Sarasota County readies housing, training programs

SARASOTA — Sarasota County is preparing to launch two more Resilient SRQ programs.

Resilient SRQ is the name of the county’s overall program for distributing $201.5 million in Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery funds from the federal government.

The plan approved by the Department of Housing and Urban Development includes programs for housing, infrastructure and economic revitalization.

Scored applications for infrastructure projects will be presented in May, Steve Hyatt, of the Office of Financial Management, told the County Commission on Tuesday. Applications are being accepted through May 1 for affordable housing proposals, he added.

Windows will open in late May to apply for funds for homeowners and career training, he said.

The county has allocated $55 million for the housing program — $40 million for rehabilitation and reconstruction and $15 million for reimbursement for work already completed.

Under HUD criteria, the funds must benefit homeowners at or below 80% of area median income whose primary residence in Sarasota County was damaged by Hurricane Ian, he said.

The county has a program implementation manager that will hire subcontractors to perform approved work.

HUD criteria will also apply to the choice of materials and appliances that can be used, and even the color of paint, Hyatt said.

“These are some high-level criteria,” he said.

Resilient SRQ Program Manager Laurel Varnell followed Hyatt to get the Commission’s approval of scoring criteria for the career training program, which has $15 million to spend.

“The intention is to create a career trades training program in the construction fields,” she said.

Money will be available for nonprofits, public entities and institutions of higher learning proposing to provide public services or to acquire land and construct a public facility, she said.

They, too, will need to be able to show they’re serving low-to-medium income participants in Sarasota County.

In addition, projects must include a mitigation component. HUD’s only exception to the requirement that CDBG-DR funds be spent on recovery from Hurricane Ian is expenditures for mitigation.

Staff’s proposed scoring criteria would award up to 20 points for an applicant’s financial plan, leveraging of funding, readiness, impact and ability to comply with applicable regulations.

Commission Chair Mike Moran proposed some tweaks, including eliminating the leveraging of funding as a criterion and dividing those 20 points among the other four.

The Commission unanimously approved the revised criteria. Varnell said applications will be accepted for six weeks.

Moran said he’s “thrilled” the training program is moving forward.

“Everything else, if you ask me, feels like we’re giving away a fish,” he said. “This is the part where we’re teaching somebody to fish.”