Rental Assistance through People-Informed Design (RAPID)

Project Background

The federal Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program, commonly known as Section 8, is the nation’s single largest tool for providing affordable housing. Under this program, families pay approximately 30% of their income toward rent, and the government pays the remainder of the rent directly to the property owner. While vouchers are in high demand, the program has a reputation for ‘red tape’ that may make obtaining and using vouchers burdensome for both tenants and owners.

RAPID (Rental Assistance through People-Informed Design) is a two-year partnership between the Public Policy Lab (PPL) and the NYC Department of Housing Preservation & Development (HPD) to assess how HPD can improve the Housing Choice Voucher experience for tenants, owners, and staff. This work builds on HPD’s June 2022 commitments in Housing Our Neighbors: A Blueprint for Housing and Homelessness [PDF] to reduce administrative burden to increase access to affordable housing.In keeping with these commitments, PPL and HPD are leading human-centered research and design to inform and support HPD’s development of streamlined customer-centered technology solutions, communications, and service offerings.

This project is made possible by generous multi-year grants from the New York Community Trust and Trinity Church Wall Street. We’re grateful for their support.

The biggest challenge for me was the unknown. You've submitted your application and you have no idea if it went through or if they're missing anything. It's important because, you know, it's something you're trying to get for your livelihood.

—Tenant

Tenants, landlords, and staff engaged

Applications tested

What We Found

Beginning in 2023, PPL recruited and engaged tenants and property owners across New York City, as well as front-line staff at HPD, to better understand how the people closest to the HCV program experience a five-stage user journey: learning about vouchers, applying for a voucher, seeking an apartment, leasing an apartment, and completing annual recertification. PPL researchers also conducted research with brokers, housing navigators, and shelter staff to learn how people in these important roles support tenants and owners participating in the HCV program.

In-Person and Virtual Research

We conducted in-person and virtual research with tenants, landlords, brokers, staff, and subject-matter experts across New York City.

Through a combination of in-person interviews, site observations, and virtual workshops, the PPL research team engaged 65 individuals in our first round of research, collecting rich data in the form of quotes, observations, and audio clips from HCV users. We immersed HPD staff and leadership in the voices of their clients through interactive sessions where attendees explored the raw data.

After sifting through 550+ data points to identify themes, patterns, and shared user needs, we generated a set of seven design concepts for new tools and products to improve how tenants and owners experience the HCV system. These potential interventions ranged from improving the capacity of the HCV support network to redesigning application materials to targeting tenant stigma and landlord perceptions.

PPL led HPD staff and leadership in discussion and debate surrounding the concepts’ potential effects and challenges. After lively discussion, guided feedback collection, and a voting exercise, application redesign was selected as the core priority.

What We Designed

We began the design process by asking: how can we re-design dense and complicated housing assistance applications to make them accessible and engaging for all applicants? During our research, we heard that potential applicants often feel overwhelmed at the beginning of the HCV process and miss key details as they wade through required paperwork.

In response, we knew that our new application designs needed to be welcoming and easy to navigate, answering common questions and removing roadblocks before they popped up. We wanted the forms to feel like a welcome packet and application for housing assistance, all in one. Through co-design sessions with various stakeholders, we redesigned the application forms to simplify, beautify, and streamline the application process.

New and Improved Housing Choice Voucher Applications

We redesigned the tenant application and owner package for the Housing Choice Voucher program, with a focus on plain language and visual clarity.

Some of the new features include:

removing jargon and breaking up long and complex blocks of text to simplify the readability from 11th-grade to a 5th-grade reading level,
implementing intuitive visual formatting to help direct the reader’s attention,
adding bite-sized info tips and callouts in areas that often cause confusion,
adding an updated document checklist
designing a new visual identity that includes welcoming color schemes, typefaces, and original illustrations.

During the design process, we also created fillable pdfs that can be used as an alternative to paper applications. These pdfs include “smart” features like e-signatures, auto-populating fields, and the option to save progress as you go.

