PolicyMap-USDA Rural Development Partnership Celebrated!

At PolicyMap, we were thrilled to participate in last week’s USDA Rural Development (RD) Open Data Launch. Our collaboration is enabling USDA to leverage their newly released data against the troves of data available in PolicyMap so that they can not only visualize their investments but understand the markets they work in and use data strategically as they develop investment strategies going forward.

Our work with USDA was highlighted by Maggie McCullough, President of PolicyMap, in her opening remarks. Along with colleagues from USDA RD and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), I described the results of our collaboration with USDA RD, including a brief tour of their data alongside our indicators in PolicyMap. Awards were presented for USDA staff, and we wrapped up the event with live PolicyMap tool demos with PolicyMap team members Brian Blacker, Tom Love, and me.

The PolicyMap-USDA RD partnership includes the development of an internal-facing enterprise license for USDA Rural Housing Services staff to PolicyMap, as well as an external-facing mapping and reporting tool that will reside on the USDA RD’s website. On both tools we show the USDA Rural Housing Service’s Multifamily properties including their Multifamily Guaranteed Loan Program. Also featured is their Single Family Guaranteed Loans and their Single Family Direct Loans. In addition, we will show locations of their Community Facilities. We’re excited to announce that we now also provide this data to all of our PolicyMap users in the PolicyMap tool in the Federal Guidelines tab.

As we mentioned in our remarks, if you’re interested in downloading this newly-available USDA RD data, you can find it on the USDA RD Open Data page. You’ll also be able to download it with the click of a button from the PolicyMap mapping tool, once it’s posted. Stay tuned for the release of their PolicyMap mapping tool on the USDA RD website!