HUD awards $50 million to help redevelop Syracuse public housing near I-81

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The Syracuse Housing Authority (SHA) and the City of Syracuse will use a $50 million federal grant to improve the East Adams neighborhood near Interstate 81 (I-81) in the City’s 15th Ward. This funding comes through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Choice Neighborhoods Initiative program, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D–N.Y.) and U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D–N.Y.) said Friday in a joint announcement. The lawmakers calling the grant “one of the largest single federal housing investments in Syracuse’s history.” The money will help pay for the redevelopment of more than 600 aging public-housing units into new, affordable, mixed-income housing units as part of the East Adams transformation project. The project also involves related community improvements, including enhancing green space, workforce training, the Children Rising Center, education opportunity, and business development. “Today the federal government is making one of the single largest housing investments in Syracuse’s history. I am proud to deliver a whopping $50 million to create and preserve hundreds of units of much-needed affordable housing in Syracuse,” Schumer said in the announcement. “This isn’t just an investment in new affordable housing, it is a critical investment in our families via education, workforce training, and business development. An investment in building a vibrant Syracuse for when the walls of I-81 come down.” Schumer’s office describes Syracuse’s East Adams neighborhood as bounded by I-81 to the east, East Adams Street to the north, Midland Avenue to the west, and Colvin Street to the south.