Nick Cotter, Data Analyst, Allegheny County Department of Human Services

Improving Neighborhoods with Research

The statistics say Nick Cotter (HNZ 2018) should not have broken through the poverty line just six years ago. But a mix of background, sustained effort and luck put him in the position to do that.

He’s now focused on lifting others up, too.

As a data analyst with Allegheny County’s Department of Human Services (DHS), he researches neighborhoods, affordable housing policy and community violence looking for ways to break the barriers of generational and concentrated poverty.

“Place matters in determining a variety of long-term outcomes for children,” Nick says. “I have an intense fundamental belief that low- to moderate-income people should be able to live wherever they want to live. That could mean moving to a wealthier suburb for better opportunities or staying put in a distressed community where safety and other factors could be improved.”

Alongside DHS colleagues, Nick is most involved in two programs.

He worked to enroll Allegheny County into the Community Choice Demonstration, a rigorous evaluation seeking to understand whether mobility-related services expand geographic choice for housing-choice voucher families.

He launched the Allegheny County Community Violence Reduction Initiative, a $50 million commitment to public health approaches to violence reduction in the county’s most impacted communities. The goal of his work is “research to practice.” He identifies and scopes out problems; works to understand what drives them; develops solutions alongside both people who are impacted and experts; and studies whether the solutions work.

His personal blog, Pittsburgh Neighborhood Project, aims to educate Pittsburghers on the causes and consequences of persistent segregation. Using interactive maps and data analysis from his perspective as well as photos, anecdotes and profiles, he highlights the challenges, beauty and uniqueness of Pittsburgh’s 90 neighborhoods.

Together, his efforts hold promise to prove programs are working regionally with an eye toward national expansion.

“This could dramatically change lives, and most importantly, the future of children,” he says.

Story by Elizabeth Speed