Police Homeowners
Loan Program City of Columbia
South Carolina

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The Police Homeowners Loan Program simultaneously addresses two problems that plague low-income neighborhoods: crime and deteriorated housing. To encourage police officers to buy homes in the city neighborhoods they patrol, the program offers low-interest, 20-year mortgage loans, requiring no down payment, to buy and rehabilitate substandard inner-city houses. The officers must live in the homes financed through the program. The first loan was approved in February 1991.

Created by Columbia's Community Development Department in partnership with the Police Department, the loan program expands the city's community-based policing initiative, which has helped bring about a 15 percent reduction in crime. Police officers who live in the city receive a $500 end-of-year bonus and priority consideration for promotions. For officers to attain a rank of captain or above, city residence is required.

City officials report that the new police homeowners not only help deter crime in their neighborhoods, but also inspire confidence among inner-city residents and encourage them to cooperate in improving conditions in the community. In addition, the program is helping the police homeowners better understand the character of the neighborhoods they patrol and giving residents the opportunity to know officers personally.

By mid-1993, nine officers had purchased inner-city homes through the program. All the officers report that they would not have moved into low-income city neighborhoods without the program.

Community support has been so strong that many people living outside the program's target neighborhoods have demanded that the city also recruit police officers to buy deteriorated houses in their areas.

Initially, many officers greeted the Police Homeowners Loan Program with skepticism. Columbia's police chief and community development officials responded by launching an aggressive campaign to educate officers about the program and to assure them that their families would not be endangered by moving into the city. Soon after the first police officer bought a home—coincidentally with the street address 911 Sunset Drive—officers' interest in the program began to grow.

The cost of the first nine homes purchased under the loan program—about $600,00—was primarily provided by the city. The money will eventually be repaid as the officers pay off their mortgages. Nine local banks have agreed to participate in the next phase of the program.

The popularity of the Police Homeowners Loan Program has prompted the city to create a similar homeowner program for other city employees.