211 Helplines That Offer Rent and Food Assistance Are Totally Overwhelmed
September 1, 2020
VICE
When policymakers aren't paying attention to just how badly a community's suffering, 211 center data can act as a canary in the coal mine for the overall needs of low-income households.
For instance, 211 centers picked up on water-quality issues in Flint months before news of the city’s lead contamination crisis broke: Callers had pressing concerns about what was coming out of their taps, according to Matthew Kreuter, a professor of public health at Washington University in St. Louis. He and others at the university developed 2-1-1 Counts, which aggregates and displays 211 center request data.
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