For the City of San Antonio, the seventh largest city in the United States, the onset of COVID-19 in March prompted a spike in citizen need for financial assistance to cover critical housing expenses. The City went from receiving roughly 50-60 applications for housing and utility assistance each week to over 2,000. Traditionally, applications were submitted in person and caseworkers contacted each individual to validate their information—steps that became near-impossible in the wake of a global pandemic. In response, city officials acted quickly, partnering with Kinetech to develop a responsive web application that could scale while balancing speed and security. You’ll see how:

• The team developed an end-to-end solution in just 12 days that assisted with each step of the process from intake to automated notifications to cash assistance disbursement with a team of two developers and business stakeholders from the City.
• The application is offering citizens greater transparency and reducing processing times from a month to only a week.
• Since its creation, the application has helped the City to distribute millions in relief to its most vulnerable populations, improving the citizen experience and keeping households afloat during a crisis.