There is growing recognition of the power of data to inform and advance solutions to social issues. However, the data needed to inform local governments and community organizations around issues such as housing insecurity and homelessness are often lacking or of varying quality. For example, because housing eviction cases are usually handled by local courts, the information that gets collected is not standardized and scattered throughout hundreds of legal jurisdictions. In this panel, we will learn about the Eviction Lab at Princeton University, which undertook the task of creating a publicly-available resource of national eviction data. We will also hear from leaders in city planning and community organizing about how they leverage such data to better understand and address the causes and consequences of evictions. Attendees will leave with a better understanding of the process that goes into making good-quality data, the impact that such data can have on addressing social issues within communities, and the investments needed at the state and local level to make data-driven solutions a reality.

The recording of this event may be accessed on the ESAL YouTube channel, and the event write-up may be accessed on our website.