• The city of Syracuse has the second highest rate of childhood poverty in the nation, with 45.8% of city youth under the age of 18 living in poverty according to 2018-2022, 5-year American Community Survey Estimates (ACS).

• White Median Household Income (MHI) ($77,804) was 112% greater than Black MHI ($36,640) in Onondaga County according to 2018-2022, 5-year ACS. Onondaga County’s racial income gap has widened from 97% in 2018, when The Brookings Institute found Onondaga County and the city of Syracuse to have the “seventh worst racial income gap among the nation’s aging industrial cities.”1F

• Between February 2023 to February 2024, the Syracuse Metropolitan area experienced the greatest one-year, average monthly rent increase in the nation at 22% (with the average rent of a 1-bedroom apartment being $1050 a month).

• Onondaga County is aging. Its 65 and over population increased by 28.8% from 2011 to 2021. Syracuse’s 65 and over population increased by 42.8% during the same period. The number of older adults living in poverty in the city of Syracuse increased by 110% during the same period.

These realities are interconnected and reinforcing for those who live in and/or face the threat of poverty. To offer insights and potential recommendations about poverty in Onondaga County, the CNA
 

• will integrate quantitative and qualitative data,

• will embrace research conducted and released publicly by the agency’s community partners, and

• will raise the voices and narratives of diverse community members.

From an equitable, justice-informed approach, the CNA will present 5 key claims.

1) Redlining, Racial Covenants, Urban Renewal, and other discriminatory policies of the past are more than just footnotes of twentieth century history. Nor are they solely a City of Syracuse “problem.” Rather, racial inequalities have been systematized over time and have shaped the development of Onondaga County towards its present state. In Onondaga County, community needs must be analyzed and met using a lens of equity. It must include the voices and experiences of those who are often overlooked, if not outright ignored. Tied to this claim,

2) The barriers faced by low-income Onondaga County residents during the COVID-19 pandemic were not new. This was an argument presented in PEACE, Inc.’s “COVID-19 Community Needs Assessment and Chronicle” from June 2020. Rather, COVID-19 exacerbated and intensified long-standing structural insecurities and inequalities, a contention becoming all the more apparent in the pandemic’s aftermath and around crises about housing, mental health, domestic violence, and more. The CNA also presents evidence that low-income families are struggling to adjust after unprecedented levels of pandemic-era assistance and in the face of rising inflation that is spiking costs across the board. In response then,

3) A holistic, layered understanding of poverty -one that acknowledges multiple histories, barriers, and strengths- is necessary if diverse, low-income households are to reach self-sufficiency. Low-income households face many challenges which are often out of their control. When reading the CNA, note the frequency in which one need can inform, shape, and find meaning alongside other needs. Also, when reading the CNA, note the resiliency and resourcefulness of Onondaga County’s low-income residents. Such descriptions are apt ones when explaining the work being pursued by local nonprofit staff. Thus,

4) To tackle the complexities of poverty in Onondaga County, robust and flexible capacity building measures must take place within the Human/Social Services Sector. Low wages, restrictive funding streams, high turnover, and burnout are hampering the effectiveness of local nonprofits and their community-focused staff to pursue their missions. And last,

5) Sustainable advocacy and power-building campaigns must continue to be nurtured and promoted to mobilize communities, to overcome lacking senses of belonging, and to push inclusivity as well as community-driven decision-making.

• • PEACE, Inc. Direct Service Staff, Administrators, and Board of Director Members who wish to better align their programs and resources with community need. The CNA can also serve as a reference for determining program purpose and communicating organizational-wide goals to the public.

• • Funders and Policy Makers who wish to better understand community need and how PEACE, Inc. -among other entities- can meet it.

• • Fellow Non-Profits and other Organizations who wish to target identified needs, build community-wide coalitions, and/or partner with PEACE, Inc.

• • Community Members at Large who wish to learn more about the conditions faced by low-income Onondaga County residents or who may want to use the findings to advance change.

To best understand community need, this CNA attempts to humanize quantitative data by soliciting, integrating, and championing the voices of low-income Onondaga County residents and those who work most closely with them. Ultimately, the writers of the CNA embraced human-centered design principles and tried their best to advance an inclusive, equitable, and justice-informed approach for understanding community needs in Onondaga County.

