Convinced that workforce housing has reached a critical stage, J. Ronald Terwilliger, CEO of Atlanta-based Trammell Crow Residential, announced in February he was giving $5 million to support solutions. His donation is fueling the new Washington, D.C.-based non-profit Urban Land Institute Terwilliger Center for Workforce Housing, which will work to foster construction of at least 3,500 workforce housing units in southeast Florida, Atlanta and Washington, D.C., within five years.

J. Ronald Terwilliger, CEO of Trammell Crow Residential, has committed $5 million to solving affordable housing issues.

Median home prices in southeast Florida have put homes increasingly out of the reach of middle-income workers. Nearly 90% of wage earners in Palm Beach County can't afford a median priced home of $388,000, according to a 2006 Florida International University study. In Broward County, the median housing price-to-income ratio tripled during the three-year boom period, the Broward Housing Partnership reports.

Even employers paying starting wages up to $60,000 say it's tough to get workers to move to the area because of housing costs. "Workforce housing has become an economic development issue," says Debbie Orshefsky, a shareholder at Greenberg Traurig in Fort Lauderdale who is spearheading ULI's efforts in southeast Florida.