From Nope to Hope: Syracuse Housing

When I first came to Syracuse, I was homeless. I was able to bounce back through family, friends, a lot of determination, and some luck. I work in a hospital, and discharging people into homelessness breaks my heart. I was told the shelters are dangerous, and one of the case managers flat out told me, "Don't go there," when that was considered my safe plan on paper since they can't write down "homeless" as an address.

I was fairly certain I would be sleeping in my car that first night until I could save enough money for a deposit (a lot of people don't have the privilege of having a car in that situation). Right before I shut my eyes in that Walmart parking lot, I got a call from a respite service. Their temporary assistance of two weeks of housing, along with friends and family, are the only reason I am where I am today—able to enjoy smelling roses in gardens and live the life I want to live. I want people who want to get help, to be able to get help. The first steps to a brighter future for anyone is having shelter. I want as many people as possible in safe housing, especially families. The waitlists for getting housing are up to a year long, and the waitlist for HUD has closed. There are not enough units available.

Syracuse has close to half of their children living in poverty. Child poverty is #1 here. I want families to have safe places to stay whether they temporarily need those services and they are able to bounce back from there or if they are disabled and need continued assistance. There is not enough affordable housing available.

My company, Carbon Housing Foundation, will buy vacant land in Syracuse (from the Land Bank that assists with low-income housing development) and develop it for low-income families. (At a later date, I would like to remodel old houses, but due to potential unforeseen costs of remodeling and time consumption, I want to start out utilizing vacant land.)

Costs your donation would help with:

Land: $2,000-9,000

Plans: $7,000-9,000

Land surveyor (might not need, depends on the actual land we land on): $1,000

Concrete slab: $24,000

Actual Structure: $90,000/unit

Electric hook up: $1,000

Sewer: $500-2,900

Water: $1,000

If we reach a small fraction of those costs, that would be the bridge to actualize housing for families.

Every little donation gets me closer to getting people off of the street and back on their feet. We will build to max capacity of our funding—as many units as we can put up, we will. Every unit will be utilized for low income housing. SPOA and Helio have funding available and no units to house people. Their programs continually assist their participants with counseling and various other services to help them live to their full capacity. Counseling only goes so far without a home. Your time reading this is appreciated. Looking forward to helping communities in need, together.