1. Mapping Opportunity
for Advocacy and Social Justice
CRP 608- Winter Quarter, 2011
January 18, 2011
Jason Reece
Senior Research Associate
reece.35@osu.edu
Matthew Martin
Research Associate
martin.1227@osu.edu
Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity
The Ohio State University

2. • Use of mapping in our work
• Opportunity mapping:
• Assumptions
• Methodology
• Examples
• Applications and Impact
Overview
2

3.  Racial and social inequities are often manifested
spatially
 Local issues tend to have a regional scope and
variation e.g. school performance, housing
vacancy
◦ Maps are naturally the best tools to display this spatial
phenomena
◦ Maps give us the opportunity to look at our entire regions or
states
 Informing people about an issue at a scale they may not usually
think of
 linking communities sharing similar problems
Space and Social Equity
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4. Columbus Neighborhoods: 2006 Foreclosures
Maps are incredibly
efficient
 compacting volumes of
data
 ability to convey
information in seconds
 tell a story or solve a
problem
 Provide spatial reference
 Shared sense of value
 Builds mutual trust
Why use maps?
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5.  Emphasis on how systems work to produce inequity
◦ How do multiple issues interact to either depress or uplift certain
populations or communities?
◦ What can we do to “strategically intervene” and improve
outcomes for marginalized communities
 Extensive use of GIS/mapping in our work
◦ Inequity has a geographic footprint
◦ Leverage points sometimes geographic in scope
◦ Maps powerful for tools for
 Research
 Designing policy/programming
 Communicating research/issues to the public and other
stakeholders
About Our Work
5

6.  In
our work we see mapping as
serving these primary advocacy goals
◦ Analysis
 Existing conditions, spatial trends, scenarios,
optimization etc.
◦ Storytelling
 A narrative
◦ Legal Evidence
 Liability, disparate impact
 Remedy
Using Maps for Advocacy
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7.  Are hospital investments benefiting
communities of color? (Columbus)
 Are job growth areas connected to transit?
(Baltimore)
 Is the distribution of subsidized housing
units affirmatively furthering fair housing?
(Baltimore)
Analytical Examples
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8. Franklin County, OH Health Investment
Disparity
Hospital
Investments
and African
American
neighborhoods
Columbus
Health Equity
Research
8

9. Recent Job Growth 98-02 and Public Transit
in the Baltimore Region
Job Growth & Public
Transit in Baltimore
Percent Change
in Jobs
Job Loss
0- 5
5 - 15
Spatial
Mismatch
15 - 30
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30 - 66.6

10.  Foreclosures in African American
neighborhoods are due to subprime lending
patterns (Cleveland)
 What if Montclair, NJ schools returned to
neighborhood school system?
 Were Stimulus investments made in
communities that were most impacted by the
recession (Florida)?
 Affordable housing is scarce in areas with
access to quality education and employment
opportunities.
 How have historic redlining practices affected
today’s opportunity landscape (Portland)?
Narratives Examples
10

11. Cleveland MSA Subprime Loans: 2005
Maps: Produced and adapted from Charles Bromley, SAGES Presidential Fellow, Case Western
University
Race and Subprime Lending
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12. Cleveland MSA
Foreclosures: 2006
Maps: Produced and adapted from
Charles Bromley, SAGES Presidential
Fellow, Case Western University
Race and Foreclosure

13. Montclair School District, NJ

14. Opportunity &
Recovery
14

15. Historic Redlining
Practices and
Access to
Opportunity in
2010
Redlining & Opportunity

16.  Research tool to
◦ understand the dynamics of “opportunity” within
metropolitan areas
◦ illustrate where opportunity rich communities exist
(and assess who has access to these communities)
◦ understand what needs to be remedied in opportunity
poor communities
 Based on Kirwan Institute’s “Communities of
Opportunity” framework
Opportunity Mapping:
Combining Analysis with a Strong Narrative
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17.  Everyone should have fair access to the
critical opportunity structures needed to
succeed in life.
 Low Opportunity neighborhoods limit the
development of human capital.
 A Community of Opportunity approach can
develop pathways that result in increased
social and economic health, benefiting
everyone.
The Communities of Opportunity Approach
17

