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APRIL 2007
ANDP selects Susan Adams to Lead Advocacy Department, Programs
Affordable Workforce Housing Opportunity Agreement Approved
ANDP Welcomes New Members to Board of Directors
Terwilliger Teams with ULI to Create Center fo
Workforce Housing
Regional and Neighborhood Impact on Healthy Housing
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PRESS RELEASE FROM
URBAN LAND INSTITUTE
Former ULI Chairman J. Ronald Terwilliger Provides $5 Million to
Fund ULI Terwilliger Center For Workforce Housing
“Those Who Serve Their Communities Should be Embraced by Their
Communities”
WASHINGTON (February 1, 2007) — J. Ronald Terwilliger, former
chairman of the Urban Land Institute (ULI), has committed $5 million
to the creation of the ULI Terwilliger Center for Workforce Housing,
ULI announced today. The center will address one of the most
critical issues facing urban areas across the country by supporting
the development of housing affordable to moderate-income workers,
including teachers, nurses, firefighters, government workers, and
police officers. The gift from Terwilliger is the largest individual
contribution ever made to the Institute.
Terwilliger, chairman and chief executive officer of Atlanta-based
Trammell Crow Residential, is one of the nation’s most successful
residential real estate developers and an acclaimed housing expert.
For years, Terwilliger has been a leading advocate for affordable
housing. With people increasingly shut out of decent housing close
to their jobs, the need for a center devoted to workforce housing is
more important than ever, he said.
Although some markets have recently experienced home price declines,
“Housing that is close to jobs will stay out of reach for many
people who work in our communities,” Terwilliger said. “As a result,
working families who are neither very low-income nor high-income are
being pushed farther and farther away from employment centers,
adding to traffic congestion and sprawl. It’s hard on these
families, and it’s inefficient growth. We are aiming to turn this
situation around. Our ultimate goal is to achieve a measurable
increase in mixed-income workforce housing in communities across the
nation.”
In announcing the gift, ULI Chairman Marilyn Jordan Taylor outlined
the challenge and the importance of addressing it with all the
resources the public and private sectors can together bring to bear.
“We at ULI have spent a lot of time thinking about how to make a
difference,” said Taylor. “Ron’s extraordinary contribution will
move us into action.”
Plans call for the ULI Terwilliger Center to be based in Washington,
D.C., from where its staff members will work with ULI district
councils, housing-related organizations, and various public- and
private-sector representatives in several urban areas to create
models of mixed-income workforce housing design, development and
financing that can be applied to other cities. Initially, the center
will focus on three markets—Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and Southeast
Florida. In each, the center will develop a plan to increase the
production of mixed-income housing over a specified time period; to
expand available project financing where necessary; and to support
developers in completing projects. The goal is to produce at least
3,500 units of new workforce housing in the three markets within
five years.
As part of its overall program of work, the center will identify
barriers to workforce housing production (such as inflexible zoning
and building codes) and work to eliminate those barriers by raising
awareness of the affordability gap and by advocating changes in
public policy. The center is likely to advocate greater use of
inclusionary zoning, which offers development incentives such as
density bonuses in exchange for the provision of a certain
percentage of below-market rate units.
“In my view, mandatory inclusionary zoning is one of the most
effective tools to get housing built that people can afford, and it
does this in a mixed-income housing context,” Terwilliger said.
“Because it results in mixed-income housing, inclusionary zoning
benefits people who otherwise would not have the opportunity to live
in a market-rate environment. It gives people who make up the bulk
of a community’s workforce an opportunity to live closer to their
jobs.”
To educate the public and help change public policy, the center will
partner with local, regional and national organizations, including
chambers of commerce, employer organizations, home builder
organizations and housing advocacy groups. The center will publish
best practices, organize conferences and provide competitions to
recognize individuals and companies demonstrating excellence in the
area of mixed-income housing production.
The workforce housing provided through the center will be oriented
toward people typically making between 60 percent and 120 percent of
the median income for the targeted market, and it will be mixed with
housing offered at market rates. Those income boundaries will be
kept flexible, however, to reflect variations of salaries and
housing costs in individual markets. An emphasis will be placed on
designing and building housing in ways that encourage long-term
affordability.
“A huge number of fully-employed people—service workers, office
personnel, teachers, police officers, hospital workers,
firefighters, municipal workers, low- to mid-level management—are
getting squeezed by the housing crunch. They need to be able to live
closer to where they work. Those who serve their communities should
be embraced by their communities, not shut out,” Terwilliger said.
“This is not just a matter of social equity. The shortage of
workforce housing is compromising the economic well-being of our
cities. I see this center as helping to change this pattern in a way
that benefits both workers and communities.”
ULI will explore the eventual creation of a fund to support the
center’s work. The fund, possibly operated through the ULI
Foundation, would attract capital from financial institutions,
philanthropic institutions, Wall Street, individuals and other
sources to finance the development of workforce housing by
for-profit and non-profit developers and through public-private
partnerships.
“The center represents an incredible opportunity for ULI to make a
real difference in the future of our nation’s communities,” said ULI
President Richard Rosan. Noting that the U.S. population reached the
300-million mark last fall, he said, “The shortage of affordable
housing in urban areas is only going to get worse as our nation’s
population continues to rise. The truly sustainable communities are
the ones that that will be providing housing choices.”
The center will be directed by a board of nationally prominent
individuals, including well-known housing advocates, who will serve
in both an advisory and a fundraising capacity. A search for an
executive director for the center is now underway.
The Urban Land
Institute (www.uli.org) is a nonprofit education and
research institute supported by its members. Its mission is to
provide leadership in the responsible use of land and in creating
and sustaining thriving communities worldwide. Established in 1936,
the Institute has more than 34,000 members representing all aspects
of land use and development disciplines.
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