RDOOR Housing Corporation is Padmission Journey’s first customer. Its HomeNow Indy team is the centralized rent administrator for service providers across the Indianapolis Continuum of Care (CoC), and it has done that work in Journey for two and a half years.
Our first Unlocked story on HomeNow Indy covered how the team centralized landlord engagement and housing search on Padmission Connect. This one covers rental assistance administration: paying rent, charging each payment to the right grant, and keeping the documentation that proves it.
Breya Birdsong, MPA, leads that work as RDOOR’s Vice President of Rental Assistance Programs. The clearest result she reported came at the end of a grant. HomeNow Indy closed out its first grant in Journey and submitted the closeout report 13 days early.
The results and Breya’s account also fit on two pages. Download the HomeNow Indy case study (PDF) to share with a board, a funder or a CoC partner.
The short version
HomeNow Indy’s strongest result in Journey came at grant closeout, where every earlier payment decision gets added up.
Two results and two measures of scale frame the story. The results: the first grant closeout report in Journey, after two and a half years in the system, filed 13 days early, and a one-week on-site onboarding with tenancies and transactions processing the same week. The scale: 1,633 individuals served with housing assistance in 2025, on a $5.9 million operating budget, across five funding streams.
Breya credits the closeout result to Journey’s grant insights, where the team rebalanced the grant and aligned spenddown with the budget before writing the final report.
The team moved to Journey because its programs had grown past what its earlier tools could carry. Spreadsheets, and then a PHA software system built for public housing authorities, had met the need at the program’s earlier, smaller scale.
After importing and testing its data and programs, the team onboarded for one week with Padmission staff on site. It was processing tenancies and transactions that same week, with Journey as its only housing system.
Most of its payments now run through Journey, with supporting documentation tied to the transaction and client profile. Breya says that has made monitoring, audits, and funder claims and invoices easier to handle.
Spending information reaches staff who don’t track spenddown, so the people choosing housing solutions can see what they are spending and where braided funding gives them options.
HomeNow Indy outgrew the systems that fit its earlier scale
HomeNow Indy changed systems because its programs grew past what its earlier tools were built to carry.
In 2025 the team served 1,633 individuals with housing assistance ranging from light-touch navigation to rental assistance and case management, on an operating budget of $5,916,914.
It administers rapid rehousing programs across tenant-based rental assistance (TBRA), rapid rehousing (RRH), Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), American Rescue Plan (ARP) and private funding. The team pairs rental assistance with flexible funding to address the barriers that stand between a household and stable housing.
“Our role as a centralized rent, acquisition and navigation capacity building entity allowed us to demonstrate the success of addressing a fragmented housing (infrastructure) and create systems level intervention that helps all Indianapolis CoC service providers and their clients as well.”
Breya Birdsong, MPA, Vice President of Rental Assistance Programs, RDOOR Housing Corporation (HomeNow Indy)
The administration behind that role started small. HomeNow Indy began in Excel spreadsheets and later moved to a PHA software system. Both met the need while the program was smaller.
“Since our operations at the time were not as scaled up as they are now those systems met the current need. Our operations and programs have grow and needed a system to handle the volume of services and programs we administer.”
Breya Birdsong, MPA, Vice President of Rental Assistance Programs, RDOOR Housing Corporation (HomeNow Indy)
What the team looked for next was concrete. In Breya’s words, they were “seeking something that was user friendly, with internal workflows that made housing efforts easy for staff to follow.”
The cost of the old setup showed up in tracking. With fragmented systems and spreadsheets kept by several people, she says, the team had significant gaps in keeping up with what each program needed. In coordinated housing systems, that gap grows with every provider and funding stream added. Each file is accurate to the person who keeps it, and nobody holds the whole program.
Journey’s first customer was live in the week it onboarded
HomeNow Indy made Journey its only housing system on launch day and was processing tenancies and transactions the same week.
Going first meant there wasn’t another Journey customer’s experience to go on. Breya’s team decided on the strength of who was building it.
“As the first ever client to use Padmission Journey we trusted that peers in the housing/rehousing space that understood housing workflows could create a system that could handle the complexities of the work that we do. Prior to being in the system we worked with the team to import important data and programs, and test some of our program to ensure on launch day we were prepared to make Padmission Journey our sole housing system.”
