The board of the Syracuse Housing Strategies Corporation, the organization responsible for carrying out the city’s new housing strategy, will meet Monday for the first time.
The city plans for the organization to spend millions to invest in the city’s neighborhoods in the coming years.
Members of the board will be sworn in at the meeting, which will take place Monday at 2 p.m. in the Common Council chambers inside City Hall.
The nine-person board will include Mayor Ben Walsh and Common Council President Helen Hudson, who each appointed members of the board. Hudson and Walsh also made one joint appointment. The final two members of the board will represent the Greater Syracuse Land Bank and Home HeadQuarters.
Currently eight of the board members have been confirmed:
- Mayor Ben Walsh
- Common Council President Helen Hudson
- Common Councilor At-Large Rasheada Caldwell
- 2nd District Common Councilor Patrick Hogan
- 4th District Common Councilor Patrona Jones-Rowser
- Centerstate CEO President Robert Simpson
- Home HeadQuarters Deputy Executive Director Latoya Allen
- Greater Syracuse Land Bank Executive Director Katelyn Wright
The final board member has yet to be appointed by the mayor.
The board will carry out the city’s new housing strategy that the council approved earlier this month. City officials based their strategy on a report by consultant czb LLC, which found the city had problems with housing quality and affordability. It estimated that the problem would take more than $1 billion to fix.
Councilors approved the board’s creation in December 2023. Board members will be tasked with raising money to carry out improvements in the city’s neighborhoods.
The city has raised about $7.5 million of the $25 million it needs to kick off the first phase of the strategy, which is set to begin June 1, 2025.
The board will use the funds to provide homeowners in the Tipperary Hill and Salt Springs neighborhoods, which the city considers to be middle-income neighborhoods, with grants and loans for housing improvements. In future phases, other neighborhoods could also see investment.
The city plans for the work in Tipp Hill and Salt Springs to take about 10 years. Future phases will begin while phase one is running. Under the current plan, phase two is slated to begin in 2027. Portions of phase two could start in 2025, however.
The housing agency has changed names since it was initially authorized. In December, the council approved the agency under the name Syracuse Housing Trust Fund Corp. For legal reasons, New York state asked the city to drop “trust” from its name.
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