{"id":40377,"date":"2025-06-30T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/?p=40377"},"modified":"2026-02-27T02:26:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T10:26:22","slug":"meb-housing-advocacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/meb-housing-advocacy\/","title":{"rendered":"How MEB Affordable creates housing stability for residents"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

There\u2019s no better way for Yardi to learn about the industries our clients work in, as well as their challenges and successes, than sitting down for a personal conversation. During YASC 2024, we spent time with Christy Alvarado, vice president of operations for MEB Affordable Management Services (MEB Affordable). Christy was kind enough to take time during the event to answer questions and provide insight<\/a> into the affordable housing industry.<\/p>\n

Welcome Christy. What are your responsibilities at MEB Affordable as Vice President?<\/h2>\n

Hello! My work with MEB Affordable puts me in charge of new business development and corporate operations. MEB Affordable is based in Phoenix, and all our 30 properties are in Arizona. Our portfolio of units under management is more than 2,500.<\/p>\n

What value does affordable housing bring to communities?<\/h2>\n

Affordable housing isn\u2019t always glamorous. The properties within our industry aren\u2019t always the types of buildings you see highlighted on the big screen at conventions and trade shows. But value isn\u2019t always based on appearances, and we can\u2019t overlook that affordable housing provides incredibly valuable living spaces for households who otherwise wouldn\u2019t be able to afford to have a home.<\/p>\n

The families we serve are very low income, some on the cusp of becoming homeless, so it\u2019s important to create and preserve the property types that fit their needs.<\/p>\n

Talk about the risk of homelessness in the families you work with.<\/h2>\n

Being homeless, or at risk of homelessness, doesn\u2019t always mean people are on the brink of sleeping outside. Many have some sort of potential assistance, be it staying temporarily with a friend or family member, or maybe staying in a motel for a short period of time.<\/p>\n

Affordable housing is a much more solid housing solution compared with doubling up in someone else\u2019s home. It gives families their personal space with rent that meets their monthly budget without relying on non-permanent assistance.<\/p>\n

How important is having personal space for a struggling family?<\/h2>\n

Affordable housing means household members have their own bed, cooking space and bathroom facilities. And, it\u2019s financially sustainable. Those are important to households as they band together to overcome challenges.<\/p>\n

Describe successful outcomes families may experience living in your properties.<\/h2>\n

Many of the households we serve move on to market rate housing. We celebrate those success stories not only because our residents were able to improve their household finances, but also because their advancement means we have a new vacancy for a family in need. It\u2019s a chance to start over with a new household and hopefully see them achieve similar success.<\/p>\n

What else, besides housing, helps your households succeed?<\/h2>\n

We have many service providers who come to our properties to work with residents. They offer assistance such as after-school programs that teach children skills they perhaps wouldn\u2019t otherwise have access to.<\/p>\n

One of my favorite success stories is someone who lived in one of our units and attended the on-site after-school programs. Years later he came back to work for MEB Affordable as a manager at one of our properties. Working with him means a lot to me.<\/p>\n

What do you think are the biggest challenges facing the affordable housing industry?<\/h2>\n

The biggest challenge I can think of is that we simply do not have enough affordable housing units. The competition for funds and regulatory oversights make it difficult to acquire, develop and\/or rehabilitate properties. Plus, the cost of construction and being on top of compliance mandates are difficult obstacles to overcome, even more so than market rate multifamily properties.<\/p>\n

How can technology help solve those challenges?<\/h2>\n

Yardi has been great about working to streamline affordable housing compliance. Digitizing affordable housing application forms with RentCafe is super exciting. Just the fact that it automatically translates into different languages will save us a lot of time and expense.<\/p>\n

Applicants and residents can fill out their certification forms in RentCafe from the comfort of their own homes. Providing digital forms in various languages makes things easier and more efficient for everyone, including our housing specialists.<\/p>\n

The Yardi Affordable Housing suite is such a robust package. It gives us one platform with access to real-time data, beautiful financial reports, tools to work with current and prospective renters, and now our compliance forms and reports. And it\u2019s available anywhere because it is cloud-based.<\/p>\n

Does Yardi give you a competitive advantage as a third-party affordable housing property manager?<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s common for property owners to ask us what software we use as a management company. Being a Yardi client means we can tell them that our technology has proven to be a single-vendor, complete operating platform. We\u2019ve never lost a client because we use Yardi software.<\/p>\n

Yardi has never failed in allowing us to do our job and to improve everything we do, including helping our residents succeed.<\/p>\n

Thank you, Christy! <\/em><\/h2>\n

Learn more about the Yardi Affordable Housing Suite<\/a> or call (800) 866-1144 for a demonstration.<\/em><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christy Alvarado describes how the affordable housing properties her company manages can create personal growth and economic stability for residents. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":626,"featured_media":40378,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_s2mail":"yes","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3236,3380,5,3354],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-40377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-affordable-housing","category-learning","category-people","category-team-yardi","tag-affordable-housing"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nYardi Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn how households benefit from MEB Affordable properties, in this interview with a leading industry executive.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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