Breya Birdsong, MPA, Vice President of Rental Assistance Programs, RDOOR Housing Corporation (HomeNow Indy)
The cutover itself took one week. “We onboarded for a week with program staff and Padmission Journey Staff on site and were live processing tenancies and transactions the same week.”
For a rent administrator, the first week is where a system change carries its risk. Rent comes due on schedule, and landlords expect payment whether or not staff have finished learning a new system.
The staff who learned Journey first onboarded the roles that came after them
HomeNow Indy’s housing programs team, in Journey longer than the navigators and acquisition staff, became the people who onboarded them.
“(Overall) staff (experience) has greatly improved due to the functionality and flow of the system. Staff have been able to easily integrate into the system, and have access to support when they run into any issues. Housing programs team members have been in the system longer than our Navigators and our (acquisition) staff, and have been able to help guide them and onboard them to ensure they are able to track and monitor clients, units and payments as well.”
Breya Birdsong, MPA, Vice President of Rental Assistance Programs, RDOOR Housing Corporation (HomeNow Indy)
When the trainer is a colleague who already runs the work in the system, a new role learns the program’s own way of doing it. Navigators and acquisition staff learned to track clients, units and payments from colleagues already doing that in Journey.
Payments carry their supporting documentation, and monitoring has gotten easier
At HomeNow Indy, supporting documentation is tied to the transaction and the client profile, which Breya says has made monitoring and audits easier to handle.
“We have made it so that majority of the payments that we process are done within Journey. Having an accurate log of what has been spent on what program and for the clients has made it easier to respond to monitoring and assist our auditors. Having supporting (documentation) tied to the transaction and client profile make it easy to prepare claims and invoices to funders.”
Breya Birdsong, MPA, Vice President of Rental Assistance Programs, RDOOR Housing Corporation (HomeNow Indy)
Monitoring questions come from two directions: how much a program spent and on what, and what a particular household received. A spending log kept by program and by client answers both from the same entries.
Funder claims and invoices draw on that same record. That’s what housing program administration looks like when the evidence is kept with the work: the supporting documents sit on the transaction and the client profile.
Landlords see the payment side of the work: notices of upcoming payments and rental assistance program (RAP) updates.
“Our property partners have grown accustomed to our system and enjoy being notified about upcoming payments, important RAP updates, etc.”
Breya Birdsong, MPA, Vice President of Rental Assistance Programs, RDOOR Housing Corporation (HomeNow Indy)
HomeNow Indy’s first grant closeout in Journey was filed 13 days early
HomeNow Indy’s first grant closeout in Journey came after two and a half years in the system, and the report went in ahead of the deadline.
“After being in the system for two and a half years we were really curious on how closing out a grant would look. The updates that have been done in the grant insights section made it possible to close out with ease. Rebalancing the grant and (aligning) program (spenddown) with the grant budget allowed us to create and submit a close out report 13 days in advance!”
Breya Birdsong, MPA, Vice President of Rental Assistance Programs, RDOOR Housing Corporation (HomeNow Indy)
Closeout asks a program to reconcile everything it spent against the grant budget. Rebalancing the grant, so that each budget line’s spending matches what the grant allows, has to happen before the final report can be written.
Journey’s grant insights view shows a grant’s spending against its budget, with a projection to the end of the grant, and it’s where a grant is rebalanced. Breya credits the updates made to that section.
Closeout time is mostly reconstruction time. HomeNow Indy rebalanced the grant, aligned spenddown with the budget and confirmed total spend in Journey’s grant insights, where most of its spending was already recorded, and filed 13 days early.
Spending information reaches the staff who choose housing solutions
In Journey, staff who aren’t responsible for tracking spenddown can still see how much they are spending.
“Overall efficiency within the (housing) programs team reducing the amount of time it takes to enroll someone in a housing program and begin issuing payments. It makes it easier for staff who are not responsible for tracking spenddown to understand how much they are spending and ways they can be creative in their housing solutions with braided funding.”
