'Thank God for Season of Sharing': High Costs Hit Sarasota Families

While the Sarasota area has passed another fall free of hurricanes so far, residents are facing a different type of storm.

This month, as Season of Sharing launches its annual fundraising campaign, heading into its 27th year assisting local families in crisis, it does so as residents face not one, two, or three emergencies, but numerous household disasters all at once.

The hardships are arriving in the form of soaring gas, food, medical, and utility costs, atop already high housing and childcare bills.

And just as with hurricanes, they are displacing households and forcing case managers to coach residents in ways to form backup plans and other contingency methods to stay safe.

'An affordability storm'

“It’s an affordability storm,” said Tracie Cardwell.

Cardwell is the director of marketing and communications for Sarasota’s Senior Friendship Centers, which is among numerous nonprofits in the region receiving visits and calls for help from households slammed by a cascade of rising prices.

Older residents are some of the most vulnerable.

Surviving on fixed incomes, many of them—both renters and homeowners—could not foresee these massive increases years ago when mapping out retirement, Cardwell said.

“They did everything they were supposed to do. These are costs that even the best planning didn’t anticipate.”

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