Boston- The Boston Housing Authority is pleased to announce that its new website, launched in June of this year, has been named as a Top Ten website for the month by Kentico, the company which provided the platform for BHA’s site.  The website was implemented by Planeteria Media for the BHA. 
 
Kentico praised the focus of the site as it announced the Top Ten and said, “… the BHA project involved creating a web based pre-qualification application for the Boston Housing Authority to remedy the trend applicants have toward applying for all housing programs, regardless of appropriateness. During the website discovery and usability audit, Planeteria Media found that having to disqualify applicants from these obvious miss-matches creates countless loss in staff hours and tax dollars. This new system that was proposed, designed, and developed by Planeteria will save money and time for both the applicants and Boston Housing Authority staff.”
 
In addition to the pre-qualification tool, the site also includes an interactive tool for landlords and Section 8 Housing Choice voucher holders to use which allows them to both post and search for available apartments within the BHA’s service area.  An online “Contact Us” form has also proven to be popular with users of the site, who often have questions about BHA programs and processes.  About 13,000 people visit the BHA’s website per month.
 
“Our goal with the design of this website is to provide what our landlords, applicants and residents want and need in terms of information and assistance in a straightforward and efficient way,” said BHA Administrator Bill McGonagle.  “We’re very pleased to see that many people are accessing the site every day and using the interactive tools we’ve provided.”
 
Going forward, BHA is preparing to implement a landlord portal that will allow its partner landlords to log in and access information specific to their rental property and contract with the BHA.  Several other portals are planned as well in order to better serve applicants and participants in BHA’s housing programs.