Syracuse adjusting to risk of losing “essential” housing repair funding

By Bobby Manning

Before Christmas, Paulette Jones noticed her roof leaking in two different rooms. Her century-old house, in her family for four generations, needed repairs totaling $60,000. Less than two months later, her heat went out, a $17,000 fix. She soon needed to replace windows surrounded by lead paint, feet from where her grandchildren play.

The issues threatened Jones’ home, but ultimately saved her tens of thousands of dollars when she discovered community development block grants (CDBGs). The funds reduced her burden to approximately $30 and $40 monthly payments while modernizing her aging building.

Jones’ city, Syracuse, receives over $4 million in CDBG annually from the government to combat housing issues. That funding has decreased over time, according to Syracuse officials, and President Donald Trump’s administration tried to eliminate it entirely. The city’s CDBG manager said that Syracuse may not be able to adjust to life without them, but it’s being forced to anyway.

Trump’s 2019 budget proposal stated that the grants “failed to demonstrate effectiveness” and local governments need to take responsibility for housing. Given Syracuse’s old, large, lead-contaminated houses and prevalent poverty, Karen Schroeder of Home HeadQuarters said the grant helps promote homeownership and its associated positive social benefits.

“We're hiring these local contractors for every one of these federal dollars,” she said. “There's such a trickle-down impact to our economy here that I think people forget that it's not just a handout.”

Home HeadQuarters received 43.2 percent of Syracuse’s nearly $5 million allotment for 2019 and 2020 in the city’s budget. The company lends to low-income residents who are up to date on taxes and bills, Schroeder said, adding that many of them probably couldn’t fund repairs through bank loans.

“If I'm gonna take out a loan for 60-grand what am I gonna do?” Jones asked, bursting into laughter. “Or 17 grand for the furnaces. I would be eating bread and water. That program, like I said, I thank God for it.”

Jones lives upstairs from her daughter and her three kids. Her mother, Lula, owned three houses on W. Belden Avenue. She moved into her current house about 40 years ago, giving its restoration sentimental value.

Pointing to a furnace that had been use since 1910, Jones said her heat failed during the polar vortex in January that pushed wind chills below zero degrees. Her roof was under construction, so she went to the county’s energy organization and in six hours received no help. When she reached out to Home HeadQuarters on a contractor’s suggestion, she signed some forms and qualified for emergency home repair.

Syracuse allocated $1.42 million, 29.1 percent of the entire CDBG, to the Urgent Care program. The rest covers Home HeadQuarters’ ramp installation, down payment assistance and homeowner counseling, per the city’s plan. 56.9 percent of funding is spread across 28 other groups.

Each grant reduction causes them all bear a percentage of the cut, said Wenona Timmons, the CDBG director in Syracuse. She’s advocated for the non-profits to work together to secure outside grant funding.

Schroeder said that she made other non-profits sign a letter of support for the program. Congress then included CDBG funding in the previous two budgets, and even raised the amount from $4 million last year to $4.8 million for May 1, 2019 through April 30, 2020.

“I don't really think that the conservatives or the Republicans really understood the programming and how much impact it has on cities in poverty,” Timmons said.

Schroeder remembered when people lined up around the corner of her building to receive up to $3,000 in subsidized loans for code violation and other home repairs under a program called SHARP that gets $250,000. She said it’s usually gone in five days.

Worcester, MA, a city of comparable size and population, also saw CDBG funding decrease annually, according to Andrew Taylor, a housing official with the city. Worcester, like Syracuse, is battling aging, large homes with code violations.

"Without these resources,” he said. “Cities would be able to provide the bare minimum to its residents.”

These grants impact more than housing, as cities fund schools, public safety and infrastructure, Taylor argued. Those become strained when they add housing to its budget.

Bob Sekowsky, whose Syracuse-based Empire Housing rehabilitates or rebuilds decaying homes, said its $50,000 CDBG is used for staff salaries. Empire buys fewer homes to repair themselves since the reductions. He said Syracuse received roughly $10 million in CDBG funding 25 years ago.

“Although the prices, costs have gone up,” he said. “The funds have gone down and the agencies like us are competing for a smaller pot of money and trying to do the same kind of work which is more expensive to do than it was back then. It's crazy to cut those funds.”

CDBG began in 1974, when President Gerald Ford said in its unveiling press conference that local communities should decide their own housing needs. Now, Trump’s housing administration wants them to do the same, only without federal money.

“Some people might just put that repair off,” Schroeder said, imagining Syracuse without CDBG. “If you allow a roof to continue leaking, you're essentially saying that that person has a limited time to stay in that house.”