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Sarasota News Leader November 22, 2013 Page 59 people to survive on the street does nothing to help them get off the street. The focus group is unique in that its monthly meetings are always attended by at least one person who describes himself as homeless. Often it is more than one. The remainder of the attendees are people who are actively involved in hands-on activities related to homelessness. One theme running through the Nov. 19 meeting in a conference room at Sarasota City Hall A homeless man camps out at a former service was the cost of housing. Pope asked a blunt station on Pineapple Avenue. Photo by Norman question of the group: "Can you afford to live Schimmel in this community? If you are a maid with three kids and a single mom, you need to ask "You need a business plan that shows a if you can afford to live here." return," said Pope, referring to affordable housing initiatives. "If you can't find a way to Several participants who knew the math said make a reasonable profit, the investor is not people holding poorly paid jobs often will going to risk their money." spend half or even two-thirds of their income on housing in the city. And they are only one Marbut's plan calls for giving the homeless missed paycheck from being homeless. and vagrants the ability to move from a free shelter to transitional housing and then full "Any town with an economy of wealthy independence. But that will require real people, you'll find the people who work the bricks-and-mortar solutions. service economy live 50, 60 miles away to work at $9-per-hour jobs," noted Pope. "The Community Foundation [of Sarasota County] has donated $250,000 to work with While there have been years of appeals for Resurrection House to put people up. But this community leaders to build affordable hous- is not a systems approach," added Frizzell. ing in Sarasota, few units actually have been "It's helping one individual at a time." constructed. In the meantime, foreclosures have taken many residential properties off the Marbut's draft plan meshes somewhat with market. Bankers like to say they are not in the these observations from the front lines of property management business, and in real- homelessness providers. "Until we have ity, many of the foreclosed properties have housing for people when they come out of transitional housing, we are wasting our seen only minimal maintenance or repairs. time," said one focus group participant. "We Investors have swooped in with cash over the need somebody to come to the table and idenpast 18 months to snap up foreclosed prop- tify funding." erties at depressed prices, undertaken quick fix-ups and put the houses on the rental market Editor's note: See the related stories in this for a substantial return on their investments. issue. %