This Open Data Policy sets out the principles, goals, assigned responsibilities, and processes to guide the publishing of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) data to the public. The policy applies to all datasets released through, but not limited to, HUD’s Open Data website, eGIS Storefront, Data.gov, HUD User, bulk downloads, application programming interfaces (APIs), file sharing, and directly giving data to external groups.

The goals are to promote openness, set an assumption that data will be released unless there is a valid reason not to release it, outline steps for assessing and preparing data for release, ensure high quality and standardized machine-readable formats, define who is responsible for managing data, protect privacy, encourage working with data users, and continually improve access to and use of open data.

Additionally, this policy will be supported by a well-defined Open Data Plan to provide a roadmap for how the department will manage and share data with the public.