Pioneer Homes is pictured. Credit: Mike Greenlar | Central Current

Amid a one-time expansion of the Section 8 program, almost 150 families considered looking for new housing at a time when housing advocates say the supply of quality housing in Onondaga County is running dry.

Only 34 families — all living in public housing on the city’s Southside that could be sandwiched by the removal of the Interstate 81 viaduct and the redevelopment of public housing — took the Syracuse Housing Authority up on the offer to temporarily relocate elsewhere in Onondaga County. Only five of those families have signed a lease, so far SHA Executive Director William Simmons said.

SHA, which administers Section 8, received $5 million in the summer of 2025 to expand the voucher program and temporarily relocate residents who want to move away from Pioneer Homes and avoid the woes of construction.

The lack of families finding housing is indicative of the dearth of housing in Syracuse that meets habitability standards set by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, said CNY Fair Housing Executive Director Sally Santangelo. 

Santangelo said most of the city’s new housing stock is either high-end student housing or would be out of the price range of Section 8 tenants.

Families seeking housing outside the city, where Santangelo said options are limited, would likely face new challenges, she added. They would need transportation to access resources they relied on in the city.

The region already struggles with housing discrimination for Section 8 voucher-holders, said Santangelo and CNY Fair Housing policy manager Alex Lawson. They are worried an influx of families seeking housing through the program would result in more cases of housing discrimination where landlords refuse Section 8 vouchers — an illegal act of discrimination, Santangelo said. 

“Whether they’re saying we won’t take your voucher, or they’re saying we don’t know how to take your voucher, it has the same effect,” Santangelo said. “It’s keeping people from renting that and that’s something that we’re seeing a lot of.”

The expansion comes as the removal of 1.4 miles of the Interstate 81 viaduct ramps up and could disrupt the lives of residents of Pioneer Homes. 

The temporary relocation of Pioneer Homes residents is the latest in a series of staggered moves orchestrated by SHA, the state and the federal government to minimize the disruption of residents’ lives as the I-81 project transforms the area.

McKinney Manor residents have already moved out to pave the way for that redevelopment. The overall project is a $1 billion undertaking that would end with the redevelopment of public housing on the city’s Southside taking place across 11 phases. 

Families who use the relocation vouchers can return to SHA’s new housing projects once construction is complete, Simmons said. 

Expansion of Section 8 program amid HUD cuts

SHA’s expansion of the vouchers program comes at a critical juncture in the lifespan of the program. President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress have released fiscal proposals that, if implemented, would see cuts to hundreds of thousands of Section 8 vouchers across America. 

The Republican U.S. House of Representatives majority would fund Section 8 at 2025 levels, which does not account for increases to rent. According to a report from Capital and Main, the shortfall could lead to more than 400,000 households not receiving rental assistance through HCV. 

In the U.S. Senate, the Republicans’ proposal would provide more funding than its House counterpart, but not enough to keep up with rising rent. That could result in almost 250,000 households not receiving Section 8 vouchers, according to the report.

In May, Central Current reported on a budget proposal made by President Donald Trump’s administration that could severely cut Section 8 and reimagine the program altogether. 

Congress has until Jan. 30, when the current measure used in November to reopen the government expires, to decide how they will fund Section 8 and other programs. 

News of devastating cuts have sent national and local housing advocates into panic because the Section 8 program shields millions of Americans from homelessness. 

And even then, in its current state, the program only allows one in four eligible families to receive vouchers due to long waitlists, according to Will Fischer, a Senior Fellow and the Director of Housing Policy at Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

“I think it’s really important that [Congress] know that the consequences would be really severe,” Fischer told Central Current. 

In Syracuse, about 3,600 households use SHA’s Section 8 vouchers.

Simmons said the vouchers expansion for temporary relocation was funded by HUD vouchers that were “recaptured from other housing authorities that did not spend them.”

SHA received the vouchers in July and had until the end of 2025 to assign them to families.

