Update from Campus Partners:  July 10, 2001

Contents:

BROAD STREET PORTFOLIO

Campus Partners at the end of June submitted an alternate restructuring plan for the Broad Street portfolio to the U.S. Office of Multi-family Housing Assistance Restructuring (OMHAR) and to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Accompanying the plan were support letters from Mayor Michael Coleman, City Council Member Charleta Tavares, Ohio State President William Kirwan, and leaders of the Columbus Compact, University Area Commission, CMHA, COHHIO, Columbus Urban League, Godman Guild Association and B.R.E.A.D. Campus Partners hopes to hear later this month from OMHAR staff on their reaction to the plan.

The Broad Street portfolio in Columbus is composed of some 242 buildings with a total of 1,335 units of project-based, Section 8 housing. These units are managed by Broad Street Management Co. and are owned through 13 limited partnerships. Unless the alternate plan is accepted, OMHAR plans to restructure and extend the Section 8 contracts with the current owners under the federal "Mark-to-Market Program."

Campus Partners last January secured an option to acquire the Broad Street portfolio and began an intensive effort to prepare an alternate restructuring plan. A broad-based community advisory panel met three times to offer advice and guidance as this alternate plan was developed. The plan is an effective compromise between two legitimate community goals: 1) the need to preserve the supply of Section 8 housing, and 2) the desire to encourage greater economic diversity in center city neighborhoods.

In brief, the alternate plan would: -- Preserve 1,335 units of Section 8, project-based housing for an additional 30 years under new, community-based, non-profit ownership. -- Invest more than $35 million in the rehabilitation of this distressed housing stock, including exterior and interior renovations and the provision of basic amenities (e.g., showers, carpet), to improve the quality of life for residents and the appearance of the neighborhoods. -- Provide for an unprecedented commitment to human services, including improved access to child care, counseling and educational services. -- Increase the investment in site management, maintenance and security to improve the quality of life for residents of the development. -- Adopt a nationally unique strategy for enabling the voluntary relocation of several hundred Broad Street residents and the assignment of the Section 8 contracts to newly developed, and permanently affordable, housing units. -- Provide 300 to 500 new opportunities for affordable homeownership and market-rate rental housing through the conversion of a portion of the existing Section 8 properties, upon reassignment of their Section 8 HAP agreements.

Campus Partners will not own or manage properties under the alternate plan, but will assign its option to acquire the portfolio to a new owner or owners. Over the next few months, Campus Partners will work with city officials, community agencies, neighborhood civic associations, and Broad Street residents to identify a new ownership and management team. One approach may be creation of a new non-profit housing organization which would work with perhaps five or six new neighborhood-based organizations to each own and manage the units in a particular neighborhood.

The vast majority of Broad Street residents are single women with young children. Campus Partners believes that the affordable housing can be an important organizing element for critical services to help these families move to self-sufficiency. Such services might include day care and pre-school activities, family living skills, and GED preparation, as well as counseling for employment, credit and home-buying. Again, over the next several months, Campus Partners will work with Broad Street residents, social service providers and others to determine the supportive services needed and to seek foundation and federal grants to endow a permanent fund for such services.

The alternate plan assumes about $60 million in funding for rehabilitation, development costs, contingency funds, and supportive services. The financing would come from a variety of sources, including tax exempt bond financing, low income housing tax credits, a HUD grant, city and other local funds, and donations.

During the preparation of the alternate plan, neighborhood civic leaders strongly urged that efforts be made to disperse more widely the project-based, Section 8 housing throughout Columbus, rather than concentrate the housing in these center-city neighborhoods. As a result, the alternate plan proposes that the total number of project-based, Section 8 units be maintained, but that there be a provision for the voluntary relocation over time of several hundred Broad Street residents to newly developed and permanently affordable units in other neighborhoods of Columbus. This provision could make the alternate plan a national model for affordable housing and urban neighborhood revitalization, but it also may require special congressional appropriation.

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PUBLIC SAFETY REPORT

Bill Hall, vice president of student services, is convening a task force this summer to make further recommendations on measures this fall to prevent disturbances in the predominantly student neighborhood. The task force is chaired by Eric Busch and John Kleberg.

The University Area Crime Stoppers Program will be launched this summer. This program will be a subsidiary of the existing Central Ohio Crime Stoppers. The program will publicize particular crimes and encourage the public to report any leads or suspects to the police. The Lantern has agreed to carry information on the crimes. If a tip leads to an arrest and conviction, the citizen reporting the tip can receive a monetary reward. Central Ohio Crime Stoppers focuses on serious felonies, such as murder and armed robbery. The University Area Crime Stoppers may select less serious crimes, but crimes which have an impact on the neighborhood, such as graffiti or the setting of dumpster fires. The board of the University Area Crime Stoppers includes representatives of students, police, university, High Street businesses and the neighborhood.

The Campus Partners Safety Coordinating Committee will not meet during July and August. The next meeting will be Wednesday, Sept. 12, at 2:30 p.m. in the conference room of Blankenship Hall, 901 Woody Hayes Drive. This building houses University Public Safety and University Police.

STREET SWEEPING

The city conducted a special street sweeping June 12 and 13 in the south campus area and June 14 and 14 in the Dennison Place and NECKO neighborhoods. Volunteers placed flyers about the sweeping on parked vehicles. The city didn't have temporary "no parking" signs to post on the street. Compliance was voluntary; there was no ticketing or towing. The results were disappointing, particularly in the south campus area where little attempt was made to move parked vehicles.

AFRICAN AMERICAN HERITAGE FESTIVAL

The Coordinating Committee for the African American Heritage Festival met June 13 to review the operation of the festival, May 14-20. In general, the festival went quite well. The events drew more diverse crowds than in previous years. Traffic congestion, however, remained the major concern. Police agencies will continue to look at how to improve that aspect of the festival for next year.

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NEW STUDENT TRUSTEE

The Campus Partners Board of Trustees at its meeting June 21 voted to appoint Michael E. Goodman to a two-year term as the representative of undergraduate students on the board. His term began July 1. He succeeds Kendra Davitt, who graduated spring quarter. Mr. Goodman has just completed his first year at Ohio State. He is a business major from Northbrook, Ill.

Campus Partners advertised the undergraduate position on the board in the Lantern, list-servs, e-mail, CABS buses, university residence halls and university offices. Ms. Davitt chaired the selection committee which reviewed the applications and recommended two candidates for consideration by the full board.

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STUDENT INVOLVEMENT

The Campus Partners Student Advisory Board held two public forums during spring quarter. Dan Slane, a member of both the Campus Partners and The Ohio State University boards of trustees, spoke on April 23 in a residence hall about the work of Campus Partners. Terry Foegler spoke in the Ohio Union on May 29 about Campus Partners' initiatives on High Street and the University Gateway Center. The leadership of the Student Advisory Board concluded the year with a dinner on June 1.

The Student Safety Initiative held its last meeting of the academic year on June 1. The leaders of Undergraduate Student Government have agreed to be more active in SSI next fall. Meanwhile, interest continues in the Adopt-A-Street program. Evans Scholars continues to promote the BuckEyes Watch program on East 14th Avenue.

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