Glossary

  • Community

    The area that surrounds and includes the property. Depending on the location of the property, the community area may be defined by neighborhood, census tract, jurisdictional limit or another geographic boundary.

  • Community Scan

    (1) local data to give insights about the surrounding neighborhood/community, (2) a review (identification of) and (3) assessment (analysis of the quality) of existing local amenities, services, community assets, potential partners and other resources in the larger community) prior to delivery of services and programs. This scan should be updated at least once every six years.

  • Community Space

    ​​​​​​A physical space or amenity outside of a resident’s apartment (but within property boundaries) which is provided for on-site health services, exercise, communal cooking, gardening, programs, workshops, or training, socializing, and/or community celebrations. 

  • Direct Resident Services Coordination Model

    Affordable housing organizations that have direct responsibility for the management, delivery, and implementation of Resident Services Coordination at their own properties. Organizations are not required to provide resident services coordination at ALL their properties. 

  • Enhanced Resident Services (ERS) Annual Property Certification Report

    An annual report that must be submitted with respect to any property that benefits from Fannie Mae's Healthy Housing Rewards™ - Enhanced Resident Services financing incentives. This report will address updated resident services budgets, updates to the property services plan (if applicable), and reports on the impact of the owner's resident services coordination efforts at the property, which includes collection of certain resident data points.

  • Enhanced Resident Services (ERS) Property Certification Application

    An additional certification that an owner of multifamily affordable housing must obtain in order to qualify for the financing incentives provided by Fannie Mae's Health Housing Rewards -Enhanced Resident Services product enhancement. This application will ask for detailed information about the property, the profile of the residents, and the applicant's plan for resident services coordination at the property. 

  • Evidence-Based

    The degree to which an activity, intervention, program, or strategy is based on rigorous evaluation research, typically an experimental or quasi-experimental evaluation of more than one effort that has been peer reviewed and determined to generate unbiased estimates of the causal relationship between the intervention and the outcomes of interest.

  • External or Outside Service Partner

    An external organization that provides services/programs for residents, both on and off site. These services/programs may be paid for by the partner organization or by the owner of the property.

  • Family Housing

    Multifamily housing that includes five or more residential units with no restriction on the age or classification of tenants.

  • Healthy Housing Rewards™ - Enhanced Resident Services (ERS)

    A Fannie Mae produce enhancement that offers financing incentives with respect to qualifying multifamily affordable rental properties that offer robust, resident services coordination intended to improve the health and stability of their residents. Resident Services Coordination/ Enhanced Resident Services may include health and wellness services, youth, education, and community engagement programs, and work and financial capability support in addition to other programs and services.

  • Hybrid Resident Services Coordination Model

    Affordable housing organizations that contract with an un-related third party entity (either a property management company or another service organization) to staff the on-site property-based resident services coordinators/staffing, but otherwise retain leadership, management, and support capacity for resident services coordination at their properties. 

  • Impact Analysis/Report (multiple properties)

    A document that demonstrates the impact of the organization's services across multiple properties. This impact could be demonstrated by featuring the impact of a specific service (i.e. a report for a tutoring program or financial coaching program offered at multiple sites) or an impact report on broader resident services efforts across multiple properties.

  • Indicators

    The tool used to measure the impact of an intervention.

  • Logic Model

    A systematic and visual way to present and share the organization’s understanding of the relationships among the resources it has to operate, the activities/interventions it plans, and the changes or results it hopes to achieve across the entire portfolio or multiple properties.

  • Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)

    A formalized agreement, that includes the following elements: (1) Roles + Responsibilities for each Party; (2) Participation targets/expectations; (3) Goals for outcomes/impact; (4) data sharing (if applicable); and (5) Addresses insurance and liability.

  • Partner

    Third-party entity that collaborates with the owner organization to develop, fund, and/or deliver services in the community.

  • Property Services Plan

    Should be updated at least once every three years and include (1) the desired goals, (2) a description of the resident services program, (3) strategies to address language, cultural, or other challenges when engaging residents, (4) who provides the services (for example: organizational staff, third party resident service provider, partner organizations, online/virtual resources, etc.), (5) staffing model and partnership description (if applicable), and (6) budget.  The plan should use the information from the community scan and resident opportunities and needs assessment showing how it was used/analyzed to create the plan.

  • Related Property Management

    A property management company that is owned by the developer or is closely controlled or aligned with the applicant entity.

  • Resident Indicators and Analysis Report

    A report that tracks and analyzes the indicators (at a property level) resulting from its resident services efforts and provides the organization with the information necessary to analyze the impact of the services on residents and to determine if the services should continue or if they need to be altered to attain the desired goals.

  • Resident Opportunities and Priorities Assessment

    (1) analysis of the aggregated demographics/data available for the residents of the property, (2) direct feedback (for example in the form of interviews, surveys, focus groups etc.) from the residents, (3) explanation of how the information in the assessment was obtained