In communities across the country, decentralized landlord engagement has long created bottlenecks: duplicated cold calls, missed unit opportunities, siloed relationships, and clients stuck with too few options. The alternative — centralized landlord engagement at the CoC level — requires a structural commitment and a shared system that all providers can trust and use. Cincinnati and Hamilton County decided to build exactly that.
In this second installment of Unlocked, our series highlighting communities that are expanding housing access by centralizing landlord engagement, we spoke with Strategies to End Homelessness (STEH) and their RentConnect Manager, Tiffany Gehrlich, about how Padmission Connect is helping them unlock a coordinated, efficient system for housing navigation across their entire CoC.
Unlocking a Smarter, Shared Approach to Housing Navigation
As the lead agency for the Hamilton County/Cincinnati CoC, STEH partners with 30 local organizations, 10 of which operate rental assistance programs including RRH, PSH, Shelter Diversion, and SSVF.
Before RentConnect, housing search efforts varied significantly by provider. Units were often known to one team but invisible to others, resulting in duplicated outreach and uneven access for participants depending on entry point. Prior to adopting a centralized approach, landlord engagement in Cincinnati looked like it does in most communities: fragmented housing processes within the homelessness response system.
Housing program staff each maintained their own small network of landlord contacts; landlords had to guess which agency to call; and hundreds of opportunities were missed because information stayed siloed.
“Decentralization — Property providers had some housing program staff contacts and housing program staff had some property provider contacts and they were trying to find the right fit at the right time, with these limited connections. If a property provider had open units and their limited contacts couldn’t use them, they went to market renters when we know there were other agencies that could have used them. Not only is this process exhausting for both parties, but ultimately it is inefficient and provides very limited access to housing options for the people we are serving.”
— Tiffany Gehrlich, RentConnect Manager, Strategies to End Homelessness, Cincinnati
This decentralization meant clients often had access to only a handful of unit options — pushing them toward “take what you can get” placements instead of being able to choose where they wanted to live.
“Agencies were hoarding and very protective of their property partner contacts which resulted in many missed opportunities for the individuals and families participating in programs.”
Unlocking Efficiency: A Coordinated System That Works for Everyone
When STEH launched RentConnect in 2023 as their centralized landlord engagement program, they adopted Padmission Connect to give every partner agency access to the same unit opportunities, property partners, and housing search tools.
The results have been transformative.
A Centralized Marketplace for Housing Opportunities
Instead of dozens of staff cold-calling landlords or scrambling across online listings, RentConnect now manages relationships and unit listings for the entire CoC. Housing program staff simply search, filter, and match clients to viable units — saving hours each week.
“Day to day, RentConnect is taking on the role of locating housing options and building relationships with property partners, and the program staff can focus on getting their clients into that housing.”
For case managers, day-to-day work shifted from searching for information to evaluating options. Staff could see which units were available, which were already in process, and where coordination was needed — without removing discretion over participant matching.
“The search process is streamlined by having all the details about the unit available, along with photos… program staff and clients can make informed decisions before going out to view the unit.”
Better Experience for Landlords
Landlords now reach all agencies in the CoC at once instead of trying to guess who needs a unit.
“They love the ease with which they can market their units to multiple agencies!”
The CRM has also been a powerful tool, enabling RentConnect to build and maintain strong relationships at scale.
Better Experience for Clients
Centralization has opened more doors — literally and figuratively.
“Centralizing housing navigation has opened many more options so households can choose where they want to live. Often times, without centralization, the clients were made to essentially ‘take what they can get’ because there were so few options. What we know about housing stability is that it increases dramatically when people get to make their own decisions about where they live.”
And holding more options in one place has meaningfully reduced the time it takes to house people.
“We have also seen a decrease in the number of days it takes to house someone when the unit is found in Padmission.”
Unlocked Stability Through Choice
Tiffany emphasizes that client choice is deeply tied to housing stability. When clients can select units based on proximity to supports, accessibility needs, school districts, or neighborhood preference, long-term outcomes improve.
Padmission Connect’s map search and filtering tools have been especially helpful:
- Programs accepted by the Property Manager
- Tenant selection criteria
- Accessibility features
- Specific neighborhoods
- Desired unit types
Unlocked Insight: What Cincinnati Wants Other Communities to Know
When asked what advice she’d give to communities considering Padmission Connect, Tiffany’s answer was simple and clear:
“Padmission has been an integral component to building our centralized housing navigation program.”
And her biggest lesson in landlord engagement?
“Relationships, relationships, relationships! I always know we are doing something right when a property partner calls me to discuss a negative situation they encountered with a tenant they got from us, and still ends the call with ‘I will have a new unit to add to Padmission next week.’ I have also learned that connecting property partners to the mission is a great way to keep them engaged. People like to feel like they are doing something good for others.”
The ability to nurture those relationships — while making the housing search easier for both landlords and staff — is at the core of STEH’s success.
Cincinnati’s Takeaway: Centralization Isn’t Just More Efficient — It’s More Equitable
RentConnect demonstrates how shared and centralized housing access can improve coordination without centralizing decision-making. The system creates clarity around availability while preserving local judgment and program requirements.
By centralizing housing navigation, the Cincinnati/Hamilton County CoC has created a system where:
- landlords reach more tenants
- staff spend less time searching and more time supporting
- participants have real options
- the entire community captures opportunities that once slipped through the cracks
This is what Unlocked looks like in practice: communities reshaping their systems to increase access, reduce friction, and create more housing opportunities for the people they serve.
Stay tuned for the next installment of Unlocked, where we’ll continue highlighting communities transforming landlord engagement and expanding housing access across the country.
Explore how other communities have built centralized landlord engagement at the system level — including how Partnership Home in Tarrant County restructured shared housing access across their CoC and how NMCEH in Albuquerque launched a Landlord Engagement Program that cut housing search time by nearly half.
For communities working through how unit reservation coordination supports placement pipelines across agencies, that operational detail is covered separately.
And for the broader context of how system fragmentation in homelessness response shapes what communities can accomplish, that framing is worth reading alongside any centralization effort.
