The Problem/Challenge:
Seeing the overwhelming need, the City of Atlanta created The Housing Help Center (HHC) as its official housing resource center. As with any new group, the HHC realized they would need technology (a case management system) to effectively support their constituents and help them navigate the varied landscape of seeking assistance. Recognizing that ARCHI was working on a collaborative technology, the partnership seemed obvious. However, the ARCHI Housing Assistance Portal’s was not designed to support full case management and the HHC needed a separate intake form to capture administrative-requested critical information—such as detailed demographics, risk factors, and landlord contact details.
The Techbridge Solution:
Techbridge worked with the HHC director and staff to understand their needs and provide expertise and guidance on additional functionality to consider. Techbridge then developed an additional intake form and case management functionality that met the unique needs of the HHC. The new intake form feeds into the same system to continue to provide collaboration and visibility. Techbridge’s competitive pricing allowed for continued development beyond the original scope as a true all-in-one technology solution for the HHC and in anticipation of adding more users to the system. HHC development included:
- Demographic Data: Including gender identity, pronouns, race, and ethnicity for better reporting.
- Risk Factors: Capturing the number of children in the household and court dates for eviction to prioritize those at greatest risk.
- Landlord Details: Adding fields for contact name, phone, and email to streamline service arrangements.
- Ability to assign a case directly to an agency with funds reducing the receiving agency’s need to increase case managers with increased one-time funding
- The form now also generates a full-text export of the complete application, ensuring that even if an agency’s system does not map every field, the entire story is accessible.
The Impact/Outcome:
- Enhanced data capture enables more accurate measurement for grant reporting.
- Detailed risk factor information allows agencies to prioritize cases more effectively.
- Improved landlord data collection leads to quicker and more accurate service arrangements.
- The comprehensive intake supports the rollout of new services such as move-in assistance, emergency lodging, and permanent relocation assistance.
- Case management functionality
- allowed the HHC to process and navigate more efficiently to get more constituents connected to services.
Increases the chance of adoption of the ARCHI portal by more service providers seeking to collaborate, especially those without a current system.