Unassembled boxes cluttered the entryway of Theresa’s Durham’s Angelou Terrace townhouse.The Syracuse Housing Authority delivered the boxes to her months ago in preparation for relocation, Durham said. Until Monday, the boxes were the clearest indication Durham might be headed away from the pub lic housing authority. She had chosen to move to a Christopher Community building but as of Monday she had still not seen the building, she said — it’s still being built. The conundrum leaves Durham concerned. She knows her home will be demolished and her next one isn’t yet built. She’s unsure of her timeline to move, she said. The uncertainty around her relocation is the exact thing Durham hoped to avoid five years ago, when she first learned about SHA’s plan to remove tenants and raze McKinney Manor.“From the beginning, I told them, ‘Whatever you do, I want to choose where I go,’” Durham said. “I didn’t want to settle. When the time is here now, they’re making me settle.”Before the $1 billion redevelopment of public housing in Syracuse’s 15th Ward, the Syracuse Housing Authority must move the people living in the project’s footprint out of public housing. The townhouses in McKinney Manor’s three terraces are now slated for demolition.The neighborhood’s residents have already started emptying from the townhouses, but many residents still remain.Residents have for years prepared to move out of their homes before public housing in Syracuse changes for good. SHA knew years ago it would have to relocate each of its residents before work could begin. The housing authority plans to begin redevelopment on July 1, so the remaining residents – some of whom have multi-generational family ties to the neighborhood – will have less than 3 months to pack up their homes before their homes are razed.Some tenants have accepted the housing authority’s offer to relocate them to alternate SHA housing. Others plan to move elsewhere with a Section 8 voucher.  The residents may be split on where to go as the redevelopment begins, but they all agree the relocation process has felt strained and disorganized. It has sowed confusion and scared families living in McKinney Manor.They wonder about their future and their landlord’s. SHA Executive Director Bill Simmons, who did not respond to multiple calls and an email from Central Current to comment for this story, has been publicly castigated for a pause on the Children’s Rising Center project.McKinney Manor was built in 1990 on the site of the Mulberry Square Apartments. It is slated to be demolished as the first step in the redevelopment of public housing. Credit: MJ Brown | Central CurrentThe housing authority’s project partners piled on Simmons and accused him of missing critical deadlines. Since then, Simmons has weathered the storm and vowed to stay on at the housing authority’s helm. Calls for his removal have ebbed.Whether Simmons stays or goes, his tenants want to see improvement. Most tenants have lived in a constant state of standby, having been told years ago to be ready to move. For some, the tension from years of uncertainty has evolved into fear, frustration, and contempt for the housing authority and its leaders.‘They’re trying to get rich, we’re trying to live’Kashalon Sweet wants out of Syracuse housing.The single mother of four is one of the last tenants remaining on Chavez Terrace at McKinney Manor. Sweet has waited years for clarity from the Syracuse Housing Authority on where she and her family will be relocated. She’s scared. “It’s very frustrating, because I don’t know if me and my kids finna get ready to be put out or put in a shelter,” Sweet said, “which I never had to go through, and I don’t want to go through.”Sweet’s daughter and three sons live with her in a four-bedroom apartment bursting with life.As Sweet rattled off her concerns and complaints about her current living situation and lack of clarity for her future, she frequently flashed her warm smile. Her sons milled about, embracing their mother as they passed her and proudly holding up their chihuahuas, Simba and Cashmere.The thermostat in Sweet’s apartment is set to a perpetual 80 degrees, but feels colder. Her faulty heater fails to keep her family sufficiently warm in the winter. The grill of the heater is in disrepair.Tired after work, Kashalon Sweet relaxes with her dog in her Chavez Terrace townhouse. She and her children await details on their imminent relocation. Credit: MJ Brown | Central CurrentThe apartment was cold from the start, according to Sweet. When the family moved in at wintertime four years ago, Sweet said her son’s bedroom window couldn’t close properly. “Even now that the window is fixed, he still sleeps down here because it is cold up there,” Sweet said.The refrigerator, too, needs maintenance. Part of the fridge’s door is falling off. The metal frame sags beneath the door and drags on the floor.When Sweet wants to use her microwave, she sometimes has to move it around her kitchen to find a functioning outlet.Sweet said she has reported these issues to SHA and put in requests for maintenance – but the problems persist.“They’ll come look at what they’re supposed to do,” Sweet said. “And they never come back.”The heating issues are the exception, Sweet said. SHA has repeatedly followed up on her heating maintenance requests, according to Sweet, but they never actually fix the problem.While the maintenance issues test Sweet’s patience, they are just a symptom of Sweet’s overall experience with the housing authority.Sweet’s kids ask her: When are we moving? Why haven’t we moved yet? Why is everyone else moving? Will we come back?She’s left without an answer.