FLH Urges U.S. Census Bureau to Establish a National Housing Loss Rate

The Future of Land and Housing Program, together with the National Consumer Law Center, led a coalition of 17 affordable housing, civil rights, public data and community development organizations in sending a letter to U.S. Census Bureau Director Robert Santos and other federal officials advocating for the creation of a national housing loss rate. The letter asks the Census Bureau to begin collecting survey data on involuntary residential displacement as a first step towards establishing a national measure of housing loss that would stand alongside the national unemployment rate as a key indicator of the country’s social and economic well-being.

A housing loss rate—a metric of how many people lose their homes involuntarily over a given period of time, and why—would provide a unified benchmark to track this problem and hold leaders accountable for reducing it. It would also provide actionable data that allow federal, state and local decision-makers to allocate proper resources, pass responsive policies, calibrate housing supply initiatives and otherwise intervene to keep people housed.

Read the full coalition letter here.