From 90-day paper inspections to certified housing at scale
all Chicago was launched to help end homelessness in the City of Chicago. They engaged Property Inspect to solve the problem of inspecting properties at scale during the pandemic for their rapid-rehousing program.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awards millions in Continuum of Care (CoC) grants to more than 1,200 local homeless housing programs across the United States and Puerto Rico. Each grant requires standardised property inspections — but before that even begins, municipalities need the correct documentation in place to allocate funding.
Once a property was identified, it had been taking at least 90 days to move it through the manual systems — a time-consuming, paper-based process with individual photos to take and store.
Paper inspections couldn't keep up with pandemic-era demand
More than 5,000 citizens of Chicago face homelessness on any given night. Municipalities faced a problem of certifying a higher volume of properties for the rapid-rehousing program at speed.
- 01Paper-based inspections took up to 90 days to process a single property.
- 02Time on the street. Slow processes meant people experiencing homelessness spent more time in shelters or on the street.
- 03COVID safety made on-site, in-person inspections difficult and risky.
- 04No audit trail. Paper forms and individual photos were difficult to store and retrieve.
Move people into permanent housing faster
- Reduce the time to move someone experiencing homelessness into permanent housing
- Enable landlords to carry out self-inspections via simple templates with date/time-referenced media
- Enable inspectors to complete required template fields, add photo evidence and assign action items
- Report property issues and assign & complete work orders prior to tenant occupation
A digital workflow built around the HUD habitability process
Property Inspect solved many of the problems facing cities by streamlining the rapid-rehousing process at scale — reducing time, paperwork, training and admin while automating notifications, auditing and compliance.
Self-service landlord assessments
Owners and landlords run their own initial inspections via a simple template — speeding the funnel.
Live video-based inspections
Properties inspected remotely and live via the app — safer during COVID, faster always.
HUD-aligned templates
Built-in templates designed in compliance with the HUD habitability process — readily available for other cities and municipalities to leverage.
High-volume certification
Time-stamped property reports with imagery and video provide accountability that properties are safe and compliant.
App over paper
App-based capture replaces paper checklists — full historical logs and timelines for effortless compliance.
2,000+ properties certified, 1,172 people housed
Faster onboarding
Property onboarding times reduced by at least 50% versus the previous paper process.
Properties certified
Far surpassed the original goal of onboarding 500–600 properties — 2,000+ onboarded since July 2020.
People housed
People experiencing homelessness placed into long-term housing.
Total in process
Housed or actively working through the rehoming process.
Time-stamped property reports with imagery and video eliminated properties not fit for habitation faster — and provided actionable information to improve the quality of those that remained.
