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1. The Unequal Availability of Rental Housing Information Across Neighborhoods

   https://doi.org/10.1215/00703370-9357518  

   Besbris, Max; Schachter, Ariela; Kuk, John (July 2021, Demography)

   Abstract As more urban residents find their housing through online search tools, recent research has theorized the potential for online information to transform and equalize the housing search process. Yet, very little is known about what rental housing information is available online. Using a corpus of millions of geocoded Craigslist advertisements for rental housing across the 50 largest metropolitan statistical areas in the United States merged with census tract–level data from the American Community Survey, we identify and describe the types of information commonly included in listings across different types of neighborhoods. We find that in the online housing market, renters are exposed to fundamentally different types of information depending on the ethnoracial and socioeconomic makeup of the neighborhoods where they are searching. 

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2. Housing data politics in the United States: Inequitable open data, informal networks, and strategic neutrality

   https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2025.2554754  

   Aizman, Asya; So, Wonyoung; Navalkha, Chenab; D’Ignazio, Catherine (September 2025, Journal of Urban Affairs)

   Open housing data—property transactions, eviction filings, 311 complaints, and rental registries—have been a crucial resource for policymaking and real estate professionals. Meanwhile, housing data actors increasingly collect, analyze, and use data to address housing inequality, including efforts related to eviction prevention and land use reform, among others. This paper examines the motivations and practices of grassroots and institutional housing data actors. From a field scan of 67 entities engaged in housing data work across 12 U.S. states and 18 municipalities, we conducted 18 in-depth interviews to explore how housing data actors operate, their political goals, and data processes. We put forward a two‑axis framework that positions housing data actors according to their organizational structure (institutional/grassroots) and their stated data ideology (neutral/political). This framework contributes to understanding how different actors navigate complex issues such as embedded power dynamics and ethics in housing data. This two-axis view supplies a vocabulary for tracing how normative commitments and material constraints shape housing data pipelines and, ultimately, housing outcomes across the broader housing information ecosystem 

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3. Multi-Hazard Housing Safety Perceptions of Those Involved with Housing Construction in Puerto Rico

   https://doi.org/10.3390/su14073802  

   Goldwyn, Briar; Javernick-Will, Amy; Liel, Abbie B. (April 2022, Sustainability)

   Globally, hazards are increasingly threatening housing each year, and housing constructed outside the formal sector may be particularly vulnerable. Yet, limited studies have investigated the perceptions of those responsible for designing and building this housing. These safety perceptions motivate the informal housing construction practices that ultimately determine housing safety. Thus, this study investigates the multi-hazard housing safety perceptions of individuals involved with housing construction in Puerto Rico. We surveyed 345 builders and hardware store employees across Puerto Rico to understand their perceptions of expected housing damage in hurricanes and earthquakes, important mitigation measures, and barriers to safer housing construction. Our results reveal that prior hazard experience did not influence perceptions of expected housing damage, but previous housing construction experience did. Respondents viewed wood and concrete housing as less safe in hurricanes and earthquakes, respectively. Yet, respondents appeared uncertain about the importance of mitigation measures for concrete houses in earthquakes, likely due to a combination of limited earthquake experience and “hidden” reinforcement detailing in a reinforced concrete house. Interestingly, our results also show that respondents perceive technical construction capacity as a major barrier to safer informal housing construction rather than resource constraints alone. These findings suggest areas for technical construction capacity development for Puerto Rico’s informal construction sector. 

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4. Modeling post-disaster recovery: Accounting for rental and multi-family housing

   https://doi.org/10.1177/87552930231222769  

   Mongold, Emily; Costa, Rodrigo; Zsarnóczay, Ádám; Baker, Jack W (May 2024, Earthquake Spectra)

   Post-disaster housing recovery models increase our understanding of recovery dynamics, vulnerable populations, and how people are affected by the direct losses that disasters create. Past recovery models have focused on single-family owner-occupied housing, while empirical evidence shows that rental units and multi-family housing are disadvantaged in post-disaster recovery. To fill this gap, this article presents an agent-based housing recovery model that includes the four common type–tenure combinations of single- and multi-family owner- and renter-occupied housing. The proposed model accounts for the different recovery processes, emphasizing funding sources available to each type–tenure. The outputs of our model include the timing of financing and recovery at building resolution across a community. We demonstrate the model with a case study of Alameda, California, recovering from a simulated M7.0 earthquake on the Hayward fault. The processes in the model replicate higher non-recovery of multi-family housing than single-family housing, as observed in past disasters, and a heavy reliance of single-family renter-occupied units on Small Business Administration funding, which is expected due to low earthquake insurance penetration. The simulation results indicate that multi-family housing would have the highest portion of unmet need remaining; however, some buildings with unmet needs are anticipated to be able to obtain a large portion of their funding. The remaining portion may be filled using personal financing or may be overcome with downsizing or downgrades. Multi-family housing would also benefit the most from Community Development Block Grants for Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR). This benefit is a result of modeling the financing sources, that CDBG-DR is available, and that many multi-family buildings do not qualify for other sources. Communities’ allocation of public funding is important for housing recovery. Our model can help inform and compare potential financing policies to allocate public funds. 

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5. Houselessness: Myth vs. Data

   Nicewonger, Todd; Fritz, Stacey; McNair Lisa D. (June 2022, Contribution of the Arctic Institute)

   Hermann, Victoria (Ed.)

   This brief draws on an ongoing remote ethnographic study examining how varying modes of housing insecurity are experienced by Alaskans. This includes: • an introduction to the term “houselessness,” which describes shifting modes of housing insecurity caused by socio-economic changes and unanticipated life events, but also housing shortages, difficulties acquiring land and permission for building new housing, and (especially for some Indigenous groups) the foreign nature of home financing. • reflections on the precarious living situations that Alaskans from rural communities’ experience across their lifetimes. • the need for further qualitative research that interrogates how assumptions about houselessness are experienced by Alaskans in different contexts, not least because the term houselessness is a proactive attempt to delimit narrowly defined and demeaning terms such as homelessness. 

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