How can we help those most in need find rental housing? What role can community-based organizations and property managers play in doing so? Housing Connector is bringing together these key players into a user-friendly technology platform to help low income and vulnerable populations get connected to affordable housing.
Housing Connector was a 2023 Ivory Prize for Housing Affordability Finalist in Public Policy and Regulatory Reform.
Released in Partnership with the Builder's Daily
TRANSCRIPT
00:00
HANNAH: My name is Hannah and this is the House Party podcast from Ivory Innovations. We bring you the top entrepreneurs, researchers, and practitioners in the industry to shine a light on housing affordability solutions.
Intro Music
00:24
HANNAH: Today we have Shklëqim Kelmendi, the founder and executive director of Housing Connector. Connector. Housing Connector increases access to housing for individuals most in need. Their scale is what makes them especially innovative. Housing Connector operates in Seattle, Denver, and Dallas, while other solutions have more of a hyper -local regional focus. We'll hear how Shklëqim made that scale possible. Recent data suggests that there are over 2 .7 million rental units sitting vacant, however we still see high rates of homelessness in the U .S. This mismatch in supply and demand continues to plague cities across the nation, as individuals that face rental barriers are unable to access available units in the private market. Housing Connector serves as a bridge between property partners with vacant units and community partners who work with vulnerable populations. populations in search of housing. For the property partners, Housing Connector serves as a bridge between property partners with vacant units and community partners who work with vulnerable populations. populations in search of housing. For the property partners, Housing Connector offers up to $5 ,000 in risk mitigation costs, a three -month rent guarantee, and one month of vacancy loss. Through its Community Partners, Housing Connector provides individuals access to housing applications with reduced criteria through an exclusive Zillow -powered platform that lists available and accessible units in their area. area. I am so excited to welcome Shklëqim to the podcast today. Thank you so much for joining us.
01:50
SHKLËQIM: Thank you so much for having me, Hannah.
01:52
HANNAH: So back in 2016, you started working for the Seattle Housing Authority, and it was an experience there that really inspired you to start Housing Connector. So I'd love to hear more about what that was like.
02:05
SHKLËQIM: Yeah. So, you know, my background, first of all, was not in housing. My background is in economics. When I moved to Seattle, I started working with, as you mentioned, the Seattle Housing Authority, and really learned a lot about the issues facing so many folks and families in our community, not just here in Seattle, but across the country. And one specific issue that became really evident was this issue of access to units. And so for folks that, again, may not be familiar with how housing authorities work or vouchers work uh usually it's this incredibly long process where folks are put on a waitlist they wait oftentimes two to three years just to be lucky enough to get this voucher and it's this golden ticket to housing and for me the moment that really stuck out was the excitement in those events when when folks would receive their voucher and the hope in those events and then to go back, to go forward six months, seven months and to see that they still couldn't find anyone that would rent to them. And to me, that was heartbreaking. It was disappointing and it felt like an opportunity for us to be able to do something to actually address a really critical problem that no one was talking about, which is how do we get these folks that have vouchers, have subsidies to be able to utilize them and find housing, making sure that we're maximizing the resources. and investments that are going into solving our housing crisis
03:29
HANNAH: Gotcha. So you notice this problem, this very frustrating problem And what happens next? What did you do after that?
03:38
SHKLËQIM: Yeah, I mean, I think like anything anyone that's curious started just digging into Trying to see if somebody else was it was trying to solve this and how we can connect And I think over time and lots of conversations this opportunity came about to start an organization to solve this problem that I think feels narrow, but is so vast. And so, you know, from there, we worked to get the business community involved, the government, the nonprofit sectors, all kind of rallying around this idea of how do we help folks and how do we help the organizations that are helping folks try to get housing. housing to be able to utilize those resources. And for me, one of the things that was really critical in this research was understanding why landlords, why property owners and managers weren't renting to folks with vouchers. And I think that's really the key in Housing Connectors' success, the key to why Housing Connector has grown, is this really deep understanding of what drives decisions for property property owners and managers and then solving those problems that they have to ultimately solve the issue of housing access for folks in the community.
