ULI Announces Finalists for Inaugural Housing Impact Awards
The Housing Impact Awards recognize exemplary developments that expand housing supply and affordability.
WASHINGTON – RealEstateRama — The Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) Terwilliger Center for Housing has announced four finalists for the inaugural Housing Impact Awards, a newly consolidated program that brings together the former Jack Kemp Excellence in Affordable and Workforce Housing Award and Terwilliger Center Award for Innovation in Attainable Housing under a single award program.
“Bringing our housing awards together under one program allows us to recognize the full range of approaches needed to deliver attainable housing today—from creative financing and innovative construction to the policy changes that make these projects possible,” said Ron Terwilliger, chair of the Housing Impact Awards jury and founder of the ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing.
The Housing Impact Awards recognize exemplary developments, including new construction, acquisition, or preservation, that expand housing supply and affordability for households earning up to 120 percent of area median income (AMI). Award winners also demonstrate innovative financing and models that can be replicated in other markets. This inaugural cycle placed particular emphasis on “missing middle” housing typologies such as duplexes, triplexes, townhouses, and garden-style apartments, and on innovative construction methods, including offsite and modular building.
Below are this year’s finalists for the Housing Impact Awards.
El Camino Crossing, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Developed by Homewise, a nonprofit community development financial Institution (CDFI), El Camino Crossing delivers 70 for-sale homes, including single-family houses, condominiums, and live/work units, on an 8.7-acre infill site in a historically disinvested neighborhood. The project used New Markets Tax Credits to finance affordable homeownership, an unconventional pairing that made deeply discounted sale prices possible in one of the priciest housing markets in the Mountain West. El Camino Crossing also helped catalyze Santa Fe’s 2025 overhaul of its land development code, the City’s first in nearly three decades.
HR Crawford Gardens, Washington, D.C.
A 76-unit, 100 percent affordable community in Ward 7 designed for seniors and grandfamilies, HR Crawford Gardens pairs a concrete podium with prefabricated, modular wood-frame construction above and is built to Passive House standards. All units are reserved for households earning between 30 and 50 percent of AMI. The project’s hybrid construction approach offers a replicable model for high-performance affordable housing on constrained urban infill sites.
Phoenix Manor Apartments, Phoenix, Arizona
Reliant Group Management converted this 450-unit, age-restricted, garden-style community from market-rate to permanently affordable housing at 60 percent of AMI, backed by a 55-year use restriction. The $121 million preservation included more than $88,000 per unit in renovations and a 1.3-megawatt solar installation expected to offset roughly 60 percent of the property’s electricity use. The project was made feasible in part by a 2022 Arizona law that removed the unit cap on the property tax exemption available to affordable developments.
Sharon Crossing, Charlotte, North Carolina
LEO Impact Capital’s $20.7 million acquisition of this 144-unit garden-style community was made in partnership with the nonprofit Lotus Campaign. Sharon Crossing preserves affordability for middle-income residents while reserving up to 20 percent of units for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness through Lotus’s Landlord Participation Program. The deal relied on conventional government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) debt rather than public subsidy, offering a fast, replicable model for preserving affordability at existing properties.
The ULI Housing Impact Awards jury is chaired by Ron Terwilliger, founder of the ULI Terwilliger Center and chairman of Terwilliger Pappas Multifamily Partners.
The industry professionals below make up the rest of the jury:
- Bonita Broadnax, director of housing and operations, Jeremiah Project, Charleston, Tennessee;
- Payton Chung, managing partner, Westover Green, Washington, D.C.;
- Jill Ferrari, co-founder and managing partner, Renovare Development, Ypsilanti, Michigan;
- Mary Ann King, co-head, Berkadia Institutional Solutions, Irvine, California;
- Blaise Rastello, vice president, Ulysses Development Group, Denver;
- Mark Richardson, chief technology officer, Rich Analytics, Toronto;
- Stacy Silber, attorney, Lerch, Early & Brewer Chartered, Bethesda, Maryland;
- Jaydan Tait, president and CEO, Attainable Homes Calgary, Calgary, Alberta; and
- Emily Thompson, partner, GMD Development LLC, Seattle.
The winners will be announced in February 2027 at ULI’s Housing Opportunity Conference in Denver. For questions about the Housing Impact Awards program, email ">
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About the Urban Land Institute
The Urban Land Institute is a nonprofit education and research institute supported by its members, with a mission to shape the future of the built environment for transformative impact in communities worldwide. Founded in 1936, ULI has more than 48,000 members globally across the land use and development disciplines. Learn more at uli.org.
