Syracuse Housing Strategy

The completed Syracuse Housing Study was the initial phase of the effort delivered to the Syracuse Common Council in June 2023. The study focused on analyzing the Syracuse housing market and revealed that almost every housing challenge that exists in the city is tied to having either a market or affordability gap.

Market Gap: The cost of generating properly maintained residential real estate in Syracuse exceeds what many households are willing to pay for or improve their housing.

Affordability Gap: The cost of generating properly maintained residential real estate in Syracuse exceeds what many households are able to pay.

These central findings are the foundation of the strategy development work. The most recent draft of the Syracuse Housing Strategy has been released and is open to public input.

The Syracuse Housing Strategy is based on community input and the findings of the Syracuse Housing Study. It provides a multi-year framework for improving housing conditions in the City of Syracuse.

Housing Strategy Recommendations

• Build on City efforts already underway.
• Focus interventions where they are most needed and can be most effective. This includes investing in “middle” neighborhoods while stabilizing “distressed” neighborhoods.
• Focus on blocks/groups of blocks rather than individual properties. This “cluster” approach allows for more strategic and tailored interventions.
• Focus limited resources around targeted areas for maximum impact.

Efforts Already Underway

Significant investments of time and financial resources have been made throughout Syracuse, especially in the city's most distressed neighborhoods. These include:

• Building more affordable housing developments and incentivizing private businesses to do the same.
• Intervention and management of vacant and blighted properties.
• Funding housing and neighborhood programming through development grants.
• Downtown revitalization (Syracuse Downtown Revitalization Initiative).
• Major initiatives including the Community Grid Vision Plan, Resurgent Neighborhoods Initiative, and Connecting the Historic 15th Ward. 
• Public safety efforts and increased code enforcement

Additional Strategy Work

The City must continue to stabilize distressed (Legacy) neighborhoods while making new investments in middle (Asset) neighborhoods. 

With 10 Asset and 13 Legacy areas or "clusters" needing attention, the strategy recommends working in waves as resources become available. Wise spending and careful sequencing will be required. 

Over the course of all waves, the City aims to achieve a 1:1 balance of Asset to Legacy Clusters.

Neighborhood Considerations

The following neighborhoods are in consideration for the first 3 waves of new investments:

Wave 1: Far Westside - Tipp Hill and Salt Springs

Wave 2: Eastwood and Elmwood

Wave 3: Court-Woodlawn

The City of Syracuse commissioned a housing study in 2022 in response to growing concerns about the city’s housing supply and its ability to meet existing and emerging needs. Population growth for the first time in decades, the planned removal of the I-81 viaduct, the expansion of downtown housing opportunities, and the announcement of Micron’s plans for the region were all part of the city’s housing conversation. So, too, were stubbornly high numbers of cost-burdened households and concentrations of poverty, the continued presence of longstanding and deeply engrained inequities, deteriorating housing conditions alongside rising prices, and the city’s inability to seriously compete for regional households.