Federal datasets
Where the underlying data comes from. All free.
- HUD Exchange
Continuum of Care program docs, PIT/HIC reports, NOFO documents, technical assistance.
- HUD User
Annual Homeless Assessment Reports (AHAR), datasets, fair market rents, picture of subsidized households.
- HDX 2.0 Homelessness Data Exchange
CoC submission portal for PIT and HIC data. Login required to submit; public reports accessible.
- Census ACS
American Community Survey 5-year and 1-year estimates. Source for population denominators in homelessness rate calculations.
- Census Bureau Data Tools
Custom queries against decennial census + ACS. Geography-aware.
- BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics
County-level monthly unemployment rates. Useful covariate for homelessness analyses.
- USICH
United States Interagency Council on Homelessness. Federal strategic plan, policy guidance, data summaries.
Research organizations
Whose work is worth reading.
- National Alliance to End Homelessness
Annual State of Homelessness reports. Policy analyses. NAEH dashboards.
- UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative
CoC Data project (used as our population denominator), California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness.
- Urban Institute Housing Research
Housing affordability, eviction, rental assistance research.
- Brookings Institution
Housing policy research and analysis.
- Pew Research
Survey-based research on poverty, housing, and adjacent topics.
- Coalition for the Homeless
NYC-focused but nationally relevant policy research and litigation history.
- National Homelessness Law Center
Legal advocacy. Reports on criminalization of homelessness by state.
Adjacent datasets
For analyses that need more than the federal homelessness numerator.
- Eviction Lab
Princeton eviction filings and judgments by county. Strong covariate for homelessness modeling.
- Zillow Research
Zillow Observed Rent Index (ZORI) by ZIP and metro. Smoothed, seasonally adjusted.
- NeighborhoodScout
Crime and demographic data by neighborhood. Free and paid tiers.
- NIMHD Health Disparities Index
Social determinants of health by county.
Code and tooling
Open source resources for working with this data.
- HUD-CoC-Geography-Crosswalk
Tom Byrne's authoritative crosswalk mapping Census tracts to CoCs. Foundation for any rate calculation.
- UCSF BHHI coc-data
R package: combines PIT counts with ACS-derived covariates at the CoC level. Reproducible.
- tidycensus
R package by Kyle Walker for clean access to ACS data. Best-in-class.
- Eviction Lab data
Direct CSV download of validated eviction data at tract level.
Federal policy and reporting
Where rules and money come from.
- HUD CoC Program Awards
Annual Continuum of Care funding awards by CoC. Used in our drivers analysis.
- HUD ESG (Emergency Solutions Grants)
Short-term shelter and rapid re-housing federal funding stream.
- HUD Housing Choice Vouchers
Section 8 voucher program documentation.
- Federal Register: HUD
Notices, NOFOs, and proposed rules from HUD.
Related sites in our network
Other work by the people behind Gaither Research.
- Gaither Dynamic
Data dashboards for governments and agencies, with deep experience in homeless services. The consulting practice that funds and supports this research.
- CoC Alliance
Initiative supporting Continuum of Care collaboration across communities.