Breya Birdsong, MPA, Vice President of Rental Assistance Programs, RDOOR Housing Corporation (HomeNow Indy)
Braided funding means a household’s assistance draws on more than one funding source, with each source’s spending tracked separately. Braiding works best when the person choosing a housing solution can see what they are spending. At HomeNow Indy, that person doesn’t have to be the one who tracks spenddown.
Breya uses the same data to look ahead as well as back: “Journey has been a great resource for projecting out program costs and using previous data to justify funding requests.”
For her own analysis, Breya works from the transactions directly.
“I typically use the transaction exports most often. I can put together a pivot table really easily with the data and use it to inform grant spend or additional funding needs.”
Breya Birdsong, MPA, Vice President of Rental Assistance Programs, RDOOR Housing Corporation (HomeNow Indy)
A funding request built on a program’s own transaction history argues from what was actually spent.
In practice: what HomeNow Indy runs in Journey
Two and a half years in, Journey is HomeNow Indy’s only housing system, and most of its payments run through it.
- Tenancies and transactions for its programs, in Journey, the team’s only housing system.
- Most payments processed in Journey and logged by program and by client.
- Supporting documentation tied to the transaction and client profile, used for monitoring, audits, and funder claims and invoices.
- Notices to property partners about upcoming payments and program updates.
- Grant insights used to rebalance a grant, align spenddown with the budget, and confirm total spend at closeout.
- Transaction exports that feed leadership’s own analysis of grant spend and funding needs.
The administrator who went first learned Journey hands-on, with support behind her
Breya learned Journey by testing it on her own and using Padmission’s site resources, with the team’s support when she got stuck.
“The Padmission team has been truly insightful during the process. I have felt empowered to test things out on my own, and utilize the resources they have already built out on the site to learn more about how to use the system. They have also been very responsive when I get stuck and need a little extra assistance to complete a workflow or task.”
Breya Birdsong, MPA, Vice President of Rental Assistance Programs, RDOOR Housing Corporation (HomeNow Indy)
She also sees the effect with HomeNow Indy’s City and CoC partners. Journey, she says, “allows us to standout and has strengthened the trust between our City/CoC partners.”
“Padmission Journey has been invaluable! The system has exceeded our expectations and has allowed us to strengthen our internal processes and external impact!”
Breya Birdsong, MPA, Vice President of Rental Assistance Programs, RDOOR Housing Corporation (HomeNow Indy)
Thank you to Breya and the HomeNow Indy team for going first, and for the work you do for households across Indianapolis.
This applies most to centralized administrators running several funding streams
HomeNow Indy’s experience is most relevant to organizations that administer rental assistance centrally for several providers or several funding streams.
Rapid rehousing programs braiding public and private dollars will recognize the closeout and spending-visibility problems most directly. Single-program agencies face the same monitoring and closeout questions at a smaller scale.
Frequently asked questions
Who was Padmission Journey’s first customer?
RDOOR Housing Corporation in Indianapolis. Its HomeNow Indy team is the centralized rent administrator for service providers in the Indianapolis CoC and has run its rental assistance programs in Journey for two and a half years.
How long was HomeNow Indy’s onboarding to Journey?
One week on site. Before launch, the team worked with Padmission to import its data and programs and test them. Program staff and Padmission staff then onboarded together for a week, and HomeNow Indy was processing tenancies and transactions that same week.
How does one payment record help with monitoring and audits?
It answers program-level and household-level questions from the same entries. HomeNow Indy processes most of its payments in Journey with supporting documentation tied to the transaction and client profile, which Breya says has made it easier to respond to monitoring, assist auditors, and prepare claims and invoices to funders.
How did HomeNow Indy file a grant closeout report 13 days early?
By rebalancing the grant and aligning program spenddown with the grant budget in Journey’s grant insights section. It was the first grant the team closed out in Journey, after two and a half years in the system.
What is braided funding in rental assistance?
Braided funding is assistance that draws on more than one funding source for the same household, with each source’s spending tracked and reported separately. At HomeNow Indy, spending visibility in Journey lets staff who don’t track spenddown see what they are spending and use braided funding creatively.
Read next
For another Journey community, read how HOM, Inc. set up a centralized fiscal agent model on Journey. If your team administers several funding streams for several providers, book a conversation about what that would look like in Journey.
