Edward Norton's $9,000,000,000 Housing Project (that's $9 Billion)

To attract new investors, Enterprise has begun creating green-themed regional funds that might appeal to profitable companies that want to be part of the environmental movement. Think energy companies. Werhane and his team have been plugging away for over a year. "Tax credits are a tough investment to understand. It takes a lot of explaining," says Rich Gross, who plans on closing Enterprise's first California Green Equity Fund for $45 million in mid-December.

Gross has set his sights on tech companies for another California Green Equity fund to close next year; he has been working closely with the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, an organization designed to advance the local public-policy initiatives of more than 200 businesses in the valley. "Enterprise is unlike other tax-credit syndicators in that we offer technical assistance and expertise to developers," which prospective investors seem to like, he says, adding that he's optimistic that the Googles and HPs will come on board. "California now accounts for about 25% of Enterprise's green affordable housing. The new fund can really grow that number."

Like Enterprise, former CEO Bart Harvey has shifted gears. "It's been a very difficult time," he says of his new role on the board of Fannie Mae. "Job number one is to make sure that Fannie is healthy and that it's making sensible loans and policy around those loans." Although the government has sent a clear signal that affordable housing is a priority, Fannie and Freddie will not be purchasing housing tax credits anytime in the near future. Will the affordable-housing market survive the onslaught to come? "I'm definitely ..." he chooses his words carefully, "concerned."

But Harvey is also mindful of what Enterprise has accomplished -- and optimistic about the team that Jim and Patty Rouse's vision has attracted, from family like Norton to pros like Koo. Harvey still credits Rouse as the inspiration for Enterprise's success. As a child in Baltimore, he recalls, "I watched Rouse take the decaying downtown of a written-off city and bring it back to life." But when Harvey was asked to join Enterprise from Dean Witter, where he was managing director of corporate finance, he wasn't sure about Rouse's new venture and the idea that affordable housing for all was possible. "I thought Jim was crazy, out of his mind," he says, laughing. Who is going to invest in those neighborhoods? What are the financial products? "You'll have to invent them," Rouse replied. Harvey pauses. "So we did."