New efforts to create sustainable housing security in St. Louis are helping landlords find suitable tenants while enhancing the financial stability and circumstances of renters.
The new model, spearheaded by Tower Grove Neighborhoods Community Development Corp. (TGNCDC), comes at a time when housing stability is under enormous stress due to the COVID-19 pandemic’s economic ramifications.
ARCH by HomeScreen, an acronym for At-risk Renters’ Connection to Housing, extends HomeScreen’s use to area social service nonprofits working with clients who are most at risk of homelessness. It was launched in the first quarter of 2021, building on the HomeScreen data-driven tenant screening software that TDNCDC launched in March 2019 for landlords and property managers.
HomeScreen provides landlords with a more thorough, equitable and novel report on applicants than other screening services, according to Ella Gross, tenant screening manager for TGNCDC.
That benefit and HomeScreen’s growing pool of participating landlords appealed to Employment Connection CEO Sal Martinez, who approached TGNCDC to subcontract on the nonprofit’s CARES Act application in 2020 to create a rental housing database for use by local providers of housing search and placement services. The CARES Act-funded collaboration between Employment Connection and TGNCDC enabled an upgrade of the HomeScreen program to ARCH by HomeScreen, a far more comprehensive tool.
While the efforts were focused first on preventing homelessness during the pandemic, the greater long-term value is high for anyone with barriers to housing. Founded in 1977, Employment Connection is a local nonprofit that helps about 2,000 people surmount barriers to self-sufficiency through employment, housing and behavioral health each year.
To further its mission, ARCH by HomeScreen also includes a pre-screening application to verify an applicant’s criminal record and eviction history. The pre-screening application can help nonprofits such as Employment Connection when communicating with landlords, employers and/or other supportive services.
“ARCH by HomeScreen gives landlords and property managers a way to fill vacant units quickly with renters via free advertising to participating social service agencies,” Gross said. “Because these prospective tenants have the benefit of support services from the nonprofits, including rent payments in some cases, landlords are more open to renting to someone with a barrier to housing, such as an eviction, a criminal record or past homelessness.”
The 1,083 landlords now participating in HomeScreen have the option of participating in ARCH by HomeScreen but are not required to do so. Landlords also may opt to list all or only selected properties within their portfolio on ARCH.
During 2020, landlords participating in HomeScreen grew more than 26%. The software was used in 2020 to screen 2,955 rental applicants, 83% of which were recommended for acceptance. Landlords retain full final decision-making on extending lease offers to tenants.
“Eviction moratoriums have guarded against people being displaced and homeless during the pandemic, but the moratoriums will not last forever,” said Gross.
In St. Louis, the COVID-19 eviction moratorium has been extended to end on June 30. Since March 2020, landlords in Missouri have filed for 23,000 evictions. No statewide orders are in place to protect Missourians from evictions and foreclosures during the pandemic.
ARCH by HomeScreen features several advantages to renters and landlords who are willing to consider tenants with special challenges. It is mobile-friendly and has an internal search engine designed with input from landlords and caseworkers at nonprofit agencies. Available listings are always current because listings are automatically removed when an applicant is approved. Each tenant application is stored in a secure database and can be submitted to multiple properties within the system to enhance the odds of finding preferred housing and to reduce the drain of paying multiple application fees. In addition, the TGNCDC provides a free landlord training series and coaching on such topics as Fair Housing law, taking vouchers, working with nonprofit agencies for mutual benefit and more.
“We believe the new ARCH by HomeScreen will revolutionize the relationship between families seeking housing and landlords searching for quality tenants,” Martinez noted. “Past evictions and other factors can be a formidable barrier to gaining access to future housing but HomeScreen’s more modern and thorough screening criteria, combined with landlord education, change the traditional approval roadblocks into stepping-stones.”
The recent HomeScreen enhancements by TGNCDC also strengthened a second partnership to refer rental applicants for one-on-one financial coaching with Prosperity Connection, a program that launched in 2018. In 2021 alone, 90 referrals for financial coaching have been made by TGNCDC.
Despite the pandemic, referrals to Prosperity Connection by TGNCDC via HomeScreen rose by more than 28% in 2020. Among the 388 clients served in 800 coaching sessions last year, 60 decreased their debt by a total of more than $250,000, 46 boosted their credit score, 14 saved a combined total exceeding $25,000, seven acquired an asset and 28 opened a financial product, such as a bank account.
The beta version of HomeScreen was developed with Community Development Block Grant funding. When that block grant funding ended in 2015, TGNCDC decided to continue the tenant screening program with the goal of supporting sustainable, equitable and stable rental housing within all St. Louis communities.
Several other enhancements to HomeScreen have been funded since 2017 with grants from the Equifax Foundation. Equifax also developed an Insight Score for rental applicants with slim to no credit and extended its use to HomeScreen, making it one of only a few screening agencies nationally with Insight Score access.
“We have supported these efforts because they align with our aim of helping financially challenged consumers obtain and sustain housing on a long-term basis,” said Equifax Foundation president David Stiffler. “There is a great need throughout the nation’s communities for the expanded HomeScreen solution developed through the leadership of Tower Grove Neighborhoods CDC. We are delighted to apply our philanthropy and our core business products to drive positive community outcomes.”