A Bank Near You
April 8, 2014
How Code for America’s San Francisco Brigade helped SF residents find financial stability
In 2013, Code for America hosted Code Across America, inviting San Francisco Government Agencies to come out and collaborate with volunteers on civic problems. I jumped at the chance to do something for the community with my skills. I met up with Marc Chung, an engineer at Lookout Mobile Security to find a project.
Imagine you’ve found your way to San Francisco, stayed with friends, and got back on your feet from a rocky time. Bounced checks, bad credit, but you’re ready to start anew. Except now banks won’t let you open an account, nor cash your paycheck. Where would you turn?
Officials of the City and County of San Francisco looked into the number of households in the city living without a checking or savings account. The researchers found about 50,000 households without any form of bank account. That figure included approximately half of San Francisco’s adult African-Americans and Latinos.
The San Francisco Office of Financial Empowerment (SFOFE) BankOn Program was created to help the unbanked get accounts at partner institutions in and around San Francisco. A registry of participating institutions is the key to this service. Unfortunately, the _40 page PDF registry_ is difficult for its customers to use. Kristina Ng from the SFOFE knew that San Francisco could do better for its citizens.
Kristina wanted a way we could display these partner banks through a Google map. Marc Chung and I jumped at the chance, and we got to work.
The new site is an easy to use Google map with filters showing the location of partner banks. It integrates into the existing website, and does not place a burden on SF Government IT. How can we store the records of the system, but not host anything? We use Google Fusion Tables to act as a database, and query it with Client Side JavaScript. We edited the existing Wordpress page, and over the next few weeks integrated the new map, filters and pins. This is the outcome
With the combined effort of the San Francisco Brigade and the San Francisco Office of Financial Empowerment citizens of San Francisco can find financial independence where they couldn’t before.
This is only the start. There are many more directories that we can map. It’s still too hard to find childcare services, apply for parking permits, or start a new business. The San Francisco Brigade is working to solve all these problems. It’s time to get involved. Join us.