The Clearinghouse has two main functions: to provide housing data, and to build the capacity, or infrastructure, to regularly collect and produce this information.

The Clearinghouse will assemble, produce, and provide easy access to data, primarily on housing supply, from a variety of sources, including the U.S. Census and federal, state and local programs. This data is made available to the public through this website and by other means.

Background
Reliable, comprehensive data informs housing policy and planning decisions at all levels of the housing delivery system: state agencies, local governments, and nonprofit and for-profit organizations throughout the County and state. To meet the affordable housing needs of Miami-Dade County residents, we must first plan appropriately, then regularly measure and evaluate our progress. The foundation of this planning and evaluation is housing data, such as unit production, locations, and housing needs. Over the past several years, the State of Florida Affordable Housing Study Commission has attempted to gauge Florida's progress in this arena with growing, but limited success. More recently, the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners became very interested in the provision of affordable housing, particularly its distribution by area.

While affordable housing data exist, other than from the Census, an extraordinary amount of effort must be spent to collect it from a variety of sources. This is complicated by the fact that different purposes for producing the data have dictated different formats. The inconsistent formats and widely varying sources of these data cause problems when trying to assemble a coherent picture of Miami-Dade's housing situation. In some cases, data are simply unavailable, e.g. structural condition.

Compounding these issues is the problem of duplication. In order to serve lower income households, multiple funding sources are often necessary to produce the housing. Thus, when the various agencies submit reports on "assisted housing," a unit is counted by each funding source causing multiple entries for a single unit. This is a problem associated with federal, state and local programs and even between such programs.

Many entities need reliable housing data. At the local level, builders, developers and nonprofit housing organizations need data to make decisions on where to build housing and who their target households are. Local governments need data for planning purposes and to make funding decisions. State government needs housing data to make funding and program decisions and to evaluate the progress Florida is making on meeting the state's housing needs. Housing advocates also use housing data to monitor program effectiveness and comment on housing policy issues. All of these organizations are constantly searching for data and analysis to bolster competitive funding requests, for budget-preparation and for a variety of planning purposes. Policy makers, such as the Board of County Commissioners and City Commissioners need to have a clear picture of the situation with respect to affordable housing in order to make informed decisions on funding and other matters.

Thus, on July 24, 2001 the Department of Planning and Zoning was directed by the Board of County Commissioners, under Resolution R-870-01, Sect. 3, to develop a fully costed plan for a housing data clearinghouse. The initial purpose of the Clearinghouse is to assemble, produce and provide easy access to data on government-assisted housing supply from a variety of sources that include the U.S. Census and federal, state and locally-funded programs. In order to provide this data in an organized format, a standard methodology was followed, which is described in another section.

For more information, contact the Research Division.