4 min read
Affordable housing owners and operators face many sector-specific concerns. Chief among them is addressing the challenges faced by unbanked and underbanked populations.
Because they don’t have a bank, credit union or enough payment history to establish a credit score, unbanked and underbanked renters may have difficulty securing housing.
“Unbanked and underbanked individuals rely on alternative financial services, so affordable housing operators need to think outside the box to best serve them,” said Moez Rajan, Treasury Management Officer in Community Development Banking at JPMorgan Chase. “With revised screening practices, innovative rent payment strategies and strong treasury infrastructure, operators can provide underbanked residents with housing and a financial path forward.”
Here are four ways affordable housing providers can better serve unbanked and underbanked residents.
When screening unbanked and underbanked applicants, you’ll want to look beyond traditional criteria. Instead, you should:
Affordable housing operators can sign up for rent credit reporting services, which help residents establish and improve their credit score when they make on-time rent payments. You can also encourage timely payments by offering:
It’s important to have the infrastructure in place so your finance teams can help residents build credit while improving your operational efficiency. Focus on these four areas:
Financial institutions with affordable housing expertise can serve as valuable resources. Your bank can offer individual counseling or facilitate group workshops on budgeting, saving and how to establish and improve credit. Your financial institution can also help unbanked or underbanked residents open bank accounts, so they can receive direct deposits and send digital rent payments.
Implementing rent payment strategies and providing finance teams with support and infrastructure can help affordable housing providers address unbanked and underbanked residents’ challenges. By working collaboratively with an experienced financial institution, affordable housing providers can unlock new possibilities to meet the urgent needs of affordable housing.
The right digital rent payment platform can make your operations more efficient and help you better serve residents. Find out what else to look for in your rent payment solution.
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