DC Reentry Housing Project
Building a citywide data platform with the DC Reentry Housing Alliance to connect housing availability, eligibility, and shared outcomes across the coalition.
Content owner: Civic Tech DC organizing team. Last reviewed: July 26, 2026.
Civic Tech DC is working with the DC Reentry Housing Alliance to build a citywide reentry-housing data platform. The goal is to give the coalition a shared, current picture of housing availability, eligibility, and outcomes across the District.
The platform is not yet a public production service. The team is defining the data and first release with the Alliance before making claims about real-time coverage or measurable housing outcomes.
Why the coalition needs shared data
People returning from incarceration face major barriers to stable housing. The DC Reentry Housing Alliance brings together returning citizens, housing providers, and policy stakeholders working to end reentry homelessness and expand access to permanent supportive housing.
Coalition members may track available units, eligibility rules, referrals, and outcomes in different places and formats. That makes it difficult to coordinate services, compare definitions, or understand progress across the city.
The platform the Alliance wants to build
The working vision includes:
- a citywide view of available housing and eligibility;
- shared measurement across participating organizations;
- a common data source for providers, policymakers, and returning citizens;
- maps or other visualizations when geography helps answer a real question;
- documentation and workflows the Alliance can maintain.
“Real time” describes the desired usefulness of the data, not the current product. The update schedule must match how providers work and how often they can keep the information accurate.
Returning-citizen leadership and partner decisions
The Alliance is led by returning citizens and works alongside housing providers and policymakers. It owns the problem and brings the lived experience, service knowledge, and coalition relationships needed to shape the platform.
Before building broad integrations or dashboards, the project team is working with the Alliance to answer:
- Which decisions should the shared data support?
- Which measures can participating organizations define consistently?
- What data already exists, and who owns it?
- Which information is sensitive, and who should see it?
- What can coalition members maintain over time?
These questions refine the platform; they do not replace the commitment to build it.
Civic Tech DC’s role and current status
Civic Tech DC volunteers contribute product design, data modeling, technical architecture, mapping, interface development, data governance, and project coordination.
As of July 2026, the project is active and working toward a feasible first release. There is no public repository or production platform yet. The data is not described as complete or authoritative, and the project has not measured changes in housing placement, coordination, or policy outcomes.
The first useful release should prove one shared workflow or measure before the team expands the platform.
Help build the housing data platform
The project needs people with experience in nonprofit data management, housing-provider workflows, data modeling, geospatial analysis, accessible design, frontend development, data governance, and project management.
Find the project on Slack Join a Project Night
If your coalition has a related data-management or shared-measurement problem, bring the need to Civic Tech DC.