Syracuse, N.Y. -- Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon joined nonprofit housing groups Thursday to preview 134 units of new affordable housing that are under construction – or soon will be -- in Syracuse.
The county is providing $2.8 million to help pay for the new homes. That’s a small part of the roughly $60 million total cost, but housing developers say they need every penny.
Home HeadQuarters, which will build 43 new homes and rehabilitate 13 others this year, relies on “an alphabet soup’' of different funding sources for each project, said Kerry Quaglia, CEO. The county money will be especially useful to offset cost-overruns that often come up during construction, he said.
“Even with new construction, you always run into something unforeseen,’’ Quaglia said. “These funds will be extreme helpful for those types of issues.’’
Home HeadQuarters expects to complete all 56 units this year, Quaglia said. The housing will be built at scattered sites in the city.
The county is providing $280,000 for the Home HeadQuarters projects through the Onondaga County Housing Initiative Program, known as O-CHIP, which McMahon initiated last year with approval from the legislature. The nonprofit expects the new housing to cost $22.7 million.