VIDEO: Vengroff looks to fill need for housing

After reversing his decision to leave the country for Belize, Sarasota businessman Harvey Vengroff has become one of the city’s leading advocates for more affordable housing.

Vengroff recently purchased the 117-unit Sarasota Airport Hotel for $2.25 million. The purchase came from a conversation with local service providers such as the Salvation Army and Jewish Family and Children’s Service. Those groups voiced concerns about the need for affordable family housing in the region that helps people transition off the street into a more stable lifestyle.

Vengroff’s entrepreneurial spirit kicked in: If there was a need for transitional homeless housing, he could fill it. He chose Sarasota’s North Trail as the site for his plan, purchasing one of the area’s many motels and converting the rooms into studio apartments. The scale and the location of the project will allow him to keep the rent low — $575 each month, he said.

Local homeless service providers have spoken about the difficulties the Sarasota housing climate poses. The leaders of Jewish Family and Children’s Service’s homeless prevention and homeless veteran programs both identified the lack of affordable housing in the area as a major hurdle.

“If we’re not talking affordable housing, the challenge will always remain there,” said Wilfredo Tellado, who oversees the JFCS Operation Military Assistance program.

Vengroff’s opposition to federal, state and local government affordability programs was initially a stumbling block. Representatives from the service agencies told him the people who need housing are dependent on social services, and families could struggle without subsidized rent.

To overcome issues such as a single mother’s need for child care, Vengroff said he wanted the residents of the complex to help satisfy each other’s needs. He has plans for a cooperative day care system — one day a week, a mother would have to watch over a group of children, but she would be free to work the rest of the week without worrying about paying money for someone else to watch her children.

“We’re trying to create a situation for where they can work together on things such as childcare,” Vengroff said. “They watch each other’s kids when they aren’t at work.”

Phil Gorelick, JFCS’ vice president of programs, said the organization has had a relationship with Vengroff for years as a housing provider. He called Vengroff and the prospective housing a valuable piece of the puzzle in fighting homelessness, but said broader participation is still necessary.

“The answer to homelessness is not through any one person,” Gorelick said. “It’s through the community working together in a very collaborative fashion to help families and their children either stay in their homes, or to become housed.”

Vengroff will work with service providers to identify families and individuals who would be the best fit as tenants in the new apartment complex.

The apartment will also have an on-site, full-time counselor. Valerie Guillory, who runs the nonprofit Trinity Without Borders, volunteered to assist the residents as they transition into housing — and hopefully, Vengroff said, into better opportunities.

“They can go to work, and they can be a part of society, and they can ultimately get a bigger apartment or own their own house,” Vengroff said.

The motel is still in need of improvements. Vengroff said he plans to start renting them out within the next few weeks, but, already, he’s got a waiting list of 20 people interested in moving in.

Vengroff, who has criticized the city for its lack of affordable housing, also pitched an 800-unit apartment complex on Fruitville Road near Lime Avenue earlier this year. For that project to move forward, the city would need to raise its density limits.

Vengroff acknowledged the challenges he’s taking on with this project — homelessness and North Trail revitalization — come with a high degree of difficulty. Still, he said, he saw the need for action, and he filled that void.

“So, why are we on the North Trail and why are we helping homeless, right?” Vengroff said, laughing. “I dunno, somebody ought to do it.”