Posted by
Tracey P. Lauriault-2 on
Feb 28, 2006; 6:52pm
URL: http://civicaccess.416.s1.nabble.com/Data-at-Work-Report-Card-on-Homelessness-FCM-QLI-and-CIEH-Maps-tp310.html
*This report card was released yesterday*.
Experiencing Homelessness
Second Report Card on Homelessness in Ottawa Jan-Dec 2005
http://www.endhomelessnessottawa.ca/SecondReportCardonHomelessnessinOttawaJan-Dec2005.cfm
*The data for this report card were derived from*:
/a) Homeless Individuals and Families Information System (HIFIS) - an
electronic records management system built for, and in consultation
with, community stakeholders. It is provided free of charge as a means
to collect information about the population using shelters while
assisting in daily operations such as booking-in and out clients, and
reporting on shelter use
(
http://www.homelessness.gc.ca/hifis/index_e.asp). *Tracey NOTE*: It is
not a great tool but it does collect data at the shelter intake. The
last time i looked data got piped directly to the city and were not
accessible by the shelter itself. The tool does miss those that are
temporarily homeless and are staying at friends, those that were too
intoxicated to use the shelters and refused entry, and those who for
myriad reasons do not use the shelter system (squatters, etc.). Also
not all shelters use the system thus reported numbers are a guesstimate
at best and quite probably an underestimate. The tool was also
contested as many in the community found that it violated the privacy
issues of the homeless and at other times may have counted people
twice. Finally these data are not necessarily available to community
groups with the claim that privacy is an issue, however, privacy related
fields can be removed before the data are released.
/b) Housing: City of Ottawa (National Homelessness Initiative) -
http://ville.ottawa.on.ca/city_services/housing/12_2_en.shtml. *Tracey
NOTE*: the list of services, research and links are quite good, yet we
still have significant homelessness in the city. So we know lots but
build little housing and provide few community development services to
sustain the homeless in housing.
/c) CMHC Rental Market Survey - *Tracey NOTE*: very general & aggregated
data are available from Canada mortgage and housing corporation, more
detailed data are only available for a substantial fee.
/d) Income (and Support Programs): Province of Ontario Website - *Tracey
NOTE*: not enough time in a day for a note about the province's system!
/e) the *data sources and methodology* are well described in this report
which also provides an excellent list of homelessness report cards
across the country -
http://www.endhomelessnessottawa.ca/pdf/Report_Card_Methodology_and_Indicators_for_ATEH_Final.pdf
- see sections 10 - 11
The Alliance to End Homelessness is a pretty amazing organization
and Tim Aubry from Ottawa u's Centre for Research on Community
Services, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ottawa is a
pretty dedicated and amazing guy!
*FCM Quality of Life Indicators*:
I worked the data acquisition, development, presentation and
dissemination of these indicators, and am really happy that the data are
available to you all -
http://www.fcm.ca/english/qol/indicators.html .
We (Acacia Consulting and Research) developed a survey on the topic of
homelessness for FCM QLI participating cities and the data are here -
see :: AAH5 Changing Face of Homelessness
<
http://www.fcm.ca/english/qol/2004IndicatorTables/AAH5_Hmlness_Qolrs.xls>.
The survey used to collect the data was developed with community
developers and city officials across the country and was pre-tested.
You can review a whole whack of related data that you can download in
excel and do as you wish with them.
*Community Information Exchange on Homelessness* - I wished this project
had continued, we (Nathalie Leclerc and i) had collected some awesome
data sets from community groups and the city to make some maps and
develop a set of indicators.
http://www.spcottawa.on.ca/mapping_CurrentProjects.htm#CommunityInformation,
you can view maps here
(
http://www.spcottawa.on.ca/mapping_SocialMaps.htm) Yes i wished we had
the dineros and skill to have made these maps interactive in an open
source program! But hey not bad for a first go!