Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh released this week a new Syracuse housing strategy that calls for a multi-year framework for improving housing conditions in the city .
"The Syracuse Housing Strategy is a smart framework to accomplish the massive challenge of revitalizing the city's housing stock. It presents interventions that will breathe new life into city neighborhoods," said Walsh. "The strategy also recognizes we are doing a lot of things right already and encourages continued commitment to those neighborhood initiatives."
According to the Walsh, almost 100% of the old way of doing community development will have to be shelved. Resistance to such change is to be expected.
"It challenges us, though, to make difficult and disruptive choices to use the limited resources we have available in ways that will make more Syracuse neighborhoods attractive for new residents and private investment," said Walsh.
Without such change, according to Walsh, Syracuse's housing markets will not be able to recover or withstand new and different demographics and other challenges headed Syracuse's way.
The plan recommends focusing the city's housing resources on both stabilizing "distressed" neighborhoods to prevent further decline and investing in "middle" neighborhoods to leverage current and potential market demand for quality housing.
It suggests using a "cluster approach" to implement strategies in groupings of 30-50 contiguous city blocks with similar market conditions and neighborhood identities.
"Too often, cities faced with limited resources, and neighborhood groups competing for their share of that modest pool, see the two strategies outlined in the report as a zero-sum proposition," said Alan Mallach, a city planner. "Some argue that the city should focus entirely on strategies that build a stronger economy, while others argue that fairness dictates that the city should put its resources where the greatest needs exist, and let others manage on their own.”
Findings from the 2023 Syracuse Housing study revealed that nearly every housing challenge that exists in Syracuse is tied to having either a market or affordability gap.
"Neither makes sense, because in the end neither approach leads to a healthy, sustainable city. As the report makes clear, Syracuse needs to find the balance between the two," Mallach said.
The Draft Syracuse Housing Strategy has been posted online and community open house will take place on April 30 for community input. The strategy still is subject to public input and a vote from the Common Council down the road.