I plan to expand it later to allow a more accurate display of where you can live at cost of living rates. For now I'm done and it only has the two most basic things - housing and food.
I made this to try and show my homeless clients that they have more options out there rather than relying on government subsidized housing. No, I don't want to ship all poor people to poorer places.
The code is unnecessarily bloated and lazy and a bit slow. Programmers please don't harangue me. The code is cleaned up now. Rent values are from HUD's Fair Market Rent values.
The default value is the average income of my homeless veterans receiving income that isn't from employment or unemployment.
Great stuff! - I'm glad to hear you're working on other cost of living items. You may also consider adding a bedroom - A LOT of poor people I work with need a 3 bedroom place because they have kids of different gender and at a certain age, Section 8 makes them have separate rooms. You may also consider adding the ability for multiple people in the food category. Just some thoughts. This really is quite cool.
You're right, I might as well add the other bedrooms (data from HUD goes up to 4 bedrooms) and food to include families. I had intended this for my single, no-family, disabled elderly guys, but I may as well go the full 9. Thanks for the suggestions.
whoa… I missed this the first time I read your post: That's amazing. Keep up the good work.I made this to try and show my homeless clients that they have more options out there rather than relying on government subsidized housing. No, I don't want to ship all poor people to poorer places.
I'm having a hard time actually generating the map. I hit "update" and it doesn't do anything. Does it work on all platforms? Really neat idea.
Chrome. Seems to work on Firefox, though. Weird. Okay, here's my two cents: 1) I agree w/ bfv. Even though lower-income individuals generally spend more than 30% on rent, they ought to be spending less than 100% on rent, which means that the map should populate with numbers that are some percentage of income. Say, 50%? Which means you wouldn't have to account for food spending, as that and any other potential necessary and as-yet unaccounted for cost (e.g. transportation, basic health, child support) would be reflected in the remaining percentage of income. That would also cut down on a lot of unnecessary coding/widgets, maybe? 2) It's extremely interesting for academic purposes, but for practical purposes it would have to be a lot more localized. If somebody can't afford much more than minimal housing cost, it's gotta be pretty frustrating to look at a map and see that you could afford to live at your current income level... across the country. Unfortunately, this would make your job a lot more difficult. You mentioned that you'll eventually work on a zoom function, which is difficult enough. But besides that, if you're dealing with cost on a local level rather than national averages, wouldn't you then have to take into account relative income? For instance, housing might be really cheap in Shohomish County, WA compared to your income in Washington County, OR, but that decrease in housing price might come with a corresponding and compensatory decrease in income. In which case it might be better to map by some sort of relative income index rather than static housing prices- something that shows how much bang you could get for your buck here rather than there. Which isn't to rip into what you did, because it's incredibly neat. Out of curiosity, what do you do for a living?
My first question would be to ask how much money they want left over at the end of the month, after all expenditures. Most of the clients I had in mind when starting this don't need or want much more than cable TV, money for cigarettes, and food. They are accustomed to living way beneath their means and as a result have developed living habits that people who value frugality might consider admirable. It would probably work out to displaying a rent price of around 50-70% of their total income. I probably would never show this to someone who makes less than $1000/mo, since that individual is better fit for subsidized housing programs. It's also worth noting that the Fair Market Rent values include the price of basic utilities. For most of my clients, the income they receive is pretty static -- that is, Social Security, Social Security Disability, Military Service Connected Disability, Non-Service Military Disability (possibly with Aid & Attendance). These forms of compensation don't change with location. Depending on their physical disabilities, they may also be eligible for more income with state programs as well (IHSS/PAS/HCBS) so long as there isn't a conflict with annual income ceilings or other types of benefits they already receive. Receiving these forms of income generally comes with some level of health insurance, so they'd be fine on that front as well. The welfare system is incredibly complex. Although the mean I calculated for their income was $879.53 from their benefits, I included people who receive no benefits at all. A lot of these guys make $1300-$1600/mo which isn't affordable in metropolitan areas, but is fine in plenty of other places. I'm a case manager for homeless veterans with a non-profit. Thanks for the feedback!Even though lower-income individuals generally spend more than 30% on rent, they ought to be spending less than 100% on rent, which means that the map should populate with numbers that are some percentage of income. Say, 50%? Which means you wouldn't have to account for food spending, as that and any other potential necessary and as-yet unaccounted for cost (e.g. transportation, basic health, child support) would be reflected in the remaining percentage of income.
For instance, housing might be really cheap in Shohomish County, WA compared to your income in Washington County, OR, but that decrease in housing price might come with a corresponding and compensatory decrease in income.
Out of curiosity, what do you do for a living?
I got nothing then, this is neat. Great line of work. I work as a field assistant for a private case management agency- love this job. Don't know if I could do the full case manager thing, though- my boss is basically on the job 24/7...
Awesome, glad to have another semi-social worker here. I'm also on it 24/7. It sucks, but there's never a dull moment. I get calls or knocks on my door (I live on the transitional housing property I manage -- there's 4 houses on it) at 10:00 pm or later because ... somebody is snoring too loud, or someone turned the TV off. Or someone was arrested for running around belligerent in traffic and attempted to carjack someone. My patience has gone up exponentially since starting.
As has your sense of humor, I'm sure. Good luck.
Might you want to show areas with rents less than 30% of monthly income, rather than total monthly income? It would be nice to either make the map zoomable or scale it to fit the browser window. Finding a particular county in states with small counties takes some dexterity. What's up with the black blobs on the southeast of Alaska?
Ideally, yes. The map reflected with monthly income is kind of disingenuous. I debated changing the "Monthly Income" text to just "Rent" until I finished adding other cost of living stuff, and showing how much would be left over at the end of the month. But, most people within the poverty range will nearly always pay more than 30% for housing and I know a lot of people above the poverty line who pay more than 30% as well. For most of those below with no possible upward mobility, Section 8/HUD-VASH is the way to go. I definitely want to add zoom. I plan on putting it in, but I don't plan on working on this again for a few weeks. I think the black blobs are places with no data.