VIDEO: Problem with homeless shelter site surfaces

The search for the downtown Sarasota location for a proposed “come as you are” homeless shelter has hit yet another snag, highlighting tensions still lingering between city and county staffs over the project despite recent attempts at compromise.

Sarasota County Director of Homeless Services Wayne Applebee sent an email to Sarasota County commissioners April 7, informing them that, according to city of Sarasota staff, the buyer of the property at 1502 and 1563 Lime Ave. was not willing to sell or lease the property to allow a homeless shelter there.

County and city commissioners agreed to consider the Lime Avenue property as a third site option for the shelter at a joint meeting April 1. That meeting came after weeks of tension between the two boards, due to the perception among county commissioners and some county staff that the city of Sarasota was deliberately trying to stall the selection of a site for the shelter to ultimately nix the project.

Tensions seemed to ease at the April 1 joint meeting, however, as city and county commissioners pledged to work more openly with one another and touted the selection of the Lime Avenue property as a major compromise. The two boards had planned to further discuss the Lime Avenue site at an April 22 joint meeting.

The revelation that the site would be unavailable for the shelter several days later, however, quickly renewed differences.

“County staff has been aware the North Lime site was unavailable since early March  — before last week’s joint meeting,” city of Sarasota Senior Communications Manager Jan Thornburg wrote in an email to the Sarasota Observer April 7. “There was no mention by county staff during the joint meeting that the site was under contract back in March.”

Applebee and homelessness expert Dr. Robert Marbut (who identified the Lime Avenue property as a possible option) acknowledged they were aware the site was under contract to be sold to a private buyer when they toured the property in March. But they said the real estate broker who showed them the property, Jeff Button, said the buyer was seeking to lease the site for government use — making the location a viable option for the downtown shelter.

“We specifically talked to the Realtor about a build-to-suit kind of agreement,” Marbut said, “and they were specifically talking about building buildings and renting them back to government agencies.”

“We were aware that the building was under contract,” Applebee added. “The new buyer was a landlord … and he would need clear ownership before we made clear discussions about the property.”

Both Applebee and Marbut said they were surprised city staff did not include Applebee in subsequent email inquiries sent to Button, who manages the Lime Avenue site, about the buyer’s intent.

“Neither Wayne nor I were privy to any conversations between the owner and city; we only saw the email traffic after the fact,” Marbut said. “I was very surprised that they did not ask Wayne to be on the call, too.”

Thornburg pointed to an April 4 email from Button to city of Sarasota Asset Manager Rob Schanley as proof county staff was aware the site would be unavailable for the shelter prior to the April 1 joint meeting.

Button’s email, however, does not indicate the buyer’s intent was known prior to April 4.

“The buyer has indicated to me during a phone call this morning that he does not wish to consider leasing or selling the 1502/1562 N. Lime Ave. property for the homeless shelter,” Button wrote in the email, which was sent three days after the joint city-county meeting.

With the removal of the Lime Avenue property from the list of potential sites, the push for a downtown homeless shelter remains stalled due to lengthy environmental studies of the original two site options at 1330 N. Osprey Ave. and 1800 East Ave. Some city commissioners and staff say the studies are necessary to protect the city’s utilities infrastructure and for unspecified homeland security concerns, while some county commissioners have labeled the environmental reviews as delay tactics to prevent the facility from being built downtown.

“Every conversation I've had with the city is always about why they can't do something, not how you can do something — that’s been shocking,” Marbut said. “I have never worked in a community where a small portion of people are openly not helpful, at best.”

Although the unavailability of the Lime Avenue site is a step back for the homeless shelter site-selection process and despite lingering city-county tensions, Applebee and Marbut both remained hopeful about the possibility of rapprochement between city and county staffs over the issue.

“I’m going to remain optimistic,” Applebee said. “I'm really willing to work with their team and work on all the challenges of finding a site for the shelter.”

“The site at Osprey is still by far your best site; it’s still a very, very solid site,” Marbut said. “I understand there’s a lot of politics around it, though.”

The environmental reviews of the Osprey Avenue and East Avenue sites are scheduled to be complete April 17, and the results will be discussed at a joint city-county commission meeting April 22.

“I think you've got a problem now that is already at near-crisis level,” Marbut said, referencing a projected 20% increase in Sarasota County’s homeless population in the next 18 months. “If you think you have a problem now, wait until then.”

Contact Nolan Peterson at [email protected].