Wormley all set for role as U. City promoter

New Managing Director of Community Housing 'D-L' Wormley will entice faculty to move to the area. Diane-Louise Wormley has big plans for her new position as managing director of community housing -- a job in which she must convince people who would never consider living in West Philadelphia to come to the University City area. But she can't reveal what those plans are. Not yet, anyway -- the entire package still needs to be finalized, and Wormley wants to make a single announcement next month, she said. Until then, Wormley -- a longtime resident of the 4800 block of Regent Street -- is working on getting one of the University's newest departments, the Division of Community Housing, up and running. In her new position, which she assumed February 1, Wormley, 49, oversees the West Philadelphia housing initiatives and the Office of Off-Campus Living. Wormley joined the University in 1984 as a manager of tuition plans and most recently served as associate treasurer. "What I am doing is not new, but it used to be just one-tenth of someone's job," said Wormley, who is known as "D-L." "The University decided it was too important not to have someone doing it full time." Still, Wormley discussed some of the initiatives she has already begun in an effort to increase the number of permanent residents in the area. She is working on building a database of contractors, plumbers and roofers who have the experience to work on the Victorian houses of West Philadelphia. Also, Wormley is organizing seminars for future and existing homeowners on topics such as the process of buying a home and how to go about making repairs. "There's this lore of what it's like to live west of 43rd Street perpetuated by people who've never even been there," Wormley said. "Through our efforts, I want to let you consider it as an active option." The new division's first officially announced program is a Housing Fair, scheduled for April 15, where prospective home buyers can speak to all the different parties involved in buying a house, ranging from lenders to title insurance companies. "I want to try to stabilize the neighborhood and market it so people want to live there," Wormley said. Wormley also recently finalized a deal with Commerce Bank to provide "120 percent loans" to home buyers in West Philadelphia. These loans provide 100 percent of a house's purchasing price, 15 percent of that total for housing rehabilitation and 5 percent for closing costs. "This type of loan is highly unusual," Wormley said. "The banks agreed to them because they believe in the community." Wormley also hopes to revamp the World Wide Web site for the Community Housing Division and get funding to create a searchable index on the Office of Off-Campus Living's Web site. As a long-time West Philadelphia resident, Wormley did not hesitate to accept the new position. "I believe in [West Philadelphia] so much," she said. "I never considered living anywhere else when I moved here." University Executive Vice President John Fry said he thought Wormley was "an easy choice" because of her background and residence in the neighborhood. "She's a very sensitive and capable person," Fry said. "People have a lot of trust in and respect for her." Prior to her job as associate treasurer, Wormley worked as the senior manager of the Penn Plan, the University's tuition-financing program. She has previously worked at Stanford, Atlanta and Fisk universities. Wormley, a native of Hartford, Conn., earned her bachelor's degree in English from William Smith College in Geneva, N.Y.

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