Public House is designed to reduce administrative burden at scale — but it still requires a team to manage programs, review applications, and keep things running. Here's a practical picture of what working with Public House looks like across different time horizons.
Day to Day
During an active program, staff are typically:
- Reviewing application submissions — checking that required documents have been uploaded and that applications are complete
- Determining eligibility — assessing household income, assets, and other program criteria against the opportunity
- Responding to support requests — helping applicants who have questions about their submission, documents, or status
The day-to-day pace varies with where you are in the program cycle. A lottery that just ran will generate a burst of activity; a quiet period between programs may require very little.
Occasionally
These tasks come up when you're launching or actively managing a specific opportunity.
Adding new properties
Build out a property record with details, images, and relevant links. Then check your waitlist to see if existing applicants match, or invite prospects to express interest directly.
Creating a new lottery or waitlist campaign
New campaigns are typically built from existing templates. You can share a public URL for open lotteries, or use report filters to surface the right pool of invitees for more targeted outreach.
Running a lottery
Once the submission window closes, running the lottery itself takes just a few steps: assign households to available properties, rank entries, send notifications, and invite top-ranked households to update their information or submit a full application.
Periodically
These are maintenance and improvement tasks — worth doing on a regular basis, but not time-sensitive.
- Updating branding and communication templates — refine your login page, email footers, and the messages applicants receive at each stage of the process
- Reviewing analytics — Public House surfaces data on screening volume, applicant demographics, and program trends to help you understand who's engaging with your programs and how
- Updating AMI limits — when area median income figures change, a single update in Public House propagates across all your active programs automatically
Running in the Background
A significant share of Public House's value happens without staff involvement. While your team is focused elsewhere, the system is:
- Collecting screening form submissions — households can enter waitlists and lotteries on their own time, any time, without staff coordination
- Sending automated reminders — email and SMS messages go out at the right moments: lottery invitations, screening update requests, application deadlines, and document correction notices
- Running calculations automatically — income, imputed income from assets, and AMI limit determinations are calculated automatically for each household without anyone running the numbers manually
- Building program insights — every interaction accumulates into a picture of how people move through your programs. Screening submissions, application completions, survey responses, and annual recertifications together surface patterns that would be impossible to track manually: where applicants drop off, which programs generate the most interest, where bottlenecks are forming, and what property types or bedroom sizes are underserved in your market. Over time, this becomes a foundation for designing better programs and making the case for more resources.
This automation is what makes it possible for a small team to manage a high volume of applicants without being overwhelmed by administrative work.