Predicting homelessness with data: an innovative prevention strategy

0:00county where they were essentially building an algorithm to predict which people were most likely to become homeless >> and then you know the idea was well we can give them a smaller amount of funds than we would if they became homeless and therefore try and try and do that as a as a thing. I think from a technology standpoint it's really interesting. I think from a human standpoint it's maybe a little bit harder because do you want to call someone say hey you're having a you know I think you might be you know it's it's interesting right so like I think I think that level of prevention is clearly everyone talks about it but I I feel like there's not enough effort in trying to identify or the fund or the smaller funds to try and stop it >> you know that was one of the so prior to

0:41joining this team I was still at the county during the pandemic and one of the things we were able to do was that very thing is we could look at um both by neighborhood and both by landlord or based on where the person was living typically like who was u more likely to do mass filings or where evictions were likely being reported from by just a particular zip code. So we although we didn't single out individuals, we did make a conscientious effort to go to that particular complex or that area and just say, "Hey, if you think that you're experiencing any of these things, please reach out because there are resources available." And so I think for all the terrible things that happened during the pandemic, there were a few times that

1:22that crisis allowed us to do some really innovative things. So you are right that was very helpful to be able to do some prevention that was almost in real time versus most of the time we are chasing you know the crisis instead of getting in front of it. So um you are absolutely right. I I dream of the