Initiative Director, Eviction Data Response Network

About New America’s Future of Land and Housing Program: Since 1999, New America has pioneered a different kind of think-and-action tank: a civic platform that connects a research institute, technology lab, solutions network, media hub, and public forum. We are dedicated to the renewal of the American promise. We advance the quest to realize the nation's highest ideals, honestly confronting the challenges caused by rapid technological and social change and seizing the opportunities those changes create. Our policy experts, technologists, social entrepreneurs, and storytellers prize our intellectual and ideological independence and our diversity, seeking to do our best work to reflect and celebrate a new America.

New America’s Future of Land and Housing (FLH) program envisions a country in which all people have an affordable, safe, and stable home that is located near well-paying jobs, good schools, and strong communities. A world where homelessness and housing insecurity are rare, because housing is treated as a human right. And where local and federal policymakers have the data to track housing insecurity and loss, and are held accountable for keeping it low. Since 2018, we’ve worked to advance this vision. Through our narrative change work, research and writing, convening, policy analysis, network building, piloting and collaboration with local leaders and civic innovators nationwide, we shed light on underreported housing challenges and surface promising solutions.

About the Eviction Data Response Network (EDRN): Each year, more than 10 million Americans are evicted from their homes. The burden falls disproportionately on Black and Latino families and families with young children, pushing too many to the brink of homelessness, economic loss, and long-term instability.

And yet, most state and local leaders don’t even know the scale or geography of the problem. Eviction data remains fragmented, inaccessible, and inconsistent. Without shared, trusted data, decision-makers can’t design or implement effective policies that keep families stably housed.

The Eviction Data Response Network (EDRN) is a bold national effort to change that. Over the next three years, we will recruit and support high-capacity Anchor Partners in up to 10 states to:

• Build durable eviction data pipelines that provide reliable, comprehensive, and regularly updated data on evictions statewide; and
• Stand up multi-sector problem-solving teams that use that data to craft policy and practice interventions that measurably reduce evictions.

By building the country’s first large-scale, state-level eviction data infrastructure—and connecting it to coordinated problem-solving—the Eviction Data Response Network aims to bend the curve on housing loss nationwide.

The Role: Initiative Director:  We are looking for an exceptional leader to launch, grow, and steward the Eviction Data Response Network through its critical first three years. This is not a traditional program manager role—it is an opportunity to architect and lead a national initiative that will shape how U.S. policymakers and housing communities measure, understand, and prevent eviction.

The EDRN Initiative Director will :

• Build a national network of state-level Anchor Partners and guide them through the selection and onboarding process.
• Design and deliver technical assistance, leading a small but high-impact team that helps partners build robust data infrastructure and effective problem-solving systems.
• Manage a national learning network, convening partners virtually and in-person to share lessons, solve problems, and accelerate progress.
• Drive policy impact, translating insights from Anchor Partners into recommendations and elevating them to state and federal leaders.
• Oversee evaluation and learning, ensuring the initiative generates evidence of impact and insights that can scale nationwide.

In addition to leading EDRN, the EDRN Initiative Director will play a key role in advancing FLH’s broader housing stability agenda, including through writing, public events, relationship building, fundraising, and collaborations on issues like climate migration and affordable homeownership.

This is a highly entrepreneurial role. The Director will report to the Director of the Future of Land and Housing program and will work closely with senior officials, national advocates, data scientists, and local leaders.

Qualifications:
We are seeking an experienced leader who combines policy fluency, network-b