Initially, 54 of the 144 households identified by SHA accepted these expansion program vouchers. Another 32 households opted to relocate to a SHA housing unit away from the construction. These families are now looking for housing all over Onondaga County. They will pay 30% of their monthly income for rent while the voucher covers the rest. 

Typically, Section 8 tenants have 120 days to find housing but SHA often has the option for them to extend beyond the timeline amid a tight housing market, said La’Shonda Young, the director of Section 8 program at SHA. 

The new expansion program vouchers do not have a time limit for residents to return as long as families declare an interest in using the vouchers to move. 

The majority of the families are looking for one bedroom homes, Young said. 

“It just takes time to find housing,” Young said.

The remaining 90 vouchers will go to families currently on the Section 8 waitlist, Young said. 

SHA will pay about $1,500 per person for the 34 residents who are currently looking to move. The funding will be available through a federal grant. 

New local program to overcome housing challenges

Moving presents a new set of challenges for families. Households will likely have to weigh trying to look for housing in the city, where a bulk of supporting social services are concentrated but quality housing is more limited, and the outer areas in Onondaga County with more appealing housing stock but more sparse access to safety net support. 

As families ponder where to relocate, SHA and advocates with CNY Fair Housing say they want to help households have a choice on where they can move. Young said families often need help with transportation if they are moving further away from the city, where public transit is most dynamic, and financially as they try to pay for a security deposit — not covered through the voucher program. 

“That dislocation can be disruptive,” Lawson said, regarding families moving away from the city. “We are interested in people having the housing opportunities they want for themselves.”

CNY Fair Housing recently started its mobility counseling program, which pairs voucher holding families with children with a counselor who can help households assess their housing options away from the city in areas classified by New York state as “well-resourced areas.” 

HCR designates these areas based on an index that combines economic, educational, and demographic neighborhood factors. In Onondaga County, only the Syracuse suburbs are classified as well-resourced areas, according to a map on the agency’s website. 

Counselors can provide families enrolled in the program with financial assistance to cover a security deposit, application fees, and moving costs.

They also help improve residents’ credit scores to be able to clear property owners’ screening processes. The program also helps families find resources like recreation programs, and facilitate school enrollment for children in the household.

HCR’s index of factors for designating areas as “well-resourced” are weighted mostly by academic scholarship research that shows children living in better-resourced neighborhoods are more likely than their peers to find financial and social successes as adults, according to the agency’s website.

Santangelo said the organization launched the program in late November and has so far had five families enrolled and one in the pipeline. Two of those families are from Pioneer Homes. 

Through outreach and some incentives, the organization is hoping to partner with landlords to help residents find housing within their desired timeline. 

Santangelo said the program can help pay for a month of rent for landlords to hold a property while they await an inspection from the housing authority. Section 8 properties are subject to the housing quality standards benchmark set by HUD. The housing quality standards inspections differ from local and state property code and target 13 key areas.

HUD’s quality standards require a house have the following: 

  • A functional bathroom with hot and cold running water
  • A kitchen with a working sink and space for food storage 
  • Enough living space and working locks on doors and windows
  • A workable heating system
  • Rooms with adequate lighting and a number of working electrical outlets 
  • Safe structures and weather-tight surfaces
  • Proper interior air quality
  • A sanitary supply of running water
  • No lead paint
  • Appropriate entry and exit points 
  • Located in a safe neighborhood
  • Free of pest infestations and debris
  • Proper working smoke alarms

The program can also help landlords address any disrepair by granting them up to $3,000 for repairs. 

As residents prepare to find new homes, Santangelo said CNY Fair Housing will continue its proactive testing of housing opportunities to weed out and correct discriminatory practices from landlords. 

“It’s been creating this real chilling effect and this is something we see in our casting frequently,” Santangelo said. “There are really no excuses anymore to not be aware of the law and to not follow.”

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Eddie Velazquez is a Syracuse journalist covering economic justice in the region. He is focused on stories about organized labor, and New York's housing and childhood lead poisoning crises. You can follow...

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...