Well, crap

"TheRealBicycleBuck" (therealbicyclebuck) 03/23/2019 at 11:55 • Filed to: None

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This directly affects my job. I depend on these data sources for validating proposed projects (minus the banking information) and I’ve been dealing with a bunch of resistance in getting the latest update. Now I know why.

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ttyymmnn > TheRealBicycleBuck 03/23/2019 at 12:19

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I heard about this, and maybe you could explain the situation better than what I’ve read in the paper? They say “contractor,” but what sort of contractor? Did somebody at FEMA just screw up and email an Excel file that he shouldn’t have?   I’m sure that’s a gross  oversimplification.

TheRealBicycleBuck > ttyymmnn 03/23/2019 at 13:09

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It’s not exactly clear what happened. It looks like the”breach” may have been the release of the data by FEMA to the contractor. The articles suggest there may have been a public data breach, but it isn’t clear that happened.

Any agency receiving data from FEMA is required to sign an agreement which allows them to use the data, but does not allow them to publish or redistribute the data. As a contractor, I am allowed to use the data, but as soon as our contract ends, I have to destroy any local copies. Any products I create must aggregate the data to the census block group level in order to avoid accidentally exposing personal information. The lowest level of census aggregation is the block which is defined by geography and people counts, usually about 2,000 people. Block groups are three or more blocks aggregated together. In really rural areas, a block may cover two or three towns and cover thousands of acres. In a place like NYC, a block would be physical block.

The data I am working with  lacks the bank information, but does include FEMA payouts to families. 

ttyymmnn > TheRealBicycleBuck 03/23/2019 at 13:21

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How is (are) the data used?

TheRealBicycleBuck > ttyymmnn 03/23/2019 at 13:56

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It depends. A couple of billion dollars have been allocated for disaster relief, but every dollar comes with rules for using those dollars. For example, dollars allocated for community development block grants must be spent in areas where income levels are “low to moderate” (LMI) per federal rules. The census publishes LMI data at the census block group level, but if we use that data as evidence that the proposed project meets the requirement , the proposed project must cover or serve at least 60% of the population living in that block group.

If the project doesn’t meet the requirements because the area doesn’t cover enough of the block group physically, we have to prove it serves 60% of the LMI population either through data analysis or by conducting a door to door survey. You can imagine which is the most cost effective. Nobody wants to spend the money to do a survey unless we are absolutely certain the requirements will be met and the grant application will be successful.

For projects which require planning, environmental, engineering, or architectural studies, it can cost tens of thousands of dollars just getting the grant  application put together. If it doesn’t meet the LMI requirements, we need to know that before we spend any money upfront.