Evaluating a community-based homelessness prevention program: a geographic information system approach

This article introduces and illustrates the application of Geographic Information System (GIS) technology to examine patterns of social services use in community-based interventions. By integrating management information system data from human service agencies and publicly accessible data from the U.S. Census within a spatially-referenced framework, the study illustrates that GIS analysis could help managers and planners of social services to assess the extent to which program implementation reflects adherence to a program concept and identify geographical areas with the greatest unmet service needs. The article demonstrates the application of GIS technology, based on an analysis of a citywide community-based homelessness prevention program in Philadelphia. KEYWORDS. Community-based interventions, homelessness prevention, geographic information system, social service utilization