This bill directs HUD and the Census Bureau to study and report on how federal agencies identify and record various forms of housing loss across the United States.
Johnny Olszewski
Representative
MD-2
This bill directs the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and the Director of the Census Bureau to conduct a comprehensive study on how federal agencies currently identify and record various forms of housing loss in the United States. The resulting report must define different types of housing loss, identify current data collection methods, and recommend improvements for federal tracking. The goal is to enhance the government's ability to accurately count and understand involuntary displacement since 2022.
New HUD/Census Study Mandated to Track Every Type of Housing Loss Since 2022
This legislation mandates a joint study between the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Census Bureau to figure out exactly how the federal government tracks housing loss across the country. Essentially, Congress is asking, 'Do we even know how many people are losing their homes, and why?' The study must be completed and reported within six months and requires consultation with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), and the Commerce Department.
Defining the Housing Loss Problem
For the purposes of this study, "housing loss" is defined broadly—and that’s key. It’s not just about formal, court-ordered evictions or foreclosures. It includes informal evictions (when a landlord pressures someone out without a court order), displacement due to natural disasters, and losing a home over missed tax payments. Since January 1, 2022, every type of involuntary displacement must be cataloged and defined. This is a big deal because right now, these different types of loss are tracked by different agencies using different rules, leading to a fragmented picture of housing instability.
Mapping the Government's Data Mess
The most important part of this mandate is forcing the agencies to map out every current government dataset used to count housing loss. They have to detail how often the data is updated, the rules for sharing it, how accurate it is, and what geographic areas it covers. Think of it like a massive inventory check of all the government’s spreadsheets on people losing their homes. This provision (Section 1) is designed to expose the gaps—for instance, if the Census Bureau only tracks formal evictions in major cities, but misses all the informal evictions happening in rural areas.
The Real-World Impact: Better Data for Better Policy
While this bill doesn't directly change any housing laws today, it’s a foundational step. If you’re a renter worried about rising costs or a homeowner in a disaster-prone area, better data means policymakers can finally see the full scope of the problem. Right now, policy responses often rely on incomplete or biased data sets. By requiring HUD and the Census Bureau to identify the most frequent types of housing loss and recommend ways to combine or create new, accurate datasets, the study aims to give future legislation a much stronger footing. The practical challenge here is the six-month deadline; coordinating data across multiple massive federal agencies is a huge administrative lift, and rushing it could lead to an incomplete final report.