Helping Renters Find Safe Housing in Syracuse: A Digital Government Network Spotlight

Background

The Look Before You Rent initiative was launched by the City of Syracuse in April 2025 as part of a broader push to make housing information transparent and accessible for renters. In Syracuse, nearly 60 percent of its residents are renters, many of whom are low-income and constrained by an aging housing stock. These overlapping pressures have made safe, stable housing a critical public concern.

In response to years of feedback from tenants, housing advocates, and legal aid organizations, city leaders developed a digital platform that empowers residents to make informed decisions before signing a lease. 

The Look Before You Rent tool allows renters to instantly check whether a property has open code violations, a valid certificate of compliance, or valid certificate in the city’s rental registry. By consolidating this data into a single, easy-to-use map, the city aims to close the information gap between landlords and tenants, and strengthen accountability—ensuring every resident can access safe and healthy housing.

To learn more, the Beeck Center’s Digital Government Network (DGN) spoke with Michael Collins, commissioner of neighborhood and business development (NBD); Jake Dishaw, deputy commissioner for code enforcement and zoning administration; Sharon F. Owens, mayor of Syracuse; Sarah Pallo, public information officer for NBD; Jason Scharf, deputy director of digital services; Michelle Sczpanski, deputy commissioner of neighborhood development; and Rose Tardiff, director of data and evaluation for NBD.

Syracuse Renters Seek Transparency

In Syracuse, access to safe and healthy housing has long been a defining issue. Nearly 60 percent of residents are renters, many living in older homes with lead paint, poor insulation, and failing infrastructure. The city also ranks among the highest in the nation for childhood poverty, making the cost and quality of housing a daily concern for thousands of families. “Where a person lays their head starts the trajectory of their success and affects their children being able to think when they go to school,” said Mayor Owens. 

The housing crisis was made worse by information gaps. Renters often signed leases without knowing whether their units were certified or cited for code violations. State law requires inspections for buildings with three or more units, but Syracuse’s stricter local rental registry extends 36-month inspections to one- and two-family non-owner-occupied homes. Despite these protections, residents struggled to access up-to-date compliance data. “We want to make it transparent since it is public information,” said Dishaw. “How do we push this out in a meaningful manner that people will use to benefit and improve their lives?”

Owens recognized the opportunity to reimagine how the city shares housing data.

“How can we proactively assist people who are seeking rental units, so they know the condition of the property before they enter an agreement?”

Sharon F. Owens
Mayor, City of Syracuse

Working closely with NBD, Owens brought together partners across city government to design a digital tool that would put this information directly in the hands of residents. The result was Look Before You Rent: a public, one-stop map that allows renters to check an address for rental registry and certificate of compliance status, open code violations, and “unfit” property flags.

Building a Renter-Centered Search Tool

The Look Before You Rent initiative began in late 2024 as a coordinated effort among NBD, Digital Services, and Code Enforcement. The team brought together staff across technology, policy, data, and communications to build the city’s first resident-facing housing data platform. “Seamless coordination across divisions and departments pays off,” said Collins. 

Tardiff helped develop the project’s technical approach, which leverages the city’s existing open data pipelines. “Our code enforcement datasets—violations, certificates of compliance, rental registry status, and unfit properties—are all updated daily,” she said. “Scripts are scheduled to run every day through SQL (structured query language), R, and Python, feeding ArcGIS Feature Services and the open data portal.” Using an ArcGIS web map and ArcGIS Experience Builder, a low-code app builder, the team customized feature pop-up boxes displaying ownership, violation, and compliance details, configured search tools, and designed map symbols. “The challenge was communicating information in a clear way without it being too overwhelming,” Tardiff added.

Scharf managed the project timeline and helped with interface design. From the initial kickoff in December 2024 to the public launch in April 2025, he coordinated design sprints, stakeholder testing, and staff training.

