Panel: Housing, Urban Development, and Displacement – Tim Thomas and Will von Geldern

Posted: 9/25/2025 (CSDE Seminar Series)

When: Friday, October 3, 2025 (12:30 – 1:30PM)

Where: 360 Parrington Hall and on Zoom (register here)

We are looking forward to hosting Dr. Tim Thomas, Chief Research and Data Officer at the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) and professional researcher in the Department of Sociology at UC Berkeley, and Will von Geldern, PhD Candidate, Evans School of Public Policy & Governance, University of Washington, on Friday, October 3, 2025 in Parrington Hall 360 and on Zoom. This seminar is co-sponsored by the Population Health Initiative.

This panel discussion will feature two researchers focused on housing, urban development, and displacement. Dr. Tim Thomas will present on “The Housing Precarity Risk Model: Predicting Displacement and Eviction Risk in a Post-COVID U.S.” Will von Geldern, will present on “Measuring Displacement: Using Mixed Methods to Understand Eviction Outcomes.”

Dr. Tim Thomas (he/they) is the Chief Research and Data Officer at the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) and professional researcher in the Department of Sociology at UC Berkeley. His work focuses on eviction, housing precarity, and urban inequality, blending advanced data science with liberation research to uncover systemic inequities and inform transformative housing policy.

He is the founder of the Eviction Research Network and formerly served as Research Director for UC Berkeley’s Urban Displacement Project. His pioneering methods, including the use of eviction court record text-mining and displacement prediction modeling, have shaped tenant protections, extended the CDC eviction moratorium, and informed policymakers at the local, state, and federal levels including the White House, HUD, and Treasury.

Will von Geldern (he/him) is a PhD candidate at the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance. He uses mixed methods to examine the effects of public policies and legal systems on the health and wellbeing of marginalized communities. His dissertation combines qualitative analysis, data science, and experimental methods to study the barriers that prevent tenants from accessing legal assistance during evictions.