Today’s affordable housing landscape continues to test developers’ creativity, resilience, and ability to adapt. From rising construction costs and regulatory hurdles to evolving financing structures and growing community needs, success depends on having the right tools, processes, and partnerships in place.
To find out what’s helping industry leaders navigate today’s challenges, we asked seven affordable housing developers a key question: What’s one recent addition to your developer toolkit that has made a meaningful difference?
Matthew Nicholson, president, The Clear Blue Co.:
“The most meaningful addition to our development toolkit has been our continued vertical integration through the launch of Clear Blue Construction. Rather than viewing construction as a separate phase of the development process, we've brought that expertise in-house, giving us greater visibility and accountability across the full project lifecycle, from development and construction through long-term operations.
“That level of integration has fundamentally changed how we deliver projects. It enables faster decision-making, stronger collaboration across disciplines, and more proactive management of cost, quality, and schedule. In today's increasingly challenging affordable housing environment, where every dollar and every day matters, having that end-to-end control allows us to execute more efficiently, reduce risk, and ultimately deliver high-quality communities with greater consistency."
Pastor Martin Porter, CEO, Logos Faith Development:
“One of the most exciting additions to our developer toolkit has been adopting artificial intelligence (AI)-powered research and analysis tools. Affordable housing development requires us to navigate an incredible amount of information—from evolving funding programs and policy changes to market trends and mission-aligned capital sources. AI has helped us cut through that complexity, uncover opportunities more quickly, and evaluate ideas with a level of speed and depth that simply wasn't possible before.
What excites me most is that AI hasn't changed our mission—it has enhanced our ability to pursue it. By giving our team better insights and freeing up time from manual research, we're able to focus more on what matters most: building strong relationships with churches, investors, foundations, and community partners. Development will always be a people-centered business, but having smarter tools at our fingertips allows us to be more creative, more informed, and ultimately better equipped to deliver housing and community impact where it's needed most.”
Jennifer Litwak, CEO, PH Development Group:
“One recent addition to PH Development's toolkit has been bringing property operations, compliance, resident services, and asset management into the development process much earlier. Engaging these teams at the outset helps us identify operational challenges before they are built into a project and better understand how design, financing, and construction decisions will affect residents, staff, compliance, and long-term financial sustainability.
“This cross-functional approach has strengthened decisions around unit and common-area design, staffing, operating budgets, security, maintenance, and resident programming. It also helps us ask not only whether a project can be financed and built, but whether it can be operated successfully and provide a high-quality living environment for decades.”
Christopher Shear, president, McDowell Housing Partners:
“The most impactful recent addition to our toolkit has been Florida's Live Local Act. Its entitlement and preemption authority have proven genuinely transformative, giving us the ability to advance projects that would otherwise stall under restrictive local zoning and protracted approval processes. The statute confers meaningful density and height bonuses and relaxes zoning constraints that have long constrained affordable housing development, while its administrative approval pathway for site plan review spares us the time and expense of discretionary public hearings.”
Reggie Fullwood, CEO, Ability Housing:
“One of the most valuable additions to our development toolkit has been an enhanced process for predevelopment. As a regional nonprofit developer, we have to make intentional use of every dollar and hour to evaluate potential sites, understand local market conditions, navigate changing regulations, identify funding opportunities, and coordinate requirements across multiple public and private partners. By investing more time upfront in due diligence, cross-functional collaboration, and early stakeholder engagement, we've been able to make better-informed decisions before projects enter the development pipeline. This approach has strengthened our funding applications, improved project planning, and reduced surprises later in the process.
“The biggest impact has been giving our team the time and structure needed to focus on the decisions that matter most. Successful affordable housing development is built on strong partnerships, thoughtful planning, and a clear understanding of community needs. By approaching each project with greater discipline during predevelopment, we're able to identify challenges earlier, create stronger developments, and ultimately deliver quality affordable housing designed to serve communities for decades.”
Evan Holladay, CEO, Holladay Ventures:
“One tool that’s recently made a real difference for me is using Claude, specifically working under ‘Projects,’ as my strategic thought partner. Setting big hairy audacious goals (BHAGs), I think is just part of the way my mind works. But Claude really helps in stress-testing that vision, poking holes in my assumptions, and supporting me in working backward into achievable milestones to hit those goals. For example, what partners, team, systems, and capital we need in place over the next three, five, and 10 years to actually reach our 100,000-unit goal. It's also sharpened my thinking on how we thoughtfully scale our approach to mission-driven affordable housing and build a system for securing philanthropic capital for those developments. I've learned how to prompt Claude so it pushes back with the right practical questions, which helps me turn big visions into concrete plans and next steps to share with my team.”
Terri M. Lee, CEO, Atlanta Housing:
“One of the most valuable additions to our developer toolkit is the collective commitment of partners who understand that affordable housing is everyone's responsibility. Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens often says that solving our housing challenges is a ‘group project,’ and that mindset has transformed how we approach development in our city. The group project is working.
A powerful example is Overlook at Garson, a 100% affordable housing community we recently broke ground on near the future expansion of the Atlanta Beltline. Delivering 130 affordable homes in one of Atlanta’s fastest-growing and most amenity-rich neighborhoods required an extraordinary coalition of public, private, philanthropic, development, and financial partners, from Bank of America to the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, aligned around a shared vision and brought their resources, expertise, and capital to the table. That is what innovation in affordable housing looks like today.
As development costs continue to rise and traditional funding sources become more constrained, no single organization can solve the housing challenge alone. The future of affordable housing will depend on deeper public-private partnerships, stronger philanthropic engagement and new sources of capital that recognize housing as essential infrastructure.
“The communities that embrace that collaborative approach will be best positioned to create opportunity and sustain long-term growth.”