The city of Syracuse has failed its first attempt to win a competitive $50 million federal grant to start the proposed $1 billion renovation of the neighborhood in the shadow of Interstate 81.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has denied an application, made by the city and the Syracuse Housing Authority, for a competitive Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant, city officials said.
The denial was based on a technicality, not on the merits of the application, city officials said.
HUD requires that projects be built within a single, defined time period within six years. Because this project must be coordinated with the removal of the I-81 viaduct, it requires two phases. HUD officials also did not approve of the boundaries Syracuse officials drew to avoid staging areas for construction of the highway.
Deputy Mayor Sharon Owens and Syracuse Housing Authority Director Bill Simmons said they were confident their approach was possible after consulting with HUD officials. But in the end, their application was denied before HUD staff even visited the site.
“It is a pure technicality,” Owens said. “We knew about it and thought that we could create a plan that would address it because we know our community.”
Owens and Simmons said they were disappointed and disagreed with the decision. Still, they vowed to move forward the project, which is much bigger than the $50 million grant. They intend to use state money, from a non-competitive program at Homes and Community Renewal agency for the first phase.
They are considering whether to reapply for the HUD grant this year or next year for a later phase that can be done at once to fit HUD’s guidelines.
“We’re going to go forward with the development plan, especially phases one and two, using the state dollars,” Simmons said.
The money would have been used to demolish public housing owned by the Syracuse Housing Authority and build new. The first phase includes tearing down 293 apartments in McKinney Manor and Pioneer Homes. The proposal is to build 611 new units, including a new apartment building on vacant land, that would be open to current public housing residents and available for anyone to rent at market prices.
In the second phase, the rest of Pioneer Homes – the ones closest to I-81 – would come down. A third phase would include the demolition of Central Village. The Almus Olver Towers, a senior residence, would be remodeled.
The apartments are the oldest public housing in New York state, built in 1938.
The Syracuse Housing Authority has asked HUD to supply 293 vouchers for current residents to use in the new apartments, other Syracuse housing or anywhere in the country, according to the application.
Rebuilding public housing is the first step in what has become an $800 million to $1 billion plan to rebuild a distressed 27-block, 118-acre neighborhood of public and private property that stretches from East Adams to East Colvin streets and from I-81 to Midland Avenue.
In total, 1,591 units would be renovated or replaced, according to the grant application.
It is an ambitious plan that seeks to lift the residents of the former 15th Ward out of poverty. The once-vibrant Black community was split and disadvantaged in the 1950s and 1960s, when the elevated section of I-81 was built through downtown Syracuse.
The median household income in the community is about $16,000, compared to $38,000 across the city. The neighborhood suffers from high crime rates, underperforming schools, unemployment, inadequate childcare and diminished access to food, according to the application.
After years of study, the state and federal governments have started a $2.25 billion plan to tear down the highway and drop traffic to street level through the heart of the city.
Elected officials at every level of government have said that tearing down a highway presents an opportunity to right the social injustices of the past.
In addition to the HUD grant, the city and housing authority intend to seek millions more from the state, private and philanthropic sources.
The neighborhood remodel is led by a non-profit called Blueprint 15. The nonprofit was formed by the city, the Syracuse Housing Authority and the Allyn Foundation, which is using money from the sale of Welch Allyn to fight poverty. The developer is McCormack Baron Salazar, which has worked on 16 similar projects using Choice Neighborhood grants.
In January, when the city applied for the grant, Owens pointed to the developer’s experience with this kind of HUD grant as a reason to be optimistic about the city’s probable success.
No city in New York state has ever won the grant.
Finalists this year include the cities of Omaha, Nebraska; Durham, N.C.; East St. Louis, Illinois; Knoxville, Tennessee; and Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Read more:
Syracuse embarks on $800 million plan to end public housing as we know it
I-81: Upstate NY’s biggest highway project is about to start, but maybe not where you think
How will the new I-81 affect your commute? See estimated travel times for Syracuse area
Syracuse Mayor Walsh to state: I-81 community grid should feel like city streets, not a highway
Save 81: Powerful forces masked as grassroots movement fight to keep interstate through Syracuse
Contact Michelle Breidenbach | mbreidenbach@syracuse.com | 315-470-3186.