18. Communities of Opportunity Primer
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19.  “Opportunity” is a situation or condition that places individuals
in a position to be more likely to succeed or excel.
 Opportunity structures are critical to opening pathways to
success:
◦ High-quality education
◦ Healthy and safe environment
◦ Stable housing
◦ Sustainable employment
◦ Political empowerment
◦ Outlets for wealth-building
◦ Positive social networks
Opportunity Matters:
Space, Place, and Life Outcomes
19

20. 20
Space and Opportunity

21. Redlining maps (Hartford, CT)
21

22. Some people ride the “Up” Others have to run up the
escalator to reach “Down” escalator to get
opportunity. there. 22

23.  The Communities of Opportunity framework is inherently
spatial
◦ Inequality has a geographic footprint
◦ Maps can visually track the history and presence of discriminatory and
exclusionary policies that spatially segregate people
◦ Identifying places with gaps in opportunity can help direct future
investment and identify structures which impede access to opportunity
 The model uses state-of-the-art GIS and extensive data
sets to analyze the distribution of opportunity in our
metro regions
Mapping Opportunity:
Why and How
23

24. Opportunity Mapping Model
 A refined model to depict spatial pattern of
opportunity
◦ Identifying indicators as proxy for opportunity
◦ Supported by social science literature
◦ Data easily available
◦ Index based approach compresses multi-factors to an index
 Model is a good communications tool to work
with communities
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25. The Geography of Opportunity
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26.  How do you map opportunity?
◦ Data representing community conditions is gathered for
neighborhood (census tracts) across the state or region
 Aggregated to the Census Tract level
 Analyzed to create a comprehensive opportunity index for the region
◦ The opportunity index is then mapped and census tracts are broken
into quintiles based on their opportunity score
 Very Low, Low, Moderate, High, Very High
Mapping Communities of Opportunity:
Methods and Indicators
26

27. Massachusetts Opportunity Mapping,
Boston area

28. 28

29. Opportunity Analysis
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30. Redlining: 1937 to 2009
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31. African American men are
isolated from
neighborhoods of
opportunity in Detroit
Detroit Opportunity and Race
31

32. Low opportunity
neighborhoods have
higher number of
linguistically
isolated households
Austin Opportunity
and Linguistic
Isolation
32

33. Applications
33

34. Building A Fair Florida
A Study of Opportunity and Recovery
Pre-Conference Workshop
March 11, 2010

35.  What does Florida’s opportunity landscape look
like?
 What communities in Florida have been impacted
the most by the recession?
 What’s happening with the resources from The
Recovery Act (ARRA)?
 Are jobs being created in Florida’s hard-hit
communities?
 What’s being done about the housing crisis?
Recession and Recovery

36.  Phase 1: A call for transparency, tracking,
and accountability (September 2009)
 Phase 2: Analysis of the opportunity
landscape and the effects of the recession
(October 2009)
 Phase 3: A study of ARRA contract
procurement and job creation (January 2010)
 Phase 4: Reviewing the neighborhood
stabilization program and the Federal
response to the housing crisis (May 2010)
Build A Fair Florida

37.  A study of the opportunity status of
key regions in Florida
◦ Miami
◦ Tampa
◦ Orlando
◦ Jacksonville
 Preparatory analysis for ARRA
resource allocation research and
advocacy efforts
◦ What places and have the greatest
need for investment?
◦ What people and have the greatest
need for investment?
◦ What elements of success need the
most investment?
 Education, Housing,
Transportation, Employment, Phase 2 Report
etc.?
Opportunity Mapping

