(301) 657-9883 info@econometricainc.com

Study Finds Landlords Are More Hesitant to Participate in ERA Programs

by | Sep 28, 2021 | Econometrica Blog

Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) programs face a lack of participation by landlords and tenants, according to a new study from the National Low Income Housing Coalition, The Housing Initiative at Penn, and NYU Furman Center, with greater refusal and unresponsiveness from landlords than from tenants.

The team conducted the survey of 247 ERA program administrators between September 9 and September 15. Findings from the survey included:

  • Tenant rarely refused to participate in ERA programs. Most (49 percent) ERA programs have never experienced tenants refusing to participate in ERA programs and 90 percent of programs never, very rarely, or rarely experience tenants refusing to participate
  • Program administrators indicated they experience greater refusal and unresponsiveness from landlords than from tenants.
  • Reasons program administrators give for tenants not participating include challenges with tenant engagement and the application process.
  • Reasons program administrators give for landlords refusing or not responding include landlords not wanting to share their W-9s and wanting to retain the ability to evict tenants for other reasons.

More information can be found here and here.

ECONOMETRICA BLOG

Census Releases Redistricting Data in Additional Format

by | Sep 17, 2021 | Econometrica Blog

The U.S. Census Bureau recently released its 2020 census redistricting data in an easier-to-use format. Data users will be able to access data with demographic information for cities and towns without downloading the FTP files.

Data.census.gov allows users to search geographies down to the block level and access data through tables, maps, and downloads.

For more information, visit https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2021/2020-census-redistricting-data-easier-to-use-format.html

ECONOMETRICA BLOG

Econometrica’s Imelda Flores Vazquez Honored

by | Sep 15, 2021 | Econometrica Blog

Lathisms: Latinxs and Hispanics in the Mathematical Sciences has chosen Imelda Flores Vazquez as an 2021 Lathisms honoree. Lathisms was founded in 2016 to showcase the work and contributions of Latinx and Hispanic mathematicians during National Hispanic Heritage Month, which begins September 15. The organization has two goals: “celebrate mathematicians working outside of academia and highlight for future generations of mathematicians the many career possibilities that can be achieved with a mathematics degree.”

Imelda has been a key member of Econometrica’ Data Analytics Group since 2020. She is a mathematician and economist with years of experience leading economic, financial, and statistical analyses in the private and public sectors. She has led and performed policy and program evaluations, fiscal estimation of proposed legislation, budget forecasting, predictive analyses for program design, analyses on geographical disparities in health outcomes and health resources, and fraud detection for transparency programs. In particular, she is a subject matter expert on Medicaid data analysis and its State operations, the Accountable Care Organization model, the Oncology Care Model, and other alternative payment methods.

A profile about Imelda can be found in the September 2021 issue of Notices of the American Mathematical Society.

ECONOMETRICA BLOG

Imelda Flores
Imelda Flores Vazquez – Senior Economist at Econometrica, Inc.

Census Prepares to Release 2020 Redistricting Data

by | Aug 12, 2021 | Econometrica Blog

The U.S. Census Bureau will release local-level data from the 2020 census today during a press conference at 1 p.m. ET. The data, which States will use to draw congressional and legislative districts, will cover population change, race, ethnicity, the age 18 and over population, and housing occupancy status.

Redistricting, or the process of redrawing electoral district boundaries based on where their populations have increased or decreased. occurs following the decennial census. These data from the 2020 census illuminate the changes to the local and demographic makeup of states and localities over the last decade.

Information about the press conference can be found here:

ECONOMETRICA BLOG

Econometrica Supports HUD Toolkit Responding to Education Challenges From COVID-19

by | Aug 2, 2021 | Econometrica Blog

COVID-19 has impacted the nation in many ways, including children’s education. As schools get set to reopen this fall, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has released a toolkit aimed at strengthening families and students living in HUD-assisted housing during the pandemic.

