For the residents of The Haven, life can be pretty sweet. The organization caters to about 600 people with developmental disabilities each year and offers permanent housing to 67 people on its 32-acre campus. This year, it also opened two new residential group homes, with room for eight people in each, and soon it will expand by several more homes on the adjacent three-acre property it purchased last year.

Roommates and friends Nikki Graybeal, 53, and Alfred Lanier, 68, have just returned from their weekly REACH program, a life skills class whose acronym stands for Recreation, Education, Advocacy, Community and Health, and are enjoying a rainy afternoon from their screened-in lanai. “Nikki is a good cook,” Lanier says. “I like anything she makes.” Graybeal adds that she’s been cooking for most of her adult life, feeding Sarasota’s public school students in the cafeteria before shifting into a role as a custodian at the Sarasota School Board building, then finally retiring. “I am a really good cook,” she says. “I like to make anything that’s good for us.”

Graybeal moved to The Haven just two years ago; Lanier has been part of the organization since childhood, but moved in when he was a young man. “I think I was six years old when I started coming here,” he says. “I tried living with my friend Josh for a little bit, but the rent was too high.”

Graybeal and Lanier both take advantage of The Haven’s programs. Lanier likes art, sings karaoke and swims in the campus pool. Graybeal loves spending time with her friends.

“My favorite thing about living here is the diversity,” she says. “There are different ages and different kinds of people. I've made so many friends.”