Connecting the Dots
Section 8 managers are finding that mapping technology gives
them a leg up in their deconcentration efforts.
BY DAVID HOICKA
T
he Housing Authority Although mapping technology is Providing housing opportunity
of New Orleans still fairly cutting edge for most Deconcentrating assisted house-
(HANO) was looking LHAs, many agencies like HANO holds has been part of the housing
for ways to retool its are singing the praises of using provider's mission right from the
Section 8 Housing such technology in their deconcen- start with "the Housing and
Choice Voucher program, and show tration efforts. Maps can show that Community Development Act
that it provided low-income fami- voucher deconcentration efforts of 1974. There has, however,
lies the chance to rent in different are working, help managers target been debate over the best use of
parts of the city, not just the poorer certain areas for landlord out- extremely limited housing program
sections. As one of the highest reach/participation, assist agencies resources, particularly whether
urban poverty areas in the nation in public relations efforts, and funneling significant monies
over the past decade-with poverty more. Data can be tracked accord- toward deconcentration efforts is
rates that varied between 26.8 per- ing to Census tracts;' zip codes, an efficient use of these limited
cent and 37.9 percent-this was a ~-Wards, minority concentrations, resources.
challenge, to say the least. And, and more. Still, deconcentration remains a
as an agency under HUD adminis- liThe most important thing HUD and LHA priority. Housing
trative receivership, the pressure mapping has helped us do is plan- agencies have worked not only to
was on. which includes for deconcentration ensure vouchers are being used, but
The agency dug deep, putting and landlord outreach," says that families are being given the
into place many initiatives, which Jennifer O'Neil, Deputy Director opportunity to really choose where
included reaching out to landlords, of Intake & Special Programs for they want to live. Two Section Eight
stepping up public and community CHAC, Inc., a subsidiary of Quadel Management Assessment Program
relations, hiring new Section 8 man- Consulting, Inc. that partners with (SEMAP) indicators look at the
agerial staff, and more. The agency Chicago Housing Authority to man- extent of deconcentration and
then made the results of their age its Section 8 voucher program. efforts made to expand housing
efforts evident-visually. A map- "In a city this large, without being opportunity.
ping program, implemented at a able to visualize the areas, it is Deconcentration also has been a
minimal cost, graphically showed difficult to draw the line in terms . hot-button topic during congression-
the agency's successful deconcen- of poverty rate, race, crime, school al appropriations. Congress has crit-
tration of its voucher families stats, etc. Mapping helps us do icized the Section 8 Housing Choice
across the city. this." Voucher program for not providing
liThe mapping showed us we CHAC manages 32,000 Section 8 real choice to voucher holders, but
were on the right track," said vouchers and is part of CHA's pub- instead concentrating them in high-
HANO Section 8 Director Selarstean lic housing demolition/ redevelop- er-poverty areas. Appropriators
M. Mitchell. ment efforts that have resulted in have used this argument to make
the relocation of public housing cuts to the program; two years ago
tenants around the city, using Congress appropriated 79,000
David Hoicka is HANO's Section 8 manager. Section 8 vouchers. vouchers, which then was whittled
November/December 2002 35
down to 26,000 the following year, problems, large-size families, ing up your data, not the mapping,"
and was further cut this year with employment, and discrimination. says Bina Panchal, CHAC's senior
15,000 proposed for fiscal year Despite these obstacles and the management analyst who puts
2003. complexity of deconcentration, together maps quarterly for the
At the same time, though, decon- LHAs and Section 8 managers are Section 8 program. "One thing we
centration has proven a complex finding innovative ways to more had to do is put into place a quality
and precarious goal for housing efficiently run their programs, with control process that continuously
agencies. Market conditions affect deconcentration as a major objec- cleaned up our data."
voucher success rates, which are tive. Mapping is one such tool. CHAC has such a person who,
part and parcel of successful decon- every two weeks to every month,
centration efforts. HUD's recent Cleaning up data goes through the list of contracts.
report entitled, "Study on Section The key to mapping is first, under- Once the data is "clean," current,
8 Voucher Success Rates in standing your own data, say agen- and in place, agencies can conduct
Metropolitan Areas-Vol. I," found cies that are implementing such analysis. Cuyahoga, although it is
that success rates were lower in technology. Where are your con- partnering with Cleveland State to
tight housing markets than in loos- tracts? What is the rental market sit- produce the maps, still conducts
er markets. Previous studies have uation in your jurisdiction? statistical analysis in-house. One of
also suggested that the existence of "Digesting your own contract the necessary "links" that spurred
Section 8 submarkets-made up of data and being able to look at it in such data tracking and analysis is
landlords who are familiar with the the context of community demo- the need for a rent determination
program and willing to lease to graphics ...Do those two things and process that reflected all the various
Section 8 holders-are largely in you've come a long way," says submarkets in an agency's jurisdic-
poverty-concentrated neighbor- Bruce Melville, supervisor of- tion as well as at the census tract
hoods. Standards and Performance for the ~ level, Melville says.
