Where can Sarasota’s homeless shower and do laundry? Options are dwindling

A shower, a laundry machine, a hot meal and a sanctuary from the outside. That is what Kevin Jackowicz knew he could expect from Remnant Cafe — an operation run by Remnant Church in Sarasota County — when he became homeless for the second time.

Jackowicz’s life took a dramatic turn a few years ago after a mental health situation with a family member led to him losing his housing. He spent a year homeless before finding housing, where he stayed for another year. 

When he lost his housing again a couple months ago, he returned to the church, which — until last week — offered a variety of homelessness services as part of its ministry.

Jackowicz spoke with a reporter at the Remnant a week after the church received a violation notice from Sarasota County code enforcement, stating the property is not zoned for a full-scale social service operation and ordering it to shut down its homelessness services. 

The notice was spurred by a complaint from a neighbor, who said Remnant clients have made the residential area unclean and unsafe. The church plans to appeal the violation through a special magistrate, but the complaint has brought attention to a complicated legal and ethical situation with various stakeholders with differing views on how to resolve it. 

In the meantime, more than a hundred people are now left without a place to shower, wash clothes and get out of the heat. The church has had to reduce services and hours as it works to address the code violation and neighborhood complaints. 

Few other organizations in the county provide those services for free, meaning many are now paying to use laundromats and shower at campgrounds or gyms – solutions that are not sustainable for those without a steady income.

Some may not be showering or washing their clothes at all.

“When you’re trying to find a job, or maintain a job, and you have very little resources as far as showers, laundry, things of that nature, it makes it virtually impossible to maintain yourself,” Jackowicz said. 

This isn’t the first time Sarasota County has faced the question of where to locate services for people experiencing homelessness. In 2014, a plan for a large come-as-you-are shelter funded by both the city of Sarasota and the county was abandoned after officials failed to find a location. 

Remnant Church is led by Pastor Frank Burns and Tammy Burns, the church’s director of homeless ministry. Tammy Burns said they too had a hard time finding a home when first offering homelessness services a decade ago. They always wanted their Christian ministry to focus on serving the homeless, and that goal made it difficult to find a neighborhood that welcomed them.

They moved into their current location on Ashton Road in 2017, merging with the Ashton Mennonite Church that previously operated there.

At the time, the location seemed perfect. Now, the future is uncertain — for the neighborhood, the church and the people without housing who are caught in the middle. 

“We’ve always tried to address any issue that came up, so this kind of took us by surprise,” Tammy Burns said. “We have always worked under the idea … that constitutionally, churches are allowed to care for the needy and the poor as part of their faith.”

Few alternatives for showers and laundry

Tim Bohan has been homeless and using Remnant services for about two years. For the last three months, he also volunteered at the church. He spoke with a reporter this month, before the church reduced services, while sitting outside the shower and laundry area of the building. He kept track of who was next in line and how much time they had.

Bohan said he isn’t a fan of Resurrection House — the only other organization in the area that provides laundry and showers for people without a place to stay — though he didn’t say why. He wasn’t sure where else he would go now that Remnant’s services have been limited. 

“It’s going to be a big hindrance to my ability to survive,” he said. “It’s a shame to see the effect it’s going to have.”

Church leaders received the notice of violation on Aug. 28, informing them the property is in a zoning district where “soup kitchens or other social service facilities” are not allowed, and ordering them to “stop serving food and providing social services on (the) premises.”

Remnant was given a week to shut down services, which it previously provided on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. 

As of Sept. 9, it is now open for only a few hours on Wednesdays, for Bible study, and Saturdays, for church services. Church staff and volunteers will still serve food on these days — hosting a potluck alongside worship. The church is also still providing free clothes.

But other services like showers and laundry are no longer available, and anyone who comes for a meal is now required to participate in religious services, unlike the open-door policy the church had before.

Jessica Cooper — a member of the congregation who lives in an RV and uses Remnant services — said some people are taking more new clothes than before because they don’t have anywhere to wash their dirty ones. 

In downtown Sarasota, Resurrection House has stricter policies than Remnant, asking everyone to check in each day, and not allowing clients to sleep on the premises. Both operations have rules against alcohol, drugs and fighting. Resurrection House, unlike Remnant, also has at least one police officer on-site whenever it is open.

Joe Lucero, the operations manager at Resurrection House, said despite being the only other help nearby, he hasn’t seen an increase in demand since Remnant reduced its hours. 

