Dr. Ben Metcalf

Biography

Ben Metcalf served as the managing director of the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley since 2020, where he led the expansion and deepening of the Terner Center’s research portfolio and policy analysis work. He also holds an appointment as research professor in the Department of City & Regional Planning and serves as the practice director for the Abbey Master of Real Estate Development + Design. Prior to this role, in 2015, Metcalf was appointed by Governor Jerry Brown to lead California’s Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), a role he held until 2019, where he played an instrumental role in the passage and implementation of the 2017 Housing Package and oversaw a significant expansion of the state’s financial and regulatory reach on housing and land use matters. Additionally, he served on the board of directors for the California Housing Partnership Corporation and the California Housing Finance Agency, and was the founding chair of the State of California’s Homelessness Coordinating Finance Council. Before joining HCD, Metcalf worked at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in Washington, D.C., where he was appointed by President Obama as 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 the subsidized affordable housing portfolio, which includes 30,000 multifamily properties across the U.S. He has developed mixed-income, mixed-use communities with California-based BRIDGE Housing Corporation, handling significant major projects and securing essential environmental and land use approvals for developments valued at approximately $1.5 billion.

Research Interests

Courses