Although Campus Partners receives many headlines, one aspect of its plan to transform the University District that has received scant attention is a program created in 1998 to encourage Ohio State faculty and staff to purchase homes in that area.

“One of the most important recommendations made in discussions was the need to increase levels of home ownership in the University District,” said Steve Sterrett, spokesman for Campus Partners.

According to Sterrett, levels of home ownership for faculty and staff in the University District – which ranges from Arcadia Avenue in the north to 5th Avenue in the south and west of the Olentangy River to just east of I-71 – were at 50 percent in 1950.

By 1990, that level had dropped to 12 percent. This steep decline in the level of home ownership disturbed many at OSU. Campus Partners worked with the university to, as Sterrett put it, “prime the pump” for home ownership in the neighborhoods.

So OSU, in correlation with Campus Partners, began the Faculty and Staff Neighborhood Homeownership Incentive Program. The program offers a down payment of $3,000 as an interest-free, forgivable loan to assist faculty and staff members who purchase homes and live in the University District.

“The university wanted to make (these neighborhoods) a viable place for home ownership,” Sterrett said.

The idea was to give university employees a stake in the surrounding community, which would encourage the university to maintain a constructive interest in the district.

The Board of Trustees approved the proposal in 1998 and allocated $500,000 to the program, which is administered by the OSU Office of Human Resources.

Two-thirds of this funding targeted Area A, which includes Weinland Park and the central portion of the University District. The other third targeted Area B, which includes the area north of Norwich Avenue and Dennison Place – located in the southwest corner of the District.

As of September, 74 homes had been purchased under this program. Fifty-eight of them were in Area B, which is a less distressed area and has more opportunities for home ownership, Sterrett said. Area A is mainly student housing and Weinland Park, a high crime area.

The heavier interest in Area B has led to funds allocated for that area being exhausted. No further applications for that area are being taken.

Jonathan Fox, an associate professor in consumer and textile sciences, has lived in his home on King Avenue for three years.

“It couldn’t be better not having parking wars to start the day,” Fox said. “It works extremely well for me in my situation.”

He enjoys living close to campus and believes having more homeowners in the area only can help a community.

Cathy Drake, administrative fiscal manager for Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology in the College of Biological Sciences, has lived in her East Maynard Avenue home for three years. She likes to walk to work everyday and the diversity of her neighborhood.

“I wouldn’t have bought that house if it hadn’t been for the program,” she said. “It was a good deal.”