Brief Overall Description of the Dataset:
The Virginia Housing Association’s dataset is collected from a variety of federal level surveys in order to inform and assist with new policy making regarding housing affordability. The data is organized by county level, looking mostly at the median value of renting/owning a 2br apartment. This data is then combined with minimum wage data to show how many jobs would need to be worked or money that would have to be earned in one hour of a 40 hour week in order to afford a 2 br apartment.
Link: http://thevirginiahousingcoalition.org/reports/
Date Inventory Completed: 06/03/2015
Screening
- Is the data collected opinion-based?
- Is the data collection recurring (must be collected at least annually)?
- Is there data available for 2013?
- Is the data collected at the property or housing unit level?
- Can we access the data by August 15th?
Purpose
What is the purpose of the organization collecting the data?
Virginia Housing Coalition provides access to high quality advocacy and public policy information, along with activities that affect housing opportunity for low and moderate-income people across Virginia.
Why is it collected and how does the organization use it?
To help citizens obtain affordable housing and to inform policy-makers what the needs of the people are.
Who else uses the data?
Policy-makers, citizens
Who do they sell the data to?
Policy-makers, citizens
Method
What is the data collection method?
Aimilar to national partner listed here http://nlihc.org/sites/default/files/OOR_Definitions.pdf
What is the type of data collected?
Administrative data
If designed, who created the questions?
What is the raw source of the collected data (prior to any aggregation)?
ACS, HUD’s FY 2015 Fair Market Rents, U.S. Department of Labor, 2013 Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, U.S. Social Security Administration,
Description
What is the general topic of the data (1-2 words)?
Housing affordability
What are the earliest and latest dates for which data is available?
2013-2015
Timeliness
Is data collected and available periodically?
Yearly
How soon after a reference period ends can a data source be prepared and provided?
Unknown
Selectivity
What is the universe (e.g., population) that the data represents?
Minimum wage workers in Virginia renting/owning a 2br apartment
Accessibility
How is the data accessed?
PDFs are available
Is it open data?
Yes
Any legal, regulatory, or administrative restrictions on accessing the data source?
No
Cost? - One time or annual or project based payment? (e.g., $500 for every 5 years of data; Not listed)
No
Does this dataset appear to meet our needs for the Census study? NO
Explanation: While this source provides a lot of insight into the housing needs of the citizens of Virginia, it is an interesting in that it has not only median housing prices for 2br apartments, but also the number of minimum wage jobs needed to work in order to afford a 2br apartment by county. The dataset is a unique combination of many federal surveys, showing just how these resources are used. The biggest concern would be that the data is all by county, and would be hard to use at a local level.