H.R. 3988 — To direct the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and the Director of the Bureau of the Census to conduct a study and submit a report about how Federal agencies identify and record cases of housing loss in the United States, and for other purposes.

This section directs the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and the Director of the Bureau of the Census to jointly conduct a study on how federal agencies identify and record cases of housing loss—defined as involuntary displacement from a dwelling unit through formal eviction, informal eviction, mortgage foreclosure, tax foreclosure, or natural disaster—and, within six months of enactment, submit a report to the House Committees on Oversight and Government Reform and Financial Services and the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. The study must consult with the Directors of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Commerce Under Secretary for Economic Affairs; and the report must (1) identify and define types of housing loss experienced by U.S. residents on or after January 1, 2022, and determine the most common types; (2) identify relevant federal data sets and describe their update frequency, data-sharing policies, specificity (individual- or household-level), geographic coverage, and accuracy; (3) recommend improvements such as additional data collection, new data sets, or consolidation; and (4) identify required resources or legislative authorities.