The Challenge: Rising Demand and Complex Processes
Local Authorities across England are facing unprecedented challenges in meeting the demand for temporary housing. Over the past year, spending on temporary accommodation for homeless families has soared past £1 billion, a stark increase driven by record numbers of families—including over 150,000 children—requiring short-term housing.
In this high-demand environment, every vacant property must be filled as quickly as possible. However, the current temporary housing allocation process is slow and complicated. It involves multiple departments—such as housing benefits, homelessness prevention, housing options etc—and requires approvals from several managers. This fragmented process, with many touchpoints and different systems, can delay placements, leaving vulnerable individuals on the streets longer than necessary.
How We Do It: Simplifying the Process Through Automation and AI
Our solution reimagines the temporary housing allocation process by placing a conversational AI chatbot at the centre of operations. The traditional method is often disjointed, relying on multiple systems that require staff to manually input data, chase approvals, and navigate between platforms. Our conversational AI chatbot streamlines this complexity by sitting on top of all these processes, providing a single, cohesive interface that connects and automates each step. Here's how it works:
1. Automated Data Capture and Process Integration
AI chatbot gathers all necessary applicant details in one streamlined conversation, replacing the need for repetitive manual data entry across various systems. Once the data is captured, the chatbot automatically initiates the next steps. This integration ensures that no information is missed and that each step flows smoothly into the next, vastly reducing the overall time to process allocations.
2. Customisable Workflows to Fit Your Needs
We recognise that no two councils operate exactly alike. Our solution offers fully customisable workflows tailored to the specific needs of your organisation. Whether you need specific approval chains, or integrations with existing platforms, our system adapts to fit seamlessly within your current operations. This ensures that every step, from applicant assessment to final approval, aligns perfectly with your established processes.
3. End-to-End Management with Reduced Complexity
Traditionally, managing temporary housing allocations involves juggling between different systems and numerous touchpoints. Our solution simplifies this by consolidating everything into one platform, reducing the need for staff to navigate multiple interfaces. The AI chatbot not only handles data capture but also manages backend processes, pulling the right information from the right places and ensuring it is entered into the appropriate systems. This reduces the administrative burden on your staff, allowing them to focus on more critical tasks.
4. Seamless Communication and Scheduling
Once the requisition is finished, our system takes care of scheduling appointments, coordinating key handovers, and communicating with tenants through text messages or popular channels like WhatsApp. This automated communication ensures that tenants are kept informed at every stage, making the move-in process as smooth and stress-free as possible.
5. Streamlined Housing Benefit Applications
Completing housing benefit applications is often one of the most time-consuming parts following the allocation process. Our solution simplifies this by first creating a rent account. Once this account is set up, the system pulls in all available information, pre-populating the necessary fields. It then prompts for any additional information required to complete the housing benefit form, reducing the workload for both staff and applicants and speeding up the process significantly.
6. Reduced Effort for Moved-Out Tenants
A quicker turnaround is not just beneficial for placing new residents—it also simplifies the process when tenants move out. Once a tenant vacates a property, our automated system efficiently completes any remaining administrative tasks, eliminating the need to chase down information from former residents who may be difficult to contact. This streamlined approach reduces the ongoing workload for staff and ensures that properties can be made available to new tenants more rapidly.
7. Significant Time Savings
The traditional temporary housing allocation process can be extremely time-consuming, often requiring 3-4 hours of back-and-forth work with potential tenants to complete all the necessary steps for one single case. With our solution, this time is significantly reduced as the automated system handles much of the data entry, communication, and approval processes, allowing your team to manage more cases in less time.
Our solution not only accelerates the temporary housing allocation process but also enables councils to provide timely and effective support to those in need, transforming how housing professionals meet the challenges of today’s demanding landscape. Contact us now to learn more!
*Reference: BBC - £1bn spent housing homeless families in England https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj9l8njg2rzo
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