ULI’s Homeless to Housed (H2H) initiative, launched after publication of the report Homeless to Housed: The ULI Perspective in 2022, highlights the numerous real estate-driven solutions that have been undertaken in recent years to tackle the problems of affordable housing and homelessness in cities across the country.
No matter how different and unique each location might be, extensive research, case studies, and work by ULI district councils show that an essential component to solving chronic homelessness is to create deeply affordable housing. Through the H2H initiative, ULI district councils—in conjunction with social services agencies and local government and community leaders—have fostered innovative ways to meet the challenge.
The first cohort of district councils—including Philadelphia, San Diego, San Antonio, San Francisco, and parts of Louisiana—undertook a variety of community-based initiatives and shared those experiences with other ULI members through case studies and events. In 2025, the second cohort of district councils expanded on ULI’s H2H work with additional locally focused projects.
“Every community has its own unique set of challenges and opportunities, from supply and demand to climate, economics, land-use regulation, and demographics,” says Scott Pollack, founder of SRPlanning in Boston, of his involvement with the ULI Boston/New England District Council. “Singular solutions rarely fit both the resources of a specific community and their residents’ needs for housing.”
H2H initiatives launched in 2025
California
ULI San Francisco partnered with the city of Fremont to organize a technical assistance workshop to expand the city’s Winter Relief and shelter intervention programs, which turn surplus hotel rooms into medium-term shelters for the unhoused.
“This innovative approach offers a dual benefit: generating a steady revenue stream for property owners facing post-COVID occupancy challenges, while increasing much-needed shelter options in Fremont,” says Natalie Sandoval, executive director of ULI San Francisco.
“As the city partner in the project, this was an effective networking opportunity to meet more stakeholders in our region that can serve as thought and project partners in the future,” she says. “We were part of a national cohort with different cities across the country who are experiencing the issue of homelessness differently and working on unique projects appropriate for their communities. It was an opportunity to learn about new ideas that could be tailored for our city and region.”
The biggest challenge to the Fremont initiative is that funding and shelter are only available for five months out of the year. In addition, the city pays daily market rates for vacant hotel units, which doesn’t allow it to maximize available funding.
Solutions proposed by the district council included adding accessory dwelling units to commercial properties, connecting more places with the East Bay Rental Housing Association, and developing an inventory of vacant properties with their cost, capacity, and potential use.
“With our local investments and buy-in for shelter interventions, we have effectively and humanely resolved problematic encampments with targeted outreach to intake highly vulnerable residents into the programs,” Sandoval says. “By using vacant or underutilized properties, we reduced blight in some cases and supported local businesses in others.”
Maine
ULI Boston/New England worked with the University of Maine and the nonprofit Dignity First organization on their sustainable and permanent tiny home village in Bangor, Maine.
“From the declining availability of government funding to support this vulnerable population and increased competition for philanthropic resources, to policies criminalizing homelessness, there are numerous hurdles,” says Catherine Rollins, director of ULI Boston/New England. “This requires adjusting expectations for project scope, pace, and timing.”
A technical assistance panel (TAP), supported by H2H, convened experts in real estate, architecture, design, energy, affordable finance, and housing policy to advise on financial feasibility and resources, sustainable design and efficiency, and community engagement for the initiative.
As Pollack of SRPlanning explains, the in-depth local knowledge and experience of the ULI district councils was instrumental in allowing the project to move forward.
“ULI is a member-driven organization, and district council members understand local constraints and opportunities better than people from [farther] away,” he says. “A housing-first model from Texas is a useful proof of concept, but it can’t possibly be implemented as is in Bangor, Maine. The local weather, human services, and people needing shelter are different, and the regional knowledge available from ULI members is critical to solving problems in that place at that time.”
Michigan
ULI Michigan worked with the Pope Francis Center in Detroit, a decade-old organization that provides temporary warming centers for unhoused individuals in downtown Detroit, to identify gaps in existing local services that provide affordable housing and shelter to the city’s homeless population. A feasibility study in 2024 aimed to determine whether the center could fill those gaps with its own permanent supportive housing.
“The Pope Francis Center built a state-of-the-art Bridge Housing Center, a new approach in Detroit, that provides full wraparound services, including medical services, a barber shop, therapy, and private rooms to house individuals for a 90-to-120-day stay,” says Shannon Sclafani, executive director of ULI Michigan District Council. “The problem they discovered was that once these individuals had established residency at Bridge Housing, they weren’t always eligible to meet the criteria for permanent supportive housing.”
She adds: “We learned there is a shortage of permanent supportive housing, so we did additional research into what development might look like outside the typical federal structure. We’re still exploring solutions and identifying development partners and national nonprofit partners.”
One issue is that residents in developments funded with federal low-income housing tax credits (LIHTC) cannot get a Section 8 housing voucher if they have certain felony convictions. Nonprofits such as the Pope Francis Center, however, can set their own residency rules.
“With our grant, we developed an inventory of all permanent supportive housing in Detroit to help the staff understand who can qualify for various options and the development needed for those who don’t qualify,” Sclafani says.
Texas
ULI San Antonio partnered with the Close to Home initiative and the San Antonio Housing Trust to host a TAP to advance real estate strategies that can meet the needs of unhoused young people in the city, as identified in the 2024 Youth Housing Stability Summit.
“The focus of our work was to explore long-term housing strategies for youth experiencing or at risk of homelessness,” says Cody Shown, executive director of ULI San Antonio. “Participants in the one-and-a-half-day workshop included architects, developers, policy makers, funders, service providers, real estate professionals, and youth with lived experience.”
Shawn says funding remains the biggest challenge.
Takeaways from the TAP workshop included:
- Center individuals with lived experience in the design process
- Housing supports future employment
- Building trust and transparency takes intention
- The implicit bias of design/development teams needs to be managed
- Focus on creating smaller communities
- Co-locating different housing types can be helpful
- Improve coordination between service providers, design professionals, funders, and developers
- Increase alignment for future funding requests
Next steps for the San Antonio Housing Trust include a plan to acquire land for small developments and to offer pre-development grants for mission-based, service provider organizations. In addition, the trust plans to provide technical assistance for service providers looking to develop new facilities.
Recommendations for real estate professionals
Through their work on these community-based projects, ULI members learned some key lessons to share with other real estate professionals.
- Developing an inventory of permanent supportive housing options is a helpful tool to identify possible solutions for individuals and create a road map for development.
- Creative financing may be needed to generate a supply of affordable housing for people who don’t meet the qualifications required for housing developed with federal LIHTC.
- Bringing private, nonprofit, public, and service provision sectors together can spark new ideas and solutions. A broader county-wide or regional partnership-building workshop or event can connect potential partners, share ideas, and identify paths forward on a regional scale, particularly as the availability of federal funds may change significantly under the current administration.
- Engagement in forums that offer firsthand examples of challenges and solutions can help ULI members advocate for better state housing policy solutions.
“Every person working in the land use profession has some bit of information that, when combined with the bits of knowledge of other ULI members, may click together to provide the perfect solution for a community in need of assistance,” Pollack says. “Participate in local discussions about housing, economic development. Make your communities aware of the resources that ULI can provide, from reports to technical assistance. And volunteer—both through ULI and otherwise.”
