AGENDA - San Antonio Housing Authority

SAN ANTONIO HOUSING AUTHORITY May 16, 2013The current schedule calls for SAHA to issue letters to all current public housing applicants onor about May 28, 2013, advising them that we will be purging their application unless they goon-line and update it, which entails selecting preferred developments. Applicants can select asmany preferred developments as they wish. Their “place in line” in the applicant pool will not beaffected if they update their record on-line, but if they do not do so by a certain date theirapplication will be purged.To minimize the number of applicants purged, SAHA will be partnering with social serviceagencies and libraries, as was done during the Section 8 conversion to on-line applications lastyear. The contractor will have a centralized call center with staff trained to answer specificquestions and concerns. All written and oral communication will be available in Spanish. Staffis also researching the number of applicants who applied years ago, to see if extra outreach canbe made for them. The contractor believes that most of the people on the current PublicHousing list applied for Section 8 last year and may not be interested in Public Housinganymore; the contractor estimates we may end up with only 5-6,000 Public Housingapplications.SAHA will stop taking paper applications after the on-line application goes live, and beginningthe next day, anyone may apply on-line.After the period ends during which current applicants can update their application, the contractorwill work with SAHA staff to review the data in particular application fields and correct it wherewrong. This process will take 30 days. After that, the portal will be available to any applicantswho want to change the application they previously submitted.In July 2013, withdrawal letters will be mailed to all applicants affected. Based on experience,this will result in many more phone calls. The contractor will use its subcontracted call center tohandle these calls (and any other calls resulting from the entire process). The call center has atoll-free number and bilingual operators.The contractor and staff will perform outreach and assistance for new applicants, using kiosks inthe SAHA buildings, at libraries, and in partnership with social service providers.PROPOSED ACTION:NoneFINANCIAL IMPACT:NoneATTACHMENTS:None