In addition to streamlining the experience for tenants and landlords, we had to ensure the new forms collected all the information HPD needed to verify eligibility and that the new forms would fit seamlessly into front-line staff’s existing workflows and handoffs. This required deep engagement with HPD staff, mapping out their workflows and the data systems they use to verify, analyze, and upload information gathered from applicants.

Pilot Learnings
Following co-design, we pilot-tested our redesigned forms in the field. In assessing our materials during the pilot, our question was simple: does the updated design and format of the applications improve the experience for tenants, owners, and staff? To find out, we conducted in-person and remote user testing, circulated surveys, and hosted “immersion sessions” that helped us understand the work and systems of HPD staff.

Tenant Application Learnings
100% of applicants and tenants preferred the new design. When asked why, increased friendliness and clarity were cited most often. Tenants felt more confident due to the plain language and newly designed tooltips and checklists in the prototype.

“I think this is an easy breezy thing. It’s better than a lot of applications I’ve filled out. I appreciate that they tell you what they really want. Everything is worded so you can understand what they’re asking for directly.” – Current HCV Tenant

Owner Package Learnings
As a standardized fillable PDF, pilot testing confirmed that the Owner Package is more user-friendly and less error-prone. Pilot participants communicated that design updates to the Owner Package felt fresh, while still feeling familiar to owners who already knew the HCV program well.

“It’s a very nice new feel, but it still has [elements] of the old. You can still connect to it. It makes it easier because it’s not an entirely new thing. I like that about it.” – Current HCV Owner

This is a really good packet. Whoever did this really sat down and thought about it. It’s laser specific. It’s to the point.

— HCV Tenant

Design Revisions
While both prototypes were strongly preferred over the originals, pilot participants provided helpful insights on where we can further improve the design. For example, by carefully observing applicants and tenants working through our prototype materials, we learned that informational blocks longer than two sentences are frequently skipped and that document titles framed as questions often confuse tenants.

Moving forward, we’ll be revising our prototypes to respond to pilot participant feedback, making the applications even easier to fill out and process before we begin planning for real-world implementation with our partners at NYC HPD.

Internal Tools for HPD
In addition to designing public-facing tools, we also worked with HPD staff to create internal tools aimed at grounding all HPD voucher products and services in a human-centered approach. We leveraged our research with tenants and landlords to create a deck of user persona cards outlining eight potential types of voucher users, along with 12 modifiers to add nuances to users’ wants and needs when interacting with HPD. The agency now uses these cards in design and decision-making processes to further tailor their systems and customer service to the needs of tenants and landlords.

User Persona Cards

We created a set of user persona cards with archetypes and interchangeable modifiers to aid HPD staff in incorporating human-centered methods and decision-making in their future work.

Project Implementation

The application forms and materials are currently being prepared for implementation with HPD. We expect to launch and scale the final products in late 2024.

The user persona cards are currently in use by HPD staff across the department.

Projects

Rental Assistance through People-Informed Design (RAPID)

Partners & Funders

The Project

The Outcome

Rental Assistance through People-Informed Design (RAPID)

Partners & Funders

The Project

The Outcome

Project Background

What We Found

What We Designed

Project Implementation

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Projects

Rental Assistance through People-Informed Design (RAPID)

Partners & Funders

The Project

The Outcome

Rental Assistance through People-Informed Design (RAPID)

Partners & Funders

The Project

The Outcome

Project Background

What We Found

What We Designed

Project Implementation

Menu

Get in Touch

Interested in partnering with us?

Join Us

We’re always open to talking to folks with the skills, experience, and passion to join our team. Share your interest with us through our general application. To hear about future job announcements, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn or subscribe to our newsletter.

Follow Along

Social Media

Donate

We’re always open to talking to folks with the skills, experience, and passion to join our team. Share your interest with us through our general application.

To hear about future job announcements, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn or subscribe to our newsletter.