Neighbors want UST to add owner -occupied homes to buyback plans
The West Summit N.eighborhood Advisory Committee (WSNAC) is expected to vote on a proposal next month that would expand the University of St Thomas' housing buyback program to include owner-occupied homes around UST's St. Paul campus.
St.Thomas agreed to purchase and renovate 30 houses over a 12-year period as part of its 2004 agreement· with the city to expand its campus boundary.The intent was to fix up student rental-properties and sell them to owner-occupants. Ten houses have been bought and resold through the program so far.
Over the past year, university officials and WSNAC . members have received requests to expand the program to include owner-occupied homes that may be slated to become student rental properties, according to Jeanne Matross, co-chair of WSNAC's Housing Sub-committee. Matross' committee has proposed that the purchase of owner-occupied homes be limited to an area bounded by Marshall, Prior, Goodrich and Cretin/Exeter [A]venues. That is less than half the size of the area targeted by the full housing buyback program, which includes parts of the Merriam Park and Macalester-Groveland neighborhoods.
"This is coming from neighbors who are saying, 'Boy, wen really like you to protect our blocks,' " said St. Thomas neighborhood liaison John Hershey.
Over the past year, reSidents on- Laurel Avenue and Powell Street approached St. Thomas about buying two owner-occupied homes that went up for sale on their blocks, rather than see the homes become student rentals. Both of the houses sold on the private market and at least one was purchased by a family for its student-child and friends to live in.
WSNAC members would like a better sense of how many houses could potentially be included in an expanded buyback program. The committee laid over a decision on the policy change on March 10.
Debate over changes to the housing buyback program has been heated in the past. When the program began, St. Thomas bought the rental properties' and made renovations before they were resold to owner-occupants. Now houses are purchased and the new owners are given money to make the improvements themselves.
Two years ago, WSNAC, members and neighborhood residents battled over which blocks should get priority when rental housing is purchased. At the heart of that debate was whether St. Thomas should target home purchases on blocks that are already largely rental or whether it should focus on protecting blocks that are still largely owner-occupied. Some subcommittee members quit in protest when WSNAC opted for the latter.
The push for setting specific bonndaries arose after the university purchased a student rental home on Stanford Avenue, more than a half-mile south of the main campus. Some WSNAC members felt the house was too far away fer the buyback program.
Several committee members commented on March 10 about the growing problems caused by families who buy houses near St. Thomas for their children and friends to live in while attending college. Those properties are usually homesteaded, which means they are not subject to the same kind of housing inspections that rental properties are. It is also harder to track those properties, which some WSNAC members describe as "de facto rental," through property records. University officials estimate that about 45 houses around the campus have been purchased by families for their student-child in recent years.
St. Thomas and WSNAC have encouraged neighbors to put deed restrictions on their own properties to block them from future rental use and offered informational packets on how to put the restrictions in place. However, many campus neighbors have balked at the notion.
Some WSNAC members would like to have seen the university create a community development corporation rather than try to buy problem properties house by house. St. Thomas has continued to seek houses to purchase and resell through the program, Hershey said, but some recent deals have fallen through due to prospective homeowners having trouble getting financing.
