When applicants on one agency's waiting list call to notify the agency they have moved, the person taking the call notes the new address. If the new address is in an area served by other agency, applicants are notified of the residency preference and offered the opportunity to have their application moved to the other agency, thus retaining the original application date. The HA designed the application form for computerized character recognition and developed a system for accepting applications by mail or fax and automatically entering them into the computer. The automated system handles about 80 percent of applicant inquiries regarding CHA's more than 9,000 person waiting list.
Staff are now free to focus on the issues that require specialized expertise.
Nearly all addresses can be corrected using this system, leaving only a small, manageable number that need to be verified by a call to the landlord. Each month, housing authority staff use a modem to send a computer file listing the social security numbers of clients for whom they need to verify welfare receipt. The Human Services Department processes the file through its computer system, adding the needed verification information. The file is transmitted back to the housing authority within a week. Once the Section 8 household completes the forms in the booklet, the housing authority sends the release of information forms to the appropriate third parties and gets confirmation and verification of income and employment directly from these sources.