Housing
Housing is the product a housing authority runs its programs on: the waitlist, the eligibility file, admission to a unit, and the annual and interim recertifications that set each household's rent. It is arranged with CivicPort and needs Housing turned on for the CivicPort community a property is linked to.
It extends what Applications does for an ordinary community, but a housing authority asks more questions, holds more sensitive answers, and has to do it again every year. So Housing keeps that work in its own apps and hands CivicPort only what a resident's community needs.
The two apps
| App | Address | Account | Who uses it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Housing | housing.civicport.io (dev: housing.dev.civicport.io) | Your CivicPort account | Authority staff building programs, working the waitlist and reviewing recertifications |
| Apply | apply.civicport.io | A separate account created there | Applicants, residents and the helpers they invite |
Authority staff reach the Housing app from CivicPort. The session cookie is shared, so the link signs you in.
An account on the applicant app is its own thing. Signing up there never creates a CivicPort account. A resident gets a CivicPort account only when they are admitted to a unit, by an invitation from the linked community.
How it fits CivicPort
A housing authority is its own record with its own admins and properties. Each property that uses CivicPort is linked to one CivicPort community, and the link is made by an admin who is also a CivicPort admin of that community. See For authorities.
When a household is admitted, Housing creates the household and CivicPort sends its usual onboarding invite. The resident's email, unit, move-in date, household member names and application reference cross over. Income, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, the eligibility file, uploaded documents and the background check outcome stay in Housing.
Security
- All Housing data is encrypted with customer-managed keys.
- Identity fields (legal name, date of birth, SSN) are sealed separately and revealed one field at a time, with every reveal written to an audit log.
- Uploads go in and out only through short-lived links.
- The audit log is append-only. Nothing in it can be edited or removed.
Read next
| Page | For |
|---|---|
| For authorities | Setting up the authority, its admins, properties, links to CivicPort and programs |
| Requirement packages | The questions and documents each program asks for, and the notice schedule |
| Waitlist and admission | Applications, the eligibility checklist, revealing identity fields, and admitting to a unit |
| Recertification | Annual and interim recertification, the rent worksheet and rent notices |
| Inspections | UPCS and NSPIRE on the authority's own property, NSPIRE-V on voucher units, and who is allowed to inspect which |
| Helpers | Letting someone fill in, and optionally sign, on a resident's behalf |
| For applicants and residents | The applicant app from the other side |