HELPING HOUSE CSU TEACHERS MORTGAGE PROGRAM COULD AID RECRUITMENT AT CHANNEL ISLANDS CAMPUS.

Byline: Mariel Garza Staff Writer

Inspired by the struggle to recruit teachers for the budding CSU Channel Islands campus, California State University officials announced a new program Thursday that will make it cheaper and easier for professors and other employees to buy a home.

Under the mortgage assistance program launched in conjunction with St. Louis-based CitiMortgage, California State University employees can waive loan application fees and receive grants of up to $2,000 to cover closing costs.

Qualified applicants also can provide less than the traditional 20 percent down payment without incurring mortgage insurance charges. Additional benefits are available to employees who meet low- to moderate- income guidelines defined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The program will begin Tuesday and is open to all 44,000 CSU employees.

``It will benefit all the campuses in the state,'' said Lenore Rozner, CSU assistant vice chancellor of business planning.

A recent survey of the 23-campus system revealed a dearth of affordable housing that is hurting the ability to recruit and retain faculty members and other staffers in areas like the San Fernando Valley and Ventura County, where housing costs are relatively high.

The program will be especially appreciated at CSU Channel Islands, the newest campus in the statewide system, which is in an area where the average single-family home costs $329,000.

But with the program in place, CSUCI officials hope their recruiting odds will improve.

``I don't think many of the faculty would come here if we didn't have it,'' said Art Flores, assistant vice president of the Human Resources Program at CSUCI.

Since July, the new university has recruited 40 faculty and staff members nation- and worldwide, but it still needs to hire 25 more, Flores said.

The mortgage program, together with construction of low-priced residential communities for CSUCI employees, is the ``double hitter'' that will make recruitment much easier, he said.

In the San Fernando Valley, where a single-family home costs an average of $258,000, homebuying assistance is ``needed desperately'' for faculty and staffers, said Michael Nuebauer, Faculty Senate president and a math professor at California State University, Northridge.

``The starting salaries are fairly low at the CSUs, and a lot of CSUs are in very high-priced locations like San Jose, San Francisco, Northridge and Long Beach, to name a few,'' Nuebauer said. ``It's very hard for faculty to buy a house and, in turn, that has a direct impact on recruiting.''

Homebuying assistance programs are not new for public sector employees. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development helps schoolteachers and police officers purchase HUD-owned houses through the Officer Next Door and Teacher Next Door programs.

In addition, Fannie Mae began an affordable housing investment plan in November that includes a program called the Extra Credit Teacher Home Purchase Plan in California. That low-interest and down-payment program helps teachers buy homes in Los Angeles and Orange counties.