Owner portal
A landlord who rents to voucher holders can sign in at owners.civicport.io and see their own side of the program: their payment statements by month, their units with the last inspection and what is still to fix, their 1099 copies, and their direct deposit, which they may change themselves. A change is held until the office confirms it. Nothing is paid to an account only the owner has seen.
The portal is at owners.civicport.io, its own address with its own shell: the authority's name and logo across the top, the tabs Payments, Units and inspections, Tax forms and Direct deposit, the owner's email and Sign out.
Opening it
Two switches open the portal, and both are needed:
- CivicPort turns on the Owner portal add-on for the authority. It needs Housing Choice Vouchers on. See Add-ons and feature switches.
- The authority turns on Let owners sign in under Settings › Features.
With either off, an owner who signs in sees their name and "{authority} has not opened its owner portal yet. Your record is on file; ask the office when it will be." Every portal request is refused the same way.
Inviting an owner
On the Owners page, once both switches are on, each owner who is not retired has Invite (Invite again once it has been sent, with the date on hover). It needs an email on the owner's record; the button is refused otherwise.
The email, "Your owner account with {authority}", says what the portal offers and tells the owner to sign in, or create an account, with the address it was sent to, because that address is what links the account to their record. Open the owner portal goes to owners.civicport.io. The invitation is written to the owner's audit log.
The owner then creates an account at owners.civicport.io the usual way, with Create your account (see Your account), using the same email. There is no owner sign-up of its own: an account is an owner's because its email matches the Email on an owner record. Changing the email on the owner record therefore changes who can sign in as them.
An account whose email is only an owner's is sent straight to the portal from the applicant site. The same account signs in on either address; each keeps its own session, so an owner signed in at owners.civicport.io signs in again at apply.civicport.io, and the other way round. One that is also an applicant, resident or helper keeps its home page and finds a card there, "You also own units with vouchers", with Open the owner portal, and the portal's header has Your home back to the applicant site. An owner paid by more than one authority picks which one at the top of the portal under Housing authority.
What the owner sees
The head of the page gives the owner's name, how many units are under contract, and whether they are paid by check or by direct deposit to an account ending in the last four digits.
Two alerts appear when they apply: a held payment, in the words "{amount} for {month} is held. {why}. Payment resumes the month after it passes"; and a direct deposit change waiting for the office, "The old account is paid until then."
Four tiles: Paid for {latest month}, Held when anything is, Paid in {year} so far, and Units with items to fix.
Payment statements
One line per month, newest first, for next month and the twelve before it, built from the HAP register. Next month is included because a contract that starts then is already on the register. Each line names the units it covers, marks any held, and gives what was paid of what was due. PDF opens the month's statement: the authority's letterhead, the owner (and who they are paid as), each unit with the family, whether it is HAP or a utility reimbursement, the amount and whether it is due, held or paid and when, with the payment reference; then the month's due, paid and held totals and why anything is held. Opening a statement is written to the audit log.
A month with no register lines for the owner is not shown.
Units and inspections
Every unit on a property whose owner this is, with its size and the last inspection's date and result, and a chip: the number of open items, or Passed, or Due {date}, or No inspection yet.
Where the last inspection is waiting on corrections, the items the owner is responsible for are listed with the fix-by date and "past due" when it has passed. Tell us it is fixed records today's date against each of those items and tells the owner "The office has been told. They will reinspect."
What that does today is exactly that: the date and the owner's note are kept on the finding. Nothing in the office's Inspections page shows them yet, and no email goes to the office, so the owner's word reaches the office only if they also call.
Tax forms
The years, among the last two, for which a 1099 was required for this owner, each with the form and the amount and a PDF of Copy B. The form is refused until the authority has completed its own payer details under Finance settings; the owner is told to ask the office. Opening a copy is written to the audit log. Under the list, whether a W-9 is on file.
A 1099 is issued for a year in which the owner was paid $600 or more ($2,000 from 2026) and is not a corporation. See 1099s.
Direct deposit
The card shows the bank, account type and last four of the account paid now, or "Paid by check", and Change the account or Set up direct deposit, which opens the Direct deposit page.
Changing direct deposit
The page shows Paying now with the current account or "by check", a pending change if there is one, and the form.
| Field | Checked |
|---|---|
| Routing number | Nine digits, and the ABA check digit must work out. The page says so as soon as nine digits are typed |
| Account type | Checking or Savings |
| Account number, Account number again | 4 to 17 digits, typed twice and matching. Typed as a password |
| Bank | Free text |
| Name on the account | Starts as the payee. "Must match the payee on your W-9. A different name needs a new W-9 first" |
| Voided check or bank letter | A photo or PDF. Optional on the form, though the office will usually want one |
| The authorization | Must be ticked. It authorizes deposits and the recovery of a payment made in error, and stands until changed |
Send for confirmation uploads the file, seals the account number the way the office's own entry is sealed, holds the change on the owner's record as pending, and emails the authority's contact address: "{owner} asked to change their direct deposit. Nothing is paid to the new account until somebody at the office confirms it on the Owners page." The API runs the same checks again, so a form that gets past the browser is still refused when a number is wrong. Only one change can be pending at a time.
The page tells the owner they will get an email when the office confirms. Nothing sends one at present: when you confirm or reject a change, tell the owner.
History lists the change waiting, confirmed or not accepted, and each earlier change with the account it moved from.
What the office does
On the Owners page, an owner with a change waiting shows a chip, Owner asked for ··{last four}, with Confirm and Reject.
- Confirm makes the new account the one paid, by direct deposit, from the next payment run. The account it replaced goes into the owner's payment history with who confirmed and who asked.
- Reject marks the change not accepted. The page does not ask for a reason, and the owner sees "Not accepted" with no note.
Both are written to the owner's audit log, with the old and new last four.
What the portal does not do
- An owner cannot change their name, address, payee, tax id or W-9 there. The office keeps the owner record.
- There is no messaging, no request for tenancy approval and no lease or HAP contract signing in the portal. Those go by email as before.
- The portal reads the HAP register; it does not show the office's payment runs, checks or bank details.