Toronto Community Housing Corporation, the largest social housing provider in North America, needed help building support for public investment in their 10-year capital financing plan. We developed an online reporting tool to publicly track repairs of their properties against funding.
TCHC needed to inspire confidence, not criticism
We knew that governments want to support initiatives and organizations that are outcome-oriented and succeeding in reaching goals. Our strategy was to make a case for more funding while also positioning the TCHC as managing problems effectively and making progress on key issues.
Design strategy
We needed to make the challenge undertaken by TCHC more tangible, so we designed the report as a set of interactive visualizations powered directly by data from TCHC’s Facilities Management team. The report visualizes every aspect of the repairs being made in Toronto, from the type of work, to where it’s being done and how money is being spent.
Keeping the data fresh
To ensure the report could genuinely shape ongoing conversations about TCHC funding, the visualizations needed to always be up to date and relevant. We designed and built the report visualizations around the idea that data powering it would change. We then worked closely with the TCHC Facilities Management team to establish a feed that regularly injects new data into the codebase that powers the visualizations.
Results
By featuring—and prominently highlighting—operational improvements, executive expertise, completed repairs and significant capital funding allocations, the new tool handed government a solution, not a problem. It has helped build support among all TCHC stakeholders, including politicians, tenants, staff and Torontonians in general and now serves as a central reference point for the TCHC’s communications and capital finance campaign.
Work
Front end development
D3.js development
Data visualization
UX design
Copywriting
Technical strategy
Systems design
Team
Claudia Yuen
Alex Mangiola
Guy-Armand Koffi
James Beardmore
