Gavin Rozzi: New Jersey State Government Work
Director, Data Center Administration at the NJ Department of Community Affairs since 2024, running the in-house team behind the state's affordable housing data tools
Director, Data Center Administration
New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, DHCR Data Center
Gavin Rozzi is the founding Director of the DHCR Data Center at the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (NJ DCA). In this role, he leads an in-house civic technology team that builds modern, resident-first digital experiences for affordable housing programs.
Key Responsibilities
- Building React and TypeScript applications for government programs
- Leading digital transformation for affordable housing services
- Implementing real-time data sharing across 564 municipalities
- Developing data infrastructure and analytics capabilities
- Modernizing legacy workflows and systems
Awards & Recognition
NAHRO National Award of Excellence
National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials
2026
Accepted on behalf of NJ DCA. NJHOMES
NAHRO National Award of Merit
National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials
2026
Accepted on behalf of NJ DCA. NJHOMES
NAHRO National Award of Merit
National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials
2026
Accepted on behalf of NJ DCA. The NJ Eviction Guide, built with DCA's Office of Eviction Prevention
NAHRO National Award of Merit
National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials
2026
Accepted on behalf of NJ DCA. The Homelessness Economic Risk Framework (HERF) AI model
Governor's Team of Excellence Award
New Jersey Civil Service Commission
2025
Team award. A4-S50 affordable housing implementation team
First Place, NJ DEP GIS Mapmaking Contest
New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
2022
3D category, 34th annual contest; Honorable Mention, Best Cartographic Design
State Government Projects
NJHOMES Atlas
Statewide map of roughly 42,000 municipally owned vacant parcels, built from State property records so CDBG grantees can publish the vacant land inventory federal law now requires of them, at no cost.
2026Operation Right Answer: Housing Services Modernization
A Certified Public Manager capstone project: consolidating thirteen siloed phone queues in New Jersey's largest housing division with one purpose-built contact center and a service scorecard that measures what residents experience.
2026NJHOMES Choice Tool
Interactive planning tool implementing A4/S50 affordable housing calculations for all 564 municipalities, now extended by the NJHOMES Atlas statewide vacant land inventory.
2025Winter Termination Program Digital Transformation
Digital transformation of New Jersey's utility shutoff protection self-certification process, replacing a manual PDF with an accessible electronic form.
2025NJ Eviction Guide
Interactive self-help tool connecting New Jersey's most vulnerable residents directly to housing assistance and legal resources.
2025Bringing Veterans Home Digital Infrastructure
Statewide digital infrastructure supporting New Jersey's initiative to end veteran homelessness: data systems, electronic referrals, and public website development.
2024Municipal Lead Reporting Portal
Statewide compliance platform capturing residential lead-paint inspection data for all 564 New Jersey municipalities.
2024Independent New Jersey projects, in a personal capacity
Built outside the State role and not affiliated with NJ DCA.
NJ Civil Service Navigator
Web platform making 6,740+ NJ Civil Service job specifications searchable and accessible for job seekers, HR professionals, and hiring managers.
2025New Jersey Opioid Overdose Spatial Analysis
Grant-funded spatial analysis identifying opioid overdose hotspots across New Jersey using state administrative data and advanced geospatial methods, conducted as a Research Affiliate at Rutgers.
2022New Jersey Population Density Map
Award-winning 3D visualization of New Jersey population density using rayshader, winning First Place in the 3D category at the NJ DEP GIS Mapmaking Contest.
2022njgeo
An R package for geocoding addresses using New Jersey's official geocoding service, freely available as an alternative to commercial solutions.
2021njtr1
An R package that makes it easy to download and analyze New Jersey motor vehicle crash data for transportation research and safety analysis.
2021TrentonTracker
A modern Progressive Web App making New Jersey legislative data accessible and searchable, with ZIP code-based legislator lookup.
2020NJ Narcan Dashboard
An interactive dashboard tracking opioid overdose interventions across New Jersey through law enforcement Narcan deployment data.
2020New Jersey Expertise
Government Digital Transformation
Building modern government services with React, TypeScript, and cloud infrastructure for state agencies.
OPRA & Public Records
Working knowledge of New Jersey's Open Public Records Act from building and running a statewide request platform, 2017 to 2024.
