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Titans Thinking Together presents:

The Housing Crisis and Data

Building a Better Information Infrastructure for Orange County

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Titans Thinking Together (T3)* presents the second annual:

 

The Housing Crisis and Data: 
Building a Better Information Infrastructure for Orange County 

October 17, 2025

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A focused working session on data availability, use, and quality concerning housing in Orange County. 

Join us at Cal State Fullerton for the second annual Housing Crisis Symposium, focused this year on the critical role of data in understanding and addressing housing challenges in Orange County. This working event brings together researchers, practitioners, and government officials to share insights, identify data gaps, and develop strategies for improving data collection, access, and coordination. 

ABOUT THE SYMPOSIUM

The Second Annual Housing Crisis Symposium at Cal State Fullerton builds on  last year's focus on the policy environment by turning attention to the role of data in understanding and addressing housing challenges, with a special emphasis on Orange County. This year’s event offers a unique opportunity for researchers, practitioners, and government officials to connect, share insights, and collaborate in working groups focused on data use, access, and needs. Together, we aim to strengthen the region’s information infrastructure to support more effective housing solutions.

*This program is made possible by Titans Thinking Together (T3 ), an initiative of Cal State Fullerton’s Office of Research and Sponsored Programs that aims to promote collaborative research by bringing together faculty expertise around critically important regional, national and global issues. Learn more by visiting the T3 website .

CSUF's Annual 
Housing Crisis Symposiumorange line

October 17, 2025
Friday

10 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Titan Student Union
Pavillion C 

Register for Symposium

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Symposium Structure

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Purpose of the Symposium

The goal is to facilitate working group discussions between practitioners, government officials, and researchers. These conversations will focus on how data is currently being used to understand and address the housing crisis, particularly in Orange County.

Who’s Involved

  • Practitioners include local and county-wide organizations that provide services, maintain internal datasets, access public datasets, and contribute to systems such as HMIS (administered by HUD) and HDIS (administered by California’s Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency).
  • Government officials often manage reporting requirements tied to grants and oversee administrative data collection.
  • Academic researchers typically work with existing data sources and also conduct original data collection for specific research purposes.

Working Group Discussions

Participants from each of these sectors will come together in working groups to share experiences, identify limitations in current data systems, and clarify data needs and access issues. We aim to foster learning across sectors—encouraging Orange County-based participants to share local insights and those from other regions to offer broader context and proven strategies.

Outcomes and Participant Preparation

The ultimate outcome will be a report summarizing key datasets, their availability, and a proposed framework for improving data collection, access, and distribution in Orange County. This improved information infrastructure will help guide better decision-making and service delivery. The transcripts of the session will be reviewed by the core research group (see team below) and a final report will be produced.  The goal of the final report is to publish a research agenda for the county that will make data collection and reporting more systematic and useful.

Participants are asked to prepare a 10-minute presentation on their housing-related data work, highlighting what systems they use, what data they need but lack, and any gaps they’ve encountered. These presentations will kick off each group’s discussion. Afternoon sessions will focus on needs, opportunities, and conclusions. 

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AGENDA

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Registration (9:30 - 10:00 am)

Registration opens promptly at 9:30 am. A continental breakfast will be served from 9:30 to 10:00 am on a first-come-first-served basis.

Opening Remarks (10:00 - 10:30 am)

Overview of T3
Binod Tiwari, PhD
Associate Vice President
Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, Cal State Fullerton

 

Welcome Remarks
Celestina Barbosa-Leiker
Dean, College of Health and Human Development
 

Keynote
Erin DeRycke
Director, Data Analytics
Orange County HMIS

 

Overview of the symposium's goals and agenda
Dr. Jon Brushcke, Professor of Communications
Chair of the Housing Symposium Planning Committee  

Working Group Presentations (10:30 - 12:00 pm)

Participants will convene in assigned working groups, each consisting of eight individuals and a facilitator. Each participant will give a 10-minute presentation on their work with data. Presentations may cover topics such as commonly used data sources, methods of data access and use, data distribution practices, and any challenges related to data availability, quality, or accessibility. The session includes time for discussion following the presentations.

 Lunch (12:00 - 12:45 pm)

Attendees will break for lunch

Working Group Discussions: Data Use and Strategy in Orange County (12:45 - 1:45 pm)

Groups will reconvene to develop an agenda for data collection and use specific to Orange County. Guided by the following questions, participants will explore the current state of data availability and use, identify opportunities for more effective application of existing data, and consider practices from other regions that could inform local efforts. While not all groups need to address every question, each should aim to produce clear observations or recommendations that reflect areas of shared understanding or emerging consensus.

Discussion Questions:

  • What data is currently available and being used productively?
  • What existing data could be used more effectively?
  • Are there practices from other areas that Orange County might emulate?
  • What additional data needs to be collected, or how might data quality and access be improved?
  • How readily available is the pertinent data, and how might data distribution be improved?

Closing Presentations (1:45 - 2:15 pm)

Each group will make a short presentation of their core recommendations and observations, and the conference facilitator will offer closing comments.

Connections (2:15 - 2:45 pm)

There will be an opportunity to meet with people outside your working groups to discuss data. 

