Poster #15 - Constructing the Reality of Housing Construction: How Local Administrators Serve as Data Generators in California Policy

• In Event: Friday Poster Reception

Abstract

California faces a major housing shortage, which has prompted myriad state-level policy initiatives to increase housing production and hold local jurisdictions accountable toward planning for their fair share of California’s housing needs. The Housing Element Annual Progress Report (APR) serves as the primary mechanism for the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) to track housing projects in over 500 jurisdictions across the state. Drawing on a research partnership between the UC Berkeley Possibility Lab and HCD that analyzed local jurisdictions’ processes for preparing the APR, this paper argues that local administrators function not as mere data reporters, but as frontline data generators. Far more than an exercise in reporting existing data on housing construction, the APR is itself an act of construction, requiring local staff to manually synchronize legal and development milestones — such as the formalization of affordability commitments via deed restrictions and the issuance of building permits — which take place at distinct administrative junctures, often under the purview of different departments. This study employs a mixed-methods approach, utilizing survey data from local jurisdiction staff and semi-structured interviews to gain insight into jurisdictions’ data collection, compilation, and verification practices. The findings shed light on the complex and often invisible organizational labor, under varying conditions of governance fragmentation, that is required to create a coherent project record. Moreover, the findings shed light on local administrators’ experiences in performing their role as frontline data generators, underscoring the potential for policy alienation when the purpose of their labor and the uses of its output are unclear. I conclude with a discussion of implications for conceptualizing state capacity, arguing that the effectiveness of state-level mandates is inherently tied to the human and technical infrastructure of data generation. By centering the ‘human face’ of administrative data, this paper offers insights for improving state-local coordination and the integrity of housing policy evidence.

Author

• Laura Calista Brisbane, University of California, Berkeley
  Presenting Author