The Company

Envolve LLC is a vertically integrated multifamily real estate company engaged in third-party management, ownership, and redevelopment. Its diverse portfolio of more than 28,000 units consists of affordable, tax credit, conventional, layered and HOME communities. Envolve’s family of companies includes Envolve Communities, its investment division based in Montgomery, Envolve Client Services Group, its property management services division based in Memphis, and Ross-Envolve, its property management services division for the Rocky Mountain region based in Denver. Through a culture of innovation, collaboration, and initiative, Envolve effectively lives out its tagline of “Making Communities Better Together” each day.

The Challenge

Reinventing Compliance

In the past, Envolve’s compliance officers managed affordable housing programs with a system based on email communication. Later, as the email system proved inefficient, Envolve created a home-grown help desk program with the goal of centralizing compliance activities into a manageable database. However, with undefined workflows and difficult-to-track help desk tickets, Envolve experienced miscommunication and lost opportunities to help staff reach their full potential.

The Solution

Yardi Voyager Affordable Housing

Yardi Voyager Affordable Housing supports multiple departmental functions on a single platform, helping Envolve centralize operations, finance, maintenance management and compliance. Combined with Yardi Affordable Housing Suite solutions for online applicant certifications, payment processing, resident screening and more, Envolve found a single connected system for better communication.

The Story

Making Workflows Flow

Envolve is responsible for compliance with a variety of affordable housing programs, including Low Income Housing Tax Credits, HOME, Rural Development and others. Each affordable housing program has associated workflows which all affordable housing providers, including Envolve, complete daily.

Envolve employs a team of approximately 13 staff to oversee its compliance workflows. In the past, the team experienced inefficiencies due to reliance on processes such as email and shared folders to communicate and document compliance data.

Compliance data for affordable housing includes household demographics, rent charges, screening documentation, utilities paid, unit inspections and more. That information is required to prove that affordable housing resources benefit members of the community who are qualified for a specified program.

“Voyager provides out-of-the-box processes for our affordable housing compliance work for all of the programs we participate in. We are even able to do some customization based on local programs,” said Jennifer van Arcken, senior vice president of information technology for Envolve.

Waitlist processes are a prime example of how affordable housing compliance has improved with Yardi Voyager. “We created waitlist templates for properties based on their specific priorities. For example, at many of our locations, people with disabilities have a priority for housing assistance at our properties. With Voyager and RentCafe Affordable Housing waitlist functionality, we can make sure any regulatory preferences are documented and given priority as we work through the waiting list,” says van Arcken.