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Syracuse officials outline housing strategy, East Adams funding and brownfields work during Neighborhood and Business Development budget hearing
Summary
City department leaders told the Syracuse City Common Council they have stalled access to committed housing-strategy dollars, secured major federal grants for East Adams, and are pursuing brownfield cleanups and planning updates as part of the Neighborhood and Business Development budget.
Syracuse City officials detailed plans and funding prospects for the city's housing strategy, the East Adams neighborhood transformation and a slate of brownfield cleanups during a budget hearing for the Department of Neighborhood and Business Development (NBD) on Oct. 27, 2025.
The hearing centered on how federal, state and settlement funds feed the department's work and on steps needed to move committed but not yet accessible housing strategy dollars into projects. Commissioner Michael Collins introduced the hearing and said the department is presenting division-level budgets for Neighborhood Development, Planning & Sustainability and Business Development.
"A big chunk of the work'is really concentrated within our annual federal entitlement grant spending," Deputy Commissioner Michelle Stefanski said, referring to the department's Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and related HUD funding. Stefanski said the city typically receives about $6.5 million in HUD entitlement funds that are distributed to housing, workforce development and community-based programming.
Stefanski said the department also is administering roughly $1 million in opioid-settlement funds received through the New York State Attorney General's office and that four agencies received subgrants after an RFP process; so far about 401 individuals have been served by those programs. "We expect that that's gonna be, for at least a couple years," she said of the settlement funding.
Officials said NBD helped secure $80 million in federal grant funding to support the East Adams neighborhood transformation: $50 million from HUD through the Choice Neighborhoods initiative and $30 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation. "So it's really, will be a big focus of work throughout the next upcoming year as well," Stefanski said.
Housing strategy funding, access and staffing
City leaders described the Syracuse housing strategy as authorized by the council and now being operationalized through a newly formed…
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