Affordable Housing Advisory Committee urges dedicated funding source, better monitoring; City Commission asks county to join joint AHAC meetings

The Affordable Housing Advisory Committee presented its 2025 annual report to the Sarasota City Commission on Nov. 3, recommending a package of steps the committee said are needed to produce and track more deeply affordable housing in the region.

John Thaxton, vice chair of the committee, summarized recommendations that include creation of a dedicated, recurring funding source for the city’s affordable housing trust fund (the committee suggested dedicating a small portion of property‑tax growth on a parcel’s bill to the trust fund), continued use of the city’s infrastructure surtax for affordability projects, and a stronger emphasis on monitoring to measure whether policies actually produce affordable units.

Thaxton said the committee’s analysis shows the greatest missing supply is for households at or below 80% of area median income (AMI). He told commissioners that while the voluntary density program is delivering some units, the…