Ben Metcalf

Ben Metcalf has served as the Managing Director of the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley since 2020, leading the expansion and deepening of the Terner Center’s research portfolio and policy analysis work. In addition, he holds an appointment as Associate Research Professor with UC Berkeley’s Department of City and Regional Planning and serves as Practice Director for UC Berkeley’s Abbey Master of Real Estate Development + Design. He is also the Chief Executive Officer of Terner Labs, a nonprofit organization formed in 2021 to advance the applied innovation work of the Terner Center.

In 2015, Ben was appointed by former Governor Jerry Brown to lead California’s Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), a role he held until 2019. During his tenure at the State, Ben played an instrumental role in the passage and implementation of the 2017 Housing Package and oversaw the Department during a period of significant expansion of the state’s financial and regulatory reach into housing and land use matters. In addition, he served on the board of directors of the California Housing Partnership Corporation, the California Housing Finance Agency, and was the founding chair of the State of California’s Homelessness Coordinating and Finance Council.

Prior to joining HCD, Ben worked in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in Washington, D.C., including in the role of Deputy Assistant Secretary overseeing HUD’s Office of Multifamily Housing Programs. His responsibilities included oversight of the Federal Housing Administration multifamily guaranteed loan portfolio and a subsidized affordable housing portfolio representing 30,000 multifamily properties across the U.S. Before that, he developed mixed-income and mixed-use communities with California-based BRIDGE Housing Corporation and was responsible for a portfolio of major projects from initial due diligence and site acquisition through approvals, design and construction.

Ben holds a Master in Public Policy and Urban Planning from the Harvard Kennedy School and a Bachelor of Arts from Amherst College and was an inaugural Fellow at the Center for Urban Redevelopment Excellence at the University of Pennsylvania.