News & INSIGHTS

Syracuse, N.Y. – Fewer than one in five Syracuse residents could afford a newly built apartment. Without subsidies, a landlord would have to charge $2,400 a month to make a return on the investment.

That’s one of the preliminary observations from an ongoing study of Syracuse housing that lays out the massive challenges facing city officials as they try to improve the city’s housing and make it more affordable.

Information about the study will be presented to the public tonight and Thursday.

Syracuse faces two related problems, according to the authors: Most residents can’t afford market-rate housing; and the cost to rehab existing homes often exceeds what they are worth.

Housing consultants rated each Syracuse neighborhood by the exterior condition of its houses. The green lines indicate well-kept homes; orange signals "unhealthy" lack of maintenance.

So far, the study by CZB LLC, a Maine-based planning consultant, does not include recommendations for how to overcome those obstacles. The final report, due in June, is intended to guide city officials as they develop long-term housing strategies.

But CZB has pulled together data that paints a stark picture:

• Some 46% of Syracuse households earn less than $35,000 a year, and most of them are “cost burdened,’’ meaning they pay more than 30% of their income on housing.

• A survey of the more than 35,000 residential properties in Syracuse found that one-third showed signs of “chronic disinvestment.” Only four of the city’s 28 neighborhoods – Winkworth, Meadowbrook, Sedgwick and Strathmore – scored well for exterior upkeep.

• Syracuse has about 7,500 unoccupied housing units, or 11% of the total, according to Census Bureau statistics. Many are “obsolete and no longer on the market,’’ the study says.

• A landlord would likely charge $2,400 rent for a newly built apartment unless it was subsidized. Only 18% of Syracuse households could afford that.

• A landlord would likely charge $1,800 a month for a renovated apartment, without subsidies. Only 27% of residents could afford that.

A fundamental problem in Syracuse is that most houses are not worth fixing up, from an investor’s viewpoint, the report says.

Even in the most desirable city neighborhoods – Winkworth, say, or Meadowbrook – major renovations are unlikely to add more than $78,000 to a home’s value, on average. The cost of a major rehab averages more like $250,000, the report says.

“Only in some outlier cases will such investments make sense from a strict return-on-investment standpoint,’’ the study says.

In the poorest neighborhoods, the problem is even worse. Just bringing a distressed house into compliance with building codes is estimated to cost an average of $92,500, the study says. But the value added to the house would be more like $14,600.

This so-called “market gap’' is something Syracuse housing agencies are well acquainted with.

Home HeadQuarters, the nonprofit housing agency, typically spends $375,000 to $400,000 to build a new, 1,600-square-foot home in Syracuse, said Karen Schroeder, a spokesperson. The agency sells them to income-qualified buyers for $125,000 to $150,000, relying on a myriad of subsidies to cover the rest.

Without subsidies, the cost of building or rehabbing apartments would require rents too high for most Syracuse residents to pay, a new study says.

The problems facing Syracuse evolved over many decades, beginning with red-lining practices during the 1930s that established racial and economic housing barriers that continue to this day, the study says. The suburbanization of Onondaga County that began in the 1950s further concentrated poverty in Syracuse and eroded investments in city housing.

“No understanding of the history of housing and suburbanization in the Syracuse region (or any region) is complete without an understanding of the role that racial segregation played in limiting the housing and economic opportunities of Black residents,’’ the study says. “Segregated settlement patterns that spanned the 20th century persist well into the 21st.”

City officials selected CZB for the study after issuing a request for proposals. The $261,000 cost is being paid for out of federal stimulus money from the American Rescue Plan Act.

Syracuse’s long struggles with poverty and housing disinvestment are familiar problems, but CZB’s work to quantify the issues with hard data will help city officials refine housing strategies, said Michelle Sczpanksi, deputy commissioner of Neighborhood and Business Development.

Housing development requires “a pretty delicate balancing act’' to support rising home values without causing gentrification, Sczpanksi said. The more objective information officials have, the better.

Members of the public can ask questions or make comments about the study at two informational meetings this week.

Representatives from CZB and the office of Neighborhood Business and Development will provide information 6 to 7:30 p.m. tonight at Southwest Community Center, 401 South Ave.; and 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday at City Hall Commons Atrium, 233 E. Washington St.