Affordable Housing Preservation: Building a National Data Infrastructure Report
The Shimberg Center for Affordable Housing at the University of Florida and the Florida Housing Finance Corporation, with support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Window of Opportunity: Preserving Affordable Rental Housing program, have launched an initiative to improve data collection and analysis related to the preservation of assisted rental housing.
As a first step, the Shimberg Center conducted research into the current state of preservationrelated data collection throughout the country. Through surveys of 67 housing-related organizations and in-depth interviews with 18 preservation experts, we examined what data are being collected and by whom; the data elements that those involved in preservation feel should be collected; the gaps between the ideal data set and actual data collection; and how these gaps could be bridged.
A national preservation data infrastructure would consist of the collection by multiple organizations of a standard set of variables on assisted properties for the purpose of understanding preservation needs. We recommend that the national preservation data infrastructure be based on a standard set of variables used in extensive data collection.
Specifically, we recommend that data collectors create a national infrastructure by collecting these standard data elements for all assisted housing properties:
- For-profit versus non-profit ownership
- Unit mix
- Types and years of funding
- Presence or absence of rent subsidies
- Key dates, including mortgage maturity dates, expiration of Land Use Restriction Agreements or Extended Use Agreements, rent subsidy contract expiration, and dates of eligibility for mortgage prepayment or opt-out
- Whether the owner has submitted a notice of opt-out or termination to tenants or funders
- Number of assisted units
- Demographic served
- Property rents
- Average rents in the surrounding area
- Summary measure of capital needs
By mapping the extent to which data collectors in each state include these items in their databases (see page 12), we determined that a strong base of preservation-related information exists upon which to build a standard data collection effort. Half of the states have most data elements in place, and most agencies collect data on both federally-funded and state-funded properties. In some cases, entities collect data expressly to support preservation. In many others, agencies collect data on properties for other purposes, such as compliance monitoring. These data also could be used to facilitate preservation.
In addition to our recommendations for uniform collection of data elements, we offer the following suggestions based on survey responses and interviewees’ suggestions:
- Develop standard, feasible methods to collect data elements that are highly rated but less frequently collected: average market rents, opt-out and termination notices submitted, extent of capital needs, opt-out and prepayment eligibility dates, and owners’ interest in selling properties.
- Make HUD data available on a more systematic basis to all data collectors.
- Make comprehensive data on RD-funded properties available to the public.
- Where possible, provide public, on-line access to property documents to facilitate intensive data collection.
- Develop consensus on the content and procedures for the national data infrastructure. Interested parties will need to agree on the list of uniform data elements, methods by which data collectors will integrate information collected from multiple sources, the extent to which data gathered will be available and accessible to the public, and the composition of the network of organizations that will carry out the creation of the infrastructure.
