Patent-Pending Program Cures HUD Headache

CARROLLTON, TX-RealPage Inc. has added a component to its OneSite Affordable Screening system to mitigate dual occupancy risks at HUD-subsidized properties. The patent-pending software immediately flags contract administrators during the screening process if a Social Security number is tied to more than one address.

The problem most often occurs with relocations, caused primarily by tenants who fail to notify landlords when they move. As a result, the onus to document the subsidy claim falls on the property owner. "From an owner's perspective, it eliminates the problem before it exists," explains Debbie Bunting, vice president for Jackson, MS-based Southland Management Corp. "The problem comes in when you have to prove they are actually living in your complex and not another owner's complex."

Bunting and Southland administrative assistant Evelyn Bishop estimate that the dual occupancy issue arises just a few times each month at its 78 properties. They say it's not a case of the number of infractions as the lost time in documenting whereabouts. "It can be problematic because we sometimes have to lose subsidies because we can't document the move-out dates," Bishop adds.

And that issue is what led RealPage to develop a component that HUD talked about building, but couldn't because of budgetary constraints, Ranjeev Teelock, RealPage's vice president of affordable housing, tells GlobeSt.com. "It is a No. 1 problem in the affordable subsidized industry," he says. "It has a direct impact on the owners' bottom lines. Because we had the network, we went ahead."

Teelock says the dual occupancy test was embedded into a OneSite program being rolled out to HUD contract administrators in 43 states. He says RealPage launched CA Net a year ago via an exclusive agreement with Housing Development Software. To date, administrators in 24 states have been connected to the screening program and the balance is due to come on line before the year ends. Teelock estimates 936,000 apartments in 18,000 properties in the US will be connected to CA Net in the coming months.

Contract administrators will be able to do "an instant search" using Social Security numbers "to verify if an applicant is receiving subsidized housing at another property," Teelock says. "The dual occupancy test is designed to locate any potential problems prior to HUD finding them and then penalizing the site."