Automated Helpful Organizations

With custom tools, helpful organizations can be automatically brought in and displayed in the appropriate places.

For each automation, a scheduled task will bring in and update data on a regular basis.

Housing Counselors

We utilize housing counselor data from the Consumer financial protection bureau. This data is accessible via JSON files that are stored on that site and are available at:

https://files.consumerfinance.gov/a/assets/hud/jsons/” + zip + “.json”; where zip is the relevant zip code

https://files.consumerfinance.gov/a/assets/hud/jsons/60505.json for example.

Each json file contains:

• 2 objects: zip and counseling_agencies

• zip object contains:

  • zipcode (the 5 digit zip code)

  • lat (the latitude of the zip code)

  • lng (the longetiude of the zip code)

• counseling_agencies object contains an array of organizations. The mapping below shows how ILAO maps these agencies to our helpful organizations content types.

Unless otherwise noted, the JSON element is at counseling_agencies[i]

Helpful organization field	JSON element
Title	.nme
Content description	Hardcoded text
Meta description	Hardcoded text
Location - street address	.mailingadr1
Location - city	.mailingcity
Location - state	.mailingstatecd
Location - postal code	.mailingadrzipcd
Area served - admin area	Zip Codes
Area served - zip code	zip.zipcode
Email	.email
Telephone	.phone1
Contact - contact type	“Housing counseling”
Contact - area served
–Admin area	Zip Codes
–Zip codes	zip.zipcode
Contact - email	.email
Contact - telephone	.phone1
Contact - hours	null
Contact - products supported	.services (this is an array; each item should be added separately)
Languages	.languages (this is an array; each item should be added separately)
Source	“ConsumerFinanceHousingCounselors”
Navigational IA	If proudcts supported includes “Rental housing counseling,” being evicted; if includes any term with mortgage delingquency then “foreclosure of a home I own”
Website	.website

Hard-coded content and meta description: Housing counselors approved by HUD offer free or low cost independent advice on renting, foreclosures, and other housing and credit issues.

Domestic Violence Agencies

We built a scrapper that pulls in the list of domestic violence organizations from the IDHS website.

Helpful organization field	Stores
Title	Organization name
Description	Scrapped description
Location - street address	Scrapped street address
Location - city	Scrapped city
Location - state	Illinois
Location - postal code	Scrapped zip code
Area served - admin area	County
Area served - zip code	Scrapped county
Email	not available
Telephone	Scrapped phone
Contact - contact type	“Government”
Contact - area served
–Admin area	County
–Counties	Scrapped county
Contact - email	not available
Contact - telephone	Scrapped phone
Contact - hours	null
Contact - products supported	hard coded to Crisis support, Counseling, Safety planning
Languages	not available
Source	“DVagencies”
Navigational IA	Safety planning, Restraining orders
Website	Scrapped website url