For almost two decades, the ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing has sought to provide thought leadership and actionable solutions to ULI members and the housing industry at large.
The mission of the Terwilliger Center for Housing has been to ensure that everyone has a home that meets their needs at a price they can afford. Established in 2007 with a gift from longtime member and former ULI chairman J. Ronald Terwilliger, the Center’s activities include technical assistance engagements, forums and convenings, research and publications, and an awards program. The goal is to catalyze the production and preservation of a full spectrum of housing options.
Beginning July 1, 2025, the Terwilliger Center welcomed a new advisory board to guide its work and strategy for the years ahead. The advisory board serves an important function by providing expertise on development, policy, and best practices for replication by ULI members. Advisory board members also sit on different committees to ensure each of the center’s activities is truly member informed and member led. These activities include:
Housing Opportunity Conference
The ULI Terwilliger Center organizes an annual gathering, the ULI Housing Opportunity Conference, to provide ULI members and other industry professionals with an opportunity to learn and network. For two days, attendees gather in a select city to hear from experts nationwide on the most pressing housing topics, tour development projects, and engage in networking. Members from the advisory board, alongside the local District Council’s member leaders, assist the center’s staff in developing a substantive agenda with high-level speakers. The next housing conference will take place March 16–17, 2026, in Baltimore. Learn more here.
As an affordable housing practitioner of more than a decade, I can’t think of a more valuable conference to attend than ULI’s Housing Opportunity conference. What sets it apart is the caliber of attendees and presenters. Moreover, it speaks to the interests of every professional across the housing spectrum, from supportive housing to market rate developments.
Housing Awards Jury
Each year, the center highlights the efforts of leaders across the country working to expand housing opportunities through three awards. The first of them, established in 2008 and named in memory of Jack Kemp, former secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, honors developments that meet workforce housing needs. The Terwilliger Center Award for Innovation in Attainable Housing was created in 2022 and recognizes pioneering yet replicable mixed-income and deeply affordable developments.
The center also recognizes state and local housing policies that are expanding the production and preservation of housing through its Robert C. Larson Award, named in honor of a former ULI trustee and ULI Foundation chairman.
Integral to the awards’ selection process is the jury, which consists of ULI members, including a few from the advisory board. The jury reads through each application, convenes to deliberate on finalists, conducts site visits and interviews, and reconvenes to select the winners.
The ULI Housing Awards continue to recognize projects that not only surpass financial performance and sustainability benchmarks but also set new standards for innovation by advancing community goals for inclusion and creating tangible social impact.
Advisory Services
In 2021, ULI made increasing housing attainability a global mission priority. This commitment leverages the ongoing work of the Terwilliger Center. Through housing-focused advisory and Technical Assistance Panels (TAPs), the Terwilliger Center has grown and deepened ULI’s housing work and impact.
The center provides grants to support TAPs, Advisory Services Panels (ASPs), roundtables, workshops, and other education tools focused on delivering housing units attainable to cities’ current and future residents, maintaining those units, or both. The Terwilliger Center partners with District Councils to advance efforts, bringing resources and expertise to enable housing production at the local level.
Advisory board members often serve as panel experts. They volunteer significant amounts of their time to pre-panel background work, travel, panel participation, and post-panel report production.
Policy research and publications
One of the key objectives of the ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing is to provide thought leadership on housing production and affordability. The Terwilliger Center team periodically conducts research and releases publications on the trending topics and issues facing the industry. The advisory board members are instrumental in determining what research is most relevant to the industry, and shaping the reports.
In 2024 and 2025, the center embarked on two forums to inform a series of reports, titled “Building the Future: Innovations in State and Local Policies to Boost Housing Supply” and “Building the Future 2025: Transformative Trends in State, Local, and Federal Housing Policy.” By convening a multidisciplinary group of ULI members and industry leaders, the center was able to host a robust dialogue and debate on effective strategies for increasing housing production, with a focus on affordable housing.
The Terwilliger Center is where the for-profit and nonprofit sectors intersect; where policy and production meet one another.
Housing Index
The Terwilliger Center Home Attainability Index, created in partnership with real estate consulting firm RCLCO, is a data-rich resource for understanding the extent to which a housing market is providing a range of choices attainable to the regional workforce. Now in its fifth iteration, the index will be updated annually to reflect changing market patterns. Included in the index are an easy-to-use Excel tool and a comprehensive interactive map that tracks housing data at the tract, county, and MSA levels.
We are excited that this evolving set of tools increases access to information for everyone, and that starts thoughtful discussions and policy change over time.
The center is fortunate to have such a great advisory board to provide guidance and expertise as it delivers such crucial work for ULI’s members and its mission. Yet the Terwilliger’s program would not be possible without all interested members participating and providing feedback. For more information or to get involved, please email: [email protected].