“Mayor Owens wanted it to be so simple that her grandma could use it,”

Jason Scharf
Deputy Director of Digital Services, City of Syracuse

Fifteen residents, case managers, and tenant advocates participated in user-testing sessions through partners such as the Greater Syracuse Tenants Network, Home HeadQuarters, Jubilee Homes, and the State University of New York (SUNY) Educational Opportunity Center. “We had big white sheets of paper, where we wrote out what worked well and what didn’t,” Scharf said. “A lot of major upgrades happened because of resident user testing.”

Accessibility and communication were also priorities throughout the build. Pallo joined early meetings to ensure the platform reflected constituent needs. “It was good to have all these different minds and skill sets in the room,” she said. “Our focus was on keeping it clean and easy for community members to use.” The team tested color palettes for color-blind accessibility, optimized mobile functionality, and prioritized plain-language design. “We’re just trying to create safe and healthy housing for all of Syracuse,” Pallo said.

Deputy Commissioner of Neighborhood Development Sczpanski highlighted the policy alignment behind the platform. “Our perspective is really focusing on ensuring overall housing affordability, stability, and quality for all residents,” she said. “This is a good example of what’s possible with collaboration and being able to leverage existing tools and resources.”

From Rental Transparency to Landlord Accountability

By April 2025, the five-month project culminated in the public launch of Look Before You Rent. The tool immediately became a resource for tenants, case managers, and legal advocates preparing court cases or searching for safe housing placements. “They use it for evidence in court cases,” Owens said. “They use it to search for clients and to help people find better homes.”

The communications rollout, led by Pallo, used a mix of press coverage, social media, and tabling events across Syracuse neighborhoods. Promotional materials helped spread awareness. “We want to work with good landlords,” Pallo said, “but we’re going to hold landlords accountable who don’t do what they’re supposed to do.” This balance was key to the city’s messaging: collaboration, not confrontation.

Internally, the project strengthened coordination across city departments. “There’s simply a lot of natural education when you share the same space,” Collins said, reflecting on the shared office space of NBD and Digital Services. That closeness helped maintain momentum even with limited staff capacity. Dishaw described the platform as an example of “a community-focused model of code enforcement that provides neighborhoods with a good quality of life.”

The impact was immediate. The city identified that only 33 percent of rental properties were currently valid under the registry. “Where we want to move the needle is improving compliance rates with the registry,” said Sczpanski, “and increasing instances where we actually get inside properties to conduct inspections.” Seven months since launching the tool, rental registry compliance has increased from 33 to 40 percent.

The project’s data pipeline continues to evolve, with cloud services provider Azure automatically updating the datasets daily. Scharf and Tardiff remain focused on continuous improvement, measuring success through website engagement, inspection activity, and registry compliance. According to Owens, Look Before You Rent represents more than a digital milestone. “We proactively used our database systems to help people. We built something that allows our residents to make informed decisions about their homes,” she said.

By turning transparency into accountability, Syracuse has built a model for how cities can use technology to close the information gap between landlords and tenants, making safe housing not a privilege, but a shared civic standard.

Lessons Learned

People-centered, digitally-enabled services can help governments move from transparency to trust. Transparency is a prerequisite to accountability. Launching Look Before You Rent as a public resource has helped shift how the city communicates with residents and landlords. By sharing rental certificate data, code violations, and inspection records openly, Syracuse empowered renters to make informed choices while encouraging property owners to comply with city standards. This balance between transparency and collaboration has strengthened public confidence in local government and set a foundation for broader housing reform.

Usability testing improves accessibility and performance. The team continuously refined the tool based on direct input from residents and community partners. Testing sessions with tenant organizations, housing advocates, and city staff revealed small usability issues that were quickly resolved, such as unclear search functions and search results including addresses outside of Syracuse. These insights shaped a product that is simple to use, mobile-friendly, and accessible to all residents. By keeping the testing process ongoing, the city created a feedback loop that supports continuous improvement.