In the U.S, a research conducted by Harvard University in 2016  says that half of the renters were cost-burdened because people are spending more than 30 percent of their annual incomes on rent and other utilities. But in 1960 it was at 20 percent. According to National Low Income Housing Coalition findings that the share of American renters in any U.S. county working full-time (40 hours per week) in a minimum wage job who can easily afford a two-bedroom rental home without bearing cost-burdened is effectively zero percent. While affordable units and properties do exist even in major metropolitan areas they can be difficult to access.

All affordable housing stock has a waiting list and those waits can be incredibly long. The average wait time is around two years but they are known to stretch to five, seven, and even 10 years at a time. While the affordable housing crisis is great and taking it apart will require many small steps from various corners of the ecosystem.  Now they have found out the way most property managers deal with their lengthy affordable housing waiting lists is with a combination of spreadsheets to avoid this problem.

Moreover, they experience is end-to-end dreadful for the consumer waiting on the list and genuinely struggling to stay on. It’s not one list, either, but usually many. That means, multiple times a year, they must be on the lookout for a paper mailer with which to update their information.  The year 2020 for Haven Connect, she noted, will be all about its automation platform — building it out, perfecting it, and making sure it gets into the hands of property managers. Killing the Excel spreadsheet and introducing a digital process which is an important first step towards digitalization.