DHA Improves Operational Efficiency in the Housing Choice Voucher Program with Artificial Intelligence Tools Developed in Partnership with BoodsKapper

DALLAS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–DHA, Housing Solutions for North Texas, announced today that it
has implemented its first series of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools
to improve proactive communications and efficiency in the Housing Choice
Voucher program.

This effort was launched as a result of on-going collaborative dialogue
with the Apartment
Association of Greater Dallas (AAGD) and the feedback its members
have provided DHA. DHA is paying close attention to market opportunities
and concerns to become a better business partner to landlords, with the
goal of enhancing access to affordable housing.

DHA is deploying innovative solutions to improve the Housing Choice
Voucher program with a goal of maximizing the return on investment for
private property owners and agents. Increased participation in the
Housing Choice Voucher program by landlords and property owners is
essential to maintain affordable housing options in our communities.

“I would like to thank Char McCurdy, AAGD president and Ian Mattingly,
chair of the AAGD/DHA Task Force for their leadership and collaboration.
We have been testing the inspections and virtual assistant tools for the
last several months and we are already seeing significant improvements
in communications and efficiency with our Housing Choice Voucher
partners,” says Troy Broussard, president and chief executive officer of
DHA. “DHA is constantly looking for ways to innovate the way we work to
better serve our current real estate partners and engage others to work
with us. Adopting AI technology is one of the investments we are making
to strengthen these important partnerships, so that together we can
provide more affordable housing opportunities across North Texas.”

InspectionMate, developed in partnership with local North Texas firm
BoodsKapper, serves as DHA’s virtual customer service agent, scheduling
appointments, sending reminders, alerts and other communications to
property owners and managers regarding their DHA housing inspection.
Landlords and tenants can text the InspectionMate assistant, to
reschedule their appointment, ask questions and receive answers in real
time. The InspectionMate app, available from Apple App or Google Play
stores, also provides conversational channels for the clients and
landlords to express concerns, share ideas and generally communicate
with DHA in real-time.

The AI technology, which is based on machine learning in conjunction
with re-vamped operational processes, enabled DHA to complete Housing
Choice Voucher inspections within 24 hours vs. weeks.

InspectionMate optimizes and schedules work assignments for the DHA
inspections team, allows for real-time chat communications with the
landlord about the inspection and allows for ad hoc scheduling changes.
Property management teams receive a clear schedule and anticipated
arrival time for their inspection appointments.

In addition to completing inspections faster, DHA expects to gain 30-40%
in fuel savings as a result of the AI tool’s ability to more efficiently
map inspectors’ schedules and routes.

DHA will present their key efficiency-building milestones at the NAHRO
Summer Conference: CONNECT to Results in Boston, Massachusetts from
July 11-13, 2019. The results gained through inspection scheduling and
route optimization will be the primary focus. “This innovative
technology is helping DHA, our business partners – landlords and
property managers – as well as our clients gain access to their units
faster,” said David Zappasodi, senior vice president and chief operating
officer for DHA. “It’s important that this technology is shared with
more housing authorities as we all share a common goal of building more
sustainable, efficient and seamless affordable housing processes,” he
concluded.

Transformative for Public Housing

“BoodsKapper is thrilled to partner with a progressive, forward-thinking
Public Housing Authority like DHA to develop a set of targeted
technology tools to enhance landlord and client relations,” notes Bejoy
Narayana, chief executive officer of BoodsKapper. “Our team is inspired
by the fact that we get an opportunity to work on addressing the
shortage of affordable housing. When we expedite the inspection process,
it addresses an identified barrier for our business partners, private
market landlords, and ultimately families are able to move into their
homes faster. In the business sector, landlords are not keeping rental
housing empty waiting for external inspection processes to be completed
so we need to minimize the difficulty of meeting this Housing Choice
Voucher Program requirement. At scale, technologies like ours will make
an impact.”

BoodsKapper has been selected as a finalist for the 2019 SAP Innovation
Awards for its work with DHA. In addition, BoodsKapper pledges to donate
1% of revenues from Public Housing Authorities adopting these tools to
charities working in the affordable housing space.

To learn more about this technology, please visit:
https://www.boodskapper.com

About DHA

DHA, Housing Solutions for North Texas provides quality, affordable
housing to low-income families and individuals through the effective and
efficient administration of housing assistance programs. The agency aims
to create opportunities for program participants to achieve
self-sufficiency and economic independence. DHA provides housing
opportunities to ~55,000 people through public housing developments and
Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) programs. Our mission is to provide
affordable quality housing and access to supportive resources across
North Texas. DHA is governed by its Board of Commissioners and the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development. DHA is an independent,
local government entity, that is separate from the Dallas
City Housing/Community Services department, which is governed by the
City of Dallas. For more information about DHA, please visit www.dhantx.com.

About BoodsKapper

BoodsKapper makes natively artificial intelligence-based (AI)
applications for corporations and governmental entities. BoodsKapper
software is currently being used by early adopters that include both
Fortune 500 corporations and public entities. Bob.AI is the AI-based
customer service assistant for all BoodsKapper clients. The word
BoodsKapper means messenger in Afrikaans. The company is based out of
Dallas. For more information about BoodsKapper please visit www.boodskapper.com

Contacts

Jacqueline Chen Valencia
CONNECTIVE Agency
jacq@connectiveagency.com