Policy Forums and Terner Prize & Symposium

Policy Forums

In January 2009, BRIDGE and the Urban Land Institute will hold two policy events, one in Los Angeles with the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate, and one at UC Berkeley with the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics at the Haas School of Business.

Invited participants will include local and state officials, developers, financial partners and others connected to the industry. Discussion will focus on four papers that will be presented: "Housing Needs, Spending Priorities," "The Mixed-Income Housing Conundrum," "New or Rehab: Striking a Balance Under California’s Housing Standards," and "The Intersection of Affordable Housing and Solutions to Homelessness."

Terner Prize and Syposium

The I. Donald Terner Prize for Innovation and Leadership in Affordable Housing recognizes successful and innovative affordable housing projects and their leadership teams. The objective is to spread Don’s vision and principles to the planning, design and development professions as well as to public officials, community representatives, housing activists, and government and private funders by identifying best practices in the field.

Don, the founding president of BRIDGE Housing, was a true social entrepreneur who had enormous impact on the field. For Don, success lay in inspiring all sectors of society, and all people, to make their best contribution—and then go a little further—to find new ways to provide for the community. As Don used to say, BRIDGE is committed to doing "whatever it takes," whether it’s new financing strategies, improved building techniques or more inventive approaches to planning.

Don died tragically on April 3, 1996, in a plane crash with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown and 31 others. His legacy of building large volumes of quality, affordable housing will be carried on by BRIDGE and by all of the other non-profits, government agencies and individuals he inspired over the years.

The next Terner Prize will be presented in Spring 2009.

The Terner Prize is administered by the Center for Community Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley.

We are deeply grateful to the sponsors who contributed generously to BRIDGE at 25: