SHA Executive Director William Simmons (furthest right) is pictured with other members of the SHA board. Credit: Patrick McCarthy | Central Current

Mayor Ben Walsh called for change from Syracuse Housing Authority leadership following a Thursday meeting of the SHA’s Board of Commissioners.

While Walsh was adamant Executive Director Bill Simmons’ leadership needed to be reviewed, he stopped short of calling on SHA’s board to get rid of Simmons. 

That callout may have fallen on unhearing ears.

When reporters told Simmons that Walsh said he had no confidence in SHA’s leadership, Simmons dismissed the comment.

“No, it doesn’t bother me,” Simmons said. “Why should it bother me?”

Walsh’s statements at the board meeting are the latest in a weeks-long back-and-forth between city officials, Simmons and the Allyn Family Foundation. They have been fighting over who’s to blame for a lack of progress with the redevelopment of public housing and the pausing of the Children’s Rising Center, a YMCA meant to pair with the redevelopment of public housing. 

Simmons’ response Tuesday echoes defiant statements he has made since representatives of the Allyn Family Foundation and the city accused him of failing residents. Allyn and the city were partners — albeit not ones on SHA’s contract with its developer — with SHA on the project. 

In an interview with Central Current, the Allyn Family Foundation’s executive director Meg O’Connell said that Simmons told her that he was “untouchable” during a conversation about the center.

The Children’s Rising Center was the lynchpin of a nearly $1 billion neighborhood redevelopment plan. The Allyn Foundation created the non-profit Blueprint 15 to ensure that residents were involved in the redevelopment. For years, Allyn has arranged funding for the $32 million children’s center while Blueprint 15 consulted residents for input. 

Meanwhile, the Syracuse Housing Authority was supposed to draft relocation plans for each resident and submit the plans to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

In January though, Blueprint 15 announced that the project was halted. The Allyn Foundation had learned that it could not close on $7 million in funding for the project, because — as O’Connell has alleged — the housing authority was not able to secure HUD approval on resident relocation plans 90 days ahead of an April 1 deadline. 

That deadline took on outsized importance at Thursday’s meeting of the housing authority’s board of commissioners. 

After Walsh called on members of SHA’s board to reconsider its staff, Simmons repeated SHA’s position that the Children’s Rising Center was not paused by any potential missed deadlines. 

He provided a letter from Jacqueline Molinaro-Thompson, who serves as the director of HUD’s Pittsburgh-Buffalo field office. It was dated Feb. 18. Thompson said she was reaching out “with concern” after reading recent local reporting about the Children’s Rising Center project pause, and said the purpose of the letter was “to remind the SHA of the Department’s basic governance expectations that significantly affect the operations and success of housing authorities.”

The copies of the letter issued to attendees highlighted in yellow: “To date, the SHA has not missed deadlines related to this project as established by HUD.”

Walsh rejected the implication that the letter exonerated SHA of responsibility for the Children’s Rising Center pause. Phases one and two of the project, Walsh said, have been delayed five times since January 2023.

“So we can debate about semantics of what constitutes a deadline or not, but the reality is we are not operating and the Syracuse Housing Authority is not operating at a scale and at a pace that is deserving of the residents that we all serve,” Walsh said.

After the meeting, Walsh characterized Simmons’ behavior as akin to an defense attorney’s argument in a courtroom, and said it is hard to see a path forward with the current SHA leadership. 

Blueprint 15 neighborhood navigators spoke about SHA in a public comment period at the end of the meeting. Marquita Hetherington began with a speech accusing SHA leadership of abandoning its duty to “provide safe, well-maintained, and affordable housing for its tenants.”

“It’s time to choose the people over profit, the community over corporate interests,” Hetherington said, “and action over empty promises.”

Blueprint 15’s lead neighborhood navigator, Tara Harris, called the pause of the Children’s Rising Center project “heartbreaking,” and implored everyone in the room to find a solution.

Quwonka Ellerby, a neighborhood navigator who was recently elected by SHA residents to the SHA board, asked for unity between the various stakeholders. 

But Walsh said there would not be forward progress, let alone unity among project stakeholders, with the status quo.

“Unless or until the housing authority gets the right staffing in place with the right priorities,” Walsh said. “We’re not going to see the success that this community needs and deserves.”

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Patrick McCarthy is a staff reporter at Central Current covering government and politics. A graduate of Syracuse University’s Maxwell and Newhouse Schools, McCarthy was born and raised in Syracuse and...