SARASOTA — When the Sarasota County Commission voted in July to spend only $28 million of the $40 million of Resilient SRQ money allocated to affordable housing, it was unclear whether the balance would also go toward housing.
Commissioners have decided it would, approving one project in North Port and one in Englewood.
The $28 million funded the five projects the five commissioners could agree on, so they put off deciding what to do with the remainder until they returned from their August break.
At the time, Commissioner Mark Smith said the County Commission should honor its commitment to spend the full $40 million on housing, while Commissioner Neil Rainford advocated for adding it to the money allocated for infrastructure, which might not have passed muster with the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The housing allocation is part of the $201.5 million the county received from the federal agency in the form of Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Relief funding, to aid in the recovery from Hurricane Ian in 2022.