Welcome Home Network Property Provider Portal

This browser-based, online portal enables property providers to submit listings anytime, anywhere and stores all of your relevant documents in one secure location. The streamlined process makes it easier than ever to ensure everyone in our community has a place to call home by matching our neighbors in need with available rental units submitted by our trusted WelcomeHomeOC℠ property provider partners.

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HOW-TO GUIDE

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IMPORTANT NOTE! We have added hyperlinks throughout this guide to navigate to the key areas of interest quickly. These hyperlinks may not work if you read the guide on your browser. For optimal experience, please download the PDF and view it using Adobe Acrobat Reader (free to download) or your preferred PDF reader.

How do I get started?

Connect with our WelcomeHomeOC team to start the process at WelcomeHomeOC@unitedwayoc.org.

Property Provider Portal FAQs

What are you launching today?

The Welcome Home Network, an online service that facilitates the procurement, coordination and placement of individuals experiencing homelessness into permanent scattered-site housing.

What will the product/ service look like in future releases? (roadmap)

Future iterations of the service will be tightly wound to the needs and wants of the parties involved. Features will be rolled out to enhance the ease–of-use, matching, end-to-end transparency, real-time reports, and autonomous management.

Why should I use this feature or product/ service?

Welcome Home Network provides faster fulfillment, less effort, better matches, and more transparency to the process of supplying permanent housing to voucher holders. When combined with the benefits of the WelcomeHomeOC program, there’s no faster, more effective, and efficient way to tackle the homelessness challenge. All stakeholders and participants win.

Who is the target customer and persona for this product/ service?

Property Managers
Property Owners
Individual Landlords
Landlord Partnership

What do users like about Welcome Home Network?

Welcome Home Network reduces the challenges of most entities involved in homelessness management. Governments, specifically City and County officials and their facilitation and distribution of public aid. It assists Case Managers/Social Workers with the quick and easy identification of sustainable permanent housing for their clients. Voucher holders find value in the easy needs based matching and expedience to meet voucher deadlines. The public or community donors value the performance driven results, ensuring this program is the best use of their funds.

What should users expect in the first release?

The initial release will solve or alleviate common challenges associated with voucher matching to scatter-site housing. The largest of these issues being voucher expirations, growing a large inventory of housing units, and fulfilling public housing authorities’ requirements.

What are some similar solutions?

There are many programs that handle matching to scattered-site housing. There’s also a number of innovative technology solutions available that handle pieces of the process or solution. Some platforms are available to facilitate an nonprofit’s matching of individuals who are experiencing homelessness to permanent supportive housing or rapid rehousing units. Very few of these programs offer what WelcomeHomeOC does, a complete end-to-end solution, combining the value of an online service in the Welcome Home Network to facilitate at scale and speed with the benefits of program management to coordinate stakeholders in the community, ensure successful and continued placement, and incentivize participation.

What compliance standards does this solution meet?

The program and online service is HIPAA compliant.

How long will it take to get approval to receive credentials to WHN?

Approvals are generally handled in the order they are received. On average credentials including a temporary password to gain access to WHN should be received within 24hrs during a traditional week.

What geographies will the WHN be in??

At launch, this online service will only be available in Orange County, California. The service will expand into other communities at still to-be-determined dates.

How will the WHN managed and supported?

At launch this product will be completely managed by Orange County United Way. The online application is the core orchestration tool for the orchestration and facilitation of our WHOC program. The online service will be adapted and enhanced to meet the requirements of this program.

What is the difference between property vs. unit?

Property is a single building which may or may not have more than one unit.
Unit is an actual house which can be assigned further to voucher holder.
It is possible that a single property contains single unit.

Who can use the landlord portal?

Individual Owner – property owner herself/himself
Corporate Owner – An organization who owns one or more properties & partners directly under WHOC program. There can be multiple stakeholders for this type of owner but will have single person (operator) for updating info in portal. One corporate owner may have multiple users sharing same information to be viewed and edited in portal. Here, even signatory can also be different depending on property / unit.
Operator – a person representing or is responsible to provide information of units / properties and sometimes also has authority to sign. This role can be used by community manager, VP or any other person who is part of Corporate Owner’s organization.
Property Manager – Mediator who is associated directly with WHOC program. Manager can have one or more individual or corporate owner associated with Property Management company. Manager may or may not have authority to sign on behalf of owner. In case signing authority is given to manager by owner, the authority supporting documents are to be uploaded.

How do I get access to the Welcome Home Network?

For property owners, please reach out to our United to End Homelessness staff who can help point you to a form to get profile created. For voucher holders, please inquire with your case managers about eligibility. If qualified, ask the case manager reach out to our United to End Homelessness staff. For Government staff, please contact our United to End Homelessness Staff.

What is WelcomeHomeOC?

WelcomeHomeOC is a landlord incentive program for scattered-site housing that provides financial incentives such as double security deposits, sign-on bonus, holding fees, and other assurances for landlords who rent units in Orange County to individuals, Veterans, and families with a housing voucher. The program is a joint effort between the United to End Homelessness initiative, Orange County United Way, Public Housing Authorities, rental property owners to reduce the time involved in the search for housing by increasing the availability of rental units. Go to welcomehomeoc.org for more information.

I’m a local nonprofit trying to end homelessness in my city, why would I use this platform?

The Welcome Home Network will assist in matching voucher holders with available units in an environment that is HIPAA compliant. Use of the platform will accelerate the matching process, prioritize vouchers that may be expiring and keep the data secure.

What if a new landlord user would like access to an existing landlord account, e.g. a new property manager employee, community manager, etc.?

Please enter in the property address. Admin will be able to link user to existing account. Example: If there is a new User who is part of a Corporate Owner (Property Company) who needs access to same information which was added by a colleague, WHOC Admins will be able to link a new User to existing account.

Do Public Housing Authorities have access to the system?

It’s currently on the roadmap to allow Housing Authority persona to access the Welcome Home Network. The interface (UI) is still TBD and will be release in a future phase.

I’m a property owner/landlord, how do I join the Property Owner Network? And what are the benefits to joining?

To Join, contact Amanda Grill at (949) 263-6114 or email AmandaG@UnitedWayOC.org, or go to welcomehomeoc.org and complete the form on our webpage.

Benefits:

New Owner Participation Signing Bonus
Security Deposit of up to 2 months’ rent
Holding fees
Damage Mitigation Fund
Consistent and on-time Rental Payment
Enhanced Customer Service & Assistance

As a government agency, we strive for efficient use of public funds and successful outcomes of the programs we fund. Can the Welcome Home Network helps us with these goals?

The Welcome Home Network was created for more efficient matching of voucher holders with available properties. A more efficient process will result in expedited housing opportunities which will save money in the short term as well as the long term difference of housing someone today versus what it costs the community when a person experiences homelessness. An expedited process also will ensure more vouchers for those experiencing homelessness in the community. When leases are more quickly completed, fulfilling the voucher holders’ requirements, the Public Housing Authority is considered more competitive by HUD who will award larger voucher allocations.

What do I do if I run into an issue with the system, or I simply can’t get in or forgot my password?

You are able to submit support tickets through a Zoho tool, by sending an issue via email (WHOCSupport@ocuwhelp.zohodesk.com) that will be monitored and received by a support team member. They will handle and respond to tickets. If needed, the situation can be escalated to our developer to handle accordingly.

Contact Us

For questions about the WelcomeHomeOC program, please contact WelcomeHomeOC@unitedwayoc.org. For questions about the portal, please contact WHOCSupport@ocuwhelp.zohodesk.com.

Empowered By Orange County United Way