EMU to offer housing incentives with "Live Ypsi"

Eastern Michigan University plans to offer its employees incentives to become homeowners in Ypsilanti. Details of the "Live Ypsi" program are still being finalized. But Leigh Greden says university employees could qualify for five to 10-thousand dollars in loans for down payments or rehab work. "And if the employee continues to be employed by Eastern Michigan, and continues to live in that home, we will forgive 20 percent of the loan per year for five years," said Greden. "And then at the end, all of the loan will have been forgiven." Greden says the idea is to stabilize neighborhoods near the university. The DTE Energy Foundation and Washtenaw County are both kicking in money for the program, and Greden says negotiations are under way with a third organization as well.  The concept is modeled after the "live Midtown" program in Detroit.