New Jersey’s Office of Eviction Prevention Selected as One of 11 States Awarded $100,000 through Eviction Data Response Network

TRENTON, NJ – The New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (DCA) today announced that its Office of Eviction Prevention (OEP) has been selected for enrollment in the Eviction Data Response Network (EDRN), a highly competitive national initiative led by the Future of Land and Housing program at New America. New Jersey is one of only 11 states chosen nationwide to receive $100,000 in dedicated funding to build a stronger, more reliable eviction data infrastructure.

“This recognition is a testament to the work New Jersey has already done to protect tenants and prevent eviction,” said Governor Mikie Sherrill. “Access to timely, accurate eviction data is essential to delivering resources where they’re needed most, and this award will accelerate our ability to do exactly that.”

From 2026 to 2028, EDRN will support state-level teams across the country in building quality, sustainable data infrastructure and translating data into housing stability. These new EDRN partners will benefit from dedicated technical assistance from New America coaches, grant funding to build eviction data capacity at home, access to a group of technology experts and resources, peer-learning opportunities through the cohort, and a bank of shared tools and resources for improving data infrastructure, advocacy, and efforts nationwide.

“The second leading cause of homelessness in New Jersey is hard evictions, where there is an actual eviction filing. Nearly one in four people (24%) entering the state’s homeless system cite this as a primary reason, as per data from our Office of Homelessness Prevention,” said DCA Commissioner Jacquelyn A. Suárez. “Without timely comprehensive data we cannot identify emerging hotspots, target prevention resources, or intervene before displacement occurs. EDRN gives us the tools to change this narrative.”

The data comes from two sources: exclusive court records and demographic household data collected directly by nonprofit, community-based caseworkers who serve as grantees of DCA’s Office of Eviction Prevention and Office of Homelessness Prevention, along with their legal partners. All data is recorded into the Homeless Management Information System, giving DCA a ground-level picture of who is at risk and why.

New Jersey’s selection to participate in this national initiative reflects OEP’s unique statewide capacity. EDRN will enable OEP to close gaps in eviction data. The $100,000 award, which will be matched dollar for dollar by OEP, will fund improvements in DCA’s existing eviction data pipeline and infrastructure.

“Evictions impact millions of families, and in particular families of color and families with very young children, including infants and toddlers,” said Future of Land and Housing Program Director Yuliya Panfil. “And yet, prevention is largely siloed, uncoordinated, and underfunded, in part because we don’t have the data to track these devastating events. New America is thrilled to help change that reality, in partnership with these 11 forward-thinking states. Our partners won’t just be tracking a historical crisis—they will be building the infrastructure to unlock targeted, proactive interventions that keep people in their homes today, and the systems to keep them housed tomorrow.”

“New America is excited to work in New Jersey alongside the DCA Office of Eviction Prevention in the 2026-2028 Eviction Data Response Network. Their strategy and vision for reducing evictions stood out from a large applicant pool. We know that building this data infrastructure is critical to data-driven decisions for advocacy and policies that keep families housed,” said Eviction Data Response Network Initiative Director Ian Fletcher.

OEP’s EDRN team brings together a cross-sector group of leaders in New Jersey with expertise in housing stability, homelessness prevention, and eviction research:

• OEP Director, Dean Dafis
• Division of Housing and Community Resources Data Center Director, Gavin Rozzi
• Bridges Outreach Chief of Operations and Michael Callahan (former director of DCA’s Office of Homelessness Prevention)
• Princeton University Associate Professor and Eviction Lab Co-Founder Peter Hepburn

“New Jersey has been building toward this moment,” said OEP Director Dean Dafis. “We have the cross-sector relationships, the court access, and the eviction prevention infrastructure to make real use of this investment. EDRN will help us level the playing field for thousands of vulnerable households and start dismantling New Jersey’s eviction culture.”

Through administration of the Comprehensive Eviction Defense and Diversion (CEDD) program, OEP developed a growing body of analysis examining eviction as both a legal process and a driver of housing instability that disproportionately affects low-income households, seniors, people with disabilities, and communities of color. Enrollment in EDRN will expand OEP’s ability to measure its own effectiveness, identify emerging trends, and make the case for legislative solutions to housing instability in New Jersey.

“Most of the people our outreach teams meet were tenants before they were unhoused. Eviction is one of the clearest upstream signals we have, but by the time someone reaches our outreach teams, the window for prevention has long since closed,” said Michael Callahan, Chief Operating Officer of Bridges Outreach and former Director of DCA’s Office of Homelessness Prevention. “Building the data infrastructure to see that pipeline clearly is what turns prevention from an aspiration into something we can target, measure, and resource.”

“High-quality eviction data is critical for understanding how housing instability affects communities and for developing effective policy responses,” said Peter Hepburn, Rutgers University-Newark Associate Professor and Eviction Lab research collaborator. “This initiative positions New Jersey to become a leader in using data to drive effective eviction prevention strategies and should yield the first reliable study on evictions statewide.”

Eviction Data Response Network is a national initiative of the Future of Land and Housing program at New America. From 2026 to 2028, New Jersey will join Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Indiana, Maryland, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Washington state in building pipelines of reliable, comprehensive eviction data and developing data-driven policies and programs that keep families stably housed. The cohort represents a diverse mix of geographies, political leadership, and housing markets, highlighting a growing national consensus that data is an indispensable tool in the fight for housing stability.

Bridges Outreach’s mission is to end homelessness through street outreach and intensive case management focused on health, housing, and independence, meeting people where they are and staying with them until they reach lasting stability. Bridges helps people experiencing homelessness obtain identity documents, enroll in benefits, and secure permanent housing with the goal of making homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring.

The Eviction Lab’s mission is to measure and end the eviction crisis in America by producing data, research, and tools that communities need to understand eviction as a public health and housing justice issue. Based at Princeton University, the Eviction Lab built the first-ever national database of eviction records, compiling data on tens of millions of court cases filed across the United States.

The Office of Eviction Prevention oversees programs and services focused on eviction prevention and diversion in New Jersey, including rental arrears assistance programs, social services support, and expanding access to legal counsel for low-income tenants facing or threatened with eviction.

DCA offers a wide range of programs and services, including affordable housing production, building safety, community planning and development, local government management and finances, fire safety, disaster recovery and mitigation, historic preservation, and information privacy.

For more information about DCA, visit https://nj.gov/dca/ or follow the Department on social media.