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Affordable Apartments Sprout in 10 Locations on the North and South Ends of Salina St.

Officials cut the ribbon Friday on a project aimed at bringing affordable housing to distinct neighborhoods on both ends of Salina Street.  The nearly $15 million, 49 unit Salina Crossing project is unique in that it encompasses ten scattered site properties.  The northside anchor is a 20-unit building that occupies the site of the old Otisca building.  Housing Visions Vice President Ben Lockwood says they and their partners took a big risk to tear it down before they even had a plan.

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WAER News
The mixed-use, 20-unit on the former site of the Otisca Building at 900 N. McBride St. is the anchor for the northside project.

"It's an example of people getting together, thinking of what's best for the neighborhood, and going out on a limb and doing it," Lockwood said.  "It cost a lot of money.  It was definitely a leap of faith, with the idea that we would get this redeveloped.”                                      

A couple blocks away, Housing Visions rehabilitated a large brick building on North Townsend St. that served many purposes since it was built in 1887.  Originally the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Lodge, it was also the Ernie Davis Center for Adolescent Boys and a community center.  The building was vacant by 2000.  Now, it's a nine-unit apartment building with original wood trim and tin ceilings.  Housing Visions Executive Vice president Rebecca Newman says they had to follow certain standards in order to get federal historic tax credits.  Plus, she says, it just fits better.

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Housing Visions performed its first historic rehab on this building at 832 N. Townsend St. It was built in 1887.

The integrity of the neighborhood intact when you do a restoration like this," Newman said.   "You are keeping with the era of the buildings, and  trying to infill with something that is cheap to build.  You're really thinking about what's in the neighborhood, and making sure you figure out what the community needs.”                              

On the south end of Salina Street, Valerie Taylor says she’s very grateful to have finally found a unit on the corner of Elk Street.  She spent years looking for a decent apartment that fit her budget. 

"It was always something that had to be done, but a lot of the landlords didn't want to do it," Taylor said.  Now I have something affordable and I don't have to worry."

That couldn't please Assemblymember Pam Hunter more.  She and her colleagues in the legislature worked on securing the funding for such projects, which she says are sorely needed in the city's poorest neighborhoods.

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Grateful tenant Valerie Taylor and Assemblymember Pam Hunter.

"People  with TBI [traumatic brain injuries], a disability, or live below the poverty level will now have an opportunity to live in an apartment that is not in squalor, that has adequate heat, adequate insulation , water safety."

Energy efficiency is a big plus for new resident Valerie Taylor.

"The apartment I had, the Ni-Mo was high, and it needed a lot of repairs.  But this apartment is really nice, and it's energy efficient."

While they might seem logical, "scattered site" projects like Salina Crossing can be difficult.  Senior Vice President at National Equity Fund Michael Jacobs says there's a reason...if it's any other developer.

"I see a lot of developers, and the one thing that scares the heck out of most investors is when you say scattered site infill," Jacobs said. "They're the hardest to get done, some of the hardest to manage.  When I first started talking about this project and others we've done, and I mentioned scattered site infill, no one balks when it's Housing Visions."

Scott Willis covers politics, local government, transportation, and arts and culture for WAER. He came to Syracuse from Detroit in 2001, where he began his career in radio as an intern and freelance reporter. Scott is honored and privileged to bring the day’s news and in-depth feature reporting to WAER’s dedicated and generous listeners. You can find him on twitter @swillisWAER and email him at srwillis@syr.edu.