Clarifying Housing Plan

The April 3 Valley Edition of The Times ran an interview with me on the conversion of student housing to faculty/staff housing at Cal State Northridge.

Two letters to the editor have appeared since then, both critical of our plan. Since the writers completely misunderstood the plan, I would like to clarify the issues they raised.

One of the writers indicated that we were spending $17 million to $27 million to construct new faculty housing when a renovation costing $7 million to $8.5 million would accomplish the same.

The seven-story vacant building currently on the site was built as a dormitory and later converted to student apartments. It needs asbestos removal, new plumbing and retrofitting to meet earthquake standards, which would cost the state $8 million. The foundation plans to build townhomes and condominiums for faculty/staff housing, which is certainly not the same thing.

Both writers assume state funds would be used for the project. That is not true. The California State University Foundation, Northridge, a nonprofit corporation, would borrow commercially and use sales proceeds to pay back the loan.

One writer mentioned the current housing surplus. We know there is a lot of housing on the market. However, unless our new faculty have inherited money or family financial support, they cannot afford that housing.

Most of our new faculty hires with Ph.D.s start at about $34,800 per year. The March issue of The Times listed average home prices for the six areas of the Valley. Except for the northeast section, the average price ranged from $265,500 to $309,500. New faculty cannot afford these homes or anything even close.

In fact, a full professor at the top step, after 20 years of service, could not qualify for an 80% mortgage at these prices.

The faculty for whom we are competing also have opportunities to work in other parts of the country, where a three-bedroom, two-bath house may sell for $80,000. Many potential faculty turn us down because of the high cost of living here, especially housing. Too often, we are unable to attract our first choice for a position.

The second choice may or may not be acceptable, but if we go very far down the ladder to hire, it adversely affects generations to come.

DONALD QUEEN, Northridge. Queen wrote as director of the CSUN Foundation.