Council Member Petrina Anna Sanchez introduced Intro 12-65 to change how the city's Housing Connect affordable housing lottery communicates with applicants.
"Today, we're voting on my bill intro 12 65, which will begin to address deep frustrations with Housing Connect," Sanchez said. She said the city's housing lottery receives a large number of applications per unit (a median of 670 applications per listed unit and roughly one lease issued for every 1,000 applications submitted, as cited in her remarks) and that applicants receive excess and sometimes misleading information about ineligible projects.
Intro 12-65 would limit Housing Connect notifications so applicants receive messages only about projects for which they are actually eligible, require the portal to send email and text notifications for important application actions, and create a new representative role allowing applicants to designate someone to receive notifications on their behalf. Sanchez said the bill also requires HPD to solicit feedback from organizations working on the ground with applicants.
Sanchez credited local groups and staff who pushed the legislation forward and urged colleagues to support the bill. The measure was placed on the day's agenda for a vote; the transcript does not record the outcome.
Sanchez said the changes are intended to reduce false hope among applicants and to provide tools to community-based organizations that assist applicants with limited technological proficiency.