Home Buyer Funding promotes safe off-campus housing options

Vacant historic houses surrounding the Youngstown State University campus may get a second life thanks to an organization looking to restore the structures.Al Casanta and his partners Tom Calpin and Mark Ravenstahl at Home Buyer Funding are working close with the university to renovate and upgrade houses around the Wick Park area, and show students that alternative housing options exist.

"We just bought an apartment complex on Bryson Street. There are 27 units there. Only 10 are currently rented to students at this time," Calpin said.

He added that they are trying to attract more students to that complex.

"Our organization, between the three properties - Bryson, 21 Indiana [Ave.] and the newly finished 253 Park Ave. home, will well represent a million dollars when all [is] said and done," Calpin said.

The recently finished historical home on 253 Park Ave. is one block north of campus, right across from the park. It is a three-story home including a basement. The house has two kitchens, nine bedrooms, four bathrooms, automatic light switches, a laundry room, five fireplaces and a security system with sensors on windows and doors.

The house was originally purchased from a couple that used the home to foster children.

Casanta said the home was used as an orphanage and then remained vacant for two years.

"We bought the home in November before Thanksgiving," said general contractor Deno Frazzini.

The partners at Home Buyer Funding explained how they got involved with the university.

"We work in conjunction with Hunter Morrison [director of Campus Planning and Community Development] and Jack Fahey [interim vice president for Student Affairs and omsbudsperson]. They were both very helpful and encouraging. They both felt the need for an off-campus developer," Casanta said.

Casanta said that when people think of off-campus housing, they think of run-down, unsafe homes.

"The individual student may not know these kind of homes exist around here. We want to let people know there are alternative, quality off-campus housing options besides the dorms, the Flats and the Courtyard Apartments," Casanta said.

The Home Buyer Funding partners also expressed the importance of working closely with the city of Youngstown and the university.

"Fixing Wick Park has a lot to do with our business. The houses that are restored will appeal to students and their parents when the nearby park feels safer," said Steven Tripepi, YSU alumnus and marketing consultant for Home Buyer Funding.

Tripepi added that the closer the home is to campus, the more likely students will move in. He explained that they showed the house to all YSU sororities but that the brothers of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity expressed interest.

Partners of Home Buyer Funding said their main concern is safety.

"We're looking forward to a lot more cooperation from the community and the university to light up the surrounding area," Casanta said.

He said he and his partners try to pick houses that they think are safe.

"We don't want to be on a street with boarded up houses," he said.

Casanta explained what he feels needs to be done from this point onward.

"After we appealed to the city, they said that there was no money available at this time to fix the sidewalks around Wick Park. They said we would need to fix the sidewalks ourselves, so we are going to do that," he said.

He also said they plan to remove the trees at the Bryson Street complex and put in exterior lighting.

"We're trying to do our part. Our goal is to make a good product, and we just expect renters to respect it," Casanta said.