The Doorway Housing Portal is an online portal that will enable residents to look for affordable housing anywhere in the nine-county Bay Area and submit an application in less than 10 minutes. It is being developed and implemented by the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority (BAHFA).
The Doorway House Portal will offer housing hunters a one-stop shop when it launches in early 2024. While safeguarding personal information throughout the process, the Doorway Housing Portal will enable potential tenants to quickly determine their eligibility for all types of affordable housing units, apply for several listings at once, and receive real-time information on waitlists, lotteries, and placement. The portal will also provide crucial information on the demand for affordable housing, which will aid in the creation of more housing resources, as well as streamline the lease-up process for developers and property managers.
The initiative will receive free technical assistance from a group of Google.org Fellows, which consists of Google researchers, designers, product managers, software engineers, and other staff members.
U.S. Representative Zoe Lofgren, who stands for California’s 18th Congressional District, remarked, “Affordable housing needs to be supported and it needs to be accessible.” “That’s why I applaud this new initiative by the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority and Google.org to assist in supplying crucial information about available possibilities for affordable housing in our neighbourhood.”
As stated by state Assembly Budget Committee Chair Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), whose support for a $20 million earmark in the 2021 state budget was crucial in launching BAHFA’s operations, “The collaboration between Google.org and BAHFA is precisely the kind of public-private teamwork we need to finally start solving the Bay Area’s long-standing housing affordability problems.”
Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, who serves as the chair of the Assembly Housing Committee, said that finding an affordable house in the Bay Area is considerably more difficult and time-consuming than it ought to be. “When people apply for affordable housing, there is frequently a lot of paperwork involved, the procedure varies from property to property, there are ambiguous eligibility requirements, and it is not always clear why an applicant was granted or denied. It’s long past time for Doorway to do away with these pointless barriers that families encounter while simply looking for an affordable place to live. I’m thrilled that BAHFA is collaborating with technology to provide a local solution that will help residents all throughout the Bay Area.”
As part of Google’s $1 billion commitment to Bay Area housing, Google.org is offering free assistance to a few chosen neighbourhood groups. This endeavour is being continued by the Doorway Housing Portal, which draws on the achievements of a prior Civic Fellowship with the City of San Francisco, during which a group of Google employees helped the city do research and design work for what is now DAHLIA. The San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Civic Innovation, the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, and Exygy, a San Francisco-based Certified B Corporation, collaborated to develop DAHLIA. Exygy will also work with BAHFA and Google.org to create the Doorway Housing Portal.
The Bloom Housing open-source software project, which is being developed with governments all around the country, will serve as the foundation for the Doorway Housing Portal.
“Governments can collaborate to create top-notch, human-centered software that benefits our most underserved communities thanks to open-source platforms like Bloom Housing. The contribution of Bloom Housing to expanding access to affordable housing is an excellent illustration of how design and technology can enhance lives, “Zach Berke, the company’s founder and managing partner, remarked.
BAHFA is the first regional housing finance organisation in California, having been established by the state Legislature in 2019. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s (MTC) board of directors oversees BAHFA, and the Executive Board of the Association of Bay Area Governments is responsible for certain of its policies (ABAG).
With its philanthropic arm, Google.org, which combines financing, innovation, and technical know-how to benefit underprivileged communities and create opportunity for everyone, brings the best of Google to bear on some of humanity’s most pressing problems. Google.org collaborates with NGOs and social entrepreneurs whose work has the potential to make a real difference in the areas they serve. Google.org believes in using technology and applying scalable, data-driven innovation to make the world a better place faster.
