San Diego Union
Sunday March 24, 1991
Education Facilities Are Part Of This Low Income Housing
By: Richard Louv

Here's the basic idea: Build a low-income housing development, but don't stop with the physical shelter; create an environment that guarantees educational excellence for its children. This is the core of Salveson's EEXCEL housing project, now under construction near Gardena.

If EEXCEL (Education Excellence for Children with Environmental Limitations) succeeds, it could shape the future of low-income housing, and more. Some observers even talk of incorporating education and family counseling into middle-income or luxury condo projects - selling these services as developers' amenities, like wet bars or condo health clubs.

"The genius of Salveson's approach is that it links the school to the home, something educators talk about, but the connection is seldom made," says Guilbert Henscke Dean of University of Southern California's School of Education. "But Kent is building education right into the shelter." The EEXCEL project is all the more remarkable because it was thought up by a politically conservative developer.

"About a year and a half ago, Kent came to me and indicated he was interested in building some low income housing for us," says Mike Wright, chief of housing production for the Century Freeway Housing Program, a state agency mandated by the courts to replace housing destroyed by the construction of L.A.'s Century Freeway.

"At first, he turned us down. Our financing terms weren't attractive to him." But a few days later Salveson returned to Wright's office. "He told us about his vision, of how low-income housing could be done. We rearranged the financing. There's not much of a fee in this project for him. But he's stayed on it."

Salveson, 40, a former mortgage banker and attorney with an undergraduate degree in biochemistry, had already built some standard low-income housing developments. But he was disenchanted with business-as-usual.

"One day about three years ago," relates Salveson, "I was talking to one of my tenants. She was a Hispanic woman with five children. She worked two jobs, at Van de Kamp's Bakery at night and El Pollo Loco during the day. I jokingly said to her, 'How do you do it with five kids and two jobs? I have one three year-old running me ragged.' She answered, "I want my kids to have a better education than I did; I want them to participate in the American dream."

EEXCEL's first complex, scheduled to be completed by Salveson and partner Dan Hunter in September or October, will house 42 families. Here are some of the tentatively planned educational and social amenities:

Academy Hall, a 1,000- to 2,000 square foot study center, will contain a library, study hall and tutorial center, furnished with books, computers, desks, chairs, kitchen and bathroom.

Daily tutorial sessions and nightly study hall at Academy Hall will be proctored by parents and by USC graduate students. The student-tutor ratio will be low, one tutor per six children. The tutors, ideally matching the ethnicity of their students, will be recruited from public schools and from USC doctoral programs in psychology and education.

Some children, particularly those Whose parents work long hours or double jobs, will be assigned a tutor or counselor who will visit the child's school for conferences with teachers. Teachers in participating schools will do weekly reports on classroom performance of the EEXCEL students.

Monthly field trips and internship programs, arranged with sponsoring companies and professionals, will be offered to children.

USC will sponsor a scholarship program. Every child in the complex who graduates from the EEXCEL program with minimal GPA and SAT scores will be given a full four-year scholarship to USC, worth about $85,000.

Counseling and education programs will be available to parents.

As part of their doctoral requirements, the college students will be required to live at the complex. (And they'll get cheap or free rent.) Two doctoral candidates per building will serve as resident advisers. Each will write a dissertation critiquing the EEXCEL program.

"If someone's child is arrested for gang activity, the USC tutors will serve as mediators and counselors," says Salveson. "If they encounter a problem that's over their head, we'll have practicing USC counselors who will come in on a monthly basis and work through the problems."

Peggy Taylor Presley is principal of West Athens Elementary, less than a block from the project. "The public schools have been involved from the beginning with helping design this program. We've helped shape it. Recently, we've decided to make sure that our textbooks are in that library, so forgetting a book is no excuse for not getting your homework done."

The cost of the added educational amenities? About $60,000 a year.

CENTURY CITY'S chief of housing production, believes the approach might be applicable all over the country. "For the first time, a developer is offering an educational social structure as an amenity."

Indeed, this idea goes way beyond offering a tennis court or the childcare center in a complex. Social services are available at some residential developments, but, as Wright says, "we're only beginning to see the use of residential developments to providing social services."

The details of all of this, particularly the relationship with USC, are still being hammered out. But if all goes well, the effectiveness of Salveson's dream will be measurable in a year or two.

"We'll have an absolutely clear picture, based on grades and how many kids go on to college. In this area the high school dropout rate is 70 percent. That rate is appalling!" says Salveson, flaring with anger. "The growth industry in real estate is in affordable housing, but it usually just makes things worse. If we don't start developing in a socially responsible way, we'll be developing ourselves out of business as a country."

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