Housing aid is a recruitment tool

BY NIALA BOODHOO

nboodhoo@MiamiHerald.com

When University of Miami officials were recruiting Ricardo Hall from North Carolina, they made sure he got this message: Be prepared for the high cost of living.

``They didn't want me to find out on my own, so it would be less sticker shock,'' said the new dean of students, who had been at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem.

Talking about it didn't make it any less painful. The Coral Gables house the family is renting is costing three times more than the mortgage on its former two-story, three-bedroom home on almost an acre. The transition has been made smoother, though, by a new university program that will share the burden of a new mortgage.

With costs of homes, insurance and property taxes soaring, local employers are beginning to offer housing assistance to recruit and retain midlevel professionals, such as nurses at Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale. Others such as the Miami-Dade County School Board recently approved a program to offer reduced public transit prices as an employee benefit. One Broward County business owner is even lobbying to change the federal tax code.

`A KEY ISSUE'

``Definitely, it is a key issue,'' said Frank Nero, chief executive officer of the Beacon Council, Miami-Dade County's economic development agency. ``We're not as competitive as we once were. It has an overall impact on our ability to recruit.''

A few years ago, ``we were worried only about low-income people,'' said Broward Workforce Development Board member Ben Chen, who owns Fort Lauderdale civil engineering company Ben Chen and Associates. But that's changed.

Now, Chen even has a hard time finding civil or environmental engineers who can afford to live here. He is lobbying the federal government to change its tax code to allow companies to include housing assistance for employees as a business expense.

A Beacon Council housing affordability study published in January named accountants, medical scientists and aerospace engineers among many midlevel professionals who need two-income households to afford a Miami-Dade home.

Some companies have responded with higher salary offers to lure new workers. Others are trying more innovative approaches. Local workforce housing developer mFm Construction Corp. is partnering with the city of Miami and private companies like Bank of America and the Discovery Channel to provide their workers with a first chance at mFm's condo projects, which include the River Grand near Jackson Memorial Hospital.

New home buyers can receive up to three years of free maintenance from the developer, which could represent as much as $10,800 in savings. At the River Grand, one-bedroom units start at about $220,000.

In Sunrise this year, more than 1,200 people attended a first-ever affordable-housing expo, sponsored by Broward County Public Schools. Most of the homes on offer were condominiums and townhouses priced under $350,000.

Holy Cross Hospital hiked signing bonuses for nurses and other hard-to-find hospital workers. It is also renovating a block of apartments near the hospital to be used as temporary housing for new hires.

Baptist Health South Florida worked with its credit union and Home Financing Center to provide eligible nonexecutive employees with anywhere from $2,000 to $10,000 in forgivable loans for first-time home purchases. Monroe County employees at Mariners Hospital were among the recipients.

``Giving the home buyer perk was a way of addressing the cost of living,'' said spokeswoman Anne Streeter. The program started in May. So far, 95 people have been preapproved; two have already closed on new houses.

MORTGAGE PROGRAM

The University of Miami plans to build faculty housing - both for rental and for sale - near the campus and at several other sites around the county. And this fall, UM is starting a program that will help new faculty members and administrators reduce the size of their mortgages. Say a new hire wants a house that would require a $400,000 mortgage - UM will put up $200,000. When the house is sold, UM will get its share of the profit (or loss) from the deal.

``It's used purely as a recruiting tool,'' said Steve Ullmann, vice provost for faculty affairs and university administration. Ullman said the housing issue is the main concern of every candidate. The program's budget will allow mortgage sharing for about 25 to 35 people.

Hall, the new dean, will be house-hunting over the next year. He says the mortgage sharing program certainly made the decision to relocate easier.

Without it?

``We would have thought long and hard,'' he said.