Data to Drive Housing Loss Decision-Making

New America’s Future of Land and Housing program and DataKind are creating a publicly-available tool for local leaders to generate insights on their eviction and foreclosure data, including where housing loss is most acute, when during the year it’s occurring, and who is most at risk.

Housing leaders in cities and counties across the U.S. will be able to use this tool to transform existing data into useful insights to inform resource allocation, policy, advocacy and legislation. To develop, test and ensure the tool meets a range of needs, we are partnering with 14 cities and counties—‘partner sites’.

Without understanding the intricacies of cities and counties day-to-day work, we are missing out on valuable pieces of the puzzle. If the goal is to put in place lasting data infrastructure, then cities and counties need as much knowledge as possible—not just numbers and trends, but as much relevant context, case studies and carefully-delineated thought processes as possible—to shed light on how to mitigate short-term harm and move towards long-term solutions.

We draw on the experiences of 14 cities and counties we’re partnering with to develop a publicly-available data tool that will generate insights about evictions and foreclosures locally to shed light on the broad goals and desired uses of eviction and foreclosure data.

Based on initial discussions, we found that cities and counties have two overarching questions: First, what do we understand about local housing loss in our communities? And second, how do we use housing loss data to change the status quo?

Learn more about the specific goals of partner sites in this post.

We’re nearly two years into the pandemic, and our understanding of housing displacement remains murky at best. This is in large part because most displacement in the U.S. likely occurs outside of the courtroom, through so-called informal evictions, which are inherently difficult to define and measure.

This brief sheds light on what constitutes an informal eviction, why they are so difficult to measure, and reviews existing measurement strategies and steps forward for localities attempting to collect data on these invisible evictions for the first time.

Imagine being two years into an economic recession, and not knowing whether the unemployment rate is increasing or decreasing. This is the situation we face when it comes to housing displacement in the U.S. To address this need, FLH has partnered with DataKind and 14 cities and counties to develop the Foreclosure and Eviction Analysis Tool (FEAT), an open source tool to helps local leaders understand where housing loss is most acute, when during the year housing loss is occurring, and who is most impacted. Read our blog post sharing more info!

We've teamed up with local governments, universities, and nonprofits to improve eviction data analysis in 11 communities across the country through the Eviction Data Response Network (EDRN). The initiative is motivated by the understanding that improved access to and analysis of local eviction data can help local leaders pass responsive policies, target resources, and otherwise intervene to keep families stably housed.

Our network partners are joining us from a variety of starting points: Some partners already regularly analyze and report on evictions in their area, while others don't currently have access to eviction data. This blog post shares what we’ve learned thus far about what these local leaders wish they knew about evictions, and what they hope to accomplish.