Data for Housing Justice
Hi everyone,
We're super excited to announce the launch of our report into how the current state of information on housing affects the housing justice movement. The report shares the struggles and challenges for organising, given the information environment around housing today, and what might be useful to build more transparency or better access to information around.
Read more in Samanthi's blog here, and check out the full report here.
Join us online on 30th November 12-1pm GMT
We will be holding a brief launch event online on 30th November. As well as hearing about the research, you'll hear from the fabulous Evictorbook, and Lynne will share how we've been updating LandExplorer.coop to respond to some of the research findings around making it easier to understand who owns what.
As well as sharing the findings of the report, we’re hoping to spark conversations or catalyse partnerships with others who have an interest in collaboratively responding to the findings of this work. We'll be hosting some online working spaces on the 6th, 7th and 8th December to dive deeper into some of the areas for change we see. These are:
Building a better understanding of who owns what - brief here.
Understanding patterns of rent extraction - brief here.
Making information easier to understand - brief here.
Identifying patterns of evictions - brief here.
Systematically collecting information on safety and hazards - brief here.
Book your place at one (or more!) of these working spaces by clicking here.
Why did we do this work?
As with many movements, data has proven a useful tool for organising and demanding change for housing justice. There are examples within and outside of the UK, of researchers and organisers finding creative ways to use data and digital approaches to build campaigning and bargaining power. But the UK’s housing system is extremely complex, and the information environment around it is difficult to infiltrate and make sense of.
Digital Commons Cooperative set out to try and understand how the current state of the housing information environment might be frustrating organising efforts within the UK’s housing justice movement (you can read more about it in our introductory blog to the research here). We’re a community tech organisation, so the ultimate goal was to identify whether there are opportunities for digital or data approaches that might improve the information environment so those organising in the movement could build even greater campaigning and bargaining power.
If you can't make these dates but would like to respond to the report or one of the briefs, get in touch on hello@digitalcommons.coop
all the best,
Samanthi, Lynne, Kate, Colm, Marcel, Nick, John - the Digital Commons team