Dear friend,

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

🔊 The application for New America's 2025 Class of Fellows is open. Apply here if you're a storyteller looking for funding and a community to support your work!

Here's what we've been up to:

What We're Doing

Newly-Released—The Foreclosure and Eviction Analysis Tool (FEAT) Web Application and Live Demo

📑 Watch the live FEAT demo.

Earlier this week, we hosted a virtual release event for the Foreclosure and Eviction Analysis Tool (FEAT) web application—a data tool we developed with DataKind. The FEAT web app seamlessly transforms local housing loss data into outputs that can be used to keep more people securely housed and to address questions like how many people are losing their home in my community each year, which neighborhoods are hardest hit, and who is most impacted? For localities that may not have the information needed to run FEAT, the tool integrates data from 10 states and 34 cities in Eviction Lab's Eviction Tracking System.

On the FEAT webpage, you can access a comprehensive user guide, FAQs, and impact stories from local partners. We're also excited to share a recently-released, statewide Indiana eviction and foreclosure dashboard developed by The Polis Center at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI).

Resources on Evictions and Childcare from FLH and New America's Better Life Lab

📑 Access our resources on eviction and childcare. 

This fall, a groundbreaking study from the Eviction Lab found that the group most at risk for evictions in the U.S. is small children. Households with children are twice as likely to receive an eviction filing as households without children, and every year more than 25 percent of Black children living in rental households experience an eviction filing. A major reason for this disturbing finding is because childcare costs are so high, parents and caregivers are forced to make the impossible choice between paying for care and paying the rent.

FLH and New America's Better Life Lab sat down with Eviction Lab Director Carl Gershenson to unpack the study, discuss care-related drivers of child evictions, and surface solutions that can keep more children stably housed. Click through to hear the conversation and to read about why eviction is one of the greatest health risks facing Black children.

FLH Presents at UN-Habitat's Expert Group Meeting on Housing Indicators in Nairobi, Kenya

📑 Read the metadata for Sustainable Development Goal indicator 11.1.1.

FLH Director Yuliya Panfil participated in the Expert Group Meeting on the Status and Review of Housing Indicators, organized by UN-Habitat in Nairobi, Kenya in late November. This closed-door meeting brought together housing experts from around the world to take stock of the various housing indicators available, review their methodologies, and guide the selection of a core set to be monitored at global, regional, and city levels, including as part of Sustainable Development Goal indicator 11.1.1. 

Yuliya presented to the group about FLH's proposed metric for residential displacement in the United States: a National Housing Loss Rate. This rate would establish a reliable and replicable topline metric of forced residential displacement nationally, and could be disaggregated to a subnational level and also by the type of displacement. The expert group will continue to meet and refine a set of global housing indicators over the coming months.

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

Land Portal Data Story: Climate change, conflict and displacement across the Sahel: This interactive data story examines the interplay of climate change, displacement, and conflict across the 363,000 square kilometers of Africa's Sahel region. Using a range of maps, graphs, and other data visualizations, author Dr. Rick de Satge debunks the simple "cause and effect" narratives surrounding the interplay of climate change and conflict. Instead, de Satge paints a complex picture of how climate-driven migration interacts with resource competition and conflict, first drawing on the experiences of Mali and Burkina Faso, and then examining the Saameynta Initiative in Somalia, which seeks to put in place durable solutions for internally displaced persons (IDPs) who have been forced to settle in urban areas.

Sabiha Zainulbhai

New Legislation Proposes to Take Wall Street Out of the Housing Market: Congressional Democrats introduced the End Hedge Fund Control of American Homes Act of 2023 earlier this month, which would effectively ban hedge funds from owning single-family housing in the future, and would require them to sell off the homes they currently own over 10 years. During the 10-year phaseout, money generated from tax penalties on these properties would go towards down payment assistance for new owners. If passed, this bill has the potential to unlock an unanticipated supply of housing—potentially allowing would-be homeowners to gain access to this wealth-building asset. With a severe housing shortage that ranges from three to five million housing units, perhaps solutions that stem the tide of corporate ownership, increase financial assistance for potential homeowners, and add to the housing supply—all at once—are the kinds of innovative paths forward the housing crisis demands.

Tim Robustelli

The Unfortunate Truth All This Pickleball Drama Reveals About American Cities: Pickleball is a growing obsession across the U.S., but not everyone’s thrilled. In this interview, podcaster Mary Harris and journalist Jason Koebler discuss the heated discourse surrounding the push for more pickleball courts countrywide. With help from a community engagement toolkit, USA Pickelball “ambassadors” are lobbying local governments and raising funds for more playing space. It’s often as simple as sticking a new net on a tennis or basketball court. Yet other recreational athletes are feeling crowded out and nearby neighbors complain of the incessant “dink-dink-dink” from games. As a result, homeowners and others are increasingly resistant to court construction, employing tactics such as demanding noise and traffic assessments. As Koebler notes at the end of the interview, the controversy is sadly indicative of how local government works (or doesn’t) in the United States. If communities can’t even agree on recreation, how difficult is it to build a new light rail or more affordable housing?

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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