News & INSIGHTS

Oswego, N.Y. — Paul Stewart knows a thing or two about fixing up neighborhoods. Over the years, he’s helped hundreds of homeowners across 40 city blocks improve their houses.

His work in Oswego could prove an example toward improving Syracuse’s housing stock.

Stewart, a psychology professor at SUNY Oswego, is the head of the Oswego Renaissance Association, a neighborhood improvement group that issues grants to homeowners and landlords to fix up the exteriors of their properties.

The program relies on neighbors to band together and pledge to improve their homes over the course of a summer. In return, they get matching grants to help pay for the work.

Last summer, neighbors on 14 city blocks participated in the program. Some installed new stonework and flower beds. Others transformed their porches from battered to brand-new with some new flooring, stairs and banisters.

John Rice was able to hire contractors to fix up his landscaping and replace his shutters through the program last year. He and several of his neighbors who live at West 3rd and Prospect streets have worked with the group for multiple years.

“The people are very easy to work with,” Rice said.

In the end, the association and homeowners spent $356,381 last year helping over 112 homeowners fix up their properties.

And that was just one summer.

In 12 years, the effort has meant $6 million of improvements for houses across 40 blocks, helping hundreds of homeowners in this city of 17,000.

The program focuses on four target zones in the city with a lot of middle-market housing, blocks with homes that needs sprucing up but aren’t yet unsafe or abandoned. “They’re in between, they’re transitional,” Stewart said.

It’s a similar approach to the Syracuse Housing Strategy leaders are implementing in the Salt City.

In fact, Syracuse’s Division of Neighborhood and Business Development has reached out to Stewart to see how his work in Oswego could translate to Syracuse’s housing strategy.

Already, Syracuse last year formed the Syracuse Housing Strategies Corporation.

The board, much like the Oswego Renaissance Association, will issue financial grants to improve middle-market neighborhoods.

It’s already selected four neighborhoods to start work on: the first wave consists of Tipperary Hill and Salt Springs; the second wave consists of Eastwood and Elmwood.

The board is working on finalizing its plans for Salt Springs by the end of this spring. Homeowners in Salt Springs can begin applying for grants this fall. They can send questions and input to the board at goto.syr.gov/housing-survey.

How it works in Oswego

Stewart runs the group under “the Healthy Neighborhoods Approach,” a method by Baltimore neighborhood strategist David Boehlke in the late 1970s. The core concept behind the approach is motivating neighbors to take an active role in improving their community.

Applicants must recruit five to 15 properties to commit to “the Renaissance Block Challenge” to qualify for a grant to improve their block.

Each grant matches half of the homeowner’s investment, up to $1,000. For example, if a property owner spends $2,000, the group matches that with a $1,000 grant, the maximum given. Homeowners on the corners of intersections can receive up to $500 more.

The money for the grants comes from donations from local businesses and institutions such as the Richard S. Shineman Foundation and Pathfinder Bank. The Oswego Renaissance Association manages the grants through Invest CNY, a nonprofit run by the regional economic development organization CenterState CEO.

The Oswego association has also received some public funding in the past. In 2021, the Oswego city government awarded them a $20,000 grant to offset the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the group’s fundraising efforts. The money came from the city’s allocation from the American Rescue Plan, the federal government’s pandemic stimulus initiative.

The household that gets their block together for a project is known as the “Block Leader.” They can receive up to $1,500 in matching grants.

Those who want to apply for a paint job can apply on their own and are eligible for a $1,000 matching grant, which they can add onto a block challenge grant.

This map shows four target zones in Oswego, N.Y., where homeowners can apply for small, matching grants to help them paint, landscape, improve siding and do other exterior work. A previous version of this map displayed an incorrect shading for one of Oswego's middle-market housing target areas. It has been updated.Source: Oswego Renaissance Association

Why middle-market is the target

While the Oswego Renaissance Association has proven effective in the middle-market blocks in Oswego, it’s not one-size-fits-all, Stewart cautions.

In areas with high levels of crime, violence, abandonment and distress, the program doesn’t work. Instead, he and his group focus on the blocks at risk of heading there, rather than the already-afflicted areas.

“Traditional community development has a place,” he said. “It’s not that it’s wrong, but it typically focuses on one type of problem, like housing affordability, and usually starts working in the very worst areas first.”

But to ignore the middle-market, Stewart says, is like “if your only medical approach to health is to wait until people get cancer or very sick.”

Cimone Jordan, director of housing and neighborhood planning in Syracuse, agrees. The initiatives, she said, are built on already-existing programs for “the places that need the support the most.”

Improving those middle-market neighborhood helps increase the tax base. It also can act as a feedback loop, with improvements and investments spreading into worse-off areas.

In these middle-market areas, it’s also easier for homeowners to meet up together to discuss how to improve their neighborhood.

But that’s much more difficult in a city like Syracuse, where 60% of its residents rent their homes. Those landlords often don’t live in the blocks they own, if even in the city at all.

To fix this, Jordan said, the city would go through other routes to address non-compliant landlords. For example, if the city deems a rental property unfit, it will pay a contractor for emergency repairs. If the landlord doesn’t pay, that cost ends up on their tax bills.

“We plan to use both carrots and sticks,” Jordan said. “We definitely want to bring landlords along as long as they’re open to collaborating with us.”

Neighbors working together

Getting neighbors to work together to improve their blocks is a vital part of the program, Stewart says.

Meeting with people face-to-face is also crucial. Social capital among neighbors, Stewart says, is key to fixing up a block.

“You have to show that you’re not doing it alone, but your neighbors are doing it with you,” Stewart said.

Real estate agent Connie Ryan continually encourages Oswego residents to apply for grants through the Oswego Renaissance Association. The biggest hurdle, she says, is dispelling the misconception that the projects would increase their property taxes.

“A painted deck and rails won’t increase your property taxes,” she said. Ryan compared the program to “a fresh coat of lipstick” versus a major renovation.

She knows the process well herself — last summer, she applied for a painting grant. After moving to the area, she had bought the house across the street, one she fondly remembered from her childhood, as a rental property.

The grant came through. Now the house is restored to its original deep maroon.