Among the many people whose livelihood was severely affected by the pandemic, renters are a particularly hard-hit group. That is why it is vital that governmental assistance and federal funds reach the households most in need in a timely manner.
Managing applications, approvals and distributing rental aid is a complex and demanding process, which could take precious time. So, to help housing agencies track housing status and complete the rental assistance deployment, and to ensure the distribution process of federal emergency rental assistance is secure and transparent, Yardi® launched its rental assistance software, an all-in-one platform that will help get payments to households and landlords quickly and easily. Chris Voss, vice president of affordable housing and PHA at Yardi states that
We worked rapidly to create an easy-to-use and quick-to-implement platform that will make distribution of emergency rental assistance straightforward and equitable. This all-in-one platform will streamline the application, approval, distribution and audit process, without any needless integrations or long lead times. The goal is to help our government agencies as they deliver households and landlords the help they need.
The Rent Relief cloud-based service and software platform aims at simplifying all activities through its main features: online portals for applicants and tenants, automated workflows to qualify applicants for assistance, and secure technology to complete financial transactions. The platform’s other features include:
- Online applications, allowing households and landlords to easily apply for assistance.
- Built-in communication functionality to communicate securely and seamlessly with applicants.
- Easy-to-follow guides that help the user through the process of answering eligibility questions and uploading required documentation.
- Case management, for application tracking, status updates and approvals.
- Payment distribution, delivering approved funds directly to households, landlords or utility providers. The transactions are transparent and secure
- Implementation process that can be completed in days, not months.
The initial funding for the Emergency Rental Assistance program was $25 billion, money that must be used promptly to support households struggling to pay rent and landlords who may have missed mortgage payments. And with additional funding expected to be allocated by Congress, the process needs to be made as efficient as possible, to ensure housing security for the people most threatened by the economic fallout.
A trusted leader in the property management technology space, Yardi’s initiative stems from and is backed by the company’s development expertise and proven history as a software provider for nearly every real estate vertical. Managing more than 12 million U.S. residential units, Yardi processes monthly rental payments for 8 million apartments, posts more than 40 million electronic invoices and administers more than $8 billion in payments.
Yardi’s commitment to the community and society at large make the company uniquely equipped to take on this challenge as well. Its experience responding to crisis situations goes back to 2016, when Yardi worked with the Provincial Government of Alberta to develop an easy-to-use housing registry after 2,000 homes were lost in the Fort McMurray wildfire. In 2017, after Hurricane Harvey devastated southern Texas, Yardi created a regional housing site and also donated $1 million in disaster relief. That response was repeated after Hurricane Irma later the same year.
Last year, Yardi donated $1 million in support of rental support resources for the newly launched COVID-19 Rental Housing Support Initiative, a collaboration of The Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM), National Apartment Association (NAA), National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) and National Association of Residential Property Managers (NARPM).
If your organization has begun to implement an emergency rental assistance program and is in need of simple software dedicated to supporting the entire process, call Yardi at (800) 866-1144 or visit rentrelief.com.
