Housing Navigation Infrastructure & Strategies

Housing navigation is a defining capability of modern homelessness response systems. When pathways from eligibility to placement are structured and visible, communities reduce delays, improve coordination, and support more predictable housing outcomes.

This topic explores the infrastructure behind effective navigation — including shared housing search practices, cross-agency workflows, and placement pipeline visibility. Navigation is more than a frontline function; it is system infrastructure that shapes how reliably communities translate resources into housing.

Unlocked: How Syracuse Designed Centralized Landlord Engagement For System-Level Coordination

Unlocked: How Syracuse Designed Centralized Landlord Engagement For System-Level Coordination

The Unlocked Series highlights how Continuums of Care are structuring centralized landlord engagement and housing search as coordinated system functions—moving beyond fragmented workflows toward shared infrastructure that supports consistent housing access.

In Central New York, that shift is already producing measurable results. The CNY CHANCE program (Centralized Housing Assistance and Network for Community Engagement), powered by Padmission Connect, has surpassed its first-year housing placement […]

By Daniel Davis|2026-03-24T09:31:26-07:00March 24th, 2026|Landlord Engagement & Partnerships|Comments Off

Unlocked: How Indianapolis Centralized Rehousing Through HomeNow Indy

Unlocked: How Indianapolis Centralized Rehousing Through HomeNow Indy

Breya Birdsong (fourth from the left) and the RDOOR team receive formal recognition for the impact they have had creating and implementing HomeNow Indy. Birdsong, VP of Rental Assistance Programs, shares her expertise and experience in this article.

Building trust, system capacity, and faster rehousing through shared infrastructure

In our Unlocked series, we highlight communities that have rethought how housing systems operate—moving away […]

By Daniel Davis|2026-05-05T13:45:11-07:00January 28th, 2026|Housing Search & Navigation, Landlord Engagement & Partnerships|Comments Off

Unlocked: How Cincinnati’s CoC Centralized Housing Navigation and Opened More Doors for Households in Need

Unlocked: How Cincinnati’s CoC Centralized Housing Navigation and Opened More Doors for Households in Need

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 […]

By Daniel Davis|2026-05-06T17:51:25-07:00December 4th, 2025|Housing Search & Navigation, Landlord Engagement & Partnerships|Comments Off

Empowering Client Choice with Padmission Connect

Empowering Client Choice with Padmission Connect

In communities across the country, Padmission Connect is helping housing programs put choice back into the hands of the people they serve. With interactive housing search tools, participants and their case managers can work together—within one secure system—to identify housing that truly fits a participant’s needs, supports, and daily life.

This isn’t simply about locating an available unit. It is about helping people find the right home in the right […]

By Daniel Davis|2026-03-16T17:08:00-07:00November 24th, 2025|Housing Search & Navigation|Comments Off

Unlocked: How Partnership Home Uses Padmission Connect to Strengthen Landlord Engagement

Unlocked: How Partnership Home Uses Padmission Connect to Strengthen Landlord Engagement

In most communities, landlord engagement starts and ends with whoever picked up the phone last. Housing navigators build small, personal networks. Staff turnover erases those relationships. And when a new client needs housing, the search starts from scratch. Partnership Home — the collaborative applicant, HMIS lead, and coordinated entry lead for the TX-601 Continuum of Care in Tarrant County, Texas — recognized this as a system design problem. Their answer […]

By Daniel Davis|2026-05-06T17:41:11-07:00October 16th, 2025|Housing Search & Navigation, Landlord Engagement & Partnerships|Comments Off

New Map Search for Desktop and Mobile

New Map Search for Desktop and Mobile

Location, location, location. Spatial visibility is a core requirement of effective and coordinated housing search. Understanding where units are located, how they relate to services and social supports, and which are actively available supports informed housing decisions and enables client choice.

In many systems, location data exists but is disconnected from housing workflows, limiting its usefulness for navigation and coordination.

Padmission Connect integrates map-based housing […]

By Kevin McKee|2026-02-06T09:36:27-07:00April 6th, 2022|Product Updates & New Features|Comments Off

Landlord Incentives: HOM Survey Results

Landlord Incentives: HOM Survey Results

We’re seeing some amazing work around the country by leaders in homeless services systems around landlord engagement in response to the Coronavirus pandemic. Fortunately, HUD Notice CPD-20-08, Waivers and Alternative Requirements for the Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG) Program Under the CARES Act, provides the field with alternative requirements and flexibilities under the CARES Act, including for landlord incentives. Incentivizing landlords to participate in housing programs, and […]

By Mike Shore|2025-12-16T10:51:22-07:00October 16th, 2020|Housing Search & Navigation, Landlord Engagement & Partnerships|Comments Off

Re-Order and Delete Images Update

Re-Order and Delete Images Update

Admiration and Gratitude

We just wanted to send a quick note to express our genuine admiration and sincere gratitude for the work that you and your colleagues are doing – always, but especially now. Please be safe and stay well.

Feature Update

We’ve rolled out some new functionality that gives property managers and housing locators more control in organizing images for properties. Click on the image below to launch a quick YouTube video […]

By Mike Shore|2026-01-13T16:22:46-07:00March 31st, 2020|Product Updates & New Features|Comments Off

Property Engagement and Housing Search Assistance

Property Engagement and Housing Search Assistance

Editor’s note — March 2026: This post was written in May 2020, shortly after HUD issued guidance encouraging Continuums of Care to develop proactive, affirmative landlord engagement systems at the community level. The concepts introduced here — centralization, shared landlord databases, coordinated housing search — have only grown more relevant in the years since. For a deeper treatment of what centralized landlord engagement looks like in practice today, including how […]

By Mike Shore|2026-04-07T10:36:22-07:00March 8th, 2020|Housing Search & Navigation, Landlord Engagement & Partnerships, Rental Assistance Administration & System Design|Comments Off