The City of Syracuse is finalizing a strategy to invest about $25 million in the Tipp Hill and the Salt Springs neighborhoods to secure them. It'll pay for home loans, land acquisition and demolition as well as basic repairs.

Members of the Syracuse Common Council punted on approving the city’s plan to address housing quality and affordability at Monday’s council meeting. 

The vote on the city’s housing strategy was delayed by Councilor Rasheada Caldwell. She said a lack of public outreach in one of the neighborhoods targeted by the housing strategy led to her decision.

Caldwell said she would withhold her vote for the strategy until city officials explain the outcomes of and the process behind the housing plan to residents of Salt Springs and its surrounding neighborhoods. 

The city’s plan is to revitalize middle-income neighborhoods in the city through beautification and housing improvements to grow Syracuse’s struggling tax base while spurring private investment.

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“In order for us to make a housing strategy that is effective for everyone we have to make sure that everyone who is going to be affected knows about it,” Caldwell said. “I think we haven’t done that yet. So until we do that, I will object.”

The strategy, first proposed in January, and is based on a report commissioned by the city and done by consultant czb LLC. The firm found it would take more than $1 billion to fix the market’s affordability and quality.

During the initial phase of the strategy, the plans to spend $25 million to improve homes by giving funds to homeowners who otherwise wouldn’t be able to spruce up their homes in two neighborhoods: Tipperary Hill and Salt Springs. The city has already secured $7.5 million to get the first phase underway, which is planned for 2025.

The goal of the strategy is to spur investment in several of the city’s middle-income neighborhoods. The study found these neighborhoods to be teetering between prosperity and blight and investment could secure them for the future and increase the city’s struggling tax base. 

Caldwell said that while she supports the housing strategy, the city did not do enough outreach with constituents on the city’s east side, including Salt Springs. She said she has fielded calls and messages from residents of the area asking about the plan’s effects and implementation.

Caldwell added that she wants taxpayers to know where their money is going and how it is being invested.

“They’re telling you they’re coming in the neighborhood, but then you get missed out. It’s not fair,” Caldwell said. “I think it’s only fair that people understand what is going to happen in their neighborhoods.”

Syracuse residents largely agree with proposed housing strategy but want more for tenants

The city hosted two open houses on the strategy, answering questions from community members and presenting the prospective plan to residents: one took place at the end of April at the Northeast Community Center on Hawley Avenue. The city then hosted another session in May at the Beauchamp Branch Library on South Salina Street in May. There was also a meeting about planning the housing strategy in January at the Peacemaking Center on Tully Street.

Council President Pro Tempore Patrick Hogan, who represents the city’s second district, said the city has been working on the strategy for about 18 months. He was surprised and said he expected the measure to be approved by the council Monday.

“I thought it was ready to go. Everybody thought it was ready to go,” he said. “It is a bad look for us. It’s a bad look for our commitment to new housing in the city and addressing the housing crisis.”

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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...