Blog

In a previous post we shared some tips on how to identify and map potential rental properties. Today we are taking the next step and sharing some innovative approaches to prioritize outreach and inspections. Why is prioritization so invaluable when it comes to managing a rental registration or inspection regime?

The Federal government has allocated an unprecedented amount of funding to support renters at risk of displacement and landlords facing unsustainable rent arrears brought on by the COVID pandemic.

The Coronavirus relief bill passed by Congress in December includes $25 billion in rent relief for low income households hit hard by the fallout from COVID-19. The funding is desperately needed, with many experts estimating that low-income renters owed between $30 and $70 billion in arrears by the end of 2020.

At Tolemi, we have come together, as a team of past municipal employees, consultants, and technologists, after identifying the need for digital tools and have worked with many cities to date. We want to elaborate on why we decided to join the scene originally, created a product and service for local governments, and how we’ve evolved to the collaboration we lead today.

At Tolemi, we build the data integration and insights platform that helps local governments harness the power of their data and break down departmental silos. We have come together as a team of technologists, former public servants, and data junkies to help the next generation of municipal leaders usher in a wave of data-driven government.

Tolemi is excited to announce that we now can provide pre-foreclosure data from across the country to our partner cities. Available as an add-on to BuildingBlocks, cities can identify properties as they enter the foreclosure process in order to connect home owners with valuable resources. We recently released a case study detailing how Erie County, NY and the Western New York Law Center have done just that.

This is the first in the series of posts that explores the unique parcel-level data that we are collecting across the nationwide network of BuildingBlocks users. Our aim is to help local officials make more strategic operational and policy decisions based on evidence.

Property records across the country are a mess. There is no national data standard shared among tax assessors and deed recorders—the entities typically responsible for recording and maintaining property information.

The greatest insights in the world are useless if you can’t act on them. Which is why our mantra at Tolemi is “Data, insights, action.” Our Product team has been laser-focused on adding features that allow our users to do more of their job within our suite of applications.

We’ve already covered why rental registries are valuable tools to help local governments ensure safe housing conditions, but the process of implementing a rental property registration or inspection program can seem daunting.

Cities will adopt a Rental Property Registration Ordinance (RPROs) for various reasons, but they generally can be categorized into two buckets: decrease administrative burden on the city and ensure the safety of their citizens.

Local governments are swimming in data. And BuildingBlocks users are in deeper waters than most, with all their property information centralized from every department and system into a single platform.

Our phones have become our computers, and we expect to be able to get the information we need immediately, wherever we are, on our mobile devices. In the US, 83% of us access the internet through our mobile phone. Worldwide, mobile now accounts for over half of all internet traffic.

As the economic fallout from COVID took hold in the Spring and worsened into the Summer, the initial response from Federal, State, and Local governments (at least as far as housing was concerned) was focused on preventing renters from becoming homeless and homeowners from losing their properties through foreclosure.

Identifying the ‘who’ behind the property has always been a challenge for city staff. Is the owner from out-of-state? Am I dealing with a mom-and-pop landlord with a handful of units or a private equity-backed investor with a huge portfolio?

The economic peril from COVID-19 has reached nearly every corner of the economy, and the threat of housing insecurity looms ominously on the horizon for millions of Americans.

We’ve written about the challenging fiscal situation that municipalities find themselves in as a result of COVID-19. But we also touched on the innovative ways local leaders are taking proactive & preventative steps to provide support to hard-hit communities.

Enough has been written about the toll that COVID-19 has taken on the nation and the world. According to the CDC, the virus has resulted in 6.3 million cases and 191,000 deaths in the US alone. The World Bank estimates that the pandemic will result in a 5.3% decline in global GDP resulting in recessions in nearly every country in the world.

I have spent the last five months speaking with Community and Economic Development, Code Enforcement, and Planning Directors about how COVID-19 has affected their short-term outlook. The pandemic, combined with the various shutdowns, has put huge pressure on many of our city leaders at the same time that their budgets are being slashed.

We’re proud to support local government officials that embrace data to adopt a more proactive approach to compliance and planning. But we also recognize the challenges that come with this shift. When our users start exploring the wealth of data that they have traditionally kept siloed away, they quickly uncover blind spots and fresh insights.

Working directly with cities across the country, we have seen a number of strategies to target known vacancies and deploy city resources in an attempt to mitigate these issues as quickly as possible.

Having worked with over 80 cities across the country, the first thing that users tell me, whether they are from the fire department, planning, or a landbank, is that when putting together programs they need to “meet people where they are” for their programs to be successful.

Tolemi recognizes and thanks the local governments, community-based groups, and essential workers that are valiantly responding to the public health crisis and the economic fallout from COVID-19.

From the most basic standpoint, planners who work in municipalities are responsible for the overall growth and development in their city. Having a strong understanding of the city’s past and present, as well as an idea of what the future could look like, are crucial to the men and women in these roles.

Using data to make decisions and allocate resources is a key requirement of being a smart city in the 21st century. But getting started is often tough, there are political barriers to data access, data quality and change management issues, as well as a host of other challenges to be confronted.