IL HomeReach
An exploration in connecting people with affordable, accessible housing
A Platform Built Around a Hard Problem
Finding affordable, accessible housing is one of the most stressful searches a family can undertake. Listings go stale, voucher acceptance is opaque, application fees pile up, and the process of moving from "I need a home" to "I have keys" can stretch across dozens of phone calls and weeks of uncertainty.
We explored this space and applied our collective expertise across search, mapping, workflow tooling, and accessibility to design a unified platform that serves renters, landlords, case managers, and the agencies coordinating between them — in one consistent experience.
Search the Way People Actually Search
A map-first search lets renters explore by region, see clusters at a glance, and filter by the things that actually matter: number of bedrooms, monthly rent, accessibility features, subsidy programs, and whether the landlord welcomes housing vouchers. Transit stops and community amenities can be layered on top, and a freshness indicator shows how recently each listing was confirmed by the landlord — so search results reflect what's actually available today.
Built for Everyone in the Process
Renters
Save searches, get alerts on new matches, bookmark units, track applications across the whole pipeline, and share a single screening report with multiple landlords instead of paying for one per application.
Landlords & Property Managers
List and update properties, upload photos and documents, declare voucher policies, respond to referrals, and run listing text through a built-in fair-housing language checker before publishing.
Case Managers
A command-center dashboard surfaces expiring enrollments, stuck referrals, pending offers, and proposed matches. In-app messaging keeps coordination with property managers in one place, with a full audit trail.
Agency Staff
Approve landlords, verify properties, run compliance surveys, and review supply versus demand at the county level — all from one administrative console.
Fair-Housing Safeguards Built In
A standalone language checker scans listing text against federal protected classes and additional state-level protections, flagging risky phrasing and offering neutral rewrites. Voucher-acceptance signals are surfaced as a first-class filter and badge, directly addressing one of the most common barriers voucher holders face.
A shared screening report lets a renter run one credit and background check and then authorize multiple landlords to view it — eliminating per-application screening fees that can otherwise put dozens of units out of reach.
Decisions Backed by the Data
The platform already collects waitlist demand, available supply, voucher-welcome participation, accessibility coverage, and average days-to-placement — so the administrative dashboard turns that into a per-county gap analysis with color-coded scoring. Planning, funding allocation, and outreach decisions get to lean on data the system was already producing.
Keeping Listings Fresh
Stale listings are the single most common complaint about affordable housing search. HomeReach addresses it on two fronts: every property update, photo upload, and unit change automatically refreshes a listing freshness timestamp, and a built-in compliance polling system periodically asks landlords to confirm availability with escalating reminders. Renters see freshness directly on each result — current, aging, stale, or outdated — so trust in the data is rebuilt every time they search.
Architecture
Public System
Renter search, landlord portal, fair-housing checker, multilingual content service.
Staff System
Case manager command center, waitlist and referral pipeline, offer letters, compliance polling.
Admin System
Approvals, reporting, supply/demand analytics, audit log, system observability.
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