38.  Education
◦ Math & Reading Scores
◦ Graduation Rates
◦ Student Poverty
◦ Teacher Qualifications
◦ Educational Attainment
 Economics & Mobility
◦ Jobs & Job Change
◦ % on Public Assistance
◦ Unemployment Rates
◦ Mean Commute Time
◦ Business Vacancy Rates
 Housing &
Neighborhoods
◦ Home Ownership Rates
◦ Residential Vacancy Rates
◦ Median Home Values
◦ Poverty Rates
◦ Proximity to Hazardous Sites
Mapping Opportunity

39.  Economics & Mobility
 Education
 Housing & Neighborhoods
 Comprehensive
Layers of Opportunity

40. Visualizing the Opportunity Model

41. Miami
Jacksonville
Opportunity & Subsidized Housing

42. Jacksonville
Orlando
Opportunity & Foreclosure

43. Tampa-St. Petersburg
Opportunity & Race Orlando

44. Low Opportunity and Race
Race and Low Opportunity

45. Percentage of Subprime Loans per Opportunity Area by Region
Housing and Low Opportunity

46.  Assuring a Fair and Equitable Recovery
◦ Data Collection, Tracking, and Transparency
◦ Targeted, Equitable Reinvestment for Hard-Hit Communities
◦ Assuring Jobs Reach Those in Greatest Need
 Creating Pathways to Opportunity
◦ Community of Opportunity Model: Opening the “Levers” of
Opportunity
◦ People, Places, and Linkages
 Equitable and Sustainable Fiscal and Economic Policy
◦ Reforming the State Tax Structure
◦ High Road Economic Development: Not a continuation of policies
that encourage unsustainable growth and low-wage job creation
Phase 2 Conclusions

47.  Measuring the Employment
Impact of ARRA
◦ Who has been most impacted by rising
unemployment?
◦ Is ARRA creating jobs in hard-hit
communities?
◦ What industries or programs are
experiencing success?
 Is ARRA Contract
Procurement Equitable?
◦ Are minority-owned firms receiving
Federal and State contracts?
◦ Are procurement goals being met?
Phase 3 Report
ARRA Jobs & Contracting

48. Change in Florida Unemployment Rate by Race
Race and Unemployment

49. Florida 2009 Employment by Month
 Marginal Overall Impact
 Saved Over 20,000
Education Jobs
 Transportation Projects
Maintain Employment
Status Quo
 Potential Weatherization
Job Growth
Jobless Recovery?

50. Miami
Tampa-St. Petersburg
ARRA Investment & Jobs

51. Share of Federal Contracts by Type of FDOT Projects: DBE Participation by District
Firm
FDOT ARRA Construction Projects
ARRA Contract Procurement

52. Opportunity & ARRA Projects

53.  Improve Tracking of ARRA Spending
◦ Track recipients of jobs created with ARRA funding by demographics
and job quality
◦ Require reporting by all sub-contractors down to end-user
◦ Report the percent of state and local transportation contracts that go
to Black, Latino, and Women-owned enterprises
 Increase Small & Minority Business Participation
◦ Unbundle large contracts for small businesses
◦ Set specific DBE participation goals for the construction industry,
and actively recruit African American-owned businesses into this
sector
 Ensure That Disadvantaged Communities Get Jobs
◦ Use first source hiring to make sure local communities get jobs
◦ Require recipients of ARRA funding to use apprentices or on-the-job
trainees
◦ Utilize bonding to increase employment opportunities for ex-
offenders
Phase 3 Conclusions

54.  Are Federal programs helping to alleviate
Florida’s housing crisis?
 How are NSP funds being used to alleviate
Florida’s housing crisis?
 Is NSP helping to stabilize Florida’s rental
housing markets?
 Is NSP helping to create jobs in Florida’s hard-
hit communities?
Phase 4 Research

55. Impact
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56.  Opportunity mapping in the Baltimore region
was conducted as part of the Thompson v.
HUD fair housing litigation
◦ Plaintiffs used opportunity mapping to frame their
remedial proposal, in response to a liability ruling that
found the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development in violation of the Fair Housing Act
◦ The plaintiffs have proposed establishing 7,000
affordable housing units in the region’s high-
opportunity communities, available to volunteers who
wish to relocate out of the City of Baltimore’s public
housing
Thompson v. HUD

