New on PolicyMap for June 2009

Additional Data for use in your NSP Application

• 120% of AMI: PolicyMap now has 120% Area Median Incomes (AMI) for 1 through 8 person families. Find these in the State & Local tab under HUD NSP Datasets Round 2.
• Updated USPS Vacancy Data: 1^st quarter 2009 vacancy data from the US Postal Service is now available on PolicyMap. You can now track both the number and percentage of vacant units each quarter starting with the 1^st quarter of 2008.

In just another day or so, you’ll also be able to access the new “Combined Index Score” that HUD just released as an update to the NSP2 NOFA requirements. This score represents the higher of the two indices currently provided by HUD for each census tract. To quote HUD’s correction:

“HUD is providing two foreclosure related needs scores at the Census Tract level, one that is based on the estimated number and percentage of foreclosures and another that combines estimated foreclosure rate with vacancy rate. Both scores rank need from 1 to 20, with 20 being census tracts with the HUD-estimated greatest need. For each census tract, the higher of the two index scores will be used to compute an average combined index score.”

Look out for an email from PolicyMap when it becomes available.

Remember, you can search the map by address, add an indicator, zoom in or out, and pan around to find your area of interest. Click on a shaded area of the map to see the value for that census tract. Maps can be saved as jpegs to pull right into your application. All of this is a free service of PolicyMap.

Email Analytic Maps: Subscribers can create unique analytic maps and email them to a colleague, whether or not the recipient is a subscriber. The Analytics feature allows you to find neighborhoods that meet up to 3 criteria. You can also save these maps as jpegs for your presentation or reports. Watch our online tutorial to lean more.

Both of these new features are available to subscribers only. Not a subscriber yet? Sign up for our 30-Day Trial to learn more

Non-Profit Locations Nationwide: Find locations of non-profit organizations as defined by the National Center for Charitable Statistics across the nation. This data, provided by the Urban Institute, will be available on the site in the coming weeks.

Updated School Performance Data: We’ve licensed updated school test scores from Great Schools and are loading them in now.

Monthly Unemployment Data: As we continue to try and bring you the most up-to-date information available about communities across the country, we’ve started to load in monthly unemployment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This data will be available by county and state on a monthly basis dating back to 2000 and will be accessible through PolicyMap every month thereafter.