HARNESSING DATA FOR AMERICA’S WHAT COMMUNITIES COUNTS EDITED BY Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco & the Urban Institute HARNESSING DATA FOR AMERICA’S WHAT COMMUNITIES COUNTS EDITED BY Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco & the Urban Institute FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF SAN FRANCISCO 101 Market Street San Francisco, CA 94105 URBAN INSTITUTE 2100 M Street NW Washington, DC 20037 Senior Editors: Naomi Cytron Kathryn L.S. Pettit G. Thomas Kingsley Contributing Editors: David Erickson Ellen S. Seidman Copyright © 2014. Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and Urban Institute. This book may be reproduced in whole or in part provided that it is: 1. For noncommercial, personal, or educational purposes only (i.e., not for private gain), and 2. Appropriately credited to its author or authors, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, and the Urban Institute. The views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, the Federal Reserve System, or the Urban Institute. ISBN 978-0-692-31338-1 Library of Congress Control Number: 2014954968 Printed in the United States of America TABLE OF CONTENTS vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 1 FOREWORD Sarah Rosen Wartell, Urban Institute John C. Williams, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco 1 INTRODUCTION 7 A Roadmap: How to Use this Book 11 Data and Community—Foundation for an Agenda G. Thomas Kingsley and Kathryn L.S. Pettit, Urban Institute TRANSFORMING DATA INTO POLICY-RELEVANT 2 INFORMATION 42 The Future of Community Indicator Systems J. Benjamin Warner, Jacksonville Community Council Inc. 58 The County Health Rankings: “A Treasure Trove of Data” Bridget Catlin, University Of Wisconsin, Madison 75 Making Sense of Markets: Using Data to Guide Reinvestment Strategies Ira Goldstein, The Reinvestment Fund i 88 IN BRIEF — The Low Income Investment Fund’s Social Impact Calculator Nancy O. Andrews and Dan Rinzler, LIIF 94 Health Impact Assessments: Improving Public Health through Community Development Aaron Wernham, The Health Impact Project 3 ENHANCING DATA ACCESS AND TRANSPARENCY 108 Making the Most of Open Data Emily Shaw, Sunlight Foundation 124 The Creation of the National Mortgage Database Robert Avery, Federal Housing Finance Agency Marsha J. Courchane, Charles River Associates Peter Zorn, Freddie Mac 138 IN BRIEF — Applying Technology Advances to Improve Public Access to Mortgage Data Ren Essene and Michael Byrne, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau 148 Three Data Access Trends Shaping the Future of Community Development: Open Data, My Data, and Smart Disclosure Amias Gerety, U.S. Treasury Department Office of Financial Institutions Sophie Raseman, U.S. Treasury Department Office of Consumer Policy 168 IN BRIEF — Can Data From Nonprofit Hospital Tax Returns Improve Community Health? Erik Bakken and David Kindig, University of Wisconsin, Madison ii 176 The Youth Sector: Supporting Cross-Institutional Community Collaboration through Shared Data Rebecca A. London, University of California, Santa Cruz Milbrey Mclaughlin, Stanford University 190 Data Integration for Social Policy: Challenges and Opportunities John Petrila, University of South Florida 206 Affordable Housing as a Platform for Resident Success: Building the Evidence Base Bill Kelly, SAHF Fred Karnas, The Kresge Foundation 220 The Transformative Power of Shared Data Annie Donovan and Rick Jacobus, CoMetrics 238 IN BRIEF — Data Transparency and Standardization Paige Chapel, Aeris (formerly CARS Inc.) 4 STRENGTHENING THE VALIDITY AND USE OF DATA 244 Enhancing Data Quality, Relevance, and Use through Community-Based Participatory Research Meredith Minkler, University of California, Berkeley 260 Using Data to Understand Residential Mobility and Neighborhood Change Claudia J. Coulton, Case Western Reserve University 272 IN BRIEF — Putting Data into Action for Regional Equity in California’s San Joaquin Valley Alex Karner, Arizona State University Jonathan London, University of California, Davis Dana Rowangould, Sustainable Systems Research, LLC Catherine Garoupa White, University of California, Davis iii 278 Shared Measurement: Advancing Evaluation of Community Development Outcomes Maggie Grieve, Success Measures at NeighborWorks America 296 New Ways of Using Data in Federal Place-Based Initiatives: Opportunities to Create a Results Framework and Raise the Visibility of Equity Issues Victor Rubin and Michael McAfee, PolicyLink 318 Everything Old is New Again: Building Nonprofit Capacity in the Age of Big Data Susana Vasquez and Patrick Barry, LISC Chicago 336 IN BRIEF — Enabling and Driving Performance Management in Local Government Cory Fleming and Randall Reid, International City/County Management Association 5 ADOPTING MORE STRATEGIC PRACTICES 342 “Narrative” and “Vehicle”: Using Evidence