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WASHINGTON (October 14, 2020) – Vail Home Partners; a collaborative partnership between the Vail Town Council and the Vail Local Housing Authority in Colorado has been selected as the winner of the 2020 ULI Robert C. Larson Housing Policy Leadership Award, for the highly successful Vail InDEED program. The annual award, presented by the ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing, recognizes innovative ways the public sector is addressing the nation’s affordable housing crisis.

Vail InDEED is a one-of-a-kind deed restriction purchase program aimed at protecting and preserving existing homes in the community for occupancy by local residents through the recording of a deed restriction. As a seasonal and tourist-driven market, Vail faces significant housing challenges. Most of the town’s housing stock sits vacant as vacation properties, and 90 percent of sales of locally owned homes involve purchases of second homes, leaving the local, year-round residents with fewer housing options and greater affordability challenges.  Vail InDEED positively impacts affordability, availability and builds community in a uniquely different way  Since the program’s inception, a total of 134 net new deed restrictions have been acquired by the Vail community, a 28% increase in the total number of deed-restricted homes in Vail resulting in an estimated 271 Vail residents being assured the availability and affordability of homes in the community.

“The Vail InDEED program is a unique approach in ensuring year-round residents of resort communities have access to home ownership and rental opportunities that fit their budgets,” said ULI’s Terwilliger Center for Housing executive director Christopher Ptomey. “Similar towns – where vacation units sit empty while locals and workers struggle to find housing they can afford—should consider replicating Vail InDEED as part of their housing plans.”

Other finalists this year included the Massachusetts Housing Partnership, the Houston, Texas, Housing and Community Development Department and the City of Tempe, Arizona, Human Services – Housing Services Department.

The Larson Awards recognize exemplary state and local programs, policies, and practices that support the production, rehabilitation, or preservation of workforce and affordable housing. The program was created in 2011 to honor the legacy of the late Robert C. Larson, a former ULI Foundation chairman and a longtime ULI trustee. The Larson Awards are part of the ULI Terwilliger Center’s housing awards program, which honors developments and programs that provide affordable, well-designed, and accessible housing choices for people with a mix of incomes, including families earning up to 120 percent of an area’s median income.

The program recognizes states and localities that undertake a broad range of policy and administrative initiatives to support housing affordability. They can take the form of regulatory or administrative changes such as allowing higher densities and waiving fees, or programs that provide grants or financing assistance. Policy programs are judged on a variety of factors, including impact on the supply of workforce housing, comprehensiveness of the tools and programs employed, involvement of public/private partnerships, and the ability to leverage private and nonprofit funds, among other criteria.

ULI Terwilliger Center founder Ron Terwilliger, chairman, Terwilliger Pappas Multifamily Partners, chaired the jury. In addition, this year’s other jury members are Alan George, executive vice president, Equity Residential, Chicago, Illinois; Nina Janopaul, president and chief executive officer, Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing, Arlington, Virginia; Mick Nelson, founder and chief executive officer, Nelson Community Partners, Nashville, Tennessee; Pam Patenaude, former deputy secretary, United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, Vienna, Virginia; Philip Payne, co-founder and chairman, the Lotus Campaign, Charlotte, North Carolina; Jonathan Rose, president, Jonathan Rose Companies, New York, New York; Stacy Silber, principal, Lerch, Early & Brewer, Bethesda, Maryland; Margaret Wylde, chief executive officer, ProMatura Group LLC, Oxford, Mississippi; and Bob Youngentob, president, EYA, Bethesda, Maryland.

NOTE TO REPORTERS AND EDITORS: Courtesy images of the Robert C. Larson Housing Policy Leadership Award finalists are provided by ULI for use by members of the press upon request. For more details on the awards and previous winners, visit the Larson Awards homepage. For interested applicants, the 2021 Larson Awards application window opens soon. Please visit uli.org/Larson for more information.

About the ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing

The ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing conducts research, performs analysis, provides expert advice, and develops best practice recommendations that reflect the residential land use and development priorities of ULI members in all residential product types, with special attention to workforce and affordable housing. The center was established in 2007 with a gift from longtime member and former ULI chairman J. Ronald Terwilliger.