Housing, Health & Equity Task Force
A full spectrum of housing opportunities is a fundamental underpinning of healthy and thriving communities, and ULI is a leading provider of research and analysis on issues that affect residential markets. Affordable and workforce housing is an ongoing area of focus to inspire a broader commitment to tackling the country’s housing affordability and supply crisis.
Through an initiative that seeks to demonstrate the connection between health, social equity, and living environments, the ULI Arizona Task Force Summary Report offers solutions to the expanding housing affordability crisis facing essential service providers and other moderate-income workers throughout the Phoenix metropolitan region.
To explore how we can create healthier and more equitable built environments, ULI Arizona, in partnership with Vitalyst Health Foundation, has been leading an initiative to identify solutions to increase workforce housing in the Phoenix Metro Area. This work is supported with a grant from global ULI’s Building Healthy Places Initiative, in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, to convene a local task force to study the intersection of health, equity, and workforce housing in Arizona. ULI Arizona is honored to be one of four ULI District Councils (Arizona, Chicago, Sacramento, and Tampa Bay) selected for this program with the purpose of exploring land use and transportation barriers to healthy places and to identify sustainable and equitable solutions.
“Housing touches the core of an individual’s health and well-being and a community’s livability and prosperity. Housing is a basic, elemental human need and the cornerstone of all communities. Every household needs housing that is affordable to them.”
C.J. Eisenbarth Hager
Director of Healthy Communities, Vitalyst Health Foundation
ULI Arizona Housing, Health, and Equity Task Force
The Task Force formed in 2019 to identify innovative solutions and tools for developing workforce housing in the Phoenix Metro to:
- Draw on examples of unique partnerships, finance, and development policies to move the needle in Arizona
- Convene multi-sector partners to evaluate challenges and opportunities
- Engage the City of Tempe as a strategic partner to examine place-based solutions
- Transfer knowledge to communities and development industry leaders through this toolkit of ideas and potential solutions
A primary purpose of the Task Force initiative is to have deeper community conversations that explore housing affordability opportunities. Following an educational program on Housing Affordability Trends featuring Keynote Mike Kingsella, Up for Growth Coalition, the Task Force hosted a Roundtable for Workforce Housing Solutions in February 2020 with ULI’s Terwilliger Center for Housing and Building Healthy Places. Over 60 local stakeholders participated in the Roundtable event, representing a spectrum of public, private, and non-profit business, community and government sector leaders and trusted advocates.
The primary background research for the Task Force was conducted by a very talented ASU Graduate Student, Elizabeth Van Horn, who conducted research and interviews on policies for community investment without displacement and tools for workforce housing to supplement and support the work of the Task Force in partial fulfillment of both her Master of Urban and Environmental Planning (MUEP) and Master of Sustainability degree requirements. Detailed and executive summary reports of her research are available below.
ULI Arizona Housing, Health & Equity Task Force Leaders
ULI Arizona Housing, Health, & Equity Task Force Members
C.J. Hager, Task Force Co-Chair, Director of Healthy Communities, Vitalyst Health Foundation
Silvia Urrutia, Task Force Co-Chair, Founder & CEO, Consultant U Developing, LLC
Terry Benelli, Executive Director, LISC Phoenix
Dean Brennan, FAICP, Principal, Project for Livable Communities
Stephanie Brewer, Executive Director Newtown CDC CLT
Tom Hester, Principal, Jacobs
Levon Lamy, Housing & Revitalization Manager, City of Tempe
Maria Laughner, Economic Development Program Manager, City of Tempe
Brande Mead, Human Services Program Manager, Maricopa Association of Governments
Gloria Munoz, Executive Director, Housing Authority of Maricopa County
Sally Schwenn, Arizona Market President Gorman & Company, Inc.
Humphrey Shin, Executive Vice President, First Bank
To learn more about the Task Force, email [email protected].
