Attainable Housing
The mission of the ULI 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.
In the Sydney suburb of Marrickville, two not-for-profit organizations—Fresh Hope Communities, the public benevolent institution entity of churches of Christ in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory; and Nightingale Housing of Brunswick, Victoria—came together to develop a building that holds 54 units renting at 80 percent of market rates, as well as two community-focused commercial spaces. The Churches of Christ Property Trust has provided a 99-year lease for the land, which allows the units to remain affordable far beyond a more typical 10-year period.
Across North America, cities are confronting a housing crisis that demands urgent, innovative responses. In Toronto, the launch of the Rapid Housing Initiative (RHI) in April 2020 marked a pivotal moment—an accelerated effort at the height of the pandemic to deliver safe, stable housing. Since then, unprecedented investments have been made in communities across Ontario to address housing insecurity, reshaping the province’s residential landscape.
Even as national policy support becomes less predictable, many states and localities are hard at work developing pragmatic, scalable housing solutions.
In 2015, Austin, Texas’ mayor at the time, Steve Adler, brought together business leaders, real estate professionals, and housing experts to take on the crisis in affordable rental housing and the risks it posed to the city’s workforce stability and economic sustainability. With insights and research from a ULI Technical Advisory Panel and ULI’s Terwilliger Center for Housing, the Austin Housing Conservancy fund was born, offering a revolutionary approach to preserving workforce housing. Now known as the Texas Housing Conservancy, the fund became the nation’s first to combine a nonprofit investment manager, Affordable Central Texas, with an open-end private equity fund.
The ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing has announced two finalists for this year’s Jack Kemp Excellence in Affordable and Workforce Housing Award and eight finalists for the Terwilliger Center Award for Innovation in Attainable Housing.
ULI Asia Pacific has released its 2025 Asia Pacific Home Attainability Index, revealing persistent challenges to affordable or accessible housing across the region. The fourth edition of the report assesses 51 market segments across 41 major cities.
Setting the tone for this year’s ULI Asia Pacific Summit, moderator Lola Woetzel, senior partner emerita at McKinsey & Company, presented a panel of industry leaders with the perennial question: “How does it feel to live here?” The discussion brought into sharp focus the complex realities shaping housing across the region.
Five experts from ULI’s Residential Neighborhood Development Council discuss the challenges and opportunities ahead for homebuilders; what buyers and renters want from their neighborhoods, and how they value sustainability and resilience; what state and local housing policies are effectively encouraging housing construction; and other trends.
10 inventive designs put housing within reach of low- and moderate-income individuals and families