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Yardi Corom
April is Fair Housing Month in the United States. The observance has historically been recognized annually by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The most recent Fair Housing Month theme announced by HUD was “Faith, Freedom and Fair Housing.”
As a commemoration of passage of the Fair Housing Act, signed into law on April 11, 1968, Fair Housing Month has for years been a celebration of progress against housing discrimination and an opportunity to build support and strategies for the work that remains.
Yardi is proud to create and support technology and service solutions that help housing providers deliver a fair and consistent residency experience for everyone.
This article highlights core fair housing practices as well as Yardi solutions that put those practices into action.
Fair housing starts with equal access
Consistent leasing practices begin with marketing available residences. Property owners and leasing agencies must be mindful of where they advertise vacant units. There cannot be a perception of targeting specific groups or excluding others.
RentCafe, an online portal solution from Yardi, keeps marketing fair and consistent. It advertises available units via the web and on a mobile app that ensures everyone within the community has access to the same rental listings.
Let prospects lead their own search
The most basic way to ensure prospective renters have freedom to consider a property is to let them decide. Housing specialists should not be part of the process of deciding what neighborhood would be best for a prospective renter. Any type of steering of households to certain neighborhoods, whether intentionally discriminative or not, can lead to fair housing litigation.
Reducing paper forms and in-person meetings with applicants, residents and participants is a smart strategy for affordable housing providers and PHAs to minimize exposure to fair housing claims. Digital apps that qualify households for assistance eliminate the possibility that housing specialists will unlawfully influence an application or steer applicants to certain properties.
Here are four ways to leverage digital workflows to promote fair housing practices.
Impartiality is a feature, not a limitation
While it is natural for employees to want to help customers, a hands-off approach is often better for everyone.
Fair housing laws ensure that households can consider and seek residency wherever they like. Neighborhoods or city districts cannot lawfully be unwelcoming, inaccessible or unavailable to households because of specific demographic criteria. Publicizing available units on the web ensures everyone has equal access to your list of properties and vacant units. Your applicants can see all vacancies online without assistance or the risk of steering.
Consistency is compliance
When a leasing agent answers questions, the experience can vary based on mood, workload, time of day or personal rapport with an applicant. That variability creates risk.
Yardi’s Chat IQ removes inconsistent answers with an AI solution that provides immediate, accurate responses to chat and text messages, even when a business is closed. Every prospect who asks about availability, pricing or lease terms gets the same information, delivered the same way. Chat IQ is designed to comply with fair housing regulations and offers multi-language support, making it accessible to a diverse resident base without the risk of mistranslation or inconsistency that comes with relying on staff.
Technology bridges the language gap
Housing providers must accommodate the needs of prospective and current residents according to fair housing laws. Ensuring access to housing and services in multiple languages is one of the basic mandates of reasonable accommodations.
Hiring multilingual staff and translating paper forms are common strategies, but risky ones. Key phrases can be misunderstood without deep background in affordable housing compliance, and translation costs recur every time a form changes. Digitizing compliance leverages translation technology that enables affordable housing applications, websites and service portals to appear in the languages spoken across the community. There’s no chance applicants will be steered to a particular property based on language, and equal access is promoted for all.
Remove human judgment from the eligibility process
Qualifying for an affordable housing unit requires significant documentation. Historically, that process has involved stacks of forms, personal finance submissions and many hours of verification. With all of those forms to fill out, review and correct, there’s a decent chance that a housing specialist might take it upon themselves to advise an applicant whether they should bother applying at all.
Fair housing laws are designed to stop that type of coaching and steering. It is everyone’s right to apply for a unit they desire.
RentCafe Affordable Housing and Yardi Verification Services simplify the application and verification processes. They digitize compliance and remove personal perceptions from the picture. Compliance specialists working digitally have no need to meet with applicants and no opportunity to make personal connections that could influence outcomes. The data submitted by the applicant is the only thing that matters, emphasizing transparency, consistency and fairness. Every submission, communication and housing decision is stored with a time and date stamp, keeping your organization protected.
Learn to promote fair housing practices
Want to learn more about Yardi affordable housing solutions? We’ll help keep your team and properties in compliance and promote fair housing. Visit our website or call (800) 866-1144.
