Chicago Housing Authority Opportunity Area Mapping

About this Project

The Chicago Housing Authority’s (CHA) “Plan for Transformation” is the most comprehensive public housing redevelopment effort in the United States. As part of this project, the CHA needed to identify “opportunity areas” to locate CHA residents with Housing Choice Vouchers.

 

Rather than compiling all possible opportunity area variables into one large data set, our team created an index. The index classified each data variable and geographic dataset into a common scale. These variables are weighted according to CHA direction and processed using ArcGIS Spatial Analyst. Results are then reviewed, and param­eters are adjusted or new are datasets added accordingly. The end result is a map of opportunity areas that best meet the needs of CHA residents.

 

The Opportunity Area Mapping report has impactful implications for Chicago. Families can move from commu­nity areas with high concentrations of poverty to areas with greater community assets and lower poverty rates. The City and region benefit from the increased employ­ment opportunities and earnings of successfully located voucher families through correspondingly higher tax revenues and community stability.