04:47
HANNAH: And we'll get into this in a bit more detail later in the episode but just briefly what were some of those problems that came up most frequently for why landlords weren't renting to to folks with vouchers?
04:58
SHKLËQIM: Yeah Hannah it's really it came down to four simple things which is for landlords it was around wanting to make sure that their units stayed filled, that rent was paid, and that they had safe and stable communities. And so for us, it was around then, how do we make sure we address those problems and eliminate those barriers that then landlords were putting up, which were keeping folks from being able to access those homes. But really it's around those three business drivers that I think were the key to why often landlords and property owners have higher screening. screening criteria.
05:30
HANNAH: I see. So something else that I know was important to you in the early days as you were building Housing Connector was to build a company that you would be proud to work for. Like, how did that manifest early on?
05:46
SHKLËQIM: Yeah, it's really simple. I still joke with my team that I don't feel like I'm the founder or the executive director of this organization. I just feel like I'm one of the team members. And for me, it was really important that any company that I worked for, let alone started, was one that aligned with my values and aligned with what I think is really critical in any workplace. Then again, things that I value, which is autonomy, the freedom to be curious, folks that have a high bar and challenge one or another to strive for their best. and also place That was fun to work with and fun to work in and so for me I think when you have now this opportunity, you know, like you have a blank slate to create something I wanted to be really intentional from the start to say hey Let's not just put the problem that we're trying to solve as the main focus which it is but let's also have this other dual focus of Solving that problem with a company that really values its people people. A company that has an ecosystem and a culture that helps folks grow, that supports one another, that is healthy and safe for folks. And I think that's something that we were intentional from the start, and it's something that we continue to fight for every single day in our team as our team grows to maintain that culture.
07:03
HANNAH: Yeah, I think it's super interesting 'cause I feel like, and you mentioned this as you talked about sort of focusing on that. focusing, yes, on the problem that we're trying to solve, but also on the culture that we're wanting to create. I don't think that's super common to have that focus on culture that early, typically you're just sort of laser focused on that problem. And so I'm wondering where that came from, like where in your background or your professional experiences did that focus come from?
07:31
SHKLËQIM: Yeah, I mean, one of the things, right, with culture, it's like, every... has culture.
0:7:38
HANNAH: It's good or bad.
07:39
SHKLËQIM: Yeah, it just depends right. Culture exists. I think for me you know I think about like early in my career and sometimes the struggles when you're early in your career as far as having visibility into what's happening and the decisions that are being made, having a seat at the table even if you're not there to make decisions to be able to at least listen and have a voice. to provide perspective. And so as I think about the times, for example, in my career, where I felt like I was kept in the dark or doors were shut to me and weren't accessible, I wanted to make sure that in our company, that wasn't the case, that whether this was your, you know, first day in the professional setting or you'd been there and has, you know, 40, 50 year career. that you felt like you had a voice and you had visibility. And so for me, as I think about that, then it was around how do we make sure that we focus on the values that will allow that to happen. And so one of our core values is transparency. Folks have access to all of our financials, all of our decision-making, outside of very private personnel issues that may come up. Folks have visibility into all of the decisions that are being made.
08:48
HANNAH: Wow.
08:49
SHKLËQIM: and they have access to all the leaders that are making them. And I think when you have that visibility, folks are able to have more ownership in what is happening, and then I think you get the best work from folks and the best ideas from folks. And so, again, this is one of those flywheels that if you invest in your people, if you invest in their growth and development, all it's going to do is help you as a company grow and be better.
09:12
HANNAH: Yeah, I want to stay on this culture piece for a bit longer and I think something that is challenging with growing a company is it's one thing to set the culture at the beginning and be intentional about those values which you've brought up a couple times, but then to maintain that culture and maintain those values as the organization grows can be hard as new people come in like integrating that into your into onboarding, like whatever that looks like. And so I'm curious, you know, Housing Connector in 2019 had four employees, and today you have around 30 employees. And so I'm curious what that experience, like what kind of intentional steps you took to make sure you could maintain that culture.
10:00
SHKLËQIM: Yeah, I mean, when you have three, four folks, it's a lot easier, right? Everyone's in the room, everyone's in the room. having conversations all the time. I think intentionality is really the key there. Again, if you're not focused on this, this will slip away. And one of the hard things with maintaining a really good and healthy culture is if you let that slip away, it's really difficult to pull it back and re-institute certain expectations. And so for us, it's been around, how does every single person that comes in? in, how do I sit down with them personally and have a conversation around, not just what our values and what our principles are, but why they're there. So folks understand the why behind the work that we do and the way that we operate, and so that they can choose to buy in in that moment. And again, for some folks, this may not be the right culture, this may not be the right place, and that's okay. But for folks that do wanna be here and stay here, for them to understand. understand why we do things a certain way and what's expected, I think that's one of the key things as you think about maintaining, you know, a healthy culture is around making sure that expectations are clear for folks. So folks are actually able to deliver on the expectations that are set. And so oftentimes when you have very vague descriptions of what is and is not okay, what the norms are, uh, the folks kind of fill in the blanks, but if you're very clear on that, then I think it allows folks to really again opt into that or opt out, but it maintains the company and the style and the culture that you want. And then I would say the other thing on this, Hannah, that's important is like one person can't do it. And so the moment the idea of culture keeping is left to just one individual, you know, whether it's the CEO or the founder, that's a recipe for disaster. This has to be something that every single person on the team in the organization is doing as far as calling people in when they see someone that's not meeting the bar or not meeting our principals and saying, "Hey, I noticed you did this. I'm curious why, because that's not how we do things here.” I think that's really important, is really empowering. empowering everyone to be that culture keeper and that champion so that you can maintain, you know, again, the company that you want.
12:19
HANNAH: Yeah, absolutely. And I especially love the piece around the why behind values, because I think it's so it's so easy to slap a couple values on a slide and share with a new employee. And this is how we run things. Hope you can can fit in, hope those align with your values, but I think to provide the reasoning for how and why those values came to be just solidifies them and strengthens them in a really meaningful way.
12:46
SHKLËQIM: Yeah, I would say the other thing on that is as a company grows, again oftentimes the values early on are the values of that founder, but as more and more folks join, I think also being flexible and open to hearing hearing and seeing what different styles and values folks bring So you start shaping the overall value of the company because the company is is just the a group of individuals Who all you know have different perspectives and ideas and so I think that's also important and one of the things I've learned is how to be open to different styles and ways that folks operate and how do we bring that into our company in our culture? So folks that may not operate the way I do also feel like this is a place that they can belong.
13:28
HANNAH: I imagine bringing in those those different voices into like shaping the values then also help help enable and empower other people to be the culture keepers and not have it be just one person like you mentioned so
12:42
SHKLËQIM: Absolutely yeah I think we all like I said we all just want a voice oftentimes in the discussion
13:48
HANNAH: Mm -hmm totally We've talked a lot about culture. I want to shift to what this incredible culture has enabled Housing Connector to build, which is the Housing Connector platform. There are two key groups, which I mentioned at the beginning, that you work with, Property Partners and Community Partners. Just to help us understand how this all works, can you walk through first an example of how a property partner would engage with Housing Connector?
14:16
SHKLËQIM: Yeah, so I mean the first thing on this I would say is as you think about addressing the issue of homelessness, like the solution to homelessness is housing. And so I think it's key for us to then work with the folks that have and hold the majority of the housing stock which is property owners and managers. For us, Hannah, what we do is we work with these property owners and managers and in a sense provide them access to benefits both financial and customer support and in exchange what we ask of them is to reduce or eliminate the screening criteria that they set that often may deny somebody from being able to access that home.
Practically what this looks like is in exchange for property owners reducing things like credit score, income to rent ratio, past eviction, accepting past evictions, past debt. We provide them with financial support around rent guarantees and damage mitigation. And then we also provide them up to two years of customer support. So if they have any issues, they reach out to us and we help triage and address that so that both the property can maintain their operations, but also the household can maintain stability. And really this is a way that we can maximize the existing stock in our communities and make sure that those vacant units are not just sitting there, but they're actually being utilized for the folks that need it right now.
15:35
HANNAH: Got it. You started to get at this a little bit, but where do the community partners fit into this?
15:41
SHKLËQIM: Yeah. Housing Connector is a B2B. We're only working with different businesses, and we didn't want to recreate the wheel of doing direct service. There's a lot of amazing nonprofits and housing authorities doing this work. So what we do is we're trying to enable all of these organizations to move folks into housing faster. And the way we do that is by addressing that core problem that they face, which is how do we identify units and then how do we get our clients to be approved for those units. And what we've done is instead of having a very scattered and oftentimes isolated way of doing this work, we've centralized this for the entire community. So folks have one stop to go to to find units in real time, access them and then know that their clients once they move in have that support to stay stably housed.
16:30
HANNAH: Got it. And I know that a big component of the platform is the partnership that you have the Zillow. So can you talk more about how that works and how that fits into this?
16:41
SHKLËQIM: Yeah, absolutely. We had a decision point early in the company of: do we design our own marketplace or do we partner with somebody? And I think, you know, the idea is if you design your own marketplace, you have more control. But for us, what was really important was around creating a marketplace or having a marketplace that was easy to use and had high adoption by our customers. We wanted this to be a seamless process for the folks that we were trying to serve. And for us, we were fortunate that one of the companies that does this best as far as connecting folks that are looking for homes with folks that have homes that being Zillow happens to be a headquartered here in Seattle and so from the start Zillow saw what Housing Connector was trying to do and said hey we want to be a part of them you know we want to be a partner in allowing you to maximize your impact and scale your impact and so in partnership with them and their developers we've actually built the Housing Connector functionality within Zillow .com. And what's amazing about that is that anytime Zillow makes any updates, fixes any bugs, that automatically gets pushed to the Housing Connector marketplace as well. So we know that this continues to benefit from the innovation that Zillow overall is investing in and continues to create a marketplace that I think is best in class for folks that are searching for a home.
18:00
HANNAH: Wow. I did not know that about the, that when Zillow makes updates to their platform, it gets pushed to Housing Connector. That's very cool.
18:07
SHKLËQIM: Yeah. I think about that as, again, like these decision points that you have early on that, that are pretty, you know, almost one -way doors. And that was another one that we made a decision in partnership with them to say, hey, let's take a little bit longer, but built it within the existing infrastructure as opposed to for them to just. build us kind of a side product. And I think in hindsight, that's paid dividends by us making that decision to go a little slower in that moment, but to do something that had a much longer and lasting impact.
18:36
HANNAH: And now you're able to provide your users with this incredible user experience that Zillow has already researched and tested and built. So that's very cool. So we understand where Housing Connector is today. We've talked about what the platform looks like right now, how customers are engaging with it. I'm curious if thinking back to how things got started, if what the platform looks like now is sort of what you always had envisioned for it, or if there were any major pivots that you and the team had to make as you fleshed out the idea and gathered customers feedback?
19:16
SHKLËQIM: Yeah, I mean, there's lots of pivots along the way. You know, hundreds of small pivots that I think are critical. I think some of the biggest ones were, you know, we have a principal at Housing Connector that says launch before you're ready. And the idea here is to put your product, to put your ideas out there, get feedback and then iterate. And so one specifically that we tested out early on was trying to do, what we call unit hold fees where we would basically pay a property to take their unit off the market and We tried that and what we realized in the feedback that we received from properties was look, this is kind of a waste of resources instead of spending time and and instead and Locking capital into units that are just sitting there. How do you help the folks in the demand side be able to access these units more quickly? Because that's a multiplier effect that's gonna allow folks in the future to be able to access homes as well, as opposed to just solving a solution for one person. And again, an idea to shift away from that type of model is something that occurred because we put it out there very quickly. We started learning and getting feedback and then realizing that, okay, this was not the right decision. How do we pivot and iterate towards something else? So that's one that often comes to mind for me that I think is really important, because again, for anyone that's starting something, I think the worst thing you can do is just sit in your office, sit in your basement, behind your computer screen, and think about and design what you think is the best solution. Because the best solution, without being tested and receiving customer feedback, is going to be really... It’s going to fall flat on its face often. The most important thing that I can think of for folks that are starting is get out there and talk to your customers. Get out there and put ideas out into the universe and have your customers react to them, because that's going to allow you to move much quicker and design a product that people actually want, as opposed to a product that you think they might need.
21:15
HANNAH: So I want to, something you mentioned, this idea of launching before you're ready ties in with my next question Which is your philosophy around being a nonprofit Housing Connector is a nonprofit, but in many ways, and I think this idea of launching before you're ready ties in with this of like Housing Connector doesn't really look and feel like maybe a traditional nonprofit or have the same the same culture of values and so you know you've you've mentioned that your continuously innovating, you're taking all these risks, you're willing to fail, you're testing your idea out with customers. How and why is this so integral to the Housing Connector story and where did that come from?
21:59
SHKLËQIM: Yeah, I mean, the label of a nonprofit, you know, really at the end of the day all it is is a tax designation. But I think so many organizations and so many nonprofits take that, the stigma, and take the understanding of how they should operate as far as being very risk adverse, often being much slower, much more bureaucratic. And again, by no means am I trying to stereotype all nonprofits because there's a lot of incredible innovative work happening, but I think in general, we think about that when we think about nonprofit. And to me, one of the things that was important is first figuring out what is the right vehicle. to accomplish our mission. And the right vehicle was a nonprofit organization as opposed to a private corporation. But two, we did not let that designation impact what we do and how we do the work. That goes to things like how much we pay folks. We do not pay folks what would often is considered a nonprofit salary. I like to tell folks on our team is: “you can't pay your rent on feeling good about the work you do.” You should get compensated for the impact that you're making and the value that you're adding to the community. But at the same time with that comes high expectations, comes accountability, and comes this drive for us to innovate and be creative in what we're doing, to not just try to chase the market or try to chase the problem that's happening, but really to try to reinvent the way that we look at the world and the way that we look at problems and completely tackle it from a new angle, and so for me, I think, well, again, it just comes down to your perspective that you bring. And it really does tie back to that culture piece because how and what you value determines how you work.
And so for us, we value speed, we value creativity, we value transparency. transparency, and all of those things allow us to move at a much faster rate, take more risks, and be able to really kind of disrupt this industry. And in turn, what's allowed us to do is have much faster impact and growth than I think is traditional in this space.
24:08
HANNAH: Yeah, and I think the speed and creativity aspects of how Housing Connector operates. I imagine have been a big contributing factor to the scale that Housing Connector has been able to accomplish. And when we've chatted before about Housing Connector's story, you've said that you sacrifice certain things with scale in mind. So why has scale been so important for your growth strategy and Housing Connector's competitive advantage?
24:36
SHKLËQIM: Yeah, I mean, it comes down to our mission and what our normal Star is, which is to try to support as many folks and families as possible in accessing housing. And I think as we think about if that is our North Star, as far as how do we impact the most lives, then we were thinking about how to scale to be able to do so and accomplish that. And to your point, you make sacrifices along the way around maybe how personalized certain things feel or are to be able to solve solutions for the masses. But for us, it was really important that when we think about the homelessness crisis and the fact that there's over, you know, half a million, almost 600,000 folks experiencing homelessness any given year, and millions more that are experiencing housing instability or one paycheck away from losing their home, we felt like the urgency to scale was there to be able to deliver a solution that we feel and so far the data has confirmed is changing lives and impacting folks in how they're able to access and maintain their home. And so, yes, it was a trade -off. There was no right or wrong way. I think it makes total sense for a lot of organizations, a lot of products to go deep. And for us, we wanted to go wide and we wanted to go broad and impact as many lives as possible.
25:53
HANNAH: - Mm -hmm, yeah. and to your point I think we need both kinds of models.
25:58
SHKLËQIM: Absolutely
25:59
HANNAH: right like the ones that are very focused on on a community and going deep like you mentioned but also those that are thinking about scale and and reaching the masses.
26:07
SHKLËQIM: Yeah and to that point one of the things that we do is really we are trying to infuse efficiency into those organizations that are going deep within the local community. So right now we have 199 nonprofit organizations and housing authorities that we work with. And our goal is, and they're all very local. And our goal is to really again, enable and maximize their impact in the community. And so while we are going broad, I'd like to think that for the organizations that are going deep, we're helping them do that in a more effective way, and hopefully be able to provide and deliver better services and support to the folks that they're serving.
26:47
HANNAH: Yeah, definitely. So I want to, on the topic of scale, Housing Connector is in three markets so far. What's next?
26:57
SHKLËQIM: I think next for us is one, continue to strengthen our work in the communities that we're in as far as Seattle, Denver, Dallas, and also in early 2024 here we are planning to launch in Portland and so excited to get that team off the ground and start the work there. And we intend to launch in one more market by the end of 2024. I think our goal is by 2027, as we look out into the future, to be able to have served and supported close to 40 ,000 people in being able to access a home and hopefully be in 10 markets across the United States. States.
27:35
HANNAH: That's awesome. That's really exciting. And congratulations on Portland.
27:40
SHKLËQIM: Thank you. Yeah, we're really excited about the impact that we believe we can make there.
27:45
HANNAH: Yeah. So, I guess just kind of to wrap things up here, I'd, you know, you've gone through a journey so far with Housing Connector. What advice and you shared bits of advice throughout this episode already, but just to kind of summarize it. like, what advice would you give to other housing innovators in this space that are looking to make a similar impact?
28:06
SHKLËQIM: Yeah, I think the first thing is: be bold, put your ideas out there, choose action over inaction. I think, you know, one of the sayings that we have on our team is: failures of action are always accepted. Failures of inaction will never be accepted. And the idea here is that as long as you're pushing forward, as long as you're testing and trying new ideas, it is growth for the entire industry and the entire sector. And as folks are doing this work or thinking about how they can do this work, I think finding ways to connect the various industries and sectors is really key in being able to maximize our impact. Look, Housing Connector alone is not gonna solve the problem of homelessness or housing insecurity. No organization is gonna do that. This problem is way too big. But the only way we're gonna make progress is by figuring out opportunities to come together to leverage the skills and the resources that different companies need. have to be able to impact more lives and to be able to provide more opportunities for folks in our community. So again, I think it's just just get out there and start doing. Don't sit behind your screen, get out there, take action, fail, try things and iterate, iterate, iterate until you find a solution that actually meets the needs of the people that you're there to serve.
29:38
HANNAH: - Hmm, fantastic. So for folks listening to this that are interested in learning more or maybe are a potential community or property partner, what's the best way for them to get in touch?
29:50
SHKLËQIM: - Yeah, for anyone that's interested, they can always reach out to our team through our email info@housingconnector.com and get information, get connected to folks to learn more. Or also go to our website, housingconnector.com. But really, I think anyone that's interested in being a part of this partnership sees value in working with us. We'd love to hear from you, we'd love to connect with you and see how we can collaborate.
20:14
HANNAH: Awesome. Shklëqim, this has been an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much for joining us on the podcast. Really appreciate your time.
30:22
SHKLËQIM: Absolutely, thanks for the opportunity.
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30:26
HANNAH: What do offsite construction, software, and housing? affordability all have in common? Join us next week to hear how one group of founders combined these three things into an impactful and innovative business. That's all for today. Thanks for listening to House Party with Ivory Innovations.
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