Launched in 2022 with the release of its foundational report, Homeless to Housed: The ULI Perspective, ULI’s Homeless to Housed (H2H) initiative aims to address the U.S. housing and homelessness crises through real estate–driven solutions that emphasize a new degree of affordability and necessary connections to supportive services. The early work reflected in the report brought to light the real estate development community’s ability to deploy expertise and resources in addressing homelessness in the communities where ULI members live and work.
Through research, events, and activities undertaken in 2023 and 2024, the H2H initiative partnered with local district councils and communities nationwide to raise awareness of the issues and potential real estate solutions, to conduct research and solution-focused workshops, and to identify case studies that could serve as implementation models for other communities.
Early lessons
These early efforts and needed community conversations yielded five key lessons that will continue to guide ULI’s efforts in addressing the housing and homelessness crises in the United States.
- This is not solo work. Developers cannot go about this work alone, and P5s (public/ private/philanthropic/nonprofit/people partnerships) are essential to the success of supportive housing for formerly homeless residents.
- The ground breakings and ribbon cuttings are easy. Managing a site, maintaining support and operations, and serving residents who face unique challenges require expertise in building management, mental and behavioral health, and social services.
- Achieving positive risk-adjusted returns is possible. Creative approaches to development financing are key to this success.
- Homelessness touches every community. Most U.S. communities are addressing how best to provide housing and supportive services for individuals experiencing homelessness. Service providers and municipalities are looking to ULI for expertise and fresh development ideas.
- A culture of “no” prevents rapid action. Although a lot of interest in this type of development exists, NIMBY (not in my back yard) attitudes do, too, and a pervasive culture of “no” creates a barrier to advancing progress on the issue (in systemic and policy changes, as well as for individual developments).
Building on these lessons, ULI district councils working in Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Texas, and California received financial and staff support from the H2H initiative to advance local technical assistance and research support in their communities. The district councils launched community-based efforts to identify how ULI members could deploy their expertise to help civic leaders, municipal professionals, and social service agencies house greater numbers of vulnerable residents and turn the tide on homelessness in their communities.
Each of the ULI teams approached the work in its respective community differently. The common foundation for the efforts, however, was an understanding that housing—specifically, deeply affordable housing—is essential to solving homelessness.
Lafayette, Louisiana. In Louisiana, ULI members and partners convened community and organizational leaders to cocreate solutions for bringing additional deeply affordable housing to the city. Over the course of four workshops, community leaders developed the Lafayette Homeless to Housed Action Plan to help guide the actions of decision-makers and spur housing development by establishing a redevelopment authority, forming a nonprofit developer entity to spearhead the work, creating new infill development policies, and expanding the city’s rapid rehousing resources.
Related: Lafayette Launches Community-Driven Initiative to Tackle Homelessness and Affordable Housing Crises
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ULI members in Philadelphia worked with Families Forward Philadelphia and Drueding Center—two critical emergency housing and transitional housing providers—to provide guidance on leveraging each organization’s existing real estate assets to further support its respective housing mission. Technical assistance panel (TAP) recommendations for each entity included building renovations to create higher-quality living environments and new construction to provide wraparound services and new, deeply affordable apartments.
Related: Putting Housing First for Philadelphia’s Families in Need
San Antonio, Texas. Amid awareness of how housing aligned with transit can lead to greater housing stability, ULI San Antonio and the city’s transit agency launched a campaign to amplify the benefits of colocating affordable housing and public transit and expanding housing diversity. Building on this work, the city of San Antonio is now also removing barriers to additional affordable housing development and land banking parcels for future housing initiatives. This expansion of housing opportunities along the city’s transit system and opportunities for future affordable development will reduce the risk of homelessness and support expanded housing security.
