CMHA 2012 Annual Report - Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing ...

Housing Choice Voucher Program
CMHA families receiving services
from the Campus Headquarters
The Housing Choice Voucher Program
(HCVP) assists low-income households
in obtaining quality affordable housing,
by providing rental assistance to private
landlords. In 2011, the Program opened
its waiting list in a new, innovative way
to meet the needs of our community and
guarantee maximum accessibility for all
interested individuals and families.
By combining an electronic entry form with an off-site
Customer Call Center, the HCVP removed virtually any
barrier to entering the lottery to win a place on the waiting
list. Persons interested in entering the lottery simply
submitted an entry through a dedicated web site, using
any computer with an internet connection. The computer
could be their own, a friend’s or family member’s, or a
public computer like those at public libraries. Best of all,
entrants could complete and submit their entry 24 hours a
day, 7 days a week.
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For seniors and those with disabilities who might have
difficulty using a computer, the Customer Call Center was
available to take their information over the phone and
submit their entry for them. The Call Center also provided
answers to questions, troubleshot any difficulties an entrant
might encounter and directed callers to the nearest public
library to use one of the computers at that location.
The results surpassed all expectations. Over the course
of eight days, over 64,000 unduplicated entries were
received, a significantly higher response than those of
comparably-sized Housing Authorities throughout the
country. An independently operated random computer
draw established the new waiting list of 10,000 names
from among all the entries. This waiting list is expected to
be in use for the next five to seven years.