Syracuse, N.Y. — A new Syracuse agency focused on addressing the city’s housing crisis now has a board of directors and a date for its first meeting.
The Syracuse Housing Strategies Corp. publicly launches at 2 p.m. Monday with the first board meeting. The session will be held at Syracuse City Hall in the common council chambers. It’s open to the public and will be broadcast on the city’s YouTube channel.
The board’s primary mission is carrying out the Syracuse Housing Strategy, a long-term plan developed by Mayor Ben Walsh’s administration and approved by the Syracuse Common Council earlier this month to tackle the need to make housing quality better and more affordable.
The strategy targets initial investment of public funds to property owners look to make renovations in middle-income neighborhoods because those areas often can’t access public support, such as low-income housing credits. Syracuse’s Salt Springs and Tipperary Hill neighborhoods will be the first focus areas.
The Syracuse Housing Strategies Corp. will develop the application process and criteria for distributing funds. The city aims to raise $25 million for the effort, and has about $7.5 million so far.
Common Councilors approved the housing agency’s formation at the end of 2023. At the time, the legislation called for seven board seats. That’s since been modified to allow for at least seven and up to nine seats. The makeup includes the mayor, common council president, a district common councilor, an at-large common councilor, two mayoral appointments, a joint appointment by the council president and mayor, the executive director of the Greater Syracuse Land Bank and an executive from a community housing development and lending agency serving the city.
To start, the board has eight of those posts filled. A second mayoral appointee should be made within a few weeks. Here are the appointees so far:
Common Council President Helen Hudson
Mayor Ben Walsh
At-large Common Councilor Rasheada Caldwell
District 4 Common Councilor Patrona Jones-Rowser
District 2 Common Councilor Pat Hogan (mayoral/council president joint appointee)
CenterState CEO President and Chief Executive Officer Rob Simpson (mayoral appointee)
Syracuse Land Bank Executive Director Katelyn Wright
Home HeadQuarters Deputy Executive Director Latoya Allen
The housing agency’s name has changed since it was first authorized. It was originally going to be called the Syracuse Housing Trust Fund Corp., but the state asked the city remove the work “trust” from the name for legal reasons.
Monday’s meeting will essentially be for housekeeping matters to the board launched, said Michelle Sczpanski, deputy commissioner of neighborhood development. Those include swearing in the board members, selecting the board’s officers, creating board committees and adopting policies required by the state.
Sczpanski has said she hopes the board will have a funding application ready for homeowners by July with money distributed by the fall of 2025.
More information on the housing study and strategy is available online at syracusehousingstudy.com.
City reporter Jeremy Boyer can be reached at jboyer@syracuse.com, (315) 657-5673, Twitter or Facebook.