|
Our representatives recently attended the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials conference in Baltimore, MD. While there we had the opportunity to discuss resident screening needs with hundreds of executive directors from all over the nation. We had discussions with executive directors from Hawaii to Maine, and met many of our current clients from around the country. More than 20 of the housing authorities registered for our service while at National NAHRO, with many more expressing interest in using the service.
While we have been in business since 1969 providing resident screening to large and small businesses across the country, this is just our second year of aggressively marketing to public housing authorities. We have discovered that resident screening in the public housing industry is handled many different ways. Many of these methods involve a great deal of time expended by the occupancy staff. That is one of the major reasons why so many are registering for our service.
We provide more information in 30 seconds than most occupancy specialists can gathered in days of traditional research, and this staff time could certainly be spent doing something else. We have noticed how busy public housing staff is on a regular basis. We have been proven to save considerable time and funds for our users due to the efficiency and speed of our system. |
|
During the MN NAHRO Fall Conference, held at the St. Cloud, MN Convention Center, we participated in a panel presentation concerning applicant screening. On this panel with us was Mary Boler, Assistant Director of Property Management, Minneapolis Public Housing Agency and DeeAnna Bakken, Executive Director, Jackson Housing and Redevelopment Authority.
We prepared a PowerPoint presentation that led the discussion as we covered various issues involved in screening applicants to public housing. Much of the material was developed using the Public Housing Occupancy Guidebook. The presentation was developed to lead a group discussion of the issues, and so there were many areas where we stopped to discuss individual items of interest to the group.
Executive directors and occupancy specialists picked up some great ideas ranging from development of written policies concerning methods employed in screening different types of applicants, to the various methods used to gather information. Mary Boler pointed out government supplied assets that could be used, and Deanna Bakken pointed out how she found it more efficient to use a resident screening service in many cases.
While some large housing authorities have large staffs for screening, and a long waiting list of applicants, most small housing authorities have vacancies at times. If they have to wait for screening information they are losing rental income, so it makes even more sense for them to use a service like ours to get the job done much more quickly. A vacancy is far more costly than a screening report.
Many large housing authorities have also discovered the value of obtaining their screening reports from us. They have discovered that using fast, Internet based reports is a time and cost efficient means to get the job done, and when you obtain even more information than using prior methods it just makes sense. |
|
“We had discussions with executive directors from Hawaii to Maine, and met many of our current clients from around the country.” |
|
“...using fast, Internet based reports is a time and cost efficient means to get the job done, and when you obtain even more information than using prior methods it just makes sense.” |