Related:
San Diego, California. ULI members in San Diego envisioned a mapping tool that expedites the site selection process for affordable housing development. The University of California, San Diego’s Homelessness Hub, in partnership with ULI San Diego–Tijuana, created a map to deliver information about potential sites, including zoning and entitlements, as well as developers’ insights regarding the development potential of an area. By mapping known factors and potential NIMBYism, affordable housing projects can advance in areas where they may be more readily accepted and speed the creation of additional housing opportunities. Related: [LINK to article online]
San José, California. ULI members in San Francisco identified the potential for a California housing policy—Senate Bill No. 4—to reduce barriers to the development of faith-based, nonprofit, and city-owned properties for affordable housing. Through two in-depth workshops and by using two potential development sites, faith and nonprofit leaders explored the development process, identified how design can create a new image for shelter housing. Those leaders now recognize how key partnerships present a unique opportunity to bring their assets, talents, and compassion to housing provision for community members in need. Related: [LINK to article online]
As ULI members and real estate professionals consider where and how they can support local efforts to end homelessness, several takeaways from the work of this first H2H cohort can help.
- Lead with data. Access to reliable information—including the surrounding community’s development tolerance—can facilitate a more efficient site selection process.
- Partnerships are key. By partnering with the development community, social service champions can dedicate more of their time and focus to their core mission—lifting people up and out of the cycle of homelessness.
- There are no quick-fix solutions. Homelessness will take time to solve. Deep community engagement must occur before a community accepts new housing for individuals of very low incomes or who are experiencing homelessness.
- Tone matters. It is important to strike a balance between respecting and honoring the severity of the crisis while also emphasizing hope around the possibility of ending homelessness.
- Homelessness is both a real estate issue and a human problem. By bridging the gap between service providers and real estate, the complexities of the problem can be better addressed.
Next steps
This first phase of the H2H initiative—informed by case studies, awareness-building events, and the work of the district councils—advanced efforts to add more deeply affordable and supportive housing to communities across the United States. These real estate solutions can catalyze additional housing development, from emergency shelters to deeply affordable, longer-term housing options, yet policy and systems-level changes are also needed in many cases to facilitate the construction of additional housing at more affordable levels.
Homelessness is a systemic problem. This work requires systems-level change, which takes time and cannot be rushed. Relationships need to be formed, partnerships built, and trust established. ULI is uniquely positioned to help, equipped as it is with vast real estate expertise that spans a membership intensely interested in the health and vitality of the communities where they live and work.
The work continues in 2025 with a second cohort of district councils, featuring teams of ULI members who will be expanding ULI’s H2H work in four markets.
- Maine: Members in the Boston/New England area will be working with Dignity First and the University of Maine to refine the Homeful Village concept in Bangor, Maine, which features sustainable tiny home villages.
- Michigan: Working with the Pope Francis Center in Detroit, ULI members are identifying gaps in the housing and homelessness ecosystem to determine how the center’s new Bridge Housing Campus can address critical housing needs.
- Texas: In partnership with the Close to Home initiative and the San Antonio Housing Trust, ULI San Antonio will host a TAP to formulate real estate–driven solutions designed to advance strategies identified at the 2024 At-Risk Youth Housing Summit.
- California: ULI members in the San Francisco Bay area will partner with the city of Fremont to host a TAP focused on expanding the city’s Winter Relief and shelter intervention programs, which repurpose surplus hotel rooms to provide noncongregate shelter for unsheltered individuals.
As ULI and its members continue the Homeless to Housed journey, we invite you to come alongside, dig in, and help make a difference in your own community.
During winter 2024–2025, Urban Land Online published a series of articles chronicling the work of member-led task forces organized by ULI district councils in Louisiana, Philadelphia, San Antonio, San Diego, and San Francisco to explore real estate–driven solutions to homelessness. This Homeless to Housed initiative, a part of ULI’s Terwilliger Center for Housing, seeks to catalyze the production and preservation of deeply affordable supportive housing to end the U.S. homelessness crisis. The work is made possible with the generous support of Carolyn and Preston Butcher and a growing number of ULI members.
The collective findings from the five district councils, along with district council–level individual reports, are available at uli.org.
