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United Way launches public housing dashboard, outlines countywide coordination work
Summary
United Way of Chatham County told the board the group has built a public housing dashboard and expanded a countywide Chatham Housing Collective to coordinate service providers and track outcomes; county and partners plan monthly data refreshes and further outreach.
United Way of Chatham County on Monday presented a progress report on the county's housing strategic plan and unveiled a newly published housing dashboard intended to aggregate provider data and help guide local policy and funding decisions.
The dashboard and related work are products of the Chatham Housing Collective, a network United Way convenes with county staff and nonprofit partners to coordinate homelessness prevention, street outreach and support services. "We especially prioritize these services for those experiencing moments of homelessness or housing instability," United Way impact manager Daisy Butser told the board.
The dashboard, United Way and county staff said, receives aggregate monthly data from participating service providers, is publicly accessible in English and Spanish, and will be refreshed monthly with about a two-month reporting lag. Butser said providers began reporting shared metrics in December 2024 and consultants were contracted this summer to build the public-facing dashboard. The site includes a service directory, a supply-and-demand overview and a section showing positive "exits" from outreach and case management since collection began.
Jason Smith, Chatham County housing director, described United Way as a key partner in the county's housing work and noted several staffing additions since 2023: creation of the county's Housing and Community Development department, three county staff, a street outreach position, transitional housing capacity through Love Chatham and a full-time case manager at Salvation Army Chatham. "Hats off to United Way again," Smith said.
Commissioners asked how the dashboard will be publicized and how duplicate client counts are handled. Butser said the tool is aimed at funders, providers and residents and that United Way is developing outreach plans. On duplicated counts, United Way said its early approach focuses on program-level impact (for example, number served by street outreach) rather than deduplicating individuals across providers, while a pilot registry (the Chatham Success Network) is collecting identifiable data under secure protocols.
Board members praised the dashboard as a way to centralize information that had previously existed in silos. Commissioners and staff said the county will continue to support provider coordination and encouraged United Way to grow awareness so leaders and residents use the data to inform decisions.
The presentation included an offer by United Way to continue improving the dashboard and convening the housing collective, and county staff and United Way said they will report back as the data accumulate and trends become clearer.
Ending: County and United Way officials said the dashboard is a starting point for more evidence-driven service coordination; they encouraged providers, philanthropies and county decision-makers to use the dashboard and return monthly for updated metrics.
