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Mayor Walsh: Syracuse's stubbornly high child poverty rate "unacceptable" and "frustrating"

Children ride their bikes on a rain-soaked Hillview Ave. May 28, 2024.
Scott Willis
/
WAER News
Children ride their bikes on a rain-soaked Hillview Ave. May 28, 2024.

Syracuse is once again on the nation’s notorious list for children living in survival mode. The latest census estimates nearly half of all Syracuse children live in poverty.

The data covers the five-year period between 2019 and 2023. The latest research shows the number of children living in poverty has improved, but only slightly from 46.3 percent to 45.6 percent. Mayor Ben Walsh says it’s simply unacceptable to him and his administration.

“For the past seven years that we've been in these positions, we have worked every day to try to change that trajectory," Walsh said. "We have seen incremental progress, downward progress in terms of the overall poverty rate and specifically child poverty rate. We haven't seen it at the same at the same rate as other communities, but these conditions didn't happen overnight.”

Walsh says the city’s generational poverty is especially difficult to address. Deputy Mayor Sharon Owens says residents in or out of the workforce are struggling.

“We have got to work to increase the ability for people to earn an income and for people who are not in the workforce to get in the workforce," Owens said. "For people who are in the workforce but need to work three jobs to sustain themselves and their families, give them higher paying jobs.”

Owens says that happens through increasing skill sets and making connections with employers. Buffalo and Rochester are also among the top ten cities with the highest child poverty, along with Detroit, Cleveland, and Dayton, Ohio. Walsh says decades of disinvestment in post-industrial cities like Syracuse manifests in many ways, but most notably in poverty. He says finding solutions have driven much his administration’s work."

“It is frustrating, but I think it just gives us more resolve that we need to keep going," Walsh said. "We need to scale and accelerate. I believe strongly that we're making investments in the right places.”

For example, he says there are more houses under construction now than in decades to address homelessness. Census reports have consistently placed Syracuse at or near the worst in poverty rankings for at least a decade.

Scott Willis covers politics, local government, transportation, and arts and culture for WAER. He came to Syracuse from Detroit in 2001, where he began his career in radio as an intern and freelance reporter. Scott is honored and privileged to bring the day’s news and in-depth feature reporting to WAER’s dedicated and generous listeners. You can find him on twitter @swillisWAER and email him at srwillis@syr.edu.