Orange County Agency Develops Online Application With Help from Community

摘要

When the Orange County, Calif., Housing Authority (OCHA) opened its Section 8 voucher waiting list in November 2005, about 60 percent of the 20,000 applications were submitted on the county's website in a new process that was worked out in consultation with community groups. When Orange County last opened its waiting list in June 2001, applications were submitted on paper forms and scanned into OCHA's computer system. OCHA currently administers 9,619 Section 8 vouchers and has a turnover of 70 to 80 vouchers each month. OCHA hired a contractor to scan in the documents, which turned out to be an inefficient method, said John Hambuch, OCHA manager of housing assistance. "We learned that it takes a lot of work to correct and clean up errors on the applications," he said. "So that technology didn't work well for us."