HUD USER

About Innovation of the Day

Overview

HUD’s Innovation of the Day (IOD) is an online tool created to collect and disseminate innovative & sound housing, community development, and built environment practices from around the world. IOD crowdsources new models that stakeholders can use to identify emerging trends, promising solutions, and successful strategies that unite practitioners and policymakers, stimulate policy development, and can be replicated elsewhere.

The Portal first opened in 2012, and by early 2014, we had received over 280 submissions. Of those, 26 were selected as semi-finalists and are now featured in the IOD Database. Originally developed as a tool to enable public balloting, the database continues to serve as a valuable resource for planners, developers, housing advocates, and others interested in creative solutions to today’s most pressing community + economic development challenges.

In June of 2015, HUD announced the three winning initiatives through a press release and via our HUD IPI Updates eList. Visit the IOD Winners page to learn more about how these local approaches are meeting modern urban challenges head-on by creatively leveraging community assets and innovative practices.

Congratulations are owed to our winning entrants, and special thanks to all those who submitted innovations to the IOD Portal and to those who voted in the IOD competition! Here’s how the process unfolded…

Submission Criteria

To qualify for submission and consideration, projects were required to be:

• Related to housing and/or community development;
• The result of an existing innovation, already in practice (not just a proposal or an idea);
• A solution that demonstrates success or positive impact; and
• Replicable or transferrable in some meaningful way.

How We Got There

• Portal opened to submissions: September, 2012
• Portal closed, having received over 280 entries: February, 2014
• Submissions vetted based on the above criteria: February – November, 2014
• IOD Database launched with 26 semi-finalist projects and online balloting that allowed voters to select their three favorites (over 1,700 votes were cast) – January-February, 2015
• The top 3 winners were announced and the “winners page” was launched with in-depth narratives, photos, and videos – June, 2015.