EVIDENCE BASED PLANNING

PUTTING HOUSING NEEDS ASSESSMENTS AND

HEALTH DATA TO WORK FOR YOUR COMMUNITY

Mel Jones, a Research Scientist at the Virginia Center for Housing Research, during an interview, tossed out a data analysis 101 caution. 

She said some public officials might interpret stats that show 30 percent of their community is cost burdened and 20 percent are severely cost burdened – add them together – and state half the community is burdened when it comes to housing costs.

“The extremely cost burdened are also in the cost burdened numbers, so it’s a mistake to add the two together,” she said.

“Numbers are very interesting to people in terms of communicating the problem and bringing some sense of need to do something about it,’ Jones added. 

“But use your intuition and knowledge of your own community.

In small and rural areas, a census tract may take in such a large area that the block level data is not totally reliable.”