Lesson 6: Combating Homelessness

Lesson 6: Combating Homelessness

Lesson 6 Introduction and Action List

Introduction

This lesson will focus on working with health and human services data. At the completion of this lesson, you will be able to:

  1. Download data from a government source,
  2. Merge several layers together,
  3. Perform table manipulations, and
  4. Create presentation-quality maps.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) allocates HUD homeless assistance grants to organizations that participate in local homeless assistance program planning networks. Each of these networks is called a Continuum of Care (CoC). CoC committees at the city, county and state level coordinate their efforts to identify the needs and the resources available to local homeless populations and try to fill identified gaps. HUD requires that CoCs conduct an annual count of the homeless persons on a single night in January and is called the Point-in-Time (PIT) count. You will be working with both CoC and PIT data available for download at the HUD Exchange [1].

Problem

A local veterans’ group in Santa Cruz, California is looking to secure funding from a variety of state, federal, and private sources that will allow them to provide additional emergency shelter services to the growing population of homeless veterans in their county. The group would like several maps that can help to communicate in a clear and concise manner that 1) the total number of people experiencing homelessness is increasing and 2) the number of veterans experiencing homelessness is increasing. The maps will be included in the business plan and used as public education and marketing materials.

Important Keywords

Make sure you are familiar with these key terms that can be found throughout this lesson and course.

  • Open data
  • Merge tool
  • Catalog pane
  • Point-in-time (PIT) data
  • Continuum of Care (CoC) data

Action list

Lesson 6 will take one week to complete. Specific directions for the assignments below can be found within this lesson. Here’s what you need to do to complete the lesson successfully:

  1. Read the Lesson 6 Concept Gallery content.
  2. Work through the Lesson 6 exercises.

Any Questions?

If you have any questions now or at any point during this lesson, please feel free to post them to help-from-instructors or arcgis-pro-assignment-questions channels in Slack.

Lesson 6 Concept Gallery / Background Reading

Lesson 6 Readings

Article(s)

Additional background reading

Additional training (optional)

Lesson 6: Additional Concepts

Open Data

What is Open Data?

Open data is the idea that data is accessible to all and can be used/re-used or redistributed by anyone freely. Data becomes accessible to users by becoming available online and becomes usable by being made in common understandable format. The intention behind the initiative is for citizens, governments, and businesses to utilize open data to generate social, economic, and environmental benefits for society through innovation. One of the most important forms of open data for GIS users is the “open government data”. The “open government data” initiative is meant to promote citizen empowerment by making government data available to all, thereby promoting transparency and accountability.

The concept of open data was initially defined and discussed by a group of the thought leaders who met in 2007. On his first day in office in 2009, President Barack Obama signed the Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government [6] which gave the open data initiative a jump start. The memorandum states, “Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.”

Additional information about the evolution of open data:

GIS Data Sources:

Global
Natural Earth Data [9]
Esri Open Data [10]

Federal
Home of the US Government open resources [11]
Data USA public US Government data [12]
USGS Earth Explorer [13]
NASA Socioeconomic Data [14]

Lesson 6 Activity, Part I: Download and Prepare the Data

This exercise guides you through Part I of this week’s exercise.

Post comments and requests for help in the Slack space. Please include illustrative screen captures with requests for help.

A. Download Lesson Data

Download the Lesson 6 data (Lesson6.zip [15]) and unzip them in your course folder.

B. Acquire Data

We will visit the HUD EXCHANGE and acquire data for the project.

  1. Go to Continuum of Care GIS Tools [16] 
  2. Scroll down to locate the 2022 CoC GIS Shapefiles – California CoCs and click on the link to download the data to your Lesson 6 course folder [See Figure 6.1]

