Highlights from the 2016 CAN Dashboard Report

Highlights from the 2016 CAN Dashboard Report

The rollout of the 2016 CAN Dashboard continues, and before we release the full report on Thursday, June 2nd at City Hall, I’d like to take a moment to go over a few community-wide improvements and key challenges highlighted in this years’ report and its companion website www.CANcommunitydashboard.org.

The CAN Dashboard tracks 17 indicators to assess the social, health, educational and economic well-being of Travis County and the greater Austin area by analyzing five-year data trends. The good news, many of these indicators are improving. This came as no surprise to CAN’s researchers and the Dashboard Steering Committee, considering the latest data available for most of our indicators is from 2014, five years after Austin was still reeling from the pain of the Great Recession.

  • Travis County’s combined property and violent crime rate continues to decline, dropping by 10% from 2013 to 2014 alone, far exceeding the community goal of a 1% reduction in crime. Over the past five years the combined crime rate declined by 25%.
  • The percent of people under the age of 65 who have no health insurance has decreased from 22% in 2010 to 18% to 2014. Much of this improvement can be attributed to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, as well as local collaborative efforts focused on increasing health coverage and expanding access to care.
  • Travis County’s annual unemployment rate fell to a historic low of 3.2% in 2015. This is lower than the state rate of 4.3% and the national rate of 5.3%.

Despite improvements for some indicators, Central Texas continues to struggle with many persistent community-wide challenges. For instance:

Click the graph for more information
  • The percentage of households that are housing cost-burdened increased for the first time since 2010. Over a third of households are cost-burdened, paying more than 30% of their total income for housing. Renters are more than twice as likely as homeowners to be cost-burdened. Eighty-six percent of renter households earning less than $35,000 a year are housing cost-burdened.
  • The number of people identified as homeless on a given day in Travis County increased for the first time in several years.
  • For the first time in five years, the percentage of kindergarteners who were school ready declined significantly.

The CAN Dashboard provides a snapshot of community-wide conditions and highlights areas where we, as a community, should focus our efforts to improve the quality of life for all. As I mentioned in my blog post last week, this year’s dashboard includes a new Equity Analysis that highlights disparities by race, ethnicity and income. Assessing the data through an equity lens helps ensure that we have a more complete picture of community needs and challenges. This information can help spur local conversations and help provide a foundation for data-driven decisions. The data also serves as a vehicle for launching important conversations about whether we are moving closer to our shared vision for all people.

CAN is excited to release the next edition of the CAN Dashboard. A press announcement will be released on Tuesday, May 31st, and the full report will be distributed Thursday, June 2nd at CAN’s annual Press Conference at 9 a.m. at Austin City Hall (301 W. 2nd St., Austin, Texas). There is much to be done, and I look forward to working with the CAN Board, CAN Community Council, individuals and organizations, to help build a community of equity and opportunity.

– Raul Alvarez, Executive Director, Community Advancement Network

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