Mayor Walsh Releases Syracuse Housing Strategy

Published on April 24, 2024

Mayor says 70-page plan “is a smart framework to accomplish the massive challenge of revitalizing the city’s housing stock”

Community can learn more about the strategy at an open house on April 30

Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh released the Syracuse Housing Strategy, a multi-year framework for improving housing conditions in the City of Syracuse. The strategy calls for “additive new work” that builds on major initiatives currently underway, including the Resurgent Neighborhoods Initiative, the East Adams neighborhood redevelopment, and the Community Grid Vision Plan, as well as major programs like the Syracuse Land Bank and Downtown revitalization efforts.

“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 Mayor Walsh. “The strategy also recognizes we are doing a lot of things right already and encourages continued commitment to those neighborhood initiatives. 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.”

According to the strategy, “almost 100% of the old way of doing community development will have to be shelved. Resistance to such change is to be expected. Without such change, Syracuse’s housing markets will not begin to truly recover nor get to a point where they are able to withstand the new and different demographic and other challenges headed Syracuse’s way.”

The 70-page 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 proposes using a “cluster approach” to implement strategies in groupings of 30-50 contiguous city blocks with similar market conditions and neighborhood identities.

The strategy includes a foreword by world-renowned urbanist and city planner, Alan Mallach: “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. 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. 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. I am confident that they will succeed in that effort.”

The Syracuse Housing Strategy, developed based on significant community and stakeholder input in conjunction with the planning firm, czb, is available online at syracusehousingstudy.com.

The Department of Neighborhood and Business Development will hold a community open house regarding the strategy on Tuesday, April 30 from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Northeast Community Center, 716 Hawley Avenue.