What is the name of your organization?
Mini City
What is the name of your solution?
Mini City
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
Mini City is a compassionate platform helping the unhoused obtain legal ID, government aid (Medicaid, TANF, EBT, etc.), and life-critical benefits.
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Atlanta, GA, USA
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
United States
What type of organization is your solution team?
For-profit, including B-Corp or similar models
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
Chronic homelessness is a major problem in the US and across the globe. A US study determined that over 50% of homeless citizens were denied specific benefits because they were unable to produce identification (National Coalition on Homelessness). This issue is detrimental to both the citizen and homeless care providers, clinics, and cities. Mini City's home base of Atlanta alone spends over $68 million a year on costs related to unhoused individuals, from ER visits to jail stays. The United States spends over $10 billion on public costs related to homelessness (Forbes). Beyond the impact upon citizens, there are significant issues with current methods for collecting and sharing data on the indigent population, and a severe lack of accurate and timely data on the number, demographics, needs, and geographic distribution of homeless citizens.
Incomplete and inaccurate data often results in federal funding not being allocated where it is most needed, and prevents policy makers from making effective evidence-based decisions. The misrepresentation of a city’s indigent population in this data also erodes the indigent population’s own trust in those who are charged with serving them.
What is your solution?
Mini City streamlines the administrative process of obtaining legal IDs and life-critical benefits for the unhoused, and the organizations, municipalities, and enterprises that serve indigent populations. Our onsite SaaS platform, accessible via any Wi-Fi-enabled device, empowers cities, clinics and shelters to efficiently assist, track, and innovate for those they serve.
Across Georgia, 100+ caseworkers use Mini City to help the unhoused apply for legal IDs (demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1CbGAAk2RY ), government benefits (demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Mn0cwj4NgY ), and more.
Mini City offers a scalable alternative to infrequent and often inaccurate volunteer-led counts, such as the annual Point-in-Time count. Unlike state and federal Homeless Management Information Systems—plagued by poor data quality—our platform provides accessible, real-time insights. Mini City democratizes data on indigent populations, making it freely available to frontline organizations, CBOs, policymakers, and the affected citizens themselves. You can view our analytics dashboard here: https://youtu.be/NQpimszTJZI?si=ms9vWhDCdlG5MvHB
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Nearly all of the citizens we assist at Mini City are unhoused, unstably housed or experiencing on-going homelessness. Our end beneficiaries are predominantly BIPOC or African American (nearly 90%), with a quarter of our citizens identifying as young adults (18-24 years old) or over 40 (45-54 years old). The majority of our citizens (over 90%) are living well below the poverty line, and we have assisted nearly 600 households that identify as families (citizens living with children). For our target beneficiary, many of the resources needed to stay safe during the pandemic and beyond, like healthcare and housing, can only be accessed with ID. Over 80% of the homeless we have helped since the pandemic are utilizing ID for the purpose of obtaining housing, followed by employment opportunities and finally government benefits (TANF, Medicaid, WIC, etc). This is all evidence that Mini City is directly aiding one of our nation’s most vulnerable groups in achieving physical (housing, medical), economic (employment) and even emotional goals that relate to their top unmet needs.
