Syracuse, N.Y. -- Atayia Jones moved into her own one-bedroom apartment on West Onondaga Street a couple of months ago after living a couple of months at the Rescue Mission.
She has a drawing of herself on the wall, a glass coffee table, a dresser and a microwave. She’s just waiting to get her couch and a new bed set.
“I’m still speechless,” Jones, 23, said. “I still want to cry.”
Jones lives in one of 52 units that are spread out over the South and South West sides of Syracuse as part of a new development: Creekside Landing.
Despite being spread across Syracuse, the apartments and duplexes are part of one development with a dedicated purpose: To provide affordable homes for young adults facing homelessness and low-income individuals and families.
Instead of building a single, new complex, Housing Visions and its partners used vacant lots in existing neighborhoods and a three-story apartment building on West Onondaga Street to create Creekside Landing.
The idea is to improve existing neighborhoods while at the same time giving new residents access to existing amenities like grocery stores and gas stations, according to Housing Visions.
The development cost around $31 million. The state put around $11 million towards the project. The city funded $5 million, and almost $14 million came from private investors, according to Ben Lockwood, president and CEO of Housing Visions.
It’s a part of Mayor Ben Walsh’s Resurgent Neighborhoods Initiative to provide more affordable housing throughout the city.
“This project is an answer to my prayers and more importantly to the prayers of the 156 individuals that are occupying these units,” Walsh said on Wednesday during a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Creekside Landing was a collaboration between the city, the state, and other organizations, including the Greater Syracuse Land Bank, Home HeadQuarters, Onondaga County and Jubilee Homes.
The goal is to serve individuals and families who make 30% to 80% of the area median income, Lockwood said. That’s a family income of up to $68,320 for a family of three to rent a three-bedroom apartment.
These 52 units now house 156 people. About half of the residents are children.
Sixteen of these units have supportive services in the apartment building on West Onondaga Street.
Kymberly Butler, 56, moved into a one-bedroom apartment after being homeless and living with her daughter in Syracuse.
“My life has totally changed since I’ve been here,” she said. “It’s just because I got keys, and I’m not homeless.”
Fourteen of the units in the same building are for 18 to 25-year-olds who were homeless or at risk of being homeless. Many of them came from the shelter system or were staying with friends like Jones.
Housing Visions supports these young adults by helping them pay their rent through grants and funding their full electricity bill for the first two months. Each young adult also received a $3,000 Raymour and Flanigan voucher to help buy furniture.
Their new apartment building provides them with a gym, a common area and a laundry room.
Jubilee Homes, a housing organization, provides job training on-site at the bottom of the apartment. Right now, they are offering resume and cover letter assistance, interview preparation and help with the job search process.
Already, all 52 units at Creekside Landing are full. Housing Visions’ wait list for one-bedroom units across all its properties has over 1,000 people.
That means it’ll take years for apartments to become available, Lockwood said.
In the meantime, Housing Visions is looking toward one of its next projects: development of more housing at its headquarters at 1201 E. Fayette St.
