5,824 Housing Choice Vouchers are administered across Onondaga County by three separate agencies. That number represents roughly $20 million in annual rental assistance flowing from HUD through Syracuse Housing Authority alone — before Christopher Community and the Village of North Syracuse Housing Authority are counted.
The program is the backbone of subsidized housing in Central New York, and the waitlists are closed.
Three Agencies, One County
Syracuse Housing Authority manages the largest share: 4,237 vouchers. Their Section 8 office is at 312 Gifford Street, 9th Floor, Syracuse. Phone: (315) 470-4400. Email: [email protected]. Executive Director: William Simmons. SHA also operates 2,152 public housing units, bringing their total capacity to roughly 6,470 households.
Of the families SHA serves across all programs, 76 percent are extremely low-income — below 30 percent of Area Median Income. 93 percent are very low-income. 76 percent are female-headed households. 25 percent are headed by a senior. 23 percent have a disabled head of household.
Christopher Community administers over 1,300 vouchers in Onondaga County. They have been running the federal Housing Choice Voucher Program since 1977. Their office is at 990 James Street, Syracuse, NY 13203. Phone: (315) 424-1821. They also manage Project-Based Vouchers for Brighton Towers (55+ housing) and HUD-VASH vouchers for veterans.
Village of North Syracuse Housing Authority handles 287 vouchers, serving 258 low-income households within the North Syracuse Central School District. Their office is at 110 Singleton Avenue, North Syracuse, NY 13212. Phone: (315) 458-7077. Hours: Monday through Thursday 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM, Friday 8:00 AM to 11:30 AM. 61 percent of their households are extremely low-income. 97 percent are very low-income. Only 16 percent have a working adult head of household.
Payment Standards and Fair Market Rents
HUD sets Fair Market Rents for the Syracuse metropolitan area annually. The FY 2025 rates, effective October 1, 2024:
Studio: $963 per month
1-Bedroom: $1,074
2-Bedroom: $1,321
3-Bedroom: $1,616
4-Bedroom: $1,821
The 2-bedroom FMR of $1,321 represents a 17.32 percent increase over FY 2024. Rents in the Syracuse metro have climbed roughly 17 percent in each of the last two years.
Syracuse Housing Authority uses Small Area Fair Market Rents, which means payment standards vary by ZIP code rather than a single flat rate for the entire metro. The specific payment standard schedule is available through SHA’s office or at syracusehousing.org.
The Waitlist
Syracuse Housing Authority’s Section 8 waitlist is closed. It last opened for one week in March 2024 — March 25 through March 31. In that window, 3,500 applicants were placed on the waiting list by random lottery. SHA has not announced when the list will reopen. Applicants from the 2024 lottery can check their status at waitlistcheck.com or call (315) 470-4241.
Christopher Community’s waitlist is also closed, with no timeline for reopening.
The Village of North Syracuse Housing Authority accepts applications by phone at (315) 458-7077.
Federal Funding and What Comes Next
Homelessness in Central New York has increased over 150 percent since 2019. Roughly 71 percent of the region’s unhoused population is in Onondaga County. The 2024 Point-in-Time Count recorded 1,192 homeless individuals across the three-county Continuum of Care area — 1,027 in emergency shelter, 113 in transitional housing, 52 unsheltered.
In 2025, $5 million in additional HUD funding went to SHA to expand vouchers and temporarily relocate Pioneer Homes residents during the $1 billion I-81 redevelopment project. Of the 54 households initially offered expansion vouchers, 34 accepted. As of reporting, only 5 of those 34 families had signed leases.
CNY Fair Housing launched a mobility counseling program offering up to $3,000 for landlord repairs to encourage voucher acceptance. Sally Santangelo, Executive Director of CNY Fair Housing, and Alex Lawson, their policy manager, have both spoken publicly about persistent landlord discrimination against voucher holders — despite source-of-income protections under New York State law.
Megan Stuart, Director of the Housing and Homeless Coalition of Central New York, has described Section 8 vouchers as “a golden ticket in the housing world.” The federal budget proposals for 2025 included substantial proposed cuts to the program. If those cuts materialize, the 5,824 vouchers currently active in Onondaga County would be among the first things at risk.
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