ON-CAMPUS HOUSING STUDIED AS WAY TO RETAIN FACULTY.

Byline: Lisa M. Sodders Staff Writer

NORTHRIDGE - Philosophy professor Doug Portmore is leaving California State University, Northridge, for Arizona State University, where he'll teach half as many classes and get paid $7,000 more.

But the big lure is that, thanks to the lower cost of living in the Phoenix area, he'll be able to afford a bigger house, and his wife, Erin, will be able to stay home with their 14-month-old daughter, Fiona.

``The house we have is tiny, and we want a bigger house with a bigger yard,'' said Portmore, 36, an assistant professor.

``Not only is housing a problem for new professors in our department who can't afford to buy a house, but those of us who have just bought a house have acquired over $200,000 in equity. If we move somewhere else, we can buy a nice house.''

With CSUN faculty salaries ranging from $55,700 to $82,700, retention of professors such as Portmore has long been a challenge because of the region's high housing costs.

But, in recent years, rocketing housing prices in the state have propelled the problem to a new level, prompting officials at some universities - including creators of the Envision 2035 Master Plan for CSUN - to propose on-campus housing as a recruitment and retention tool for professors.

``Faculty are drawn here, and they're here for a year or two, and we're losing them because they're realizing how unaffordable it is,'' said Tom McCarron, executive director of CSUN's University Corp. and the North Campus University Park Development Corp.

While California State University officials say recruitment is more of a problem than retention - only about 196 of the system's 10,400 professors left in 2003-2004 - housing is seen as a key piece of the puzzle in both recruitment and retention.

``The 'sunshine tax' has become too high,'' McCarron said. ``If I'm a Ph.D., I don't want to live in a trailer behind my car as my first choice.''

CSUN's master plan - which will go to the CSU system's Board of Trustees for approval in January 2006 - calls for as many as 600 faculty housing units on the North Campus and near Halstead Street and Darby Avenue. The complex would be a mix of town houses, condos and apartments with recreation areas and a park.

Small, ground-floor retail stores, such as a dry-cleaner shop and a coffeehouse next to the North Campus site, also would be part of the mix. The first units could become available as early as 2008, McCarron said.

CSUN is the latest California public university to propose on-campus faculty housing.

Among universities offering the perk are the University of California campuses at Los Angeles, San Diego, Berkeley, San Francisco and Irvine. The UC Irvine campus has offered it since 1985 and now has more than 700 homes for sale and 140 units for rent on nearly 200 acres.

California State University campuses at Monterey Bay, San Francisco and Fullerton have faculty housing, and several others are in the process of building it or considering it.

CSU Channel Islands at Camarillo has offered a mix of apartments, town homes and houses for sale or lease since 2002, said Carol Cory, broker for the university.

And the program has proved popular. Officials said the first two phases - with about 414 units - have sold out. The university is in its third phase of adding housing and has a waiting list of more than 300 faculty members. When it's done, the university will have a total of about 900 units.

Faculty who purchase the houses never own the land, Cory said. The sale price is controlled to keep it below market rates and a faculty member who decides to sell the house can do so only for the purchase price, plus any capital improvements.

A similar system is planned at CSUN.

``It's great for a first-time homebuyer,'' Cory said. ``Although you're not going to make any big dollars as an investment, you're still building a small amount of equity, and it's better than renting.''

Town homes range from $235,000 for 1,303 square feet to $320,000 for 1,790 square feet. A 1,720-square-foot house sells for $333,000 and a 2,280-square-foot house sells for $400,000.

But even if CSUN had its faculty housing program in place, Portmore said, the price structure would have kept him from participating.

His house in Simi Valley, with less than 1,400 square feet, just sold for $500,000.

``I wouldn't be interested in it if I'm not going to be able to make money on the rising housing prices,'' Portmore said. ``If you wanted to move into a larger house later outside of campus, and housing prices went up, you'd be out of luck.''

Still, for others, the program makes sense.

CSUCI biology professor Nancy Mozingo, 43, and her husband, Steven Norris, 44, a biology lecturer, said they're happy to make that trade-off in exchange for an affordable home for themselves and their daughter, Elizabeth, 2.

Three years ago, the couple moved to Camarillo from Oxford, Ohio, where they had a house with more than 2,500 square feet that they purchased for $145,000.

At CSUCI, they paid $260,000 for a three-bedroom house with about 1,800 square feet. They also are able to share child care with another faculty member who lives across the street.

``We really like the idea of walking to work,'' Mozingo said. ``It's a beautiful location, and there are a lot of natural areas around here. It would be nice to make a profit on it, but we knew (we wouldn't) when we were getting into it, and we couldn't have afforded (anything else.)

Lisa M. Sodders, [phone]

lisa.sodders(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

Professor Nancy Mozingo and her husband, Steven Norris, a lecturer, hold their daughter on the porch of their faculty housing at California State University, Channel Islands, in Camarillo.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer