HousingAssistIQ (HAIQ)

Overview 

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted the U.S., increasing unemployment and putting unprecedented numbers of individuals at risk of foreclosure and eviction. The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) provided up to $9.961 billion in grant funding, through the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Homeowner Assistance Fund (HAF), to prevent foreclosures. Implementing a program and creating a process to distribute funds is time consuming, labor intensive, and costly for government agencies and can cause significant delays in getting assistance to families in need. These are some of the challenges the government faced in providing assistance to families at risk of eviction and foreclosure:

• Limited agency staff to conduct effective fraud detection.
• Inefficient collaboration and ambiguity across workflows.
• Lack of data oversight due to siloed systems across application, submission, and closeout.
• Lack of approval audit trail and evidence of review leading to low accountability between homeowners and agency staff.
• Human error due to manual, time-consuming tracking and governance of tasks.

Key Features & Functionality

IEM partnered with Appian—a company that offers a secure low-code automation platform and a trusted partner of the U.S. Treasury—to deliver the HousingAssistIQ solution, which manages the end-to-end Homeowner Assistance Fund process. This innovative software solution facilitates the processing of large volumes of applications and documents while simultaneously employing fraud detection capabilities. Appian automation ensures HousingAssistIQ increases efficiency, decreases error, and reduces costs. IEM has developed a solution to improve visibility with real-time precision and an automated workflow all in a quickly adaptable and configurable system using the Appian Low-Code Automation Platform. 

• End-to-end analysis: using visually rich dashboards to support application through closeout.
• Fund allocation visibility: to significantly reduce fraud and abuse.
• Faster processing times: for efficient and accurate application processing.
• Easier integration to mortgage services through CDF: to ensure correct loan amounts.
• Built-in fraud tracking: to ensure funds reach the intended individuals in need.
• Enhanced collaboration: through live chat and individualized applicant tracking pages.
• Auditable role-based access: to allow auditability down to the individual level for real-time visibility and status updates.
• Reduced manual tasks: for quicker processing and fund allocation.

Benefits & Business Impact

• Built by experts: extensive government and nation-wide experience with federal and state grants management and housing programs.
• Real-time analytics: dashboard approach for full visibility.
• Automated approval governance: insights into approval status, issues, risks, milestones, and escalation to prevent delays.
• Flexibility: nimbleness and speed to deploy, adapt, and integrate.
• Proactive fraud management: better detect fraudulent or obsolete information throughout the submission, approval, and closeout process to minimize disruption.
• Centralized data repository: easy access to homeowner data and documents.
• Mobile enabled: perform all actions from desk, tablet, or mobile using an intuitive interface ensuring easy adoption.