WASHINGTON (July 11, 2022) — The Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) Terwilliger Center for Housing has selected government bodies in Hamilton County, Ohio, San Diego, and the Washington metropolitan area as finalists for the 2022 ULI Robert C. Larson Housing Policy Leadership Award.

The award was created in 2011 to honor the legacy of the late Robert C. Larson, a former ULI Foundation chairman and longtime ULI trustee. The Larson Awards are part of the ULI Terwilliger Center’s housing awards program and recognize exemplary state and local programs and policies that support the production, rehabilitation, and preservation of workforce and affordable housing. The winner will be announced in October at a reception during ULI’s Fall Meeting in Dallas.

“ULI is proud to recognize public initiatives across the country providing innovative solutions for increasing access to attainable housing,” said Christopher Ptomey, executive director, ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing. “We congratulate this year’s finalists, whose projects are models that cities everywhere should consider adapting for their own communities.”

The finalists are:

• The Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority. Since the foreclosure crisis of 2008, out-of-town investors have purchased more than 4,000 single-family homes in Hamilton County, Ohio. These investors typically look for homes in some of the region’s most neglected neighborhoods. That leaves many renters vulnerable to eviction. To interrupt this cycle, The Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority placed bids on 194 single-family homes. In January 2022, The Port closed on this acquisition and launched the CARE (Creating Affordable Real Estate) Homes Initiative to create viable pathways to homeownership for current rental tenants.
• City of San Diego Planning Department. The City of San Diego Planning Department enacted its Affordable Homes Bonus Program in 2016, which substantially increased the production of both market-rate and deed-restricted affordable homes. The program builds upon the California Density Bonus Law and allows developers to build more homes if they agree to set aside a subset of a new project as affordable.
• Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. In June 2021, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority and Amazon announced a commitment to create 1,000 units of affordable housing at Metro stations within the Washington metro area by 2025. The first two loans from Amazon were announced in March 2022 and will fund construction of 742 units of affordable housing at the College Park and New Carrollton Metro stations. That housing will be complete in 2024.

The jury is chaired by Ron Terwilliger, founder of the ULI Terwilliger Center and chairman of Terwilliger Pappas Multifamily Partners.

Other jury members are Paul Bernard, president and CEO, Arlington Housing Corporation Inc., Arlington, Va.; Rodger Brown, managing director of real estate development, Preservation of Affordable Housing, Boston; Payton Chung, managing partner, Westover Green, Washington; Tamara Dudukovich, principal, Avenue Ventures LLC, Pittsburgh; Alan George, executive vice president (retired), Equity Residential, Chicago; Dara Kovel, president, Beacon Communities, Boston; Mark Richardson, chief technology officer, Rich Analytics, Toronto; Jaydan Tait, president and CEO, Attainable Homes Calgary, Calgary, Alberta; Emily Thompson, partner, GMD Development, Seattle; Dawnita Wilson, vice president, head of diversity and inclusion, JBG Smith, Bethesda, Md.; Margaret Wylde, CEO, ProMatura Group, Oxford, Miss.; and Bob Youngentob, executive chairman and co-founder, EYA LLC, Bethesda, Md.

For questions about the housing awards program, email [email protected].

For more information, contact [email protected].

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