Dear friend,

Welcome to Frontier, the monthly newsletter from the Future of Land and Housing Program at New America.

What We're Doing

New Report — Building and Scaling the Foreclosure and Eviction Analysis Tool (FEAT) in Arizona, Florida, and Indiana

📑 Read the full report here.

Over the last five years FLH has worked at the federal and local level to improve access and analysis of eviction and foreclosure data, and empower local leaders to use those insights to keep more people housed.

This report details the development of the Foreclosure and Eviction Analysis Tool (FEAT), a first-of-its-kind web application that allows users to understand where housing loss is most acute, when during the year housing loss is occurring, and who is most impacted, as well as the process and lessons learned from partnerships in three states — Arizona, Florida, and Indiana — to leverage FEAT to establish statewide eviction and foreclosure dashboards.

New America Presents on “Rebranding Climate Migration” at FEMA’s Inaugural Communications Conference

📑 Read a blog post adapted from our FEMA presentation here.

As climate hazards become more frequent and severe, millions of Americans will move away from climate-vulnerable parts of the United States. For receiving communities — cities and towns that are projected to grow amid climate migration — population inflows could be a chance for revitalization and broad-based economic growth.  But many of these places underinvest in housing, infrastructure, and other public needs, and population increases could instead lead to overcrowding, gentrification, and displacement.

Last week, FLH’s Tim Robustelli spoke at FEMA’s inaugural Summit on Risk Communications, Crisis Communications, and Community Engagement, discussing the ways in which both the federal government and local leaders can reframe U.S. climate migration as an opportunity instead of a crisis, and how cities can ensure population inflows lead to equitable economic growth for both newcomers and existing residents.

Simon Drayton / Shutterstock.com

New Blog Post — "Why housing justice is key to climate justice"

📑 Read the blog post here.

From disaster-driven destruction to soaring home insurance coverage, our home is where the majority of Americans will experience the first and worst climate impacts. For millions of us, where we live and the kind of home we live in will determine just how bad climate impacts will be, and how quickly we will be able to recover from them. 

Yet housing is less affordable now than any point in recent memory, even as climate impacts increase nationwide. And, our history of racist housing policies has led to the reality today that Black people, Indigenous people, and people of color are the most likely to lack access to safe and affordable housing — and to live in the most climate-vulnerable places.

FLH's new blog post examines why access to safe, adequate, and affordable housing for all — otherwise known as housing justice — is perhaps the single most effective way to ensure climate justice.

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 Race to Map the World and Protect $110 Billion of Trade: This article details the ripple effect that a new European anti-deforestation law is having on major commodities suppliers — and also land rights start-up Meridia. By year's end, the European Union Deforestation Regulation will require large companies handling seven key commodities — coffee, cocoa, soy, palm oil, cattle, rubber, and wood — and products derived from them to prove that the land these commodities were grown on was not deforested after 2020, legally or illegally. For many companies within these supply chains, the regulation creates a compliance nightmare. There's the issue of supply chain traceability, sure, but there's an even thornier problem: about half of the farms caught up in EUDR may not have been mapped, and so companies have no way to meet the regulation's requirements. This article details the efforts of Dutch start-up Meridia as it races to help companies meet their EUDF requirements by mapping the land of smallholders who form the base of these giant supply chains. 

Sabiha Zainulbhai

How an American Dream of Housing Became a Reality in Sweden: Francesa Mari details one potential solution to the housing shortage in the United States: what if we could build houses in the same way the automotive industry produces cars? To do so, she investigates a since-lapsed federal program called Operation Breakthrough that built nearly 3,000 modular homes between 1971 and 1973 in nine locations, from housing for the elderly in Kalamazoo, Michigan to owner-occupied co-ops in Macon, Georgia to public housing in Memphis, Tennessee. Despite the relative speed at which housing was being built, Congress shut down the program in 1976, determining it was too costly. Mari explores modular housing development in Sweden, which has developed a robust modular housing industry, with regulatory standards that allow for innovation and speed and design standards that are environmentally efficient. We’ve long grappled with the fact that housing is unlike other goods from a consumer perspective, but Mari sheds light on how this is true from a development perspective too, highlighting how limits on what and how we build in the U.S. is a question not just of economics, but of a national regulatory framework that does not limit what home builders can produce.  

Helen Bonnyman

A Pandemic-Era Eviction Prevention Program Inches Toward Permanence: In Greensboro, a collaborative effort by Legal Aid of North Carolina and the University of North Carolina Greensboro provides legal representation for tenants facing eviction proceedings, as well as landlord-tenant mediation. Across the country, only about 4% of tenants are represented by an attorney, while up to 83% of landlords are. In a state without robust right to counsel for eviction cases, this program, called the Tenant Education Advocacy Mediation Project (TEAM), provides essential resources for defendants in eviction cases; around 15% of program participants avoided displacement from their homes. In a world without easily accessible and high-quality data on evictions, it can be hard to gauge the true impact of this and other efforts to mediate and reduce evictions. Recent research by UNCG on evictions in Greensboro's neighboring town High Point shows high eviction rates in the area. Continued local government investments in TEAM and in similar programs can help vulnerable residents stay housed.

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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