Homelessness analytics initiative—a web-based community planning tool for preventing and ending homelessness

This presentation will describe the development, implementation and key features of the Homelessness Analytics Initiative (HAI), which is a web-based community planning tool set to be launched in early 2013 and developed through a collaboration between the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Through the use of a map-based interface, the HAI is intended to provide users with access to national, state, and local information about homelessness among the general population, homelessness among veterans, risk and protective factors for homelessness, services and resources. The aim of the HAI is to empower communities, organizations and individuals with critical information on trends in homelessness, factors related to homelessness, and services in place to prevent and intervene in situations of homelessness. Additionally, the HAI will enable the VA and HUD, to plan and allocate resources, and effectively coordinate efforts to address homelessness, by linking and leveraging data held by these two federal partners, and by creating links with other national-, state-, and community-level data sources. The presentation will demonstrate the key tools included in the HAI and describe how it can be used as an effective resource for achieving the key goals that have been outlined both by the VA, and in Opening Doors, the Federal strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness.