A Syracuse-based nonprofit organization is proposing a 51-unit apartment complex on Lincoln Avenue, but its funding is dependent on a series of grants.Central New York Services Inc., a behavioral health organization, wants to build a $12 million complex on two vacant lots between Roberts Avenue and Warren Street. . . .The proposed apartment complex would have 51 units, with 25 set aside for individuals with mental-health or substance-abuse issues. The other units would be open individuals who qualify for low-income housing.CNY Services Executive Director John Warren said the area is underserved and would benefit from a project like this.This seems to be the regional plan. Make Utica the place to concentrate the region's poor and troubled. Better yet: concentrate them all in West Utica!
Any wonder why Utica cannot pay its bills? and why West Utica is in the condition it is in?
4 comments:
As one of the very few homeowners left in West Utica, this is a bad idea!!
The area was just starting to slowly get a little better and now this proposal project! This will make West Utica worse. My husband and I decided that if this gets passed then we are moving.
It is not a good idea to concentrate people who have substance abuse problems and mental health problems in one area. They will not only negatively influence each other, they will lower the quality of life in West Utica (the little that is even left!).
Other homeowners are upset about this as well in West Utica. Unless Utica wants West Utica to be a mostly rental area with hardly any homeowners, the common council should NOT pass this.
This will just be one more example of one of Utica's most serious problems; it is the host of many non profits. This means that far to many properties are tax exempt. The city fathers are remiss to not even disuss a halting the development of non profit uses until and unless a service fee system is put into place.
At $235,294 per unit, someone will be making a criminal sum of money here.
The private sector does not pay anywhere near this for high end apartment construction.
So why do the nonprofits get away with this over and over - and always in UTICA???
Because their projects are normally funded with taxpayer dollars. This adds to administrative costs and national standards of cost that far exceed the local market. This is why you are right, however, overcost is built in and we taxpayers usually pay for it.
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