When we started this work, initial reports indicated that households took an average of five to six months to move into housing after being matched to a DC housing voucher.1 One contributing factor was the lengthy, confusing application process. The DC Housing Authority (DCHA)’s intake and voucher application took at least one hour to fill out. The 40 pages of application forms contained confusing language and redundant questions. This often led to mistakes by applicants and their case managers. Mistakes or omissions meant delays in the review process. As a result, households waited longer to complete their eligibility process to get a voucher and move into housing. To address these challenges, we redesigned the application forms and created short info sheets and videos to guide residents through the application process.
Why is this issue important in DC? DC's goal is that homelessness is rare, brief and doesn't happen to anyone repeatedly. Throughout 2023, The Lab, DCHA, the Department of Human Services (DHS), and Resident Researchers listened to residents and frontline staff to find ways to speed up and improve services. One key recommendation was for District Government to further invest in customer service.
Caption: Map of the steps a resident takes to apply for locally funded a voucher.
What did we do?
We went line-by-line through the 40 pages of forms that make up the current voucher application with DCHA’s legal team and the voucher program staff. We shadowed residents and case managers as they filled out the forms, as well as DC Government staff while they processed the forms. We considered local and federal rules and regulations. With an understanding of the needs of both residents and government, we redesigned the application. This redesign used plain language and reduced duplicative questions. It is visually accessible for those with low vision, and it guides users with tips and explainers.
We also developed a short info sheet and video to guide residents through the application process and the steps after approval.
What have we learned?
We've learned anecdotally that the new form is appreciated by frontline staff, and many report that it has improved their processing time. For example, DHS staff used to spend 15-20 minutes reviewing an application and now spend roughly 5-7 minutes.
“Prior to the redesign, I had to enter the same information 15 different times. If I made one mistake, it got kicked back.”
What comes next?
The redesigned application is available as a fillable PDF and is used to apply for nearly all housing voucher programs administered by DC Housing Authority that support hundreds of households each year. The hope is to leverage this redesign as the foundation for a digital application in the future.
What happened behind the scenes?
Several different voucher programs use the application, and each has slightly different questions. Instead of asking all applicants to answer all questions, we arranged questions into modules. Applicants can more easily skip whole sections that are not applicable to them. For example, if the applicant is applying for a federally funded voucher, they’ll complete the Federal Supplement module. If they’re applying for a locally funded voucher, they’ll complete the Local Supplement module.
1 Being “matched” means a voucher is available and tentatively set aside for a resident. The resident still needs to apply to the DC Housing Authority to be approved for a voucher. Once approved, the resident will need to find a unit that accepts the voucher before moving in.