Hi! I can't really speak much for the PhD program, but I can speak for housing since I did my undergrad at BGSU. Bowling Green is totally a college town and renting a house isn't too hard (or it wasn't when I went there. Things can always change, of course.) On BGSU's website they have a list of rental places for those that don't want to live in the dorms, and most of them are within walking distance of campus/food/nightlife. You won't hate yourself if you don't have a car, but sometimes the weather in northwest Ohio leaves a lot to be desired, so keep that in mind when looking for a place. You can do some research on your own; in my experience living on/around campus, I never felt particularly unsafe walking any distance to/from campus at night.
BGSU is bordered by a field, so all of the apartments,rentable houses are on one side of campus. Enclave/Enclave II was roomshare in apartments and was kind of terrible, IMO, but I had terrible roommates and we had ants because of said terrible roommates. I later rented from John Newlove and it was amazing - if it's a house you're looking for, this is your best bet as they can help you rent one of the houses on the streets close to campus, that aren't in the townhome/condo/apartment complexes.
Hope that helps a little bit!