September 6, 2002

 
 
 
 

Deepa and Preethi Govindaraj

The Buffalo housing initiative at Canisius College

Canisius College is taking a step towards inner city revitalization through its Employer Assisted Housing (EAH) Program, an extension of the Fannie Mae program. Fannie Mae Corporation, the largest private sector provider of mortgage financing, strives to provide affordable housing to low and moderate-income families. The company prides itself on helping citizens achieve the American Dream, which Fannie Mae equates with homeownership. Part of the corporation’s mission is to help organizations-in the profit and non-profit sectors- set up Employer Assisted Housing programs, which according to Fannie Mae, helps employers retain valuable employees in close proximity to the place of work and thereby strengthens communities in inner cities.

Canisius College, partnering with Hunt Real Estate, Fannie Mae, and M&T Bank, has now implemented an EAH program. The college aims to bring some of its employees who now live in the suburbs into the City of Buffalo. By doing so, Canisius hopes to prevent the deterioration of homes in those neighborhoods by being attentive and cautious regarding homeownership in the area. The job of Hunt Real Estate in this trio is to promote housing in specific areas of downtown Buffalo; M&T Bank creates specific mortgages for real estate investment in downtown Buffalo; Canisius then provides a forgivable loan for its employees that can be used towards a down payment or help with closing costs. Fannie Mae Corporation helped in the development of the structure and administration of the program. 

The loan is 5% of the purchase price or $5,000 (whichever is less) to employees who buy a one or two family home in either the Delaware District, the Masten Council District, or a portion of the North Council District. Additionally, employees can receive a 7% discount of the purchase price or $7,000 (again, whichever is less) for buying a home either in the Parkside Community Historic District, the Hamlin Park Historic District, or the Linwood-Oxford neighborhood. Canisius picked these districts to create a geometrically circular community, with the college as the center. The loan is forgivable so long as Canisius employees live in their houses and continue working for the college for at least five years. The funding for the forgivable loans comes from Canisius College’s operating budget, according to John Hurley, Vice President of College Relations for Canisius College, who spoke with us about the Employer Assisted Housing Program.

Hurley was an early advocate of the EAH Program. Jack Maloney of Fannie Mae contacted Hurley and discussed the company’s mission and gave him and the college a presentation on the program. Impressed by the possibility of having Canisius employees live in the City and thereby help those neighborhoods, Hurley, along with Bob Bannister, director of Fannie Mae’s Western and Central New York office, initiated the project: “It is the right thing to do for our employees, it’s the right thing to do for the City, and it’s the right thing to do for these neighborhoods,” said Hurley.

Canisius hopes the program will help recruit and retain employees. “We would like to have more of our employees living right around the college…so that they can walk to work," Hurley said. "It helps with the parking.” Canisius is concerned about the welfare of the residents in the college vicinity—many of them students. The college predicts the EAH program will create a safer environment for them. Speaking of the neighborhood associations the college is working with, Hurley said, “It’s in both of our interests to encourage homeownership in the neighborhood and not have the houses fall into the hands of absentee landlords.”

The EAH was announced in January and Canisius has closed two deals thus far. A professor bought a house on Parkside Avenue and an administrator purchased a house on Knox. Hurley spoke about the latter closing with pride, as the buyer had lived in Lockport all of her life and decided to purchase a house in the City, aided by Canisius’s program. Hurley said that although the administration has discussed the idea of limiting the number of transactions, Canisius has decided not to do so at this time. However if the college receives an unusually high number of requests initially, the EAH Program will be available to employees on a first-come first-served basis. “Fannie Mae told us they would expect us to do three to five transactions per year,” Hurley said.

We asked Hurley about the residents in the targeted areas: “Parkside is a very diverse community.  We have several of our professors who live in Parkside, there are lots of young families, there are lots of older people who have just grown to love being next to the park, so that’s a neat community; it’s one of the great neighborhoods in the City of Buffalo.” We asked Hurley about the availability of homes in the targeted neighborhoods. “People are moving in and out of the City for lots of different reasons. Unfortunately, you see a lot of young parents move out of the City, because they don’t trust the school system. But, we never ask the reason, it just happens. There are houses for sale all over the City”, said Hurley.

Hurley says that Canisius hopes the forgivable loans and the obvious benefits of living in the City-such as the close proximity to Delaware Park, downtown, and the cultural attractions-will provide the incentive for employees to purchase city homes. Studies show people are leaving the City for greener pastures. With the EAH Program, it might just be the green stuff that gets people back into the City, and we’re not talking about grass.

Deepa Govindaraj is a freshman at the University of Buffalo Honors Program, pursuing a degree in the Liberal Arts. Preethi Govindaraj, a recent graduate from the University at Buffalo Honors Program, is a first year MBA student at UB.