Thanks to HUD E-MAPS , which was created by marrying HUD's Community 2020 TM software to EPA databases, the answers to these and thousands of other questions are now just a few mouse clicks away. Residents, advocacy organizations, local governments and others will now have easy access to data they need to have informed conversations and to make smart decisions about the future of their communities. We're delighted that Secretary Cuomo and HUD are launching this initiative and we welcome it.
Families have the right to know about the quality of their environment.
By using HUD E-MAPS data, Cuomo explained, communities will be able to make knowledgeable decisions about sites for new local facilities, such as public and assisted housing, or help prioritize the demolition of existing complexes. Similarly, a community interested in redeveloping an abandoned or underused industrial site can use the data to determine whether the land is contaminated and what financial resources area available to leverage redevelopment. The backbone for the application launched today is HUD's Community 2020 TM software, a CD-ROM that provides users with more than 600 types of census data for geographic areas as big as a state or as small as a block. Developed initially in 1997 as an internal project management tool, the software has won an Innovations in Government Award from the Ford Foundation and Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. The software provides detailed, site-specific financial, managerial, demographic and program information for virtually every entitlement or competitive grant awarded by HUD since 1992.