Informatica Case Studies Leveraging IoT to Combat Homelessness: A Case Study on Community Technology Alliance

	Leveraging IoT to Combat Homelessness: A Case Study on Community Technology Alliance Informatica

Leveraging IoT to Combat Homelessness: A Case Study on Community Technology Alliance

Informatica

Technology Category	Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Storage Services
Applicable Industries	Cities & Municipalities Telecommunications
Applicable Functions	Quality Assurance
Use Cases	Intelligent Packaging Onsite Human Safety Management
Services	Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services System Integration
Challenge	The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) reports over half a million homeless people on the streets in the United States on any given night. The Community Technology Alliance (CTA) has been working since 1991 to collect data on homelessness and match individuals to available housing and services. However, as CTA's mission evolved, it faced the challenge of enabling housing providers and human services agencies to exchange data, eliminating the need for clients to contact multiple organizations or provide their information multiple times. CTA also aimed to help communities comply with the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act of 2009, which requires a coordinated or centralized assessment and placement system to prioritize access to housing and services. Compliance is demonstrated using an Annual Performance Review (APR) that community agencies submit to HUD. Communities that don’t comply risk losing their homeless assistance grants. Read More
About Customer	The Community Technology Alliance (CTA) is a nonprofit organization that has been at the forefront of the homelessness crisis since 1991. It works with counties and communities, aiding them in their efforts to end homelessness. By collecting and analyzing data, CTA has made it easier for thousands of people to find housing and services to improve their situation. As CTA’s mission evolved, it needed a way to allow housing providers and human services agencies to exchange data so their clients wouldn’t have to contact multiple organizations or provide their information multiple times. CTA also wanted to help communities comply with the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act of 2009. Read More
Customer Name	Community Technology Alliance Read More
Solution	CTA developed the Homeless Outreach Mobile Engagement (HOME) app, which gives human services workers access to demographic data while allowing them to record contacts with vulnerable clients in need of housing and stabilization services. To establish a single source of truth, CTA used Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services to integrate data from HOME and other systems. This solution feeds a data lake on AWS to give communities and agencies a trusted, always accessible source for analytics and reporting. The Informatica solution also integrates directly with Tableau for easy visualizations. With seamless data and application integration, CTA is giving communities a platform to develop data-driven solutions to address poverty and homelessness. Through coordinated entry, communities can offer faster client access to housing and services while making sure that each client is properly screened for eligibility. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Storage Services

Applicable Industries

Cities & Municipalities

Telecommunications

Applicable Functions

Quality Assurance

Use Cases

Intelligent Packaging

Onsite Human Safety Management

Services

Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services

System Integration

Challenge

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) reports over half a million homeless people on the streets in the United States on any given night. The Community Technology Alliance (CTA) has been working since 1991 to collect data on homelessness and match individuals to available housing and services. However, as CTA's mission evolved, it faced the challenge of enabling housing providers and human services agencies to exchange data, eliminating the need for clients to contact multiple organizations or provide their information multiple times. CTA also aimed to help communities comply with the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act of 2009, which requires a coordinated or centralized assessment and placement system to prioritize access to housing and services. Compliance is demonstrated using an Annual Performance Review (APR) that community agencies submit to HUD. Communities that don’t comply risk losing their homeless assistance grants.

About Customer

The Community Technology Alliance (CTA) is a nonprofit organization that has been at the forefront of the homelessness crisis since 1991. It works with counties and communities, aiding them in their efforts to end homelessness. By collecting and analyzing data, CTA has made it easier for thousands of people to find housing and services to improve their situation. As CTA’s mission evolved, it needed a way to allow housing providers and human services agencies to exchange data so their clients wouldn’t have to contact multiple organizations or provide their information multiple times. CTA also wanted to help communities comply with the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act of 2009.

Customer Name

Community Technology Alliance

Solution

CTA developed the Homeless Outreach Mobile Engagement (HOME) app, which gives human services workers access to demographic data while allowing them to record contacts with vulnerable clients in need of housing and stabilization services. To establish a single source of truth, CTA used Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services to integrate data from HOME and other systems. This solution feeds a data lake on AWS to give communities and agencies a trusted, always accessible source for analytics and reporting. The Informatica solution also integrates directly with Tableau for easy visualizations. With seamless data and application integration, CTA is giving communities a platform to develop data-driven solutions to address poverty and homelessness. Through coordinated entry, communities can offer faster client access to housing and services while making sure that each client is properly screened for eligibility.

Impact #1	With the implementation of the Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services, CTA has been able to provide a robust reporting platform for communities to understand what’s working and what’s not working to reduce homelessness and poverty. The solution has also simplified HEARTH compliance, helping communities qualify for HUD homeless assistance grants. The data-driven approach has allowed communities to offer social services to people who might otherwise slip through cracks in the system. Through coordinated entry, communities can offer faster client access to housing and services while making sure that each client is properly screened for eligibility. The solution has also helped in reducing the returned to homelessness metric, which measures if people are cycling in and out of homelessness.

Impact #1

With the implementation of the Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services, CTA has been able to provide a robust reporting platform for communities to understand what’s working and what’s not working to reduce homelessness and poverty. The solution has also simplified HEARTH compliance, helping communities qualify for HUD homeless assistance grants. The data-driven approach has allowed communities to offer social services to people who might otherwise slip through cracks in the system. Through coordinated entry, communities can offer faster client access to housing and services while making sure that each client is properly screened for eligibility. The solution has also helped in reducing the returned to homelessness metric, which measures if people are cycling in and out of homelessness.

Benefit #1	Helps communities reduce return to homelessness rates up to 75 percent
Benefit #2	Expedites access to housing and human services through coordinated entry
Benefit #3	Simplifies HEARTH compliance, helping communities qualify for homeless assistance grants

Benefit #1

Helps communities reduce return to homelessness rates up to 75 percent

Benefit #2

Expedites access to housing and human services through coordinated entry

Benefit #3

Simplifies HEARTH compliance, helping communities qualify for homeless assistance grants

Download PDF Version

Overview

Leveraging IoT to Combat Homelessness: A Case Study on Community Technology Alliance

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit