FRONT MATTER -- Contents -- EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1 -- 1 INTRODUCTION 17 -- History and Role of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, 17 -- HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research, 19 -- Geographic Data for Policy and Research at HUD, 19 -- GIS and a Changing America, 23 -- HUD and the Evolution of Urban Issues, 24 -- Study and Report, 27 -- 2 ENSURING THE AVAILABILITY, ACCURACY, AND RELEVANCE OF URBAN AND HOUSING DATA 29 -- The Spatial Data Challenge, 29 -- Ensuring Data Accuracy and Relevance, 38 -- The Need for an Urban Data Infrastructure, 45 -- Summary, 49 -- 3 DATA DISSEMINATION AND SOFTWARE TOOLS 51 -- HUD Data Users, 51 -- Data Dissemination, 58 -- HUD GIS Support Tools, 63 -- Summary, 67 -- 4 RESEARCH AND POLICY DEVELOPMENT 69 -- The Spatial Dimensions of Urban Poverty, 70 -- Monitoring Housing Market Conditions and Trends, 81 -- Priorities for Geographic Analysis of Urban and Housing Issues, 87 -- Summary, 92 -- 5 THE ROLE OF PARTNERSHIPS 93 -- Building Interagency Partnerships to Share Data, 94 -- HUD's Partners and Relationships, 95 -- Summary, 104 -- REFERENCES 107 -- APPENDIXES -- A Biographical Sketches of Committee Members 115 -- B Workshop Agenda and Participants 119 -- C List of Contributors 123 -- D Acronym List 127.