Winners and Finalists

Robert C. Larson Housing Policy Leadership Awards
Eligibility and Criteria
Winners and Finalists

The Robert C. Larson Housing Policy Leadership Awards recognize exemplary state and local programs, policies, and practices that support the production, rehabilitation, or preservation of affordable and workforce housing. View previous winners and finalists at the pages below.

2018 Award Winners

The 2018 Robert C. Larson award winners were announced during ULI’s Fall Meeting. Congratulations to this year’s winners:

Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Metro Affordable Transit Connected Housing Program. LA Metro has leveraged the land above their transit lines for affordable housing. In order to assist in this effort, the agency created the Metro Affordable Transit Connected Housing Program (or MATCH), a public-private lending partnership that seeks to preserve affordable housing near new and existing nodes of transportation. Metro also utilizes a Joint Development Agreement, which takes advantage of Metro’s ground lease policy. This program has helped create more than 700 affordable housing units, with nearly 1,000 additional units planned.
State of New York Mortgage Finance Agency’s Community Restoration Fund. The Community Restoration Fund (CRF) purchases mortgages on properties believed to be occupied and assists the homeowners by connecting them with nonprofit advocates, who in turn assist them with restructuring their debt. To date, the agency has purchased 570 mortgages in an effort to assist homeowners and stop property abandonment, while leveraging more than $112 million in private funds to help in the effort.

2018 Award Finalists

The 2018 finalists for this year’s awards were:

2017 Winner

Washington, D.C.’s Department of Housing and Community Development was selected as the winner of the 2017 Robert C. Larson Housing Policy Leadership Award. The Department has taken a multi-pronged approach to tackle issues facing housing the city’s residents, including the establishment of a significant housing trust fund to support construction and preservation; a streamlined, more efficient process for the disposition of vacant properties; improved programs to encourage homeownership and facilitate attainment for those who would otherwise remain renters; and the creation of a Housing Preservation Strike Force to focus on maintaining existing affordable units.

The 2017 finalists were:

Boston, Massachusetts: Department of Neighborhood Development
Denver, Colorado: Office of Economic Development, Housing Development Division
New York, New York: Housing Development Corporation

2016 Larson Award Winner

Through its Troubled Buildings Initiative, Chicago has acted aggressively to acquire and improve run-down buildings that pose a threat to communities—and instead rehabilitate vacant and abandoned structures to provide critically needed low-cost housing. Learn more.