NJ Geographic Data
Creator of njgeo (NJ geocoding API client) and njtr1 (NJ crash data, now in maintenance mode), both published on CRAN.
Affordable Housing Programs
Technology lead for the housing programs' data tools, available to all 564 municipalities.
New Jersey Career Timeline
Accepted four NAHRO national awards on behalf of NJ DCA
National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials. For NJHOMES, the NJ Eviction Guide and the HERF AI model.
Launched a statewide map of municipally owned vacant land
NJHOMES Atlas. Built into NJHOMES Choice so CDBG recipients can publish the vacant land inventory the federal 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act requires. Announced by DCA on October 2, 2026.
Certified Public Manager (CPM)
NJ Civil Service Commission, delivered by Rutgers SPAA. Capstone: Operation Right Answer, the DHCR contact-center and service-scorecard program.
New Jersey reaches Functional Zero for veteran homelessness
Bringing Veterans Home. Covered nationally by Route Fifty in August 2026.
New Jersey state team member
New America, Eviction Data Response Network. New Jersey was one of 11 states selected for the network.
Governor's Team of Excellence Award (A4-S50 implementation team)
New Jersey Civil Service Commission. For A4-S50 affordable housing implementation, the work behind the NJHOMES Choice Tool. Covered by Shore News Network.
Director, Data Center Administration
New Jersey Department of Community Affairs. Founding director of the DHCR Data Center. Built the in-house civic technology team that delivered the NJ Eviction Guide, Bringing Veterans Home, the NJHOMES planning tools and NJHOMES Atlas.
Member, Board of Directors
New Jersey Foundation for Open Government
First Place, 3D category, 34th annual NJ DEP GIS Mapmaking Contest
New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Winning entry: a 3D population density map of New Jersey.
Lecturer, Master of Public Informatics
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School. Designed and taught the graduate data visualization course.
M.S., Data Science and Strategic Analytics
Stockton University
Research Affiliate
Rutgers Bloustein School (New Jersey State Policy Lab). Spatial risk modeling of opioid overdose vulnerability, presented at Bloustein Research Day 2022.
Graduate Research Assistant
William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy, Stockton University. Co-authored the Hughes Center study of New Jersey's underground construction economy.
B.A., Political Science
Stockton University
Founder
OPRAmachine. Built and ran New Jersey's first statewide public records request platform, 2017 to 2024. No longer operates it.
New Jersey Media & Speaking
- Four NAHRO National Awards for NJ DCA
- DCA Introduces No-Cost Tool to Help Municipalities Map Vacant Land
- Turning Vacant Land into Opportunity: NJHOMES Atlas Webinar
- New Jersey reaches its goal to eliminate veteran homelessness
- NJ Selected for the National Eviction Data Response Network
- Episode 2: Data for Action
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Gavin Rozzi's role in New Jersey state government?
Gavin Rozzi is Director, Data Center Administration at the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (NJ DCA), where he runs the DHCR Data Center. He leads an in-house civic technology team that builds digital services for affordable housing programs. He has worked in New Jersey state government since 2024.
What has Gavin Rozzi worked on at NJ DCA?
His work at NJ DCA has included publicly launched digital services: the NJ Eviction Guide, a self-help tool for tenants facing eviction; Bringing Veterans Home, the data infrastructure supporting the state's veteran homelessness initiative; the NJHOMES Choice Tool, which supports municipalities in implementing their affordable housing obligations; and NJHOMES Atlas, a statewide map of roughly 42,000 municipally owned vacant parcels launched in 2026. The underlying work has involved building React and TypeScript applications, implementing real-time data sharing with New Jersey's 564 municipalities, and modernizing legacy data infrastructure. He received the Governor's Team of Excellence Award in 2025 as a member of the A4-S50 affordable housing implementation team.
What New Jersey civic tech projects has Gavin Rozzi created?
Outside of his State role, Gavin Rozzi founded OPRAmachine, a statewide freedom of information platform that processed over 75,000 public records requests between 2017 and 2024. He stepped down in 2024 and no longer operates it. He also created njgeo, a client for the New Jersey geocoding API, and njtr1, a package for analyzing New Jersey crash data that is now in maintenance mode. Both are published on CRAN.