From August 2020 to March 2021, Econometrica supported HUD in a series of COVID-19 education peer exchanges. A key outcome from this series is Supporting Our Kids’ Education: Tools to Strengthen Resident Families & Students During COVID-19 & Beyond, a toolkit for public housing agencies and their community partners that responds to the educational challenges experienced by families and children during the pandemic.

The toolkit was developed by HUD’s Office of Choice Neighborhoods in partnership with grantees and expert consultants from Econometrica to provide case studies, ready-to-use family flyers, and a wealth of evidence-based resource links. Topics include:

  • Addressing learning loss.
  • Strengthening families’ ability to support their children’s learning.
  • Developing high-quality out-of-school time programming and tutoring.
  • Establishing learning hubs.

The toolkit highlights open source, research-based tools and resources as well as promising practice case studies that equip housing authorities and their partners to provide targeted educational services and strengthen the ability of families to support their children’s learning.

HUD focused on education because “COVID-19 has exacerbated the stark disparities between low-income housing residents and their higher-income peers.”

“With remote and hybrid learning, children living in public housing and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-assisted housing often face a variety of hurdles, from increased food insecurity and spotty internet service to challenges with student engagement and disruptions in specialized education supports.”

ECONOMETRICA BLOG

“With remote and hybrid learning, children living in public housing and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-assisted housing often face a variety of hurdles, from increased food insecurity and spotty internet service to challenges with student engagement and disruptions in specialized education supports.”

Audiograms: A New Solution to Your Video Needs

by | Jul 26, 2021 | Econometrica Blog

Audiogram Graphic Ephraim RossEconometrica supports our clients by helping them select the best learning solution to convey their content. We work hard to stay at the cutting edge of content delivery, learning and employing new technologies to meet the needs of our clients and audiences. We are currently employing a new training delivery modality called Audiograms for one of our newest projects.This article outlines why Audiograms are useful to our clients and audiences and how you can use them in the future.

Why We Discovered Audiograms

While designing a training for international public health practitioners, we identified that telling authentic field-based stories would be most impactful to our international audience. We also discovered that the international subject matter experts our client wanted to showcase via video did not have the internet bandwidth to record a high-quality video. In the past, our solution would have included going onsite to record videos. Given the pandemic and the geographic dispersion of the experts, though, that solution was not feasible.

Instead, we explored products and communication strategies that would allow our subject matter experts to share their story in a compelling way within the limitations of their technology. And we determined that Audiograms were the best solution for our client.

What is an Audiogram?
Audiograms are audio files that are combined with simple visual content and live captions.

Check out this audiogram below to understand more about the new modality.

How to Use Audiograms in Your Own Work 

Audiograms are ideal for short-form, standalone content, such as:

  • Audio presentations
  • Interviews
  • Conversations
  • Panels

Audiograms are also great item to embed within a longer training to break up and diversify the types of content. They are easy to share directly through social media—a medium that many organizations have found to be the simplest way to communicate with their audience.

Our clients have told us that Audiograms have a uniquely modern look and feel to them, and they are an excellent solution for experts who are trusted sources of information but do not wish to appear on camera or are remote. Other advantages of using Audiograms include:

Production advantages:

  • Quick and easy to produce high-quality content.
  • Cost-effective production mechanism.
  • Seamless edits and transitions (which is not possible when using a video of a presenter talking).
  • Can include additional media (images, animations).
  • Easy to create custom-branded templates for your project or brand.

Audience advantages:

  • Accessible content with live transcripts/captions.
  • Appropriate media to use for a low-bandwidth audience.
  • Can easily be shared on social media (can post video directly to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.).

Let us know if you are interested in learning more!


Stuck on a training challenge? Give us a call! Creative learning solutions (whether big or small) are our specialty.

Sarah Gillam, M.Ed.
Senior Instructional Designer
SGillam@EconometricaInc.com

ECONOMETRICA BLOG