Blueprint for an Affordable Housing Application
This article provides details of our approach to building a solution to addresses the affordable housing requirements within US cities. With the increasing urbanization and move to city living, the need to provide citizens with access to affordable housing option is becoming a pressing requirement. We refer to this solution as Housing Matters. Our solution supports this requirement from a technology standpoint.
Affordable Housing Opportunities result from a collaboration between government agencies responsible for housing equity and the real estate development companies. The basic idea is to have a certain percent of units in a new development set aside as affordable housing units/homes.
Affordable Housing units/home can be offered as rental of home ownership opportunities. The affordability requirements are defined by Housing Urban Development (HUD) based on its yearly publication of Area Median Income (AMI). HUD sets income limits that determine eligibility for assisted housing programs including the Public Housing, Section 8 project-based, Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher, Section 202 housing for the elderly, and Section 811 housing for persons with disabilities programs. HUD develops income limits based on Median Family Income estimates and Fair Market Rent area definitions for each metropolitan area, parts of some metropolitan areas, and each non-metropolitan county.
Housing Matters provides the technology platform with features/functionality grouped into 3 logical modules
Lottery Management: This includes functionality needed to setup affordable housing opportunities
Public Portal: This includes functionality needed to access and apply to affordable housing opportunities and communicate with the agency/developer.
Applicant Management: This includes functionality needed to manage applications and offer available units to applicants that qualify