Leveraging IoT to Combat Homelessness: A Case Study on Community Technology Alliance
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
The Customer
Community Technology Alliance
About The 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.
The 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.
The 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.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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