“I haven’t been told anything,” Sweet said. Kashalon Sweet’s sons share their mothers concerns about where they will be moving in less than 90 days. Here, they are pictured sitting on a couch in their home. Credit: MJ Brown | Central CurrentSweet didn’t always feel this way about the housing authority.She used to volunteer for the housing authority, picking up litter around the terrace. Her kids used to help her. The litter cleanup was part of a program in which the housing authority would discount residents’ rent in exchange for their volunteer work.When the housing authority announced they were hiring new staff, Sweet leapt at the opportunity — but the housing authority didn’t hire her, she said.“I don’t have a job. I’m looking for work,” Sweet said of her situation at the time. “I’m 46, but I’m willing to work.”When the housing authority didn’t hire her, Sweet stopped picking up the garbage. Sweet, with her son Isaiah, regularly attends information sessions on the redevelopment project and relocation process. To her, it looked like other residents were getting clarity while she was getting lip service.That lack of clarity drains Sweet’s energy. Her kids’ questions about what is next exacerbates the tension.“I’d rather deal with a slumlord than to deal with Syracuse housing,” Sweet said.In the fallout of the children’s center project pause, Sweet said she has seen more action and communication from the housing authority. She believes it’s because of the project partners’ excoriation of Simmons.Sweet has no faith in Simmons, and wants to see him replaced, along with other housing authority leadership.After living in Syracuse housing for nearly eight years, Sweet has high hopes for change. The refrigerator door in Kashalon Sweet’s home needs to be repaired. She said SHA hasn’t performed proper maintenance for much of her four years in the Chavez Terrace. Credit: MJ Brown | Central CurrentIn the current conditions, Sweet won’t let her children out at night, for fear of drugs and shootings. She is exploring her options beyond Syracuse Housing Authority, but is discouraged by the ever-rising rents private landlords are charging around the city.“They’re trying to get rich, we’re trying to live,” Sweet said.If new leadership took the helm at SHA, Sweet said she would consider moving back when the new housing complexes are constructed.But Sweet’s preference is to own a home and to get out of Syracuse.“I don’t want to move back,” Sweet said. “I’m trying to move forward.”‘I see effort’Katie Maynor, a resident at the Chavez Terrace in McKinney Manor, said the relocation process has been frustrating and confusing. As one of the last tenants remaining in that terrace, Maynor has waited years to receive her relocation plan. She said at times, it felt as though residents were given the runaround by SHA – told to hurry up and prepare for relocation, then left waiting with packed bags.For Maynor, that looks like a closet full of household items, including furniture, that were packed up for an unspecified moving day. That created a strain on Maynor’s life, with the things that made her house a home left to sit in boxes.But Maynor said she sees effort from SHA’s leadership – especially in the past few months, as SHA’s project partners have sounded off on SHA and squarely blamed Simmons for the children’s center pause.“I do see effort. I’m not going to take that from them,” Maynor said. “Could there be more? Absolutely, all the way around the board.”Hours before speaking with Central Current, Maynor got a phone call from SHA, and learned about a plan for her to view a potential new apartment.She expressed optimism about SHA’s handling of the redevelopment moving forward.“We went through a rough patch, don’t get me wrong,” Maynor said. “But they are turning things around so far.”Still, things weren’t easy for Maynor as she awaited clarity on her future.For a year and a half, Maynor said leaks from her second-floor bathroom sent water dripping into her kitchen each time she showers. She filed requests, and the housing authority sent maintenance workers, Maynor said.The leak persisted.When the leak started to damage her furniture, Maynor began withholding rent until the leak and other issues were thoroughly addressed.Since then, other problems have popped up around Maynor’s apartment, she said.Maynor stopped reporting them and fighting for them to be fixed, though. She is ready for her next apartment.Simmons deserves a second chance, Maynor said. But that second chance is conditional, she said, on Syracuse Housing Authority leadership demonstrating to residents that they are “for the community.”“One hand washes the other,” Maynor said. “Don’t leave us hanging.”‘I don’t have a heaven or hell to put nobody in’Kathy Royal, who has lived in Syracuse public housing her whole life, worries for the seniors who live in the project footprint. . Royal works for Upstate University Hospital’s geriatric department, its these folks who have the deepest roots in public housing, she said. Royal lives in the Pioneer Homes complex on South McBride street. Her relocation plan will be part of Phase II of the redevelopment project. Even though Royal is not set to move in the next three months, she has big concerns with the current relocation process.When her work schedule allows, Royal attends monthly Blueprint 15 information sessions to gain a better understanding of the relocation process. Royal still feels like her own moving plan lacks clarity; she feels certain that many seniors living in Syracuse housing must be even more confused about their own futures.“I’m concerned for the seniors. Seniors that don’t have family, no one that could care for them. They got to get all this stuff, pack it up. Who’s going to be there to comfort them?” Royal said. You’re taking them out of their roots.”Royal said she is a forgiving person, and doesn’t think Simmons or anyone else needs to step down for any mistakes he may have made so far on the project. “Who am I? I don’t have a heaven or hell to put nobody in. So I’m not gonna sit here and criticize him,” Royal said. “But he’s brought us a long way. Ain’t be where we should be – but he brought us a long way.”Kathy Royal (back row, second from left) attends a monthly tenant information meeting at Blueprint 15, a non-profit partner on the redevelopment of public housing.Royal just wants leadership, regardless of who the leaders are.