University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Dawn Reed and Jon Fuller, pictured with their daughter, Nora, and dog, Chaney, bought this house on Pelham Drive with the help of UB’s Home Loan Guaranty Program.

• Print

• Comments (1)

• “We both love this city and want to see it succeed. A lot of people talk the big talk and they live in Amherst, they live in Clarence. We wanted to be part of the growth, the revitalization.”

  Jon Fuller

  Communications Director, Division of Athletics

By CHARLOTTE HSU

Published: August 26, 2010

The house on Pelham Drive, steps from the South Campus, is 90 years old, with oak floors, generous windows, a brick fireplace and a sprawling backyard. Inside, rooms beckon visitors with a rainbow of painted hues: a gray-blue for the dining area, a lavender-toned blue for the upstairs quarters where the baby sleeps. Photographs from a honeymoon in Italy hang on the kitchen's pumpkin walls.

The owners, wife and husband Dawn Reed and Jon Fuller, UB Athletics’ director of development programs and communications director, respectively, moved in just over a year ago. Already, they know their neighbors: the gentleman who has lived next door for nearly half a century, the lady two houses down who grew up there and recently retired. The couple frequents local businesses, with Amy’s Place, a casual eatery, and the more upscale, New Orleans-inspired Shango Bistro and Wine Bar among favorite destinations. With their 6-month-old daughter, Nora, they attend St. Joseph University Church, a few blocks away on Main Street.

Urban living suits the pair. (Chaney, the scruffy mutt who has free run of their fenced-in back lawn, seems to enjoy the city lifestyle, too.) And in Western New York, Reed and Fuller’s stake in Buffalo is a statement. They bought their house through UB’s Home Loan Guaranty Program, which enables employees to finance up to 120 percent of the price of a property in neighborhoods around the South Campus. The choices they make every day—the money they have poured into remodeling, the places they choose to shop, the relationships they form with fellow residents—all exemplify how recipients of the university-backed loans are enriching the community.

“We both love this city and want to see it succeed,” Fuller says. “A lot of people talk the big talk and they live in Amherst, they live in Clarence. We wanted to be part of the growth, the revitalization.”

“You have to take an active role, and for us to be in the city and pay city taxes and to be active members of the community was one thing we could do,” Reed says. “I remember my parents’ friends who lost their jobs from Bethlehem Steel, getting laid off and losing their jobs. And other cities—Pittsburgh, Cleveland, the other Rust Belt cities—have turned from blue-collar to white-collar cities. You see it happening in other places, and you know it can happen here, too. So you either sit back and talk about it all the time, or you do whatever little part that you can to help.”

So far, 22 employees or employee couples have taken advantage of UB’s loan program, joining nearly 550 colleagues who live around the South Campus. Participants do not have to pay private mortgage insurance, which can save around $100 per month, depending on the size of the mortgage.

Reed and Fuller borrowed 105 percent of the price of their home and used the extra dollars to cover attorney fees, taxes and other closing costs—a godsend for the young parents, who are juggling all of the expenses associated with starting a family. They also used some of the leftover cash to waterproof their basement, renovate their kitchen and add new light fixtures and central air. “I don’t think we really realized how great of a program it was until we really started going through the process,” says Reed, a first-time buyer.

The loan program, launched in 2003, demonstrates UB’s longtime and long-term commitment to enhancing the quality of life for residents of surrounding areas, a key component of the institution’s UB 2020 long-range plan, says Jessica Biegaj, a programming associate in the Office of Community Relations. The program’s success, along with building and improvement projects on the South Campus, show that UB 2020 is an ongoing initiative that is “alive and well,” Biegaj says.

Reed and Fuller’s contributions to their neighborhood extend beyond patronizing local stores and restaurants. They took part in a cleanup on Minnesota Avenue, and Reed is on the University Community Farmers Market organizing committee. As a master’s degree candidate in Empire State College’s social policy program, she is working with UB’s Office of Community Relations to study how universities across the country have catalyzed the resurrection of surrounding communities.

And, in the end, simple actions—hosting dinners for friends, for instance—make a big difference.

“From a public relations standpoint,” Fuller says, “just telling people that this is where we live raises a lot of awareness. There are a lot of people, they’ve never been over here before. Just getting people to come over here and getting people to embrace this city lifestyle, embrace this area, is important.”

“For many years, UB has been criticized for not making enough of a commitment to the city neighborhoods,” Reed says. “But the home loan program is just one of many things UB is doing as a strategic investor in the area.”

For information on the Home Loan Guaranty Program contact the Office of Community Relations at 829-3099.