The finalists for this year’s ULI Robert C. Larson Housing Policy Leadership Awards—an annual recognition of the innovative ways the public sector is addressing the affordable housing crisis in the United States—were announced by the ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing.
The 2016 Larson Awards finalists are as follows:
- Arlington County, Virginia. Long one of America’s most prosperous counties, Arlington has implemented a comprehensive set of policies over time to mitigate the impacts on its workforce from sharply rising rents and home prices. The county provides low-cost financing to developers, rental assistance to lower-income residents, and incentives in its zoning code for mixed-income development. A three-year community engagement process recently resulted in an ambitious Affordable Housing Master Plan that puts forward new proposals to deal with current market conditions.
- City of Chicago, Illinois. Chicago has acted aggressively to acquire and improve run-down buildings that pose a threat to communities and, when rehabilitated, provide critically needed low-cost housing. Multiple municipal agencies work with well-established community-based groups to move buildings from code enforcement to improved physical condition and management rather than to abandonment and demolition. These efforts have preserved more than 16,000 rental and for-sale units across the city.
- City of New York, New York. Experiencing some of the highest rents in the nation and facing affordable housing needs that far outstrip available public subsidy, New York City has created a financing approach that substantially stretches the amount of available funding to support more development than would otherwise occur. The city’s novel approach also allows for mixed-income development and simplifies the local compliance process for developers.
- State of Iowa. Following severe flooding in 2008, Iowa used Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery funding to replace thousands of damaged housing units with affordable, safe, durable, high-performing, and energy-efficient homes. The program established sustainable design and construction requirements for projects funded as part of the recovery. It also supported downtown revitalization and flood-risk mitigation.
The finalists were chosen by a jury of national housing industry leaders. The winner or winners will be announced during the 2016 ULI Fall Meeting in Dallas, Texas, October 24–27.
“With workforce and affordable housing needs worsening across the country and the federal government gridlocked on meaningful solutions, state and local leaders like this year’s ULI Larson Awards finalists are bringing admirable creativity and commitment to bear,” said Stockton Williams, executive director of the ULI Terwilliger Center.
The Larson Awards recognize exemplary state and local programs, policies, and practices that support the production, rehabilitation, or preservation of workforce and affordable housing. The program was created in 2011 with the purpose of honoring the legacy of the late Robert C. Larson, former ULI Foundation chairman and longtime ULI trustee. The Larson Awards are part of the ULI Terwilliger Center’s housing awards program, which honors developments and programs that provide affordable, well-designed, and accessible housing choices for people with a mix of incomes, including families earning up to 120 percent of the area median income.
