A group of Yardi employees met in Atlanta late this summer for a first-of-its-kind staff summit. The gathering was an opportunity for the team to share challenges, successes, and plans to optimize Yardi’s new Core Relief suite of products. The weeklong event brought together Yardi project managers, case supervisors, file auditors, service managers, payment processors, call center agents and legal staff. This contingent of Yardi employees began developing, marketing and implementing Yardi Relief software and service solutions in early 2021. “I am so proud of this entire department! This team is extremely passionate about our Relief suite and the impact it means to our communities.” said Elisabeth Daniels, director for Yardi. Rent Relief was the first product from the suite released by Yardi. Rent Relief simplifies and streamlines how state, county and city housing agencies implement Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) funds. ERAP funds are tied to economic recovery legislation enacted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Rent Relief has processed more than $1.3B in payments to households who used the Yardi solution to qualify for assistance. “ERAP’s success depends on quickly qualifying renters and landlords in need of economic assistance due to financial hardship during the pandemic. Rent Relief enables our clients to quickly and securely collect applications, determine eligibility and disburse payments to landlords, renters and utility companies. We have leveraged the success of Rent Relief to expand our Relief solution and support other direct-to-beneficiary programs,” said Daniels. The Yardi Relief Suite now includes Mortgage Relief, designed for states that have been granted funds to assist homeowners in financial need due to the pandemic. Similarly, Utility Relief is a management solution for programs that help residents behind on utility payments. The final piece of the suite is Core Relief, which is available...

The pandemic was a wakeup call, affecting families and businesses and putting pressure on all levels of government to quickly provide financial assistance. One key lesson: without the right technology tools, it’s impossible to effectively assist those struggling to keep households and businesses afloat. What is your organization’s strategy to assist those affected when the next crisis hits? If relief funds are again available from federal, state, or local sources, are you confident that your agency will be able to expediently reach affected households, efficiently qualify them and securely disburse funds? Here are four factors to consider if you’re developing an implementation strategy for a direct-to-beneficiary economic relief program: 1. Outreach is Key Financial assistance programs are extremely targeted in nature. You need to reach households in qualified crisis quickly and outreach to the affected community is the best strategy. To be successful, you need mobile-friendly software that staff can easily get into the hands of applicants. Relying solely on paper applications and fielding office visits will not be sufficient. Consider the Connecticut Department of Housing’s successful outreach efforts in marketing its $420 million emergency rental assistance program, Unite CT. The Unite CT bus is an outstanding example of using mobile technology to make it fast and easy for potential beneficiaries to learn about available funds and submit digital applications. 2. Offer Live Support Agencies that make it easy to apply for help are the most effective in assisting their communities. Live telephone support staff are critical in helping families and business owners navigate the application process and ensure they submit necessary information and documentation. Equally important is having trained caseworkers available to quickly and accurately review submitted assistance applications and approve the distribution of assistance. A strong technology platform will make the jobs...

Emergency rental assistance funds are helping Connecticut residents maintain housing thanks to a successful launch of the UniteCT program. UniteCT is administered by the State of Connecticut Department of Housing and runs on technology from Yardi called Rent Relief. UniteCT is funded by $420 million in grants for rent and electricity payments for households impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Fifteen state, county and city government agencies use Rent Relief to administer more than $1 billion in emergency rental assistance funds. Over 158,000 users are registered on Rent Relief and have completed more than 57,000 applications. With Yardi Rent Relief, UniteCT accepts applications for assistance from residents and landlords using an online portal that is accessible from computers and mobile devices. The flexibility of Rent Relief paired with the efforts of the UniteCT team delivers assistance in areas that would have been otherwise been underserved. ”The UniteCT bus is an exciting new solution to combat the digital divide in communities who need additional support with technology. We are reimagining the rent relief application process by going to the individual and setting the precedent for other programs to come,” said Marina Marmolejo, program manager. (Bus pictured at right.) The success of Rent Relief’s implementation of UniteCT can be measured by how fast Yardi launched the online application portals and how quickly case review team members became trained to begin vetting fully submitted applications. Other signs of success include how many applicants have used Rent Relief thus far without major interruptions in service. Users created more than 10,000 accounts within the first few days of the applicant portal going live. “We continue to do a lot of multi-media outreach including radio, newspaper articles and social media.  We have created sixteen UniteCT Resource Centers throughout the state to...

The Housing Authority of the County of Kern, headquartered in Bakersfield, Calif., will implement Yardi’s Rent Relief cloud-based software to support its Emergency Rental Assistance program. As an administrator of federal stimulus funds directed towards helping households and landlords recover from the economic impacts of COVID-19, Kern expects to disburse millions in funds over the coming months. The emergency rental assistance program is designed to prevent loss of housing by supplementing rent payment for households impacted by the pandemic and by helping landlords keep current with mortgage payments. Kern County weighed the merits of several software providers before selecting Yardi. “Centralizing emergency rental assistance onto an end-to-end, single platform that tracks everything from initial application to executing payments will make us more efficient and enable us to operate with complete transparency. Yardi has a documented history of processing millions of monthly financial transactions as well as creating cloud-based interfaces for end users and housing staff. I expect Rent Relief will leverage that experience for the benefit of our community and staff,” said Stephen Pelz, executive director of the Kern County Housing Authority. Rent Relief powered by Yardi is a new solution that leverages decades of technology development and client support. Rent Relief offers portals for households to submit applications for assistance including easy upload of supporting documentation. Kern County housing staff will be able to log on to view and process applications, disburse funds to renters and landlords and easily produce the data for state and federal oversight offices. “Yardi is committed to help agencies keep renters housed as we endure the pandemic. We have nearly four decades of experience developing this type of full-service technology,” said Chris Voss, vice president of affordable housing at Yardi. Learn more by visiting RentRelief.com or attend an upcoming webinar. State and local...