Rachel Titus-Cox is the senior program manager of Urban Strategies, Inc., trying to bridge the gap between community residents and resources. She is shown at Skiddy Park, where her son, Joseph Tirado, was murdered in 2005, when he was 22-years-old. Credit: Michelle Gabel | Central Current

Rachel Titus-Cox remembers basking in a strong sense of community when she first moved into Pioneer Homes decades ago. A Syracuse native, Cox had then just moved back from Connecticut, two little boys in tow. 

Almost three decades after she moved out of Pioneer Homes, Cox, 57, returned to the neighborhood in 2023 to helm an important project at a momentous time in the neighborhood. 

Cox, as the senior project manager at Urban Strategies Inc., helps connect residents who live in public housing in the city’s Southside with resources as the Syracuse Housing Authority redevelops public housing. Among other responsibilities, Cox helps coordinate case management for residents who live in the area. 

“I might be in a different position now, but I was in their position. And if I could be an example of what they can be, and what can happen in their life if they understood what was out there, how to get it, how to reach it,” Cox said. 

Cox, a young mom who had two children at 16, was by herself, escaping domestic violence. Having dropped out of school in eighth grade, she needed support to raise her family, and her mother happened to live in a Pioneer Homes property off South Townsend Street. 

Cox and her family are no strangers to public housing. Her aunt lived in one of the apartments at Mulberry Square which was later replaced by 75 townhomes at East Adams and South State streets. Called McKinney Manor, the apartments were named after Langston McKinney, Syracuse’s first Black judge. 

A former public housing resident in Connecticut herself, Cox was taken aback by the townhouse on 116 Dablon Court in Syracuse  that she eventually rented between 1989 to 1995. It was safe and clean. The neighbors were nice. It was not overrun by a colony of rats, she joked. 

“When I first moved I was like, ‘Wow, this is the Taj Mahal compared to, like, the projects that I know, that I’m aware of [in Connecticut]. So it was a lot different,” Cox told Central Current.

Rachel Titus-Cox’s sons, Rafael Tirado Jr. (left) and Joseph Tirado (right), are pictured in their former home on Dablon Court. Credit: Courtesy of Rachel Titus-Cox

Rafael Tirado Jr., Cox’s younger son, was roughly around four years old when they moved to the complex. 

The area had programs that quickly helped him and his brother settle in Syracuse. Tirado recalled free lunches and mentorship in Pioneer Homes and a Wilson Park program that introduced kids to each other and pushed them to play basketball together. The brothers quickly forged friendships in the community. 

For Cox, the complex is laced with memories of her sons, playing with their friends. Handball, basketball and bike rides until seven o’clock were part of their daily routine, she reminisced. 

“It was a community that was homey for a while. It was convenient for us inner city kids,” Tirado said, as he recalled the village of people that came together to support each other with child care. If his mother was busy running errands, his friends’ mothers or even neighbors volunteered to take care of them. 

“I have a lot of memories there, good and bad there. And it’s a very historical place,” Tirado said. “So it’s kind of something that you wish can be preserved.” 

Cox was popular among her sons’ friends for her strict yet loving nature. 

Rachel Titus-Cox is the senior program manager of Urban Strategies, Inc., trying to bridge the gap between community residents and resources. She is shown at Skiddy Park, where her son, Joseph Tirado, was murdered in 2005, when he was 22-years-old. Credit: Michelle Gabel | Central Current

“That’s why all my friends still love her to this day. She was always a community mother everywhere we moved,” Tirado said. “Everybody know her as Mama Love, so my mom actually was definitely a pillar to not just me, [but]  to a lot of my friends.”

Even after they moved away to Liverpool, Tirado hung around the neighborhood with his friends. Those who still live in the community reach out to him whenever they meet Cox. To Cox, they share stories about their childhood. To Tirado, they rave about her work in the community. 

“For a young mother to have what she had, the hand she was dealt, I think she did a tremendous job,” Tirado said. 

Cox went back to school to get her GED. After attending Onondaga Community College, she worked several temporary jobs as she continued to relentlessly apply to several places. A survivor of domestic violence, she ended up working with domestic violence perpetrators as a program coordinator at Vera House.

Following a debilitating car accident that rendered her unemployed for about a year, Cox found herself working as a family engagement specialist in the school system. She worked with families, especially children with incarcerated parents, for nearly a decade.

In 2005, Cox suffered the greatest loss when her oldest son, Joseph Tirado was murdered on May 21, near Skiddy Park in the city. She sees the hopelessness and devastation she felt after losing her son mirrored back by many city residents, Cox said. It has also strengthened her resolve to give back to the community.

Rachel Titus-Cox keeps a photo of her son, Joseph Tirado, who was murdered in 2005, on her windshield to keep him close. Titus-Cox is the senior program manager of Urban Strategies, Inc., trying to bridge the gap between community residents and resources. Credit: Michelle Gabel | Central Current

“I just feel like Syracuse, the city itself, has taken a lot from me. But at the same time… the trauma of these families, I see myself there, and I just want to be able to help,” she said. “If I can help them to see the bigger picture, or to try to get the positive out of something negative, then it’ll be worth it to me.”

Residents are often shocked to see her return despite the tragedy. But a strong desire to give back to her community has kept Cox rooted. The redevelopment is necessary to connect residents to opportunities that will support economic mobility, she said.

“I just want to be a part of the history and see how it all comes together,” Cox added. 

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Debadrita Sur is a multimedia journalist and Report for America corps member who reports on the I-81 project and public housing for Central Current. In 2023, Sur graduated with a master’s degree in journalism...