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The Department of Neighborhood and Business Development hosted an open house Tuesday to showcase the launch of the Syracuse Housing and Neighborhood Strategy Project at the Syracuse Peacemaking Center.

The public open house is the first of a larger series to collect community input about the project, according to a City Hall press release. The project serves as the city’s “next step” in developing housing strategies for Syracuse.

Michelle Sczpanski, deputy commissioner of neighborhood development, is responsible for managing residential housing investments. She said the project is a means to address the two challenges of the housing market — properly building and maintaining housing while also taking cost into account.

“What the strategy really helps us think through is understanding that any lever that you can kind of push on one of those sides is going to affect the other one, which sort of helps us chart a path forward for how we implement solutions that are helping us address those in ways that are equitable and effective,” Sczpanski said.

One-third of all residential properties in Syracuse show signs of chronic disinvestment, according to SHNSP’s fall 2022 survey that rated each property based on exterior conditions and signs of both investment and disinvestment.

In 2023, the City of Syracuse completed a citywide housing market study to identify market challenges and provide guidance to move forward in taking action to combat these challenges. The SHNSP is a follow-up on the city’s study to create detailed action steps to begin rebalancing the city’s housing market.

The interconnectedness of Syracuse’s market and affordability gap calls for “carefully balanced” housing strategies, according to the 2023 study. Only a few neighborhoods are dominated by properties that show healthy signs of investments and upkeep. Meanwhile, regional households with limited ability to pay for housing are disproportionately concentrated.

The project is being guided by a 30-person committee, appointed by Mayor Ben Walsh, including representatives from the Common Council, local community partner organizations, and city staff.

Sczpanski said the city’s resources are too limited to completely “cure” the problems, which requires very intentional and strategic use of funds. For tangible impact to be made, she said they will have to change their strategies to go “above and beyond” for the community.

Director of Housing and Neighborhood Planning Cimone Jordan, who grew up in Syracuse and has lived in the city for 21 years, said the study brought in experts to understand the impact of the numbers that were collected. Looking at housing conditions and market values, the city evaluated how it compares to the central New York region and is now looking for community feedback.

Jordan also cited the issue of balancing affordability along with the large market gap.

“If you improve property values you’re gonna displace people, but also if you keep building affordable housing and densifying it, that’s going to throw the market cap out of whack,” Jordan said. “We’re not going to be able to increase those property values at a rate where that’s healthy for the city.”

Onondaga County is a close reflection of the U.S. population and socioeconomic characteristics, including income levels, according to the study. In 2021, the median household income in the county was 96% of the national median, while the county’s poverty rate of 13.6% was slightly higher than the national rate of 12.6%.

However, housing in the county is priced well below national levels, suggesting much “softer levels” of housing demand. The median gross rent in the county was 80% of the U.S. median in 2021, while the median value of owner-occupied homes was just 63% of the national median.

In terms of the affordability gap, low incomes are viewed as a root problem. Onondaga County’s lower-income households disproportionately reside within the city, creating high housing need concentrations. Countywide, 15% of all households have incomes below $20,000
and can afford to pay no more than $500 per month on housing. In the city, these
households represent 28% of all households.

This disparity means Syracuse has 7,471 more very low-income households than it would if these households were distributed evenly across the county. The county’s suburbs have only 9% of all households with incomes below $20,000.

Jordan said an increase in property values and market values would help give a broader tax base, improve schools and provide more infrastructure improvements and public services for the community. She wants people to understand this to see the difficulty in developing a strategy that would benefit both realms.

“Right now, our next step is to really think creatively about what those solutions look like, and to understand that what we’ve been doing up until this point hasn’t been as effective as you’ve needed it to be,” Jordan said.

The total citywide cost to fix both property values and affordable housing ranges between $300 million to $1.5 billion, according to the study. The estimated cost is due to the cost of upgrading all Syracuse residential property to marketability by regional standards and the cost to pay the difference between $1,500 monthly rent and a rate affordable to Syracuse households with incomes of less than $50,000.

Josh Seiersen, a community member who works in the city, said though he is worried about which parts of the city will get the consideration that is needed, he is maintaining an open mind.

“I’m just interested in housing overall in the city, just affordability and especially efforts to try and keep it equitable for current residents who work here,” Seiersen said. “I think a lot of people are gonna want to move in here, but I’m intrigued because a lot of them are probably going to try to live out in the suburbs and not in the city even though there’s a lot of need in the city.”

Seiersen said he wants to see a lot of work done in places that need it most and is hopeful about plans to help the university side and Northside but wants to make sure that the city does not leave out areas that need it just as much.

For now, the project is seeking feedback through a public survey to understand the community’s perspectives on housing and neighborhood issues, which may determine how the Department of Neighborhood and Business Development can create a strategy.

Sczpanski said the department’s goal is to eventually apply the project across the entire city.

“I honestly just think seeing how the implementation continues to progress is exciting,” Sczpanski said. “What we are coming to for the end of this particular project will give us the next steps of particular geographic areas and where we are looking to start strategy implementation.”

Published on January 17, 2024 at 12:13 am

Contact Faith: flbolduc@syr.edu