A study that showed most residents can’t afford market-rate housing in the city of Syracuse has led to the creation of a new public entity meant to help developers build and renovate housing. Syracuse lawmakers Monday approved the creation of the Syracuse Housing Trust Fund.
Common Councilor Pat Hogan said this is a big first step in addressing the housing crisis in the city of Syracuse.
“I look at this thing as an essence, a bank," Hogan said. "And if we can garner funding and that'll be an issue, we'll be recurring revenue. We're going to get $5 million in the state. But we feel fairly confident that this will be a place where we're going to be able to put money into, and be able to address the gap financing issues, that a lot of these developers have."
Lawmakers also created an advisory board to determine how funds will be distributed. Neighborhood and Business Development Deputy Commissioner Michelle Sczpanski said this is one component of an overall housing strategy; noting it’s important because it fills the gaps in funding for developers that aren’t served by current programs.
"I think one example of that is local rental property owners. There's very few programs that we have that are well designed to meet some of those needs," Sczpanski said. "There's some of the needs that we have particularly around like lead remediation. That's one area where there's a lot of funding gaps that aren't conducive to solving the problem as efficiently as we could otherwise."
While the advisory board begins meeting in early 2024, Sczpanski said the city will share a new housing strategy in April that could help determine where funds are needed most.