“I don’t know where they went,” Lucero said. “They don’t have anywhere to go.” 

Several of the people who used Remnant’s services — including Cooper — said they have been asked to leave Resurrection House at some point in the past and don’t feel comfortable going back. 

Cooper and her husband were homeless for four years before they moved into their RV, which they aren’t able to shower in. They’re now spending $26 per night or $5 per day to park at Oscar Scherer State Park — a 30-minute drive from Sarasota — whenever they need a shower. 

“This is the working poor that come here,” Cooper said, when she spoke to a reporter this week before bible study at the church. “People are resourceful, though.”

Neighbors raise concerns about Remnant

Christine Nordstrom is the president of the homeowners association for the Ashton Enclave Condominiums, a row of six homes across the street from the Remnant Church. 

Nordstrom has lived there since 2021, and most of her neighbors moved in around the same time. Only three of the Ashton Enclave homeowners live in the condos full-time, while the other three use them as vacation homes, Nordstrom said.

Nordstrom said Remnant’s homeless clients have been a cause of concern for her and her neighbors since they moved in. She said she finds things like needles and bottles of urine in her yard, and that people often sleep in the area — sometimes under the raised back porches of the condos. Recently, she said she saw a man defecate in a drainage channel behind the homes. 

Church leaders said they do their best to encourage clients to be good neighbors and not to stay in the area at night — even providing a bus to bring people to the church in the morning and return them to downtown Sarasota. 

“This is the only sanctuary we have, and this is my first house I bought as a single mom,” Nordstrom said. “If (Remnant) wasn’t here, there would be no other reasons for them to be in the neighborhood.”

Nordstrom said she didn’t call the county with the intent to make a code enforcement complaint. She had been told by county and city homeless outreach officers that the church had a special exemption to operate in the area, and she wanted to know what that meant. She spoke to someone at the County Commission’s office about her concerns, and later received a call back from code enforcement. During the call, she agreed to put her name on an official complaint.

She said she has regularly called and left messages at the church, asking them to call her back. Church leaders, however, claim they have never received any messages from Nordstrom — though they did report receiving an angry message from a different neighbor on the same day the violation was issued. 

Nordstrom said she hopes the violation complaint will create an opportunity for herself and neighbors to have a constructive conversation with the church and county officials about how to move forward.

“I’m not anti-homeless. I’m not anti-services … This operation has had a detrimental impact on the neighborhood around it,” Nordstrom said. “Charities should solve problems, not relocate them … All people deserve compassion. All people deserve consideration, but I think we need to find something that works for everybody.”

Remnant plans to challenge the violation

It is not uncommon for property owners to violate zoning ordinances without realizing it. It’s also normal for those violations to go on for years before any action by code enforcement, according to Rob Robinson, a Sarasota lawyer who specializes in land use and property rights.

Code enforcement operations are complaint-based, meaning officers won’t inspect a property for a violation unless a formal complaint has been filed, Robinson said. 

Remnant Church is in a single-family residential area, where a special exception is required to operate a place of worship, which the church has. Social service operations, however, are not allowed, even with an exception. 

The county code outlines a number of permitted uses for a place of worship, including a fellowship hall, a community center and a Meals on Wheels-style program in which food is made on site and delivered elsewhere. 

A soup kitchen or other social service facility is not considered an accessory to a place of worship and can only be operated in a location zoned for that purpose, according to the county rules.

The church is hoping to challenge the violation, claiming that the services offered through Remnant Cafe are an integral part of their worship.

“They can certainly try and argue that churches do perform charitable functions as part of their principal use,” Robinson said. “The county is going to argue, no, that’s a separate service, a charitable service, yes, well deserved, well needed, but it has to be done elsewhere.”

In order to operate a social service from its current location, the Remnant Church would need to petition the county to rezone its property to a commercial district and grant a new special exception.

Prior to taking that route, however, the church plans to appeal the violation through a special magistrate proceeding. 

Tammy Burns said the church believes the homelessness services should be allowed because they are part of the congregation’s religious worship.

“It’s not just a social service. In fact, that’s such a minor part. It is … what draws people to us, and then over time they see who Christ is. They see God,” she said. “To these people, we’re their church. We’re their family.”

Emily Andersen is a watchdog/investigative reporter for Suncoast Searchlight. Email her at eandersen@suncoastsearchlight.org.