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Three new homes unveiled in Syracuse where there used to be broken-down apartments

Christian Bersani, WAER News

Three new city homes have been introduced in the Syracuse community today as part of an open house event on park avenue.  

The new, inexpensive houses for first-time home buyers have replaced the 26 derelict rental units taht used to occupy the space.  Mayor Stephanie Miner and local non-profit organization Home Headquartersled the welcoming ceremony. Miner says the change from rental units to domestic housing makes all the difference...

"The most important difference we found is owner-occupiers take better care of their property and they are more concerned about what happens in the street,"  said Miner.  "They become directly interested in the quality of life in the neighborhoods. So the more owner-occupiers we can have, the stronger our neighborhoods are, and the stronger the city is.”

Miner says this property transformation is a big part of the plan to revitalize the city neighborhoods. One of three future home owners, Jean Claude is happy to finally have a place that he and his family can call their own...

“My family and I are very excited because we know we will be in our house. No one is going to come say, ‘tomorrow we are going to check your house’. We are very excited. This is my dream, my wife and I, we are going to be here for life.”

The former African refugee says he and his family will mix well with the community as the children will attend Frazer Middle School.  Jean will continue working within the city school district.

Chris Bolt, Ed.D. has proudly been covering the Central New York community and mentoring students for more than 30 years. His career in public media started as a student volunteer, then as a reporter/producer. He has been the news director for WAER since 1995. Dedicated to keeping local news coverage alive, Chris also has a passion for education, having trained, mentored and provided a platform for growth to more than a thousand students. Career highlights include having work appear on NPR, CBS, ABC and other news networks, winning numerous local and state journalism awards.