Real estate executive Preston Butcher and his wife Carolyn have donated $1.5 million to the Urban Land Institute Foundation (ULIF) to fund the ULI Homeless to Housed Initiative, which will identify and disseminate best practices that will enable communities to provide housing for those experiencing homelessness.

“On behalf of all of us at ULI, I thank Carolyn and Preston for this generous gift,” said Ed Walter, ULI global CEO. “Addressing homelessness is at the core of ULI’s mission priority to increase housing attainability for all and is vital to creating and sustaining healthy, inclusive communities. This gift will allow us to invest in research that promotes concrete and workable solutions that both the real estate industry and government can implement.”

The Initiative will be part of the ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing and will build on the findings of the Center’s recent report Homeless to Housed: The ULI Perspective Based on Actual Case Studies. Co-authored and funded by Preston Butcher, the report explores how to support people experiencing homelessness through creative housing solutions and community collaboration. It also includes case studies of eight successful developments around the United States.

The Initiative will convene a national working group of leaders involved in the development, design, funding, and operation of temporary and permanent attainable housing. It will also research and document projects across the country and share best practices through ULI’s channels and beyond.

“By providing the development community and policymakers with innovative models for attainable housing, we can attract the resources that cities need to overcome the growing crisis of homelessness,” Preston Butcher said. “I’m proud to expand on my work for ULI with a gift that helps put our research into practice. We have the potential to change millions of lives for the better.”

A longtime ULI member, Butcher is a former member of the ULI Global Board and a current member of the ULI Foundation James Rouse Society. Butcher was formerly chairman and CEO of Legacy Partners Commercial in Foster City, Calif. He co-founded the National Multifamily Housing Council, for which he is past chairman of the board of directors and a current member of the executive committee.

Butcher is also co-founder and director of the California Housing Council; a director of Charles Schwab Company; a member of the policy advisory board of the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics at the University of California, Berkeley; founding board member of the nonprofit housing corporation BRIDGE; former director of BRE Properties Inc.; former director of NorthStar Realty Finance Corp.; and past overseer of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

As part of its effort to develop attainable housing and create additional resources for people experiencing homelessness, ULI is seeking an additional $1.5 million to match Carolyn and Preston Butcher’s generous commitment. Donate today and help us make a positive change in communities worldwide.