    Figure 6.1 2021 CoC GIS Shapefiles – California CoCs on HUD EXCHANGE.
  3. Browse to your Lesson6 folder and unzip file you just downloaded – CoC_GIS_State_Shapefile_CA_2022. There are a total of 44 HUD CoC designations within the California folder. Each subfolder corresponds to a CoC number and holds a shapefile representing geographic boundaries for CoC designated areas.
C. Add the Data to a New Project and Merge the Data
  1. Launch ArcGIS Pro.
  2. Create a new blank project called GEOG483_Lesson6 in your Lesson6 folder. Uncheck Create a new folder for this project.
  3. Click New Map.
  4. Right-click on Map icon Map in the Contents pane and select Properties. Change the Name of the map to Total Homeless.
  5. Click the Coordinate Systems tab and scroll down to choose Projected coordinate system > UTM > WGS 1984 > Northern Hemisphere > WGS 1984 UTM Zone 10N. Click OK.
  6. Click the Insert tab and select the Add Folder tool.
  7. In the Add Folder Connection dialog navigate to your Lesson6 data folder and click OK.
  8. Click the View tab and click Catalog pane.
  9. In the Catalog pane, expand Folders > Lesson6 > California.
  10. Add the CA_500.shp, CA_501.shp, CA_502.shp, CA_506.shp, CA_508.shp, CA_512.shp files by expanding each subfolder and then dragging the layer from the Catalog pane and dropping it onto the Map. You can select and drag-drop more than one shapefile by holding down the Ctrl key on the keyboard. The Watsonville/Santa Cruz City & County CoC is CA_508. [See Figure 6.2]

    Screenshot of the catalog pane as described in the text above.

    Figure 6.2 Add multiple shapefiles from the Catalog pane.
  11. Click the Analysis tab. In the Tools section of the ribbon (not the Tools in the Geoprocessing section), scroll down to find the Merge tool and click it (you may have to scroll down to see the tool). [See Figure 6.3]

    Screenshot of the merge tool in the tools section ribbon.

    Figure 6.3 Merge tool.
    ArcGIS Pro Help

Find out more about the merge tool in ArcGIS from the ArcGIS Pro Help. From the Project tab, select Help. Click the Search and type “Merge”. Click GO. Visit the help topic Merge-Data Management toolbox | ArcGIS Desktop.
  12. Merge the six CA CoC shapefiles and save the output to your Lesson6 folder as CA_CoC_Merge.shp. Browse to each of the shapefiles using the browse folder to the right of the input datasets rows to add them to the the Merge tool. Each dataset should have a .shp at the end. Click Run. [See Figure 6.4]

    Screenshot of the Geoprocessing window with six CA CoC shapefiles.

    Figure 6.4 Merge the six California CoC shapefiles.
D. Save your Project

That’s it for Part I!

You have just completed Part I of this lesson, in which you downloaded some data and merged several data layers. In Part II, you will work with the HUD Point-in-Time (PIT) table data.

Lesson 6 Activity, Part II: Organize and Symbolize the Data

This exercise guides you through Part II of this week’s exercise.

Post comments and requests for help in the Slack space. Please include illustrative screen captures with requests for help.

A. Add a .csv Table and Create Multiple Layers
  1. Open your Lesson6 project if it isn’t already open.
  2. Click the Map tab and click Add Data and browse to your Lesson 6 folder.
  3. Add the CA_Counties layer and the HUD_PIT_2018to2020.csv table.The HUD_PIT_2018to2020.csv file contains (PIT) Point-in-Time data for each CoC in California from 2018 through 2020 and was pulled from data published by the US Housing and Urban development department and downloaded from the HUD Exchange site. The source of this data is https://www.hudexchange.info/resource/3031/pit-and-hic-data-since-2007/ [17]. The data can be downloaded as Excel (.xlsx) files. Select California CoC data for years 2020, 2019, and 2018 were copied to a single spreadsheet (HUD_PIT_2018to2020) and saved as a .csv file.
  4. Be sure that the CA_CoC_Merge layer is drawing on top of the CA_Counties layer. Change the draw order of the Contents pane if necessary.
  5. Join the HUD_PIT_2018to2020 table to the CA_CoC_Merge layer based on the CoC Number (COCNUM and CoC_Number attribute fields).
  6. Open the CA_CoC_Merge table and browse through the table.We are now going to map the total count of homeless for 2020 (Total 2020) and the percent change in total homeless from 2018 to 2020 (Change_2018_2020) using the merged CA CoC layer data.
  7. Make a copy of the CA_CoC_Merge layer by right-clicking on the layer in the Contents pane and selecting Copy. Now, right-click on the map Map icon Total Homeless in the Contents pane and select Paste.
  8. Change the name of the first CA_CoC_Merge layer listed in the Contents to 2020 Homeless Count.
  9. Change the name of the second CA_CoC_Merge layer listed in the Contents pane to Percent Change 2018-2020.
B. Symbolize Layers
  1. Right click the 2020 Homeless Count layer in the Contents pane and select Symbology.
  2. In the Symbology pane choose Proportional Symbols and designate the Field as Total2020.
  3. The Minimum size should be 4. Change the Maximum size to 20.
  4. Change the symbology of the Percent Change 2018_2020 layer. Choose Graduated Colors and designate the Field as Change_2018_2020. Change Method to Quantile and make sure Classes is set to 5. [See Figure 6.5]

    2019 homeless population count change from 2017 to 2019.

