Newswise — Ivory Innovations has opened nominations for the 5th Annual Ivory Prize for Housing Affordability. The Prize seeks to elevate ambitious, feasible, and scalable solutions for housing affordability as Americans face rising housing costs and limited options. Nominees may include entrepreneurs, startups, public-private partnerships, public entities, or nonprofits. Anyone working on innovative housing solutions is encouraged to apply at ivory-innovations.org.
Ivory Innovations is a “do tank” that catalyzes innovation in housing affordability by focusing on solutions rather than problems. This year, Ivory Innovations is doing more than ever to encourage and support new ideas to address the housing crisis. Anyone with an interest in housing innovation is invited to engage with the following initiatives:
● Hack-A-House, a 24-hour student hackathon to encourage new approaches and creative thinking in housing affordability solutions on September 30, 2022
● The Summit on Next-Generation Innovations in Housing Affordability, held in partnership with the Urban Institute on November 15, 2022
● The Ivory Innovations Offsite Accelerator Program, launched in partnership with offsite construction network MOD X, will grow understanding and adoption of offsite construction methods
● The Housing Affordability Innovation Database, starting with 100 leading innovations in housing, will showcase the most promising ideas in housing innovation in topics of construction and design, finance, and policy and regulatory reform across the United States
● The Future of Housing Innovation Report, which will highlight how the housing industry and innovation within it have evolved over the last five years
“When we created the Ivory Prize, we were one of very few organizations focused purely on identifying innovative solutions for housing affordability. Five years on, we believe in finding, elevating, and supporting the innovators with the freshest ideas to solve this complex challenge,” said Clark Ivory, Chief Executive Officer of Ivory Homes and the founder of Ivory Innovations. “We look forward to seeing new ideas this year that expand the network of innovators, entrepreneurs, and doers focused on creative solutions to housing affordability.”
Since 2018, Ivory Innovations has reviewed over 750 impactful housing ideas. In honor of its fifth year, Ivory Innovations has increased the prize amount to three hundred thousand dollars, which will be awarded between winners in three categories — Construction and Design, Policy and Regulatory Reform, and Finance.
"We are grateful to be part of the Ivory Innovations network and to see an organization shining a light on the incredible work going on in this country," said Mark Martin, Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Build UP, the 2022 Ivory Prize Winner in Public Policy & Regulatory Reform. "Each community has a unique set of challenges and an even more unique set of assets. But almost any challenge that one community is facing with regards to housing, another community has overcome. This Prize helps our industry stay open to new ideas and we can learn so much from what others are working on across the nation."
Over the past four years, Ivory Prize Winners and Finalists have been featured at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, UC Berkeley's Terner Center for Housing Innovation, and the Innovative Housing Showcase, co-hosted by the National Association of Home Builders and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Previous winners of the Ivory Prize include Factory_OS, Entekra, BamCore, Curtis + Ginsberg’s Park Avenue Green Project, and Volumetric Building Companies in the Construction and Design category; The Alley Flat Initiative, Symbium, and Impact Justice: The Homecoming Project, and Build UP in the Policy and Regulatory Reform category, and; Landed, Home Partners of America, Rhino, Keep By Framework, and Blackstar Stability in the Finance Category. Additionally, the Prize recognized both 1000 Friends of Oregon and the Oregon Housing Alliance on behalf of the State of Oregon as well as the City of Minneapolis for its comprehensive Minneapolis 2040 Plan with Public Sector Outstanding Achievement Awards in 2020. Nominations for the prize will remain open until January 13, 2023 and winners will be announced in May 2023.
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About Ivory Innovations: Ivory Innovations is dedicated to catalyzing innovative solutions in housing affordability. Utilizing its network and resources, Ivory Innovations promotes the most compelling ideas in housing affordability, working across sectors and providing monetary awards with the Ivory Prize for Housing Affordability. Additionally, in partnership with the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah, Ivory Innovations places students at the center of its efforts, through Hack-A-House – an annual entrepreneurial competition – as well as scholarships, a course on housing innovation, and internships that place students at the core of the Ivory Prize search. For more information about the Ivory Prize and Ivory Innovations, visit www.ivory-innovations.org.