We have a guest post today from GoSection8, the leading web-based rent reasonable service for the affordable housing industry. Jessica Summers, Go8's housing authority specialist, explains how local listings portals work and how they can benefit your agency.
Housing authorities around the country are turning to GoSection8 to handle their local landlord listings. Go8's local landlord listings can be accessed directly from official PHA websites. Since the Go8 staff administers the system professionally, housing authority personnel can be released to perform other important tasks. Best of all, GoSection8's local listing service is free to tenants, landlords, and housing authorities.
We specialize in linking landlords who want to participate in the HCV program with tenant families who qualify for vouchers. As the national leader in assisted-housing rental listings, we complete thousands of transactions per day on our main website, http://www.gosection8.com. We extend our services to housing authorities by delivering to their website portal only listings of units that lie within their specific jurisdictions.
As budgets shrink, PHA lease-up rates become even more important. One rule currently under discussion would mandate housing authorities to accept all portability candidates if the PHA's current lease-up rate is below 95%. GoSection8's local listings portals help housing authorities increase lease-up rates by expanding the number of landlords participating in the HCV program.
Local GoSection8 portals are designed to blend seamlessly with PHA websites. Look at our listings link for Santa Clara County (CA) Housing Authority (http://bit.ly/KqAPCj), for example. One link takes landlords to their local registration page (http://bit.ly/LZwnpO), where they can establish an account and list a property at the same time. GoSection8 listings are designed with the assisted-housing resident in mind, and include details on unit layout, unit costs, amenities, and accessibility features. We encourage landlords to include multiple photos, inside and out, of their properties.
Another link on the housing authority page (http://bit.ly/KlvLOi) takes tenants to the list of local units available. To avoid stale listings, GoSection8 requires landlords to update their listings monthly. Click the link, and hit "Details" on one of the properties. On each property, tenants gain access to details about the surrounding neighborhood (Walk Score), see map-based and street-view images of the location (Google), and are offered the opportunity to contact the landlord via phone or email.
By expanding access to landlords, tenants can select units more closely aligned with their needs. One hidden benefit of working with GoSection8 is the increase in satisfied tenants. Reducing yearly turnover is another great way to increase lease-up rates.
Local listings portals also contain one feature our national website doesn't: affordability search. Under "Refine Search," tenants are asked their voucher size (number of bedrooms) and their adjusted monthly income (amount available for rent). Both those figures are provided to the tenant by their housing authority. Add those affordability statistics to your refined search, and your local listings portal will display only those units the tenant can afford to rent.
Gone are the days of taking the first unit offered out of desperation. For people without access to a computer, as part of our listing service we provide printed lists of available properties which housing authorities can distribute from their offices. GoSection8 printed lists can also be created as a PDF file for distribution via email.
Jessica Summers is the housing authority specialist for GoSection8. She can be reached at (866) 466-7328, ext. 221, or via email at Jessica@gosection8.com.
Nan McKay and Associates is a proud partner of GoSection8, the largest rental listing service for the Section 8 housing program, serving tenants, landlords, and public housing agencies across the United States since 2004. To learn more about how you can bring Go8 to your agency, email sales@nanmckay.com.
