CHICAGO, IL. Responding to its clients’ needs, The Scion Group has announced the addition of program management and fair housing education to its suite of advisory services to the student housing sector. The firm has provided these services internally for its portfolio of nearly 16,000 owned and managed beds and has now made them available to the broader higher-education and student housing markets.
Scion’s program management services empower clients to focus on their core missions with peace of mind that projects will be delivered on-time and on-budget, without sacrificing quality. Scion will apply best practices learned from co-developing more than $300 million of student housing; in the past 12 months, Scion’s program management professionals have directed over $25 million of renovations and improvements. Scion Vice President Ann Volz, who leads this practice, said: “We are pleased to be able to provide clients with the professionals, tools and benchmarks that advance well-crafted plans into the built environment through an efficient, collaborative process.”
Scion is also now offering a Fair Housing training program custom-built for student housing, including by-the-bed leasing environments which can present unique challenges regarding familial status protection and other requirements under the law. This training can be specifically tailored for on-campus housing, where legal action from parties alleging discrimination has been increasing and court orders and settlements have required directed training.
“Housing organizations that take a proactive approach can avoid costly litigation and demonstrate to the courts, government agencies and private advocacy groups that they take Fair Housing compliance seriously,” said Eric Luskin, CPM®, Scion’s Senior Vice President who leads the Fair Housing training practice. “Our services can include comprehensive review of policies and periodic on-site training, as well as customized classes designed to address specific mandates and needs of the particular institution.”
The Scion Group is North America’s only firm providing a full suite of advisory, program management and operational services exclusively for student housing. Since its founding in 1999, Scion has provided consulting services in more than 140 campus markets across the United States, as well as in Canada, Mexico and the U.K. Scion has advised more than $3 billion of student housing renovation and construction projects and, directly with its investment partners, has been involved in the acquisition, development and management of over 21,000 student beds.
For more information, please contact Ann Volz (Program Management, avolz@thesciongroup.com) or Eric Luskin (Fair Housing Education, eluskin@thesciongroup.com) at 312-704-5100.