CG Member Feedback:
Comment: Boundary data is under Political and Administrative Boundaries theme, so that would be a third possible place (besides Demographic or Cadastral) to move the Housing theme.
Comment: There are descriptions of program eligible and ineligible areas in USDA and HUD programs that don’t conform to Census boundaries, or exceptions might be made to their Census definitions.
Suggestion: A community development approach may be beneficial to address this issue – look for commonalities.
Comment: FSA has a great deal of technical details they’d like to add to the discussion. This issue isn’t germane solely to housing areas - there are issues defining common parcel data like farm fields.
Comment: There would be a problem with Census being in charge of data theme that puts housing data out for the general public. Census can’t share addresses, even if they maintain it.
Q: Is there a formal process for reexamining
themes?
A: That process would need to be coordinated with
OMB. They’d likely look to us to come up with a proposal to
realign, and definitions. FGDC would likely have to put together
a workgroup or subcommittee to review recommendations, then vet through
FGDC and up to OMB.
The A-16 survey should illuminate themes that need to be addressed. We need to develop a process to address data theme changes before FY 09 to make decisions about funding. Please include your issues in the qualitative survey.
Partner organizations like URISA assume that Federal agencies already take inventory of data themes and everyone is contributing. We need to discuss how it is perceived from the outside. We will see what we get from A-16 data survey and take it from there.
We will look at a process for updating, revising A-16 and what that might entail and then some conversations with HUD and other agencies that are involved in this sort of data production and collection and how we would coordinate with non Fed partners
Q: Where does DHS play into the housing data
themes?
A: HSWG have been considering a series of layers that need
to be maintained for security purposes – this is different than the
A-16 themes. HSWG has been talking about how they will address
data content gaps for HS needs. A guidance subgroup is being
stood up to address those issues. GMO at DHS has a study on
common operating data to identify gaps.
Comment: These activities should be aligned across the board. We need a side by side comparison to ensure we are not duplicating. The A-16 theme and data set stewards should be talking with HSWG. We need sustainable funding algorithms. USGS should have program managers for all the themes they cover. Another big gap is rural America – we need to know what HSIP deals with. Wendy Blake-Coleman is working with Carol Brandt to get location information of rural airports – there is a big gap there as well.