57.  Fair housing Litigation in Baltimore
◦ brought on behalf of 14,000 African-American
residents of public housing
◦ in response to history of racial segregation of public
housing
◦ Represented by Maryland ACLU and NAACP Legal
Defense Fund
 US District Court of Maryland, Judge Marvin
Garbis
◦ Began in 1995…judge issued liability ruling in 2005
 found HUD liable for violating the federal Fair Housing Act
Thompson v. HUD
57

58.  Use of 14 indicators of
neighborhood opportunity to
designate high and low
opportunity neighborhoods in the
Baltimore region
 Indicators of Opportunity (General)
◦ Neighborhood Quality/Health
 Poverty, Crime, Vacancy, Property
Values, Population Trends
◦ Economic Opportunity
 Proximity to Jobs and Job Changes,
Public Transit
◦ Educational Opportunity
 School Poverty, School Test Scores,
Teacher Qualifications
Opportunity Mapping in Baltimore
58

59.  Subsidized housing
opportunities in Baltimore
are generally clustered in
the region’s lowest
opportunity
neighborhoods
 Subsidized housing as a
way of connecting people
to opportunity
Opportunity and Housing
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60.  Outside of the litigation, the opportunity maps have
been used in a variety of ways
◦ Program evaluation and planning
 Monitoring partial consent decree program
◦ Identifying Opportunities/Challenges
 Assessing opportunities/challenges related to the foreclosure crisis
◦ Regional housing advocacy
 Baltimore Regional Housing Coalition
◦ Research
 Tracking outcomes for families who move to high opportunity areas
(John Hopkins)
Impacts
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61.  Background on this project
◦ Originated from effort to incorporate
mapping analysis into legal services
 Partners
◦ Massachusetts Law Reform Institute,
MA Legal Assistance Corp
(foundation) and other Legal Services
Entities
◦ Year long process of meeting with
stakeholders to understand mapping
needs and issues
◦ Training with service providers &
agencies (using mapping for
programming)
MA Legal Services and Opportunity
Communities
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62.  Three areas of
opportunity were
analyzed using
GIS mapping
capability:
◦ Education Quality and
Opportunity
◦ Economic Health and
Transportation
◦ Neighborhood
Stability and Health
Mapping Communities of Opportunity:
Methods and Indicators
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63.  Program design and use within the legal services
◦ New programming – proposed “Adopt A Zip Code” program
◦ Use in exploring client concerns/challenges
◦ Use in litigation (National Consumer Law Center)
◦ Internal use by funder (MLAC)
 Direct advocacy
◦ State opportunity impact assessment (proposed)
◦ Dissemination among state agencies
 State level program design (public sector)
◦ New $5 million state affordable housing program, targeted to
high opportunity communities
◦ Implementation still unfolding
Impact
63

64. 64

65.  National Opportunity Mapping
 Web-based Opportunity mapping
Work in progress

66. Orlando: Florida Opportunity Context Orlando: National Opportunity Context
Comparison

67.  Online interactive maps
◦ ArcGIS Server
 Baltimore Foreclosures
(http://www.kirwaninstitute.org/connect/baltimore.html)
◦ Open source
 Austin Opportunity Mapping
(http://www.gis.osu.edu/webgis-projects/opportunity/index.html)
Web-based mapping

68.  What is this information/approach useful for?
◦ Diagnostics and targeted investments
◦ Identifying areas of opportunity and challenges
 Opportunities
◦ Opportunities for investment
 Targeting services better, targeting programs
 Challenges
◦ E.g. Foreclosure patterns
◦ Looking at broader policy issues and concern
◦ Communications – using maps to illustrate areas of concern,
areas of opportunity, broader community discussions
Concluding Thoughts

69. Thank you!
For questions, comments or for more information:
www.kirwaninstitute.org
or e-mail us at reece.35@osu.edu or martin.1227@osu.edu
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