About Our Project

A recent report by CNY Fair Housing reported on the state of housing in Syracuse and Onondaga County, and the implications, particularly, for certain groups or “classes:” those include minorities, the disabled, seniors, refugees and immigrants, large families, and those receiving certain kinds of public assistance.

Of particular note is a previous assessment of Syracuse as “hyper-segregated,” the ninth most racially segregated metropolitan area in the country. It’s evident not only in how the city is divided, but in the school system as well. The CNYFH analysis reveals that this finding is reinforced in how and where people live here.

What’s in the report?

The report — Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing — measures differences in access to opportunity in three categories: economics, education and housing. The report states: “Compared to Whites, African-Americans in Onondaga County are more than twice as likely to live in an area of low economic opportunity, four times more likely to live in an area of low educational outcomes and three times more likely to live in an area of low housing and neighborhood opportunity.” To illustrate how these three factors affect minority residents in particular, CNYFH analyzed existing data and presented it in a variety of ways: charts, maps, narrative analysis and recommendations.

The report explains that unfair housing practices that impede equal access are those that interfere with a family living in a home of its choosing. The report explains: “Impediments to fair housing are not merely acts of discrimination, but any factor that limits the access to housing opportunities for members of protected classes.”

Why report on the report?

Our focus is on African-Americans and families because this group stood out as having the greatest struggle with all three opportunity indexes. Stories told include: Personal accounts of all kinds; the Section 8 subsidy program; disparities in our educational system; experiences with discrimination; and others.

Through a collaboration including Newhouse’s Urban Affairs Reporting class, editors from an Advanced Editing Class, and CNY Fair Housing, we put faces on the data to tell real people’s stories — residents directly touched by the identified disparities.

What is our goal?

By sharing honest, personal accounts of residents, and by focusing on the people who work at local agencies, we personalize the numbers, charts, maps and indexes. The project is about residents, decision-makers and policy-makers, those who use the system and who make it run, often up against long odds — and sometimes, in the face of scorn. The project embodies a vital mission of journalism: giving voice to the voiceless.

About our partners:

CNY Fair Housing is an independent, not-for-profit that works to create equal housing opportunity and to eliminate housing discrimination through the enforcement of housing discrimination laws. CNYFH’s mission it to educate everyone about their rights and responsibilities in the housing market. It advocates for neighborhood diversity.

S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications is committed to educating ethical, visionary communicators who champion an open marketplace of ideas guided by the First Amendment, using contemporary professional practices.

Tell Us Your Story

Where you live in the city can affect everything: your access to a good home; your kids’ education and their opportunity to attend the best schools; the kinds of places where you can work. Our city is one of the most segregated in the nation: whites, blacks, Hispanics are clustered in certain neighborhoods. Countywide, schools are especially segregated. Outright discrimination does persist, but for most people in Syracuse it’s not about that. Discrimination is outlawed, but years of segregated living, and its outcomes, have yet to be undone.

If you’d like to share your story, we’re interested. You can tell us. Maybe you’d even like to tell your story yourself. We’ll work with you to do that, too.