Landlord Payments

You've probably seen in the news recently that some of our Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) landlords are not getting their checks on time. This is due to a backlog created by our conversion to a new software that manages tenant and financial data.

Without a doubt, the Durham Housing Authority is entering a new era with this software. It will provide us with a level of realtime reporting that we've never seen, evenutally will allow clients to apply for housing online, and perhaps most important of all ... the system will not tolerate entry errors and very customized files.

And there's the hitch. The old (and we do mean OLD) system that we used did allow many non-standard entries into tenant and landlord files. Converting such data brought DHA to the familiar expression in computing circles -- we had what our MIS Director affectionately calls "a GIGO problem" -- Garbage In, Garbage Out. The solution turned out to be - re-enter.

We are committed to cleaning up this situation once and for all, which means we have to take some pains to check, to verify, to reconcile. We also have to account for how all of this is done for the benefit of passing the inspection of auditors and we still have ongoing resertifications and new applications for public housing to process. We're a busy bunch at DHA.

Now, this doesn't mean we've done the best job when it comes to letting our landlords know where we are in the process, so we're going to make a greater effort to be more responsive. Please check back here for more information and drop me a line (jbolduc@dha-nc.org) if you have specific questions.

Thanks for sticking with us, Durham!