What is ORSA?
Reporting directly to the Chief Operating Officer (COO), the Office of Research and Strategic Analysis (ORSA) provides crosscutting support to NYSHCR’s executive and program leadership in advancing the agency’s mission to build, preserve, and protect affordable housing and increase homeownership throughout New York State. Created in late 2017, the ORSA team consists of data analysts and policy specialists who, using quantitative and analytical research methods and strategies, provide data-driven guidance on high-priority initiatives and answer questions that are critical to the success of the agency and component programs and offices.
What we do
ORSA works with the executive and program leadership, program staff, and other stakeholders - inside and outside of the agency - to iteratively develop research questions and responses that impact the agency’s mission. Working across the five core areas of multifamily housing, homeownership support, community renewal, rent regulation and tenant protection, and fair housing, ORSA is responsible for:
- Ensuring that administrative, programmatic, and publicly-available data is consistently, imaginatively, and effectively used to drive decision-making throughout the agency.
- Contextualizing NYSHCR’s initiatives and performance outcomes in the broader New York State housing and community renewal environment by combining external data sources with administrative data.
- Applying quantitative and data mining techniques, statistical and geospatial analyses, and building high quality prediction systems that directly address the agency’s operational and policy needs.
- Acting as central coordinator for the public presentation of data about housing and community renewal efforts statewide, including developing and producing state- and federally-mandated and other reports.
- Responding to ad-hoc requests for information and providing data and support to the NYSHCR leadership, as well as to stakeholders within and outside of NYSHCR.
- Engaging in strategic planning and providing expertise on combining data and methodologies from NYSHCR’s legacy silo systems as the agency transforms and integrates.
ORSA's Core Functions
- Data & Methodology Management
- Reporting
- Program & Policy Analysis
- Programmatic Support
- Cross-functional Executive Support
- Geospatial Services
HCR Multifamily Asset Map
The Office of Research and Strategic Analysis (ORSA), working with HCR’s Office of Housing Preservation (OHP) Asset Management divisions, various HCR programs and offices, and other stakeholders, are undertaking a project to validate and geocode the agency’s administrative data across some of its key multifamily portfolios. The aim of this project to visualize every building in those portfolios and how they relate geographically to each other. Currently, this project contains information on buildings across five major multifamily portfolios that HCR is responsible for. The aim is to update these data each quarter.