Honorable Mention: Civic Design
Exygy
For years, folks looking for affordable housing in San Francisco have faced a difficult process to find a home. When we began our work, the search and application process was mainly paper-based. Applicants navigated a system with hard to find listings, unclear eligibility requirements, and applications often taking several days to complete. Every property had a different application.
The City of San Francisco partnered with Exygy to design an intuitive, transparent online experience to find and apply for affordable housing. The open source digital portal, “DAHLIA,” eases the process – using illustrations and jargon-free language to guide each applicant through the application. We tested the platform with veterans, seniors, homeless individuals, visually impaired individuals, bilingual housing counselors bi-weekly for two years. And the results are clear: 97% of affordable housing applications in San Francisco now come in online, even though a paper option is still available.