how to do it

• Find your local HUD office and request a summary of Section 8 households by census tract
• Click here for HUD public affairs national and regional offices
• Expect trouble and delays.  Insist on a county identifier with the tract numbers.
• Expect some old census tract numbers from 1990 or 2000 and handle them.
  
• Use occupied housing units as a denominator.  Consider the possibility that new construction or demolition could be a factor
  
• Also get Census demographics to gauge minority population, and rental % to gauge availability of affordable housing stock.
  

putting it all together

• Mapping tracts is crucial to see patterns and identify tract locations. You can do it in Fusion Tab les
  
• You may find tract maps on Fusion Tables, otherwise the Census has shapefiles here and KML files here
• To make tracts more identifiable, find as many place names as possible. I used the University of Missouri's geocorrespondence engine here
• Don't forget to include all tracts in your analysis. The ones with no Section 8 housing are important
  

Analysis tips

• Find  majority-minority tracts and see what percentage of housing falls in those tracts.
  
• Places with few rentals and little Section 8 may be discouraging affordable housing
• Are there places with lots of rentals but little Section 8? What's up with that?
  
• Where are the highest proportions of Section 8 housing?
  

references

1. Journal News package PDF
2. Jump/sidebar about Hasidic village
3. Interactive map