SYRACUSE, N.Y. - The Interstate 81 project could temporarily displace 600 to 1,000 people living in public housing near the highway, predicted the director of the Syracuse Housing Authority.

It would be the largest relocation effort in the public housing authority's history, according to director Bill Simmons. And it's unclear where those people would go.

"I don't think they have a sense of the magnitude of this," Simmons said of the state Department of Transportation, which is heading the project to replace the highway's viaduct that hangs between two of the city's large public housing sites.

Simmons said he couldn't estimate exactly what units might be affected by the construction, in part because the DOT is in the beginning stages of narrowing down options for the aging highway. A DOT spokesman said today the state is responsible for any relocation, but he declined to say whether plans for the highway will take any public housing in the highway's shadow.

"It's far too early to know what the impacts are going to be," DOT spokesman Beau Duffy said.

The proposed solutions for I-81 released by the state don't specify what land or existing buildings would be needed for any new streets, ramps, bridges or tunnels in order to reconfigure the highway. Some of the housing units within Pioneer Homes, the brick houses just east of I-81, are likely in the way, Simmons says. He believes his own office, which is under an I-81 on ramp, will be razed.

Simmons is also concerned that the construction phase of the project will temporarily affect a much larger number of residents. That would include people living at Pioneer Homes and Toomey Abbott Towers, the high-rise apartments east of the highway that house some disabled people, he says.

"That makes us a little anxious, because we'd like to know for planning purposes," Simmons said.

DOT officials are aware of that anxiety, Duffy said. The state is responsible for any relocation, temporary or permanent, he said. And those plans must be in place before any construction can begin. "We are obligated to have a relocation plan before a shovel can go in the ground," Duffy said.

Katye Askew, 76, has lived in Pioneer Homes for 58 years. She raised nine children there and a few grandchildren. She can walk to church four blocks away and has daylilies and phlox blooming in the front yard.

"I think they should leave it alone," Askew says of the highway.

There's little chance of that, Askew realizes. She's been attending public meetings about I-81, and she knows the elevated portion of the highway that runs right next to her house is slated for replacement.

DOT is hosting its next public I-81 meeting at 6 p.m. tonight at the Southwest Community Center.

Another is scheduled for 6 p.m. July 29 at Toomey Abbott, according to Duffy. The DOT will have people from its real estate office there to answer questions about property and relocations, he said.

"We certainly understand people are anxious," Duffy said. "That's one of the reasons we're holding these neighborhood meetings."

Askew said she's tried to get her neighbors interested in the meetings, with mixed success. Residents like her have more on their mind than advocating for boulevard or bridge designs.

"If they tear it down, where they going to put us?" she asked.

Simmons, who runs 2,600 public housing units for about 6,000 people in Syracuse, is taking steps to figure that out. The housing authority began searching late last year for a consultant to create a new master plan for the agency. The contract also calls for the consultant to help the housing authority negotiate with state and federal officials to make sure residents are properly moved and cared for during the upcoming construction.

Simmons says he's asked the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for permission to begin leaving some of the units near the highway vacant without jeopardizing federal funding for the authority. He hasn't received an answer yet. He's also studying how other public housing agencies leveraged federal regulations to ensure tenants are protected during transportation construction.

In the meantime, Simmons is already looking at his current housing stock to see where residents might go. Some will qualify for existing housing units, he said.

But many of the people living in the Toomey Abbott Towers have special needs. About one-fifth of the 308 people living there receive assisted-services; others need a building with an elevator or wheelchair accessibility.

Askew moved into Pioneer with her husband and newborn in 1956, when she was 18. She moved to various apartments as her family grew then shrank. She's lived on Stewart Court - right under that same I-81 onramp shadowing Simmons' office - since 1987.

Askew doesn't mind the highway, even though truck traffic rumbles under the sounds from her television. She only notices it when the traffic stops. And she likes it - three of her kids who moved outside of Syracuse use it to drive straight to her front door. She walks across Adams Street to get to her health clinic. She can shop at a store at Toomey Abbott Towers, walking under the viaduct.

"I would just fix it up and leave it," she said, pointing up to the rusting viaduct. "Paint it. Make it nice looking."

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