Courtney Morton
Mecklenburg County Community Support Services
There are exciting changes coming to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Housing & Homelessness Dashboard in 2019. This post will highlight what those changes are and how you can stay connected to get the latest updates.
About the Dashboard
In 2017, Mecklenburg County Community Support Services released the Housing & Homelessness Dashboard, which was completed in partnership with the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute. The Housing & Homelessness Dashboard helps the community to use data in order to drive decisions and understand impact. It serves as a one-stop-resource for housing and homelessness information, featuring outputs, outcomes, information on local initiatives, a regular blog offering analysis on local data, and a repository for local research.
During its first year, more than 5,700 unique individuals accessed the Dashboard at least once, with almost 43,000 page views. This includes visitors outside of Charlotte-Mecklenburg and the United States.
What’s new
In 2019, the Housing & Homelessness Dashboard will host new information on housing instability and homelessness as well as new features to help all stakeholders in the community use this data for good. Here are some highlights:
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Ecosystem: This online tool will provide information on “who does what” around housing and homelessness in Mecklenburg County. The ecosystem will include information on the key providers and funders so that anyone can see the overall landscape. It is part of the Housing Instability & Homelessness Report Series that is funded by Mecklenburg County Community Support Services and completed by the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute.
Community Data Snapshots: Data will be shared regularly on the work to end and prevent homelessness including efforts around chronic and veteran homelessness as well as other data on the number of people who are seeking housing assistance in the community.
New Pages, New Look: In addition to adding new information, there will be updates to the format and design of the Housing & Homelessness Dashboard. Existing pages will be expanded and new pages added in an effort to improve the overall presentation and organization of the site. This will help to continue to draw connections across the housing continuum from housing instability to homelessness, in particular.
SO, WHAT
There are four main goals for the Housing & Homelessness Dashboard: to promote awareness and understanding about housing instability, homelessness and affordable housing; to increase data literacy among all stakeholders; to create a one-stop resource for housing instability, homelessness and affordable housing in Charlotte-Mecklenburg; and to strengthen effectiveness and efficiency of the housing and homelessness ecosystem through the use of data and research.
As new information and features are added to the Housing & Homelessness Dashboard, these goals will guide the work. Continued evaluation of how the Housing & Homelessness Dashboard is used, and by whom, will be performed with the help of site analytics and community feedback. This ongoing feedback loop is critical in order to create a tool that is relevant and useful to support the housing and homelessness work in the community.
To sign up for regular updates or to send feedback, please email [email protected].
Courtney Morton coordinates posts on the Building Bridges Blog. Courtney is the Housing & Homelessness Research Coordinator for Mecklenburg County Community Support Services. Courtney’s job is to connect data on housing instability, homelessness and affordable housing with stakeholders in the community so that they can use it to drive policy-making, funding allocation and programmatic change.
