The 2024 Ivory Prize Housing Innovation Summit

Location: Piper Auditorium, Harvard Graduate School of Design and Online

What are the most promising, impactful, and innovative solutions to address housing affordability in the US? What are the challenges and opportunities in scaling those solutions? The Ivory Prize Housing Innovation Summit will feature finalists from the 2024 Ivory Prize in Housing Affordability, in the areas of construction and design, policy and regulatory reform, and finance. The summit will bring together entrepreneurs, public sector innovators, policymakers, researchers, and industry practitioners to discuss the best ideas for housing innovation and will be an opportunity to challenge how we think about disruptive innovation, learn from the leading entrepreneurs, and network with others in housing affordability.

Co-sponsored by Ivory Innovations

This event is both in-person and virtual. Doors open at 12:00 p.m. The program begins at 12:30 p.m. and a post-event reception will be held at 4:00 p.m. Register here to attend in-person. No registration is required to view the livestream.

AGENDA

12:30 pm Introduction and Ivory Prize Winner Recognition

Summit co-sponsors discuss the mission, vision, and impact of Ivory Innovations and introduce the four 2024 Ivory Prize winners: City of San Diego’s ADU Bonus Program (Policy & Regulatory Reform co-winner), FirstRepair (Policy & Regulatory Reform co-winner), the Housing Opportunities Commission of Montgomery County’s Housing Production Fund (Finance winner), and Villa (Construction & Design winner).

12:50 pm Hack-A-House Grand Prize Pitches

Hack-A-House is a virtual hackathon-style competition for undergraduate and graduate students to formulate and pitch innovative ideas to improve housing affordability. For the first time, finalist teams from this year’s virtual competition, held on September 27-28, will travel to Cambridge to present their ideas in-person. After the teams present, the audience will vote to select the $5,000 Grand Prize winner.

Hack-A-House 2024 was hosted by Ivory Innovations in partnership with the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, Columbia University, UC Berkeley, University of Arizona, University of Denver, and the University of Utah.

1:20 pm Break

1:30 pm Hack-A-House Grand Prize Winner Announcement

1:35 pm Panel 1: Challenges and Opportunities to Innovate Within Local Government

  • Chelsea Andrews, President, Housing Opportunities Commission of Montgomery County
  • Gary Geiler, Assistant Director, City of San Diego Development Services Department
  • Jenny Schuetz, Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution
  • Robin Rue Simmons, Founder and Executive Director, FirstRepair

Housing is inherently local; making an impact requires local action. Innovators working within their respective cities and counties will discuss the barriers they faced in getting buy-in for their initiatives, as well as the exciting efforts to come. 

2:25 pm Panel 2: Construction Innovations to Address the Labor Shortage

The construction industry is facing a massive labor shortage. On-site training solutions, modular construction, and robotic automation present compelling areas for opportunity in upskilling existing workers while decreasing the reliance on human labor. 

3:15 pm Panel 3: Increasing Access and Impact Across Federal and State Housing Programs

Government-funded programs provide financial subsidies to renters and homeowners who require it most, meeting an important need that the private sector is unable to address. However, those programs can be complex to navigate, difficult to access, and in some cases, underutilized. Both nonprofit and for-profit models are transforming how vulnerable populations access, engage with, and benefit from decades-old government subsidy programs.    

4:00 pm Reception