Closing Remarks (2:45 pm)

Dr. Jon Brushcke will offer final reflections on the day's discussions, highlight key takeaways from the symposium, and share thoughts on future directions and continued collaboration.

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Panelists and Facilitators

 

 Information coming soon! 

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 T3 FACULTY PLANNING COMMITTEE

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Jon Bruschke

Dr. Jon Bruschke

Jon Bruschke
Professor, Department of Communications
Chair of the Symposium Planning Committee

Dr. Bruschke has over 70 publications and convention papers and was named a CIOS “Leading Scholar” in Debate and in the study of Communication in the Law in 2010. He has over $700,000 in lifetime external funding. His research has been cited in front-page stories in the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, and USA Today. He served as state expert in the State v. Holmes case (Aurora, Colorado theater shooting case) and he appeared in the Emmy-nominated HBO documentary “Resolved.” He has received the Distinguished Service Award (American Forensics Association, 2013), the Lucy Keele Service award (Presented at the National Debate Tournament, 2009) the West coach debate coach of the Year (Ray Buchanan award, presented by Pepperdine University, 2007), and the National Debate Coach of the Year (Glen Pelham award, presented by Wake Forest University, 2004). He has served on numerous committees, including the statewide Academic Senate and campus Senate Executive committee.

Tabashir Nobari

Tabashir Nobari, Ph.D.

Tabashir Nobari
Assistant Professor, Department of Public Health

Tabashir Nobari is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health at California State University, Fullerton. Her longstanding interest is preventing socioeconomic and racial/ethnic health inequities by addressing health equity barriers through social programs and policies. Her research focuses on housing insecurity, homelessness, food insecurity, and federal food assistance programs. She is currently working on a NSF-funded research study to create smart technologies that can improve the health of residents of Permanent Supportive Housing; another research study assessing the basic needs among California college students and the impact of federal and campus programs; and a third study funded by USDA that is assessing the food environment of Minority-Serving Institutions. Dr. Nobari is also the Program Coordinator for the CSUF Master of Public Health program and a Nourish CA board member.

 

 

 

Brittany Eghaneyan

Brittany Eghaneyan, Ph.D.

Brittany Eghaneyan
Assistant Professor, Department of Social Work

Brittany Eghaneyan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Work at California State University, Fullerton. Her research interests include mental health disparities among minoritized populations, integrated health care for mental health and substance use treatment, and culturally and linguistically responsive behavioral health care. She has extensive experience working with interdisciplinary research teams and community partners, including those that serve people experiencing homelessness and housing instability, in the areas of mental health and substance use. Dr. Eghaneyan is also the Project Coordinator for two training grants for graduate social work students including the Integrated Behavioral Health Education and Leadership (B-HEAL) program and the Orange County Behavioral Health MSW Stipend Program.


Anand Panangadan

Dr. Anand Panangadan

Anand Panangadan
Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science

Dr. Anand Panangadan is Associate Professor of Computer Science at CSU Fullerton. He conducts research with undergraduate and graduate students in applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning. He is applying techniques from these fields to problems in homelessness, transportation, and healthcare. He has published over 50 peer-reviewed conference papers and journal articles and holds two US patents on sensor data processing. He is the Principal Investigator on grants from NSF, USDA, Air Force Research Laboratory, and University of California Center on Economic Competitiveness in Transportation (US Department of Transportation and Caltrans). Prior to his appointment at CSUF, he was a Senior Research Associate at University of Southern California, a Post-doctoral Affiliate at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and a Research Specialist at the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

 

Joshua Yang

Department of public health logo

Joshua Yang
Professor, Department of Public Health

Joshua S. Yang received his MPH and Ph.D. in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles with a minor in Sociology. He is a professor in the Department of Public Health at California State University, Fullerton who applies qualitative research methods and social and policy theories to elucidate mechanisms that link environmental and individual factors in public health including tobacco and other substance use, and immigrant and minority health. In addition, Dr. Yang has extensive experience with policy and program evaluation including applied work with community collaboratives, data portals, and tobacco control grantees, and academic evaluation of tobacco control policies such as tobacco free spaces and flavored tobacco sales prohibitions.

 

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ABOUT TITANS THINKING TOGETHER

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Titans Thinking Together (T3) is an initiative of Cal State Fullerton’s Office of Research and Sponsored Programs that aims to promote collaborative research by bringing together faculty expertise around critically important regional, national and global issues.  Capitalizing on the collaborative research already taking place on campus, T3 formalizes a way for participants to find campus partners, and provides guidance and incentives for faculty, researchers and students from different disciplines to generate a cross-pollination of ideas and expertise.

T3 Website

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T3 Homelessness Initiative Faculty Cohort: 

  • Jon Bruschke, Faculty Lead and Professor (Department of Communications)
  • Tabashir Nobari, Faculty Lead and Assistant Professor (Department of Public Health)
  • Brittany Eghaneyan, Assistant Professor (Department of Social Work)
  • Kiran George, Associate Dean of Graduate Programs, Faculty Research and Innovation (College of Engineering and Computer Science) 
  • Anand Panangadan, Associate Professor (Department of Computer Science)
  • Joshua Yang, Professor (Department of Public Health)
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