Dear friend,

Welcome to Frontier, the monthly newsletter from the Future of Land and Housing Program at New America. This month, we're excited to announce that we and our partners DataKind have been selected to join the Social Safety Net Product Studio cohort, funded by Schmidt Futures, in partnership with Ballmer Group, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Schusterman Family Philanthropies. The initiative brings together technologist entrepreneurs to improve the accessibility of U.S. government social safety net benefits, and will allow us to advance our work on building an eviction data infrastructure.

🔊 FLH is hosting a virtual panel on 11/14 to discuss the wave of eviction record sealing legislation being passed across the United States, and implications on eviction data access. Stay tuned for an email invite coming soon.

Here's what else we've been up to:

What We're Doing

How to Protect Ukrainian Property Rights During and After the Russian Invasion

Russia invaded Ukraine nearly eight months ago, displacing one-third of the country's population and destroying entire communities. Yet Ukraine is turning the tide against its more powerful neighbor through a rapid counter-offensive, liberating towns and cities in the east and south.

The Ukrainian government now faces the enormous task of getting millions of returnees back into their homes or compensating them for houses shelled into rubble. To aid this effort, FLH commissioned a Rapid Needs Assessment for protecting property rights during and after the war in Ukraine. Developed through on-the-ground research by the Global Land Alliance and the Kyiv School of Economics, we believe this document is the most up-to-date analysis of the country's urgent and mid-term housing, land, and property needs.

Concurrently, program director Yuliya Panfil co-wrote an OpEd for Slate on the technological and policy innovations that the Government of Ukraine should adopt for a more efficient and transparent post-war reconstruction. Read the piece here.

Arizona's New Record Sealing Law Shouldn't Stop Us From Tracking Evictions

Data on eviction filings in the United States are regularly sold to tenant screening companies, and then repackaged for landlords to use in making rental decisions. That means a "Scarlet E" on a tenant screening report is enough to threaten a renter's ability to find housing for years to come, even if a prior eviction filing is ultimately dismissed.

Recently-passed legislation in Arizona intends to protect tenants by sealing records of evictions that are dismissed or decided in favor of the tenant. But if the law isn't implemented carefully, it could threaten access to some of the data that legal aid organizations, rental assistance providers, and others in the housing community rely on to stabilize housing.

In a recent OpEd for the Arizona Republic, FLH staff Yuliya Panfil and Sabiha Zainulbhai emphasize the need for careful implementation of the law, such that housing advocates and aid organizations can still access data to effectively target rental aid and keep tenants housed. Read the OpEd here.

FLH's Research on Small Dollar Mortgages Cited in Recent HUD Report

One-fifth of owner-occupied homes in the United States cost less than $100,000. But across the country, banks and other mortgage lenders are increasingly unwilling to write small dollar mortgages for these houses.

Instead, more than three-quarters of these properties are bought with cash, usually by investors or wealthier individuals. This lending gap means that millions of low-and-moderate income families are locked out of homeownership, exacerbating the United States' racial homeownership gap.

A 2021 report by FLH and the Center for the Study of Economic Mobility at Winston-Salem State University, The Lending Hole at the Bottom of the Homeownership Market, was recently cited in a report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) exploring trends and barriers to small dollar lending.

This report informed a Request for Information by HUD on ways the federal government can increase access to small dollar financing. Access HUD's report here.

What We're Reading

FLH staff share what has stood out to them lately on land, housing, and property rights in the U.S. and internationally.

Yuliya Panfil

The killing of Dom and Bruno: This longform article, written by Washington Post's Brazil Bureau Chief Terrence McCoy, investigates the assasination of environmental defender Bruno Pereira and journalist Dom Phillips. Pereira, a former senior official at Funai, Brazil’s Indigenous affairs agency, had received frequent death threats, most recently from fishermen who illegally encroached on indigenous territories in the Amazon. He and Phillips had been investigating illegal poaching in the rainforest when they were shot. McCoy's investigation delves into the deep-seated reasons behind the killing of environmental defenders like Pereira, and how these killings tie to the "broader forces fueling the destruction of the Amazon."

Sabiha Zainulbhai

I was given a house for free – but it already belonged to someone else: In 2016, a Detroit-based organization gifted writer Anne Elizabeth Moore a single family home for free. Only after a few years of living there, when she tried to sell the home, did Moore realize that she’d never been its rightful owner. Not only was she not listed on the title of the home, but the home was rightfully owned by a second-generation Detroiter, a Black woman named Tomeka Langford. Langford originally purchased the house in 2010, and invested in the home by dutifully paying down property taxes and making the necessary repairs. But after two years, Langford unexpectedly saw her home listed on the county’s tax foreclosure auction website. The home was purchased by the city’s Land Bank, and sold to the organization that would eventually gift it to Moore. It wasn’t until Moore was attempting to claim ownership through a title transfer in 2018 did she discover that Langford had always been the home’s rightful owner, but lost it in the face of an opaque property tax system that provided little recourse.

Dona Stewart

Norfolk moves ahead on sea wall project to protect against storms: When Hurricane Ian hit Florida as a Category 4 storm, its unprecedented storm surge, recorded at over seven feet in Fort Myers, brought enormous loss of life and property. Norfolk, Virginia recently started a $1.8 billion project to protect against such a surge. Designed by the Army Corps of Engineers, the project will raise an existing half-mile wall by five feet and extend its length. Additional barriers, including eight miles of sea walls, will also be constructed. Critics of the project are concerned about equity, arguing the barriers are focused on preserving the most valuable real estate, not the city’s most vulnerable populations. Moreover, the construction of Norfolk’s walls has the potential to deflect storm surge into predominantly minority neighborhoods nearby. The efficacy of the barriers is also questioned, as it will not stop flooding from rains. And yet, doing nothing is not an option either.

Thoughts on our work or where we're headed? Reach out to us at FLH@NewAmerica.org or tag us at @FLHatNewAmerica.

Until next month, the FLH Team.

About New America

New America is dedicated to renewing the promise of America, bringing us closer to our nation’s highest ideals. We’re a different kind of think tank: one dedicated to public problem solving. Our team of visionary researchers, changemakers, technologists, and storytellers study and seize the opportunities presented by dramatic social and technological change. We search for powerful ideas, wherever they are, and collaborate with civic innovators around the world to develop evidence-based solutions.

The Future of Land and Housing Program at New America aims to help solve today’s land and housing rights challenges, both in the United States and internationally. Through our research and writing, convening, and collaboration with civic innovators worldwide, we strive to connect new constituencies, shed light on underreported issues, and implement creative approaches in the property rights space.

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