SUN leaders posted a Wanted sign on

Syracuse Mayor Matt Driscoll's house.

By Philip Prehn
Syracuse United Neighbors
Syracuse, New York

This year, 25 members of Syracuse United Neighbors (SUN) went to the 2004 NPA Neighborhoods Conference in Washington, but one invitee missed the bus—Syracuse’s Mayor, Matt Driscoll.

At a public meeting in March, SUN members challenged the Mayor to get on the bus and join SUN at a meeting with the Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Alphonso Jackson. SUN wanted Driscoll to come to the meeting so he could ask Jackson to renegotiate the economic development loans that the city has received under the HUD Section 108 loan program. The city is struggling to repay over $20 million of loans, some of which have gone to companies that have gone bankrupt. Over the past decade, the city has had to repay HUD $6 million for these loans. This year alone, the city has used $2 million of its $9 million Community Development Block Grant budget to repay these loans.

That money should have been spent to repair homes and improve Syracuse’s lowest-income neighborhoods. In order to make the payments to HUD this year, Driscoll cut $625,000 from the program that helps families pay for home repairs. That money would have paid for 35 families to replace roofs, rebuild foundations and for other needed repairs.

Driscoll did not respond to SUN’s written invitation to go to Washington, D.C., so on Saturday, March 27, SUN stopped its bus on the way to the conference at Driscoll’s house.

SUN literally rolled out a red carpet on the Mayor’s driveway. Leaders had a cup of hot coffee, donut and a morning newspaper ready for the Mayor. They even brought a red rose for the mayor’s wife. Unfortunately, the Mayor had left town.
After reading our statement to the local press, putting flyers on the surrounding houses and posting a large wanted sign on the mayor’s front door, SUN jumped back on the bus and headed to NPA.
On Monday, March 29, SUN leader Maria Johnson received a commitment from Assistant HUD Secretary Roy Bernardi to work with Syracuse to lower the annual payments it makes to HUD under the Section 108 program.
Even if the Mayor wasn’t working that weekend, SUN was still on the job!