entailed a $15-million undertaking in Sarasota that included a deal to purchase property owned by U.S. Recycling.
For years, residents of the city of Sarasota have pleaded with both the City and County commissions to halt the operations of that company because of concerns about harmful health effects of the dust generated from the site.
During the Open to the Public comment period at the start of the meeting, Sarasota resident Ron Kashden, second vice president of the Coalition of City Neighborhood Associations of Sarasota (CCNA), told the commissioners that the “rogue operator [of U.S. Recycling] not only creates a public health nuisance, but it also siphons off significant county resources to monitor and enforce [the applicable regulations].”
For example, he said, “The inspection standard for a similar facility is once in every five years. However, Sarasota County has inspected and taken action on U.S. Recycling over 25 times in just three years.”
CCNA represents 33 neighborhoods with more than 25,000 households, Kashden said.
Just before he came to the podium, Kashden’s wife, Kelly Franklin, told the board members, “I live in downtown Sarasota and I have cancer. Crushed concrete releases carcinogens into the atmosphere. Once a human breathes in this crushed rock, it never leaves,” she stressed. Through canvassing their neighborhood, Franklin continued, she and Kashden had learned that at least one of their neighbors has a form of cancer linked to exposure to crushed concrete. “Epidemiological studies also reveal that the 3-kilometer radius surrounding this toxic operation at U.S. Recycling has the highest asthma rates in the state,” Franklin pointed out. “Asthma, like cancer,” she added, “can kill.”
Commissioner Tom Knight suggested the Harvest Tabernacle initiative, Vengroff’s two projects and the Family Promise proposal. He cited the need for more affordable housing in the Venice area in noting the latter application.
Looking out at the developers in the audience, Knight said, “Man, you all do a great job. … Thank you for being here and thank you for what you’re doing for us.”
Chair Ron Cutsinger then told his colleagues, “I’m a huge supporter of No. 10, as well,” referring to Vengroff’s Venice Avenue Apartments project. His vote gave it a majority of board support. Cutsinger noted, too, that he was in favor of the Harvest Tabernacle initiative, giving it a fourth vote out of five.
Cutsinger also agreed on the need for the Family Promise development.
Ultimately, the Family Promise, Harvest Tabernacle, Venice Avenue Apartments and CASL Rosedale proposals won a majority of support. That left a little more than $3 million out of the $30 million, Hyatt of Resilent SRQ responded when Cutsinger asked where those selections left the board.
The options at that point
Given that information, Mast addressed Vengroff in the audience, asking whether he felt he could reduce his request for the Venice Avenue Apartments application, which would free up more funding for another application.
“We’re trying to get as many of these incredible projects out of the ground as quickly as possible,” she told him.
After coming up to the podium, Vengroff replied, “I wish there was a world where I could do that.”
He and his team did bring down their cost to a point that is about 38% below the market rate, he continued. “You’re shaving pennies,” he told the commissioners with a smile. “This is all block and steel construction with nice finishes. We really don’t want to take that away from the end product for the residents. I really do appreciate the question, though,” Vengroff added.
Again, Commissioner Smith advocated for funding for the McDowell Housing Partners project in downtown Sarasota. He noted that even though the application sought $15 million, he felt the $3 million would help.
“This is a serious, serious health condition,” he stressed, referring to the effects of U.S. Recycling’s work.
Chair Cutsinger then asked County Attorney Joshua Moye whether the board’s award of funding to the McDowell Housing initiative would lead to U.S. Recycling’s closure.
“I don’t know the exact terms of the deal,” Moye conceded. Perhaps Hyatt would be better prepared to answer Cutsinger’s question, Moye said.
In accord with the information in the application, Hyatt explained, the developer has provided a letter of intent to U.S. Recycling to purchase its property for slightly more than $5 million, utilizing part of the federal funding the developer was seeking from the county.
“I’m hesitant to throw $3 million to a project that needs $15 million,” Cutsinger told his colleagues.
“That’s actually what I was thinking,” Commissioner Neunder said. “Will [the project] get off the floor [with just $3 million from the board]?” he asked. Nonetheless, Neunder continued, “I think it’s a very valuable project.”
Neunder added that he has a lot of sympathy for the residents who have been concerned about carcinogenic effects related to their exposure to the U.S. Recycling dust.
Based on the discussions he had had with members of the community, Commissioner Smith replied, it was his understanding “that the developer’s very much interested” in constructing the affordable housing. “I think the $3 million would help.”
Smith further emphasized, “Literally, the health of a good deal of downtown Sarasota’s population — from Selby Gardens to the airport — is at risk right now” from U.S. Recycling’s operation. “This [proposal] has been the only way to get [U.S. Recycling] off the property.”
“We’ll find out [whether the $3 million will help],” he continued, if the board approved the $3-plus million and notified the developer of the award.
Smith did ask Hyatt of the OFM to clarify what would happen if the commissioners agreed to the award and then the developer said that would not be sufficient to proceed with the undertaking.
“We can have a conversation with them,” Hyatt replied, and then provide the board an update.
Commissioner Mast suggested that staff send a letter to McDowell Housing Partners to determine with certainty whether the slightly more than $3 million remaining out of the HUD money would facilitate its plans. She added of the proposal, “I think it’s a critical need.”
“I think that makes sense,” Cutsinger said.
While Neunder agreed with Mast’s suggestion, he did ask his colleagues, “Do we want any protections involved? … Do we want to put some strings attached,” that the property could be used only for an affordable housing development, if the company accepted the federal funding.
“That’s something we can work on with the Office of the County Attorney,” Hyatt responded. Staff would want to be certain that the company would proceed with the initiative, he added. Otherwise, Hyatt pointed out, the county would “have to take back the funding.”
“This developer is an affordable housing developer,” Commissioner Smith emphasized.
Mast made the motion, directing staff to send the letter to McDowell Housing Partners, explaining that the $3-plus million from the Resilient SRQ Program would be an award to help the copmany buy the U.S. Recycling property and that only an affordable housing project could be constructed on the site, if the company accepted the funds.
The motion also called for staff to report back to the board as soon as possible on the response it receives.
After Smith seconded it, that motion passed unanimously.
Then Neunder made a motion to approve the four projects that he and his colleagues had selected, with the money allocated as Hyatt had noted on a spreadsheet. Mast seconded it, and it also passed unanimously.
“Thank you, Steve,” Cutsinger told Hyatt after the vote. “I know you worked reallyhard on this.”
“Thank you,” Hyatt replied.