Conclusion

Over the last five years, New America and a host of other organizations have worked persistently to move the needle towards helping local leaders access and analyze eviction and foreclosure data, and to use those insights for better housing policy and programs.

To undertake this work at scale requires significant investment and support from a range of government and non-government actors. This includes:

• Providing funding and technical assistance for municipalities to invest in the resources needed to overcome barriers in data collection and use;
• Building capacity of local leaders to analyze housing loss data and use it for decision-making, including through the Foreclosure and Eviction Analysis Tool;
• Developing and maintaining nationwide initiatives (e.g., coalitions, learning labs, fellowships, and networks) that convene jurisdictions and provide expert guidance, technical support, and opportunities for peer learning related to housing loss data and analysis and prevention and policy;
• Investing in advocacy for policies and programs that facilitate better eviction and housing loss data, including the implementation of data standards and standardized court forms; and
• Supporting narrative change around the importance of tracking housing loss, using real stories and case studies to demonstrate what is possible when data is publicly available.

A robust data infrastructure that provides meaningful and actionable insights on who is losing their housing and where would have innumerable short- and long-term benefits. One that cannot be underestimated is the future visioning that this would allow for, where creating housing policies and programs is based on need instead of scarcity, and on ensuring security instead of alleviating precarity.