Terwilliger Center for Innovation in Shelter
The Terwilliger Center for Innovation in Shelter is a specialized unit within Habitat influencing and strengthening housing systems worldwide. Established in 2016 through a transformational gift from J. Ron Terwilliger, Habitat’s Terwilliger Center works to make housing markets more inclusive so that low-income families can build and improve their homes safely and affordably.
The Terwilliger Center acts as an advisor, convener and catalyst with partners across the housing value chain to enable millions of families to make steady progress toward safer, healthier and more resilient homes.
The challenge
An estimated 3.4 billion people are living in inadequate shelter globally.
This is a crisis that has been exacerbated by a lack of attention to, and investment in, informal housing markets.
In many parts of the world, families build their homes gradually, adding rooms or making improvements over time as resources allow. When the housing system works against them—through lack of financing, poor materials, or unavailable expertise—this process becomes slower, more expensive and less safe.
What we do
Since 2016, Habitat has reached 49 million people through the Terwilliger Center’s market-based interventions.
In any given month, the Terwilliger Center is actively engaged with or working through upwards of 100 partners across 20 countries—from small businesses to multinational corporations, financial institutions to development banks to universities, regulators, industry associations, national and sub-national governments, UN agencies and more.
The Terwilliger Center’s work is concentrated in five elements of the housing market that have the greatest opportunity for large-scale impact.
Housing finance
The Terwilliger Center helps financial institutions design and scale loan and insurance products tailored to how low-income families actually build—incrementally and often with irregular incomes. This expands access to affordable capital for home improvements.
Building materials and technologies
The Terwilliger Center works with businesses and manufacturers to improve the availability of durable, affordable, and climate-resilient materials. It supports product development, testing and market entry so that better solutions reach low-income households.
Policy and regulation
Through partnerships with governments and global networks, the Terwilliger Center helps shape policies and standards that make housing systems more inclusive, safe and effective. Learn more.
Design and construction services
The Terwilliger Center improves access to skilled professionals such as architects, engineers, and contractors. It helps strengthen construction practices, reduce costly errors and ensure safer building outcomes.
Knowledge and information
The Terwilliger Center expands access to practical, trustworthy information that helps families make better decisions about building and improving their homes. This includes innovative use of media and behavior-change communication.
In the news
Terwilliger Center featured in Asian Venture Philanthropy Network
Priya Mohan and Sabareesh Suresh from the Terwilliger Center in India, recently published “From Pilots to Programs,” on the Asian Venture Philanthropy Network. The article delves into why green building materials have yet to become mainstream in India’s housing markets.
About Ron Terwilliger
Ron Terwilliger is a prominent business leader, philanthropist, and former CEO of Trammell Crow Residential, one of the largest developers of multifamily housing in the United States. He is widely recognized for his commitment to expanding access to affordable housing.
His transformational gift to Habitat for Humanity led to the creation of the Terwilliger Center for Innovation in Shelter in 2016. His vision was to go beyond building individual homes and instead address the broader systems that shape housing affordability and access.
Work with us
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Supported by Habitat’s Terwilliger Center for Innovation in Shelter and its partners, ShelterTech is the world’s leading platform for affordable housing innovation, advancing entrepreneurial housing solutions that radically improve the lives of low-income families.
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The Knowledge Hub serves as the launching pad to engage with information on innovative shelter solutions and discussions in the housing ecosystem.
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Habitat’s Shelter Venture Fund invests in innovative startup firms in order to help make quality products and services available to low-income families to improve their shelter and living conditions.