CRISIS RESPONSE NETWORK - EVICTION PREVENTION CHATBOT (Tech)
The Arizona State University Smart City Cloud Innovation Center Powered by AWS (ASU CIC) recently collaborated with the Crisis Response Network (CRN), to develop a solution that would guide residents towards customized eviction prevention guidance and information.
Problem
In 2020, the impact of COVID 19 increased the influx of calls to service providers for information on crisis, referral and data services. Arizona 211 has been fielding approximately 30,000 calls a day, 50% of them related to housing shelter and utility assistance. Inundated with calls, Arizona 211 needed a mechanism to deliver information to residents quickly and efficiently.
Approach
The 211 Arizona Eviction Prevention App was designed as a free chatbot service that would guide a user through a series of questions like zipcode and current residential status to provide customized eviction prevention guidance and information. The tool is designed with ease of use and accessibility in mind and can be utilized via desktop or mobile platforms. It is available in English, Spanish and supports voice inputs.
Supporting Artifacts
The CRN Eviction Prevention Chatbot artifacts can be found here:
| CRN Chatbot FAQs | |
| source_code_crn.docx | CRN - Source Code |
Next Steps
The 2-1-1 Arizona Eviction Prevention App has been released to production and can be accessed via https://211arizona.org/. A demo of the solution is available below:
About the ASU CIC
The ASU Smart Cities Cloud Innovation Center (CIC) is a strategic relationship with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and is supported by AWS on ASU’s Innovation campus - SkySong. The mission of the CIC is to drive Innovation Challenges that materially benefit the greater Phoenix metro area and beyond. The CIC will do this by solving pressing community and regional challenges, using shareable and repeatable technology solutions from ideation through prototype, as a service for the greater human good.
The CIC also provides real-world problem-solving experiences to students by immersing them in the application of proven innovation methods in combination with the latest technologies to solve important challenges in the public sector.
The challenges being addressed cover a wide variety of topics including homelessness, water conservation, vandalism, pedestrian safety, digital service delivery and many others. The CIC leverages the deep subject matter expertise of government, education and non-profit organizations to clearly understand the customers affected by public sector challenges and develops solutions that meet the customer needs.
For more information on the ASU CIC, to read about projects or to submit a challenge, please visit https://smartchallenges.asu.edu.