It began in Boston with our vision ... We are a national nonprofit that is the primary website to apply online for all types of housing. We see City and State governments, HUD, property owners and millions of people joining our effort for easy common access to all affordable housing.
We envision fewer low-income and homeless families as well as apartment managers struggling with bureaucracy, archaic paper applications and the unmanageable, daunting waitlist system. We believe a central U.S. housing application system is inevitable.
A brief history
In April 2018, affordable housing management leaders and software development professionals in Boston established American Community Team Incorporated, a Massachusetts nonprofit. Since that time, our team has been researching nationally, planning design requirements, and reviewing available industry software in depth to develop Common Rent App. Also in that time ACT received its 501c3 charity status and funding.
Did you know that the mobile Section-8 program and the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program got their starts here in Massachusetts? We know those leaders personally.
Where we are today
We have now acquired industry software that comes to our nonprofit at no cost to us as a public benefit. The software needs some redevelopment then phased deployment of Common Rent App. The software will create one central place for the public to find all types of affordable housing, and more importantly apply and track applications. It will sync with the leading housing management software systems.
We have been talking with leaders in affordable housing at all levels - federal, state, and local in both the public and private sectors. National for-profit and nonprofit affordable housing owners are leading the charge, but we have also begun early conversations with HUD for the inevitable national application system. On the local level the city of Boston and local housing authorities have spoken with us. We are speaking with various leaders in the state of Massachusetts including state representatives, the governor and housing secretary as well as organizations working in line with us.