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Residents from Syracuse’s Eastwood, Elmwood, Salt Springs and Tipperary Hill neighborhoods met in Soule Branch Library to voice community feedback surrounding the proposed Syracuse Housing Strategy during a city public input meeting Wednesday evening.

The meeting presented data from the Syracuse Housing Study, a one-year study that led to the creation of the Syracuse Housing Strategy, Mayor Ben Walsh’s multi-year framework aiming to improve housing conditions in Syracuse. During the meeting, community attendees offered mixed reactions on Walsh’s proposal.

The presentation, facilitated by Michelle Sczpanski, the Syracuse deputy commissioner of neighborhood development, highlighted what she said are the causes of housing problems in the area — a large housing gap, the amount of affordable housing relative to demand, and affordability gap, the difference between the median income of an area and the income required to afford an average home.

“We need (a solution) now. We’re in a housing crisis now. We need to place people right now,” Onondaga County Legislator Nodesia Hernandez said in Wednesday’s meeting.

The Syracuse City Common Council had planned a vote to authorize Walsh’s strategy during its Aug. 12 regular meeting. However, the council postponed its decision after Councilor At-Large Rasheada Caldwell raised objections to holding a vote, citing “concerns” with the communication of the plan.

In her objection, Caldwell said she received reports from Salt Springs neighborhood residents that its upper east side was not aware of the plan. This community was one of the targets of Wednesday’s input meeting, which was hosted by the city of Syracuse and CZB, the city planning firm that worked with city officials on the initial study.

The three main recommendations in Wednesday’s presentation, highlighted within the broader housing strategy, are to sustain current housing improvement initiatives, create new efforts in residential neighborhoods and align interventions based on conditions in specifically-defined cluster areas.

Sczpanski has overseen the housing strategy project since the study’s beginnings in fall 2022. As the meeting’s main speaker, she reflected on the public’s response to the strategy, saying that the housing committee needs to be intentional when finding approaches to addressing the city’s housing crisis.

Various attendees spoke about their personal experiences in their neighborhoods, including facing financial strain associated with property tax increases. Other attendees suggested other infrastructure improvement projects, such as sidewalk repairs, be included in the strategy.

The city hopes to see poverty rates drop below 30%, Sczpanski said. Currently, the Syracuse poverty rate sits at around 30%, notably higher than the national average of around 12%.

To address poverty throughout the region, Sczpanki said she hopes to use the cluster approach — the grouping of residential properties on a development site to where communities can strive for market and socioeconomic growth.

Other primary goals of the housing strategy include increasing homeowner confidence and stabilizing legacy areas, which include vacant properties and land, according to the study. These areas are older and were not built to the same standards as modern areas.

Cimone Jordan, director of the Syracuse Neighborhood and Business Development department, said she was surprised to see the community come together to support efforts toward improving local housing conditions.

“Feedback from residents today really showed a light on how many homeowners really are invested in the neighborhood … and how many have lived here for a while and have concerns about being eligible for grant programs, having access to flexible loan programs that turn into grants,” Jordan said.

The Syracuse Housing Strategy includes several grant programs for residents of middle income neighborhoods, investing additional funds into these communities while stabilizing “distressed” areas. Some of these grants include subsidies for small neighborhood beautification projects, home improvements, rental property upgrades and “above-market infill housing,” syracuse.com reported in late July.

Jordan said she wants the Common Council to feel confident when voting for the housing strategy. The Neighborhood and Business Development department plans to collaborate with the council to address any obstacles that may hinder their confidence, she said.

The next step for the Syracuse Housing Strategy is continued communication with the Common Council ahead of its next regular meeting on Sept. 3. It will be the council’s next opportunity to authorize the strategy.

“I feel confident that we’ll be able to push it forward,” Jordan said. “We want them to feel confident about passing the housing strategy vote.”

Published on August 22, 2024 at 1:33 am