Commentary: Improving Housing Policy with Neighborhood Data

Leah Hendey
Elizabeth Burton
Kathryn L.S. Pettit
Urban Institute
National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership

This volume demonstrates many past and potential applications of administrative data that inform and change housing policy. We identify three areas to enhance the use of local administrative data based on our experiences from the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership: 1) collaborating with residents and community organizations to inform research questions and findings; 2) improving infrastructure around court records, zoning, and parcel data; and 3) integrating data across sectors, such as health, housing, education, and others. With cross-sector collaboration and investments in building community data capacity, researchers, advocates, foundations, the private sector, and governments at all levels can play a role in improving the availability and use of administrative data to inform housing policy to ensure all neighborhoods are places where people can thrive.