    Figure 6.5 Map showing the 2020 Homeless Count as proportional symbols and the Percent Change of Homeless Population from 2018 to 2020 as graduated colors.
C. Save your Project

That’s it for Part II of Lesson 6. You added and joined a .csv table containing the HUD PIT data to your project, you created a copy of the CoC merged layer, and you symbolized the total count of homeless in 2020 layer using proportional symbols and the percent change of homeless from 2018 to 2020 layer using graduated colors.

Lesson 6 Activity, Part III: Mapping the Results

This exercise guides you through Part III of this week’s exercise.

Post comments and requests for help in the Slack space. Please include illustrative screen captures with requests for help.

Remember that after Lesson 5, we want to see map presentations that look a bit more polished by adding things like labels and creating finished layouts. Look back at Lesson 5 Part IV for more details – if needed.

A. Label the County Features
  1. Open your Lesson6 project if it isn’t already open.
  2. Right-click the CA_Counties layer in the Contents pane and click Label. Take a look at your map. Are there any problems with the label placement?
  3. If so, right click the CA_Counties layer in the Contents pane again and select Labeling Properties. Remember that the Label Properties allow users to adjust things like the label Fitting Strategy or setting the Conflict Resolution options (like removing duplicate labels).
B. Add a Layout
  1. Click the Insert tab and choose New Layout. Pick a size.
  2. With the Insert tab selected, choose Map Frame and click Total Homeless.
  3. From the Insert tab select Text to add a title.
  4. Insert other map elements such as a Scale Bar or North Arrow or Text, such as author or source information or a Rectangle as a neatline.
  5. Don’t forget to insert a Legend
  6. Also, practice adding an overview map.
C. Save the Project
Try This!

In this lesson, you created maps using total homeless Point-in-Time Continuum of Care counts acquired from HUD. Now, you will create maps using the homeless Point-in-Time CoC data focusing on data that is Veteran specific.

  1. Insert a New Map frame. Add the merged California CoC shapefile (CA_CoC_Merge.shp) and the HUD Point-in-Time data (HUD_PIT_2018to2020.csv) file to a new map.
  2. Create layers similar to those in the lesson but symbolize the total count of Veterans experiencing homelessness in 2020 and the percent change of Veterans experiencing homelessness from 2018 to 2020. Hint: The Veterans2020 field is the total count of homeless veterans and the VetChange_2018_2020 holds the Veteran percent change from 2018 to 2020
  3. Add the map to a layout for presentation.

That’s it for Part III…and Lesson 6!

 

Links

[1] https://www.hudexchange.info/
[2]https://www.researchgate.net/publication/359043723_The_application_of_GIS_in_homelessness_research_and_service_delivery_A_qualitative_systematic_review
[3] https://www.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/index.html?appid=120547183c32429f896fbdc880ee8712
[4] https://opendatawatch.com/publications/open-data-for-official-statistics-history-principles-and-implentation/
[5] https://learn.arcgis.com/en/projects/help-end-homelessness/
[6] https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/transparency-and-open-government
[7] http://www.govtech.com/data/Open-Data-Evolution-From-Increasing-Transparency-to-Engaging-Citizens.html
[8] https://www.govloop.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Open-Data-Pocket-Guide.pdf
[9] http://www.naturalearthdata.com
[10] http://hub.arcgis.com/pages/open-data
[11] http://Data.gov
[12] http://Datausa.io
[13] http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/
[14] http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/
[15] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog483/sites/www.e-education.psu.edu.geog483/files/file/newerlessonfiles/new20220914/Lesson6.zip
[16] https://www.hudexchange.info/programs/coc/gis-tools/
[17] https://www.hudexchange.info/resource/3031/pit-and-hic-data-since-2007/