Queens Cross Housing Association switch to a fully integrated housing suite

Queens Cross enhanced its online housing allocations process by switching to a Choice-Based Lettings and Housing Register system

The challenge

Queens Cross Housing Association manages nearly 4,500 homes in an area that stretches north from Glasgow city centre along either side of the Forth and Clyde Canal. Their housing stock includes flats, deck access properties and traditional Glasgow tenements. They were looking for a better solution to manage their large database of homes, moving from a paper-based approach to a digital platform.

The solution

To enable Queen’s Cross to deliver a more transparent and auditable bidding process, Home Connections implemented our feature-rich Choice-Based Lettings. Integrated with our housing register solution, Unity, Queens Cross gained a full overview of housing applications and bidding processes through two systems that communicate with each other in real-time.

Applicants could apply for housing directly through Queen’s Cross website and start their journey to find a new home.

The system enabled Queen’s Cross housing officers to assess applicants’ priority for housing, review applications, create bidding cycles and use the system to allocate properties through the shortlisting or direct match functions.

The result

Since implementation, Queens Cross has been able to greatly reduce housing officers’ workload. By preventing applicants from bidding for ineligible properties through CBL’s powerful restriction settings, housing officers could match applicants with the properties that suited their bedroom needs and other personal circumstances. Nearly 500 properties have been let through Choice Based Lettings, and over 2,000 clients are effectively using the system in their search for social housing.