To achieve this, one method embraced in the CNA was the use of Personas. A common practice within the human-centered design field, personas are fictional composite characters that are created from research observations and conversations with target constituencies. Personas have increasingly been adapted among nonprofits as a means to better integrate constituencies into decision-making, to explore the effectiveness of programs and services through them, and then to develop strategies for improvement and advocacy that are grounded in empathy and a shared understanding of one’s entire experience. For Fiona Kanagasingam, “In a sector caught up with measurement and metrics, we can forget who we aim to serve and who we are accountable to.” (Kanagasingam, “Using Human Centered Design”) We agree. As a product of collective insight and research, the following fictional persona, “Amanda,” can remind one about not only the issues that were discussed in this CNA but also the resilient individuals who we as a community must ultimately better serve.

Amanda

 Meet Amanda, a mother of two in her early 30s, living in a low-income neighborhood in Syracuse. Amanda’s daily morning routine is a testament to her resilience and determination. Each morning, she wakes up at dawn to get breakfast for her high school-age son, James, who takes the bus at 6:00 am. Often in challenging weather conditions, she walks her younger children over a mile to daycare and elementary school before heading to her part-time job at a fast-food restaurant.

As she is walking to work, Amanda dreams of saving to buy a car. She would be able to work more hours, get a better paying job, she could go to college. But then she remembers the income cap and worries if she will fall off the cliff and end up worse off. “Don’t hit that income cap” – she tells herself – “otherwise there are no services.” She doesn’t know how she would afford insurance and child care without public assistance.

 Amanda’s situation reflects the reality of many families facing inter-generational poverty where support systems and resources are scarce. Also struggling to make ends meet, her family can’t help with child care or financial assistance. Amanda relies on her own resilience to navigate life’s challenges. 

 Amanda moved to the city when she escaped Domestic Violence during the pandemic. Initially she had been reluctant to call the police, as her boyfriend’s addiction got worse during lockdown. When asked why she didn’t leave him she says “People don’t understand that things have to be drastic to get real help. When the police arrive, issue an order of protection and leave, it has an impact too. It makes you more vulnerable.” Amanda was down, feeling guilty of her own choices by the time her boyfriend threatened her with a gun.  

 It took Amanda a lot of effort to get where she is at right now. Amanda is thankful to have a job that keeps her mind off her problems for a few hours. She just wishes it would pay a living wage and offer benefits. If for any reason she misses work, she does not get paid. The stress of making impossible decisions constantly weighs on her mind. Should she forgo a day of work to make it to the food pantry or is it better to go to the Department of Social Services to apply for additional support instead?

Amanda feels like she constantly has to advocate for herself and her family. Support systems exist, but you must ask specifically for the program you want and be sure you are eligible for it before you apply. Months may go by before you get help, there are waitlists for rental support, the food pantry application must be submitted a month before, etc. Ensuring stability for her family while dealing with her trauma and the financial strain feel like an overwhelming burden.

By the time she gets home after picking up her daughters, James has been out of school for a long while and cooked dinner with the little food they could get from the church pantry. James would like to play basketball but there are no buses to bring him home after games and Amanda does not want him to walk home at night alone. Not only is there gun violence in her neighborhood, but she is afraid someone might call the police on her son just for walking outside on the street.

After helping with homework and putting her kids to sleep, Amanda is exhausted. Her heart beats fast as she opens the mail. Her landlord has increased her rent to $1000. More than she can afford with her annual income of $20,000 a year. She might have to move again if she gets an eviction notice, but she knows that it will be difficult to find somewhere cheaper. Landlords will not rent to you unless your income is three times the rent and this was the cheapest place she could find. Having to uproot her children, especially her oldest son who is already struggling with the adjustment to a new school, weighs heavily on Amanda.

Amanda wipes her tears and opens her book to start studying for her High School Equivalency Diploma, a first step to starting a new career. She will study until she falls asleep, she can’t stop taking these small steps to create a better life for her family. “Her resilience and determination despite the systemic barriers and experienced trauma that she faces are truly remarkable.”