Market Expansion and Map Analysis for Impact Justice
Ivory Innovations provided pro bono consulting support to Impact Justice as they evaluated expansion opportunities for the Homecoming Project (an Ivory Prize 2021 Policy & Regulatory Reform Winner). Learn more about the Homecoming Project in the video below and read on for how our team helped them evaluate their new market approach.
What The Homecoming Project Team Needed
Each year, Ivory Innovations hires a talented group of Student Associates to support our work with the Ivory Prize and, where skills align, to support past Ivory Prize finalists and winners on pro bono consulting projects. The Homecoming Project team at Impact Justice was evaluating market expansion and our team helped them answer two key questions:
What are the policy landscapes in priority markets they are evaluating for expansion?
How can they focus their team’s time on the highest return recruitment efforts to identify hosts in these new markets?
What We Researched
To answer Question 1, our team provided a policy analysis of the criminal justice systems and post-incarceration housing opportunities in key markets. To answer Question 2, we conducted a mapping analysis exercise to help the Homecoming Project team understand whether publicly-available Census data could help them narrow their neighborhood focus areas as they look to new markets. By starting with an analysis of Alameda County, where the Homecoming Project is operating, we would be able to pair our analysis with the team’s on-the-ground knowledge to ensure that our data models would hold water when applied to new cities where the team has less familiarity.
The Homecoming Project team knew, for example, that hosts are more likely to be racial minorities and homeowners. They also noted the importance of transit-rich areas and jobs in helping formerly incarcerated people in making successful transitions.
What We Learned
You can see the summarized results of our findings below. Taking 7 different neighborhood characteristics into account, the map highlights the specific areas where those characteristics best aligned with the Homecoming Project’s goals of finding willing hosts. These characteristics include the homeownership rate, rental vacancies, racial diversity, nearby transit options, and the prevalence of nearby jobs.
We purposefully used nationally-available data sources for this analysis so that it could be replicated across markets as the Homecoming Project expands.
You can see the full dashboard here
Our team was thrilled to support the Homecoming Project team with this analysis and we look forward to helping other Ivory Prize finalists and winners with similar projects in the future.
By Logan Burton and Jenna Louie