By: Mark Weiner | mweiner@syracuse.com & Michelle Breidenbach | mbreidenbach@syracuse.com

Syracuse will receive a $50 million grant from the federal government to help kick start an ambitious plan to redevelop one of the nation’s poorest neighborhoods when Interstate 81 is torn down.

U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand said Friday they confirmed Syracuse will receive the long-sought grant for the $1.1 billion redevelopment of the city’s historic 15th Ward.

Syracuse failed in its first attempt in 2022 to win the highly competitive grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. City officials said the initial rejection was based on a technicality over timing, not on the merits of the application.

Now HUD plans to announce next week that Syracuse will be among only six cities in the nation to receive funding from its Choice Neighborhoods program, Schumer said Friday.

The program aims to help rebuild struggling neighborhoods with distressed public housing.

A total of 28 cities applied for grants from the program. Nine finalists, including Syracuse, were selected this spring. Each city was eligible for up to $50 million.

The other finalists were Houston, Philadelphia, Miami, Las Vegas, Trenton, N.J., Chattanooga, Fayetteville, N.C., and Huntsville, Ala.

Schumer said the $50 million for Syracuse is one of the largest single investments for housing in the city’s history.

The city, Syracuse Housing Authority and a private foundation are working together on a plan to replace 672 units of public housing with 1,404 units of mixed-income housing and new streets over the next 10 years.https://4b47724d791fad1844a5ec1864f36606.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-40/html/container.html

Planners envision a new neighborhood with a stadium for high school sports, a health center, and urban parks and gardens in an area spanning 27 blocks and 118 acres.

The city learned earlier this week that it can expect to receive $6.7 million from the federal government to help develop a key anchor for the neighborhood – a new YMCA and center focused on children and families.

The two-story Children Rising Center would include an early learning and child care center with slots for 112 children, the YMCA and a space for parents and children to play modeled on The Play Space in Auburn.

Schumer, D-N.Y., said the HUD grant will help reinvigorate a neighborhood torn apart by the construction of the elevated section of Interstate 81 in the 1950s and 1960s. The highway split and disadvantaged a once-vibrant Black community.

Schumer, the Senate majority leader, said the federal government is obligated through its funding to “right that historical urban planning wrong” that divided the neighborhood.

“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,” Schumer said. “An investment in building a vibrant Syracuse for when the walls of I-81 come down.”

Gillibrand, D-N.Y., who advocated for the $50 million grant with Schumer, said it will spark a development that will ultimately lead to a more equitable Syracuse and bring new life to the East Adams Street corridor.

Greg Loh, a spokesman for Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh, said city officials cannot comment on the grant award until they are formally notified by HUD. That has not yet happened, he said.

Syracuse Housing Authority Director Bill Simmons could not be reached for comment Friday morning.

The neighborhood redevelopment plan will coincide with the $2.25 billion project to tear down a 1.4-mile elevated section of Interstate 81 that runs through the heart of Syracuse.

The highway traffic will be rerouted around the city and replaced in Syracuse with a street-level boulevard.

The separate redevelopment plan for the neighborhood will build new public housing alongside mixed-income housing. The plan would demolish Pioneer Homes, a nearly 100-year-old public housing complex, and nearby McKinney Manor.

All residents of Pioneer Homes and McKinney Manor will be given the first priority to return to new apartments.

Planners say the goal is to help lift the residents of the former 15th Ward out of poverty. The median household income in the community is about $16,000, compared to $38,000 across the city. The neighborhood includes the poorest ZIP code in Syracuse.

It’s a major reason why a 2015 study found Syracuse had the nation’s highest rate of extreme poverty concentrated among Blacks and Hispanics.

The city’s initial application for the HUD grant cited the neighborhood’s high crime rate, underperforming schools, unemployment, inadequate childcare and diminished access to food.

See plans to rebuild Syracuse public housing

Simmons, the Syracuse Housing Authority director, previously said he hoped the federal grant would start to open more doors for funding.

“What happens is, it’s all about leveraging, and a lot of times nobody wants to be the first money in, but if you get a $50 million grant, okay, everybody starts ponying up to make sure this thing happens,” Simmons said just before the HUD application was submitted in February.

Schumer said the exact breakdown of how the $50 million will be allocated for the redevelopment must still be negotiated with HUD.

Some of the money will fund public projects such as The Children Rising Center, green space and a workforce training program, he said.

The first phase of the project, expected to start next year and cost $69 million, will replace public housing. Developers will tear down the first 25 units of McKinney Manor on Angelou Terrace and build 133 new units. The new building is scheduled to be ready for tenants in 2026.

Applications for HUD grants are usually supported by dozens of letters of support from big employers, social service agencies and other entities that provide jobs and support in the neighborhood.

One of those commitment letters for the Syracuse project caused controversy earlier this year. SUNY Upstate Medical University had included in its letter a proposal to build an optometry school in place of some public housing.

The Syracuse Housing Authority and SUNY dropped that idea after public outcry.