“Just make sure it’s an easy transition for us,” Royal said. “That’s it.”Royal believes greater communication, especially outreach for senior residents, is imperative to ensuring a smooth relocation for all.At a tenant meeting Monday, Marquita Herrington, a Blueprint 15 neighborhood navigator, showed attendees a letter she had received from the housing authority that explained tenants’ options for moving.SHA is offering to cover the cost of residents’ moving fees. Tenants can choose to have the housing authority directly pay one of three pre-selected moving companies for the moving fees. Alternatively, residents can choose to move themselves or pay a company themselves, and the housing authority has committed to reimbursing that.For Royal, this was welcome news. “We didn’t hear that they got movers for us, so we don’t have to lift. I’m just now hearing that,” Royal said. “So that right there is an improvement to me.”‘If the board doesn’t know, I know the tenants don’t know‘In Angelou Terrace, Theresa Durham has had enough of mixed messages.The housing authority’s lack of communication has tried Durham’s patience for years.Durham’s frustrations rose after she tried to add her granddaughter to her lease.She lives in a three-bedroom unit right now, and had planned to accept a two-bedroom apartment when she relocated to new housing.But recently, her granddaughter’s mother, a parent to seven kids, became homeless. Durham’s son, the child’s father, died in 2023. Durham wanted to take in the 7-year-old — and get a three-bedroom apartment to care for the child. She explained the situation to SHA and said she wanted to take the strain off her granddaughter’s mother. “I’m just holding on to her, holding on to her, and I’m saying, ‘Look, I need a three-bedroom,’” Durham said. “I’m not giving her up. I just got her back.”Syracuse Housing Authority told Durham they couldn’t add her granddaughter to her lease unless she gained custody of the child, she said. Durham didn’t want custody. The mother was still in the picture. Durham just wanted to help. But SHA stood firm.So Durham went to the courthouse and got the custody papers. As she filled them out, she called SHA to tell them she was completing their request.Durham said that the housing authority told her that, “custody or not,” it was “too late” to add a person to Durham’s lease, she said. “That really, really, really upset me,” Durham said. “I’m doing everything you tell me to do, and now you say no? Now what am I supposed to do with my granddaughter?” On Monday, Durham said she received a call from the housing authority informing her that construction is continuing on her unit at Christopher Community. Now that the housing authority is crunched for time to finalize its relocation plans for each tenant, Durham feels like her chance at a smooth relocation process – and the ability to govern her own living situation – have slipped away.As vice secretary of the McKinney Manor tenant’s board, Durham feels that her own confusion demonstrates the housing authority’s failure to effectively communicate its plans to its tenants.“If the board doesn’t know, I know the tenants don’t know, because we don’t know ourselves,” Durham said. Durham feels that inconsistency has defined SHA’s communication from the start of the redevelopment project.Constructed in 1990 on the grounds where Mulberry Square once stood, McKinney Manor is set to be demolished. Some residents have already moved out, but their neighbors remain, awaiting clarity on their futures. Credit: MJ Brown | Central CurrentShe recalled pulling Simmons aside at a picnic after the project was first announced. Durham had heard that once the new housing is built, the former McKinney Manor residents would be priced out from returning to their old neighborhood.Simmons reassured her that all tenants in good standing would have the right to return once the redevelopment is completed.Even with Simmons’ reassurance, she still worries her voucher will not be enough. To Durham, the right to return doesn’t matter if residents can’t return.“We’re low income, we can’t afford that,” Durham said. “Okay, they say we’re gonna get a voucher, but how much?”When Durham saw the renderings for the new apartment buildings set to be built in the project’s footprint, she was disappointed. Right now, it’s easy to sit outside her apartment. The new apartments, which lack balconies, won’t be so convenient.“When you want to come outside to catch a breeze,” Durham said, “you can’t sit in front of the building.” Durham was hoping to begin packing 90 days from her move. She knows SHA says she’ll have to move by June 10 but after years of pump fakes and the home she’s moving to still unbuilt, Durham hasn’t yet started. Her apartment on Angelou Terrace doesn’t have enough room for her to assemble the boxes and begin packing, so the unfolded SHA boxes rest against the wall of her entryway. The apartments around her have slowly emptied and more people are set to move.Durham is staring down that June 10 deadline unsure of what the future holds. That’s 77 days away. read more of central current’s coverage State of Onondaga County 2025: Semiconductor supply chain to boost Micron, hotels and more At his State of the County address, McMahon also touted proposed improvements in the city’s North Side and Inner Harbor. by Henry Daley March 21, 2025March 21, 2025 Syracuse police collect countless data points. How vulnerable is that data to ICE? Daniel Schwarz, a member of the city’s Surveillance Technology Working Group, worries about the city’s data practices. 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