Affordable Housing Compliance and Platform Enhancements

During the Entrata Affordable: Empowering Success While Navigating Federal & Local Compliance break out session at Entrata Summit 2025, Stephen Dangerfield, Senior Director of Product  at Entrata, along with Senior Product Manager, Kyle Mosher,  Senior Consultant  Demi Stone, and Principal Sales Engineer Matthew Segura discussed how modern technology can lighten the load, directly tackling staff burnout and the chaos of disconnected systems that plague affordable properties. This session outlined Entrata’s strategy for navigating ever-changing compliance rules and what properties need to do to increase efficiencies and recover lost rent.

Industry Challenges and Wins

Affordable housing operators face intense pressure to be flexible and nimble while juggling layered compliance requirements (e.g., HOTMA, local rules, and nuanced programs). This environment leads to an aging workforce, staff turnover, and complexity in training new team members, which is often compounded by fragmented software creating data silos.

Announcement of Upcoming Platform Features

Five significant features are scheduled for release in October, primarily focused on giving users more control, efficiency, and revenue-driving capabilities:

1. Approval Routing Analytics

This tool provides deep insights into the certification approval workflow, helping corporate and regional users identify bottlenecks. Users can run reports and visualizations to pinpoint issues related to specific employees, certification types, or documents. The feature also offers high-level insights and allows users to export detailed date and timestamps for every interaction, aiding in load balancing, training identification, and reducing vacancy loss.

2. Self-Initiated Migration (SIM) for Affordable

The self-initiated migration tool, previously available for other property types, is now available for tax credit and other affordable programs (federal and local). This allows organizations to migrate data at their own pace, which is critical during property takeovers and acquisitions. The process is supported by self-service portals and optional handholding from migration consultants.

3. Special Claims Automation (HUD)

An integrated AI tool will search a property's database to automatically identify eligible special claims (e.g., vacancy loss, damages, loss of rent). It will automatically attach supporting documents like pictures, inspections, and work orders, significantly reducing the manual effort for site staff and helping owners recover lost revenue quickly. The tool can be customized to meet the varying documentation requirements of different PBCAs.

4. Rules Engine

The rules engine is designed to provide infinite scalability and control to users. While the platform continues to update for federal programs (LIHTC, HUD, HOME), this feature allows corporate-level users to create, test, and instantly deploy rules for unique local programs or for rapid changes to federal regulations without waiting for a formal release cycle. It allows for the manipulation of parameters (e.g., ignoring student status for a specific program) and includes a testing mechanism to call out conflicting rules before deployment.

5. Native HOME Program Support

Leveraging the flexibility of the new architecture, the platform will have native support for the HOME funding program. This integration will work seamlessly whether HOME is standalone, or layered with other programs like LIHTC or Section 8, eliminating the need for separate workflows.

Core Commitment

The overarching commitment is to eliminate fragmentation by providing one system for less toggling and real-time clarity. The platform commits to building fast based on feedback from operators, ensuring that new features directly address daily challenges to help save time and money, allowing teams to reinvest in their residents and their affordable housing mission.