Case Study: Housing Authority, County of Santa Barbara achieves 40% waitlist purge and faster applicant processing with Yardi RENTCafé PHA

Housing Authority, County of Santa Barbara - Customer Case Study

The Housing Authority of the County of Santa Barbara (HACSB) manages 1,328 residential units and more than 3,500 housing choice vouchers in a region with very limited affordable housing. When HACSB reopened its waiting list in 2018, thousands of households applied and the agency faced the twin challenges of purging an outdated list and processing a massive influx of new applicants quickly without overwhelming staff or relying on paper-based workflows.

HACSB implemented Yardi’s RENTCafé PHA with the Save My Spot feature to reach waitlisted households, verify or remove outdated entries, and accept new electronic applications (with barcode mail-back options for those without email). The agency purged nearly 40% of the old list in days, added 7,965 new names over three weeks, reduced paperwork and postage, sped initial application reviews to about a minute each, and handled the surge with far fewer support calls.

Housing Authority, County of Santa Barbara

Bob Havlicek

Executive Director