Other obstacles to successful Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing ~"It is important that we know the
deconcentration include financial Authority in Cleveland. , market well enough to be able to
barriers such as credit checks, Cuyahoga, since 1995, has been . match, whenever possible, unassist-
transportation costs, security "seriously specifying" census tracts ed rentals so that we can approve
deposits, the amount of search for each of its contracts. The contracts and stay within the rent
time provided, familiarity with agency does periodic downloads of burden limits in deconcentrated
neighborhoods, special needs or voucher unit addresses and census areas."
disabilities, participants' personal tracts, correlating that with the Although they are taking their
poverty rate of each census tract. data to the next level by visually
The agency is now partnering with interpreting it, the data and analysis
a local university, Cleveland State, the agency has already undertaken
AT-A-GLANCE to generate maps based on its over the past seven years has
* Although still cutting edge, map- address file. helped them see the big picture.
ping technology helps LHAs visually The agency has a letter that "Our partners are the families
track the success of its deconcentra- specifies the terms of the data shar- we assist, the landlords that we
tion efforts. ing with the university. This letter have contracts with and, of
* The key to mapping: Understand ensures the anonymity of the course, HUD," says Melville. "In a
your own data. Where are your agency's tenants. larger sense, though, our commu-
contracts? What is the rental market "Wemake sure that the files the nity is our partner too. To be good
situation? university is geocoding don't have partners with other public officials
* Many LHAs code by zip code or client names-just addresses and in our community, we need to
census tract, noting that census data such. We assure that level of confi- first, have a handle on our own
is downloadable for free off the U.S. dentiality." data. We need to be able to talk
Bureau Web site. Others drill down In Chicago, CHAC, Inc. has had about it in the context of the larg-
to the street level. in-house mapping capabilities for er market and community demo-
* In the future, mapping will be the past year. But, like Cuyahoga, graphics."
used in Web-based applications and the group's management points to Cleveland State has one map
shared with planning departments or data concerns as the first step in already completed for the LHA,
community development agencies. the mapping process. which the agency used in a recent
"The most difficult thing is clean- landlord workshop to visualize where
36 Journal of Housing & Community Development
the agency's contracts were. The transportation centers, and more.
agency plans to make further use of Deconcentration also has After making these key deci-
their data and accompanying maps. sions, housing agencies can then
"We expect to use [the maps] to been a hot-button topic take the data they've been storing
help train ourselves and expand our and use it in a variety of ways.
capacity to do our own analysis,"
during congressional For HANO, one use was to show
Melville says. appropriations. Congress has the relationship of poverty rate
to Section 8 units by plotting the
Pu tting maps to 'work criticized the Section 8 Housing number of Section 8 units 'per
There are seemingly endless ways Choice Voucher program for census tract.
for LHAs to use maps. They can be "The result demonstrated that
used to monitor the percentage of not providing real choice our deconcentration program was
Section 8 voucher holders' rent bur- succeeding," says Mitchell. "There
den; show the proportion of owners to voucher holders, but instead was no high concentration of
to renters in the region and the dis- concentrating them in Section 8 units in high-poverty
tribution of affordable rental hous- areas. In fact, the map visually
ing; illustrate the relationship higher-poverty areas. showed that the number of Section
between fair market rents and LHA 8 units in high-poverty areas paral-
payment standards to housing costs lels the number of Section 8 units
in the unsubsidized market; aids in decide which way to most feasibly in lower-poverty areas."
landlord outreach efforts and mobil- geocode [program] data-by zip Cuyahoga plans to use maps to
ity initiatives to encourage program code, census tract, or community maintain that delicate concentra-
participation in areas of less con- area. tion/ deconcentration balance.
centrations; demonstrate how "If a housing authority isn't con- "lt is important to analyze the
income, racial, and ethnic distribu- cerned about details, the cheaper market to know what share of the
tions of the population are related option is to go with the zip code or total rental market, at the tract level,
to the distribution of subsidized census tract [level],"Panchal says. is under Section 8 contract," Melville
housing; point out employment ~ "For us, that has been quite suffi- says. "We need to know if we are
opportunities and public transporta- cient. We haven't had to go down to creating new, unintended concentra-
tion available to lower-income ~the address level." Census data is tions of assisted households."
