CASE STUDY 4

Housing & Homelessness
Coalition (Illinois)

Creating a unified data system for more than 50 partner organizations.

ORGANIZATION OVERVIEW

Type: Statewide Housing & Homelessness Coalition

Location: Illinois

Size: 50+ partner organizations, serving 25,000+ individuals annually

Mission: Strengthen housing stability, prevent homelessness, and coordinate services across diverse community partners

THE CHALLENGE

Each partner organization tracked data differently — spreadsheets, case notes, PDFs, and small databases that didn’t align.

This created significant challenges:

  • No consistent way to measure housing stability
  • Duplicates across organizations
  • Difficult cross-agency reporting
  • Time-consuming coordination
  • Limited visibility into service gaps or delays

There was no shared system that respected each partner’s capacity while still allowing leadership to see the full picture.

GOALS & DESIRED OUTCOMES

The coalition wanted to:

  • Create a shared data system partners would actually use
  • Standardize housing stability metrics
  • Improve data quality across all agencies
  • Give leadership a unified view of system-wide needs
  • Support strategic planning and grant reporting

SANDAI’S
APPROACH

SaNDAI designed a collaborative, capacity-friendly system:

  • Conducted a multi-agency BI Assessment with all 50 partners

  • Built a centralized housing stability data hub

  • Developed a simple intake + outcomes template usable by small and large agencies

  • Created real-time Network Stability Dashboards

  • Ensured partners with lower tech capacity could still participate

  • Facilitated training across organizations

THE SOLUTION DELIVERED

  • A shared, cloud-based data system
  • Standardized metrics for housing stability and service coordination
  • Automated data ingestion for larger partners
  • Simple upload tools for smaller organizations
  • Dashboards showing inflow, outflow, housing retention, and unmet needs
  • Governance and privacy protocols across all partners

THE RESULTS

One unified view of housing stability statewide

Consistent data across 50+ organizations

Clear insights into service gaps and waitlist trends

Stronger, data-backed grant applications

Dramatically improved coordination across agencies

IMPACT ON
MISSION

For the first time, the coalition can identify which communities need immediate support and which strategies are improving housing retention — strengthening statewide housing equity efforts.

WHY THEY CHOSE SANDAI

They needed a partner with the ability to simplify complexity, balance diverse capacity levels, and build trust across dozens of agencies.

WHAT’S NEXT

SaNDAI is now integrating predictive insights to help partners anticipate housing instability earlier and respond proactively.

CLIENT TESTIMONIAL

“We serve over 50 partner organizations. SaNDAI created a shared data system that respects everyone’s capacity. For the first time, we have one unified view of housing stability across the entire network.”

— Coalition Manager