to Inform Policy Raphael W. Bostic, University of Southern California 356 IN BRIEF — Sustaining Data Culture within Local Government Erika Poethig, Urban Institute 360 Evaluating Social Determinants of Health in Community Development Projects David Fleming, Hilary N. Karasz and Kirsten Wysen, Public Health—Seattle King County 378 Using Data to Drive Change in Complex Community Systems Patricia Bowie and Moira Inkelas, University of California, Los Angeles iv 396 The Role of Data and Measurement in Impact Investing: How Do You Know if You’re Making a Difference? Ian Galloway, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco 408 Strengthening Community Development: A Call for Investment in Information Infrastructure Alaina J. Harkness, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation 6 CONCLUSION 428 What Counts? Naomi Cytron, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book is a joint project of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and the Urban Institute. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation provided the Urban Institute with a grant to cover the costs of staff and research that were essential to this project. We also benefitted from the field-building work on data from Robert Wood Johnson grantees, many of whom are authors in this volume. Our advisory committee also deserves special acknowledgment. Their perspectives, insights, and deep expertise were critical in shaping this volume. Most of all, we are indebted to our authors; their profound commitment to the idea that data has the potential to improve the policies and programs affecting the lives of low-income people and communities is registered on every page of this book. Barbara Ray and her team at Hiredpen, Inc. were more than copy editors. Barbara has been a co-creator of this project and for that we are grateful. The cover art and layout were designed by C&G Partners LLC, who created an important visual theme for this work. Burness Communications was invaluable in helping us think through how to take what can often be a dry subject and make it more accessible to a wider audience. And our colleagues at the Urban Institute and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco provided important encourage- ment and support. This book builds on an earlier one, Investing in What Works for America’s Communities. That book started a national conversation on the next generation of community development and anti-poverty work and we are grateful to the Low Income Investment Fund and their sponsor, the Citi Foundation, for keeping this conversation alive, engaged, and productive. And finally, we want to thank Sarah Wartell, president of the Urban Institute, and John Williams, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of vii San Francisco. Sarah was an early architect and advocate of this project and both Sarah and John provided support and enthusiasm as we brought this project to fruition. Senior Editors Naomi Cytron Senior Research Associate, Community Development Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Kathryn L.S. Pettit Senior Research Associate, Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center Urban Institute G. Thomas Kingsley Senior Fellow, Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center Urban Institute Contributing Editors David Erickson Director, Center for Community Development Investment Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Ellen S. Seidman Senior Fellow Urban Institute viii Advisory Committee Nancy Adler Vice-Chair, Department of Psychiatry and Director, Center for Health and Community University of California, San Francisco Nancy Andrews President and CEO Low Income Investment Fund Patricia Auspos Senior Fellow Aspen Institute Roundtable on Community Change Raphael Bostic Professor and Judith and John Bedrosian Chair in Governance and the Public Enterprise Sol Price School of Public Policy, University of Southern California Audrey Choi CEO, Institute for Sustainable Investing and Managing Director and Head, Global Sustainable Finance Morgan Stanley Claudia Coulton Lillian F. Harris Professor of Urban Research and Social Change Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University Stephen Downs Chief Technology and Information Officer Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Jeff Edmondson Managing Director StriveTogether ix Ingrid Gould Ellen Paulette Goddard Professor of Urban Policy and Planning, Wagner School of Public Service and Director, Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy New York University David Fleming Director and Health Officer Public Health—Seattle & King County Ira Goldstein President of Policy Solutions The Reinvestment Fund Josh Guyer Program Analyst, Office of Economic Resilience U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Alaina Harkness Program Officer, Community and Economic Development