households in the region; and assist downloadable for free off the U.S.
in public relations efforts for the Census Bureau Web site. Reaching out
program. Going by zip codes to show what One way agencies are using maps
Questions to consider are demo- suburban neighborhoods Section 8 is as a management tool to target
graphic trends in a locality, differ- clients are residing in would probably certain areas for landlord outreach.
ences in trends according to suffice for small agencies, she adds. The Chicago Housing Authority
sub-area, how vouchers utilization For the Housing Authority of and CHAC have a mobility / decon-
has been affected by these trends, Alameda County, though, more centration goal that focuses on not
and if community residents think detail was necessary. only economic desegregation, but
that voucher participation is affect- "We are mapping down to the racial desegregation as well. One
ing these trends. Agencies need to street level," says Ophelia Basgal, map has been useful to its mobility
figure out what they want these the housing agency's executive counselors by showing areas where
maps to do for them, says Panchal director. "The more units you have, people can move that are below 24
of CHAC. Although CHAC has had the more likely that the census ~percent poverty as well as below 30
in-house mapping capabilities for level becomes an undifferentiated percent African American (CHAC
only the past year-and-a-half, it has blob of dots unless you print it on a and CHA criteria).
been outsourcing them since it huge scale." "We look at both factors so when
started managing CHA's Section 8 The agency has partnered with counselors look at this map, they
program in 1995. the Alameda County Planning will be able to say, 'These areas are
When it first decided to bring Department to produce the maps. where I want to recruit units and
mapping capabilities in-house, the The department has the census target landlord outreach efforts,"
Section 8 management company data, streets, and equipment neces- Panchal says.
had to figure out what mapping sary to produce large-scale maps, On the other end, maps can
program to use. Then it had to which will include area schools, also be used to educate families
November/December 2002 37
that LHAs are serving. The really looking for more ways to use
Housing Authority of Alameda the technology as a management
County currently conducts tool to better serve low-income
briefings for its Section 8 families families. As noted, agencies are
that are "like a chamber of com- already using maps to show where
merce thing." The agency plans they should target deconcentration
to take this one step further with efforts, make their staff more
maps. knowledgeable about local trends
"Youcan put maps up at the and demographics, and more. The
briefing so everyone can see where uses for maps go beyond these
schools are, where the employment efforts, though.
is," Basgal says. "This will be helpful CHAC now produces maps quar-
in educating families as they are terly, providing them to CHA as
choosing where to live." well. The housing agency is think-
Maps also have had a hand in ing of using maps as a way to man-
helping LHAs reach out to their age how counseling agencies assist
communities, as a whole. LHAs public housing families relocating
have used maps in public relations with Section 8 vouchers.
efforts to show the actual voucher The agency also plans to use
numbers in different neighborhoods. maps in the future to link Section
"The flipside to deconcentration 8 families to employers, transporta-
efforts is that success can mean tion and schools; show areas where
reaction or criticism from commu- there have been lead-based paint
nities that feel. they are getting ~ ~ issues; and as part of a possible
overwhelmed with Section 8," new initiative to set up satellite
Melville says. "Now, when an offi- offices to better serve its clients .
cial of some suburban area, maybe . The maps would show where the
a councilman, complains that LHA's clients are and what the
some particular neighborhood is best places would be to set up
all Section 8, we can go to our data these offices.
and say, 'That simply isn't so.'"~ Other LHAs, like Alameda, are
On the flipside, the data can be partnering with planning depart-
used to show the benefits of the ments or community development
Housing Choice Voucher program agencies. And, the next step could
and the resources it brings to com- be Web-based applications.
munities. Section 8 vouchers can "I heard a community was using
be a form of stabilizing rent rev- Web-based mapping that measured
enues and tax receipts for that. Section 8 units against health data.
community. They were looking for community-
"Youcan show where your funds based initiatives," Basgal says.
are going," Panchal says. "Youcan Although there are endless
show where people are moving and opportunities for the future, there is
what communities are getting an no doubt that LHAs are already see-
influx of money. Basically, you can ing the benefits of current mapping
say, 'We are giving so-and-so technology in their Section 8 vouch-
amount to your community: which er programs.
is a good way to put a different light "Instead of being just a percent-
on the information." age or a number on a piece of
paper, mapping adds a geographic
Not a re dimension that makes our database
Although mapping Section 8 con- more useful," Panchal says.
tracts is a useful tool to show that "Housing authorities are realizing
an agency has deconcentrated its that you can do so much more with
Section 8 program units, LHAs are your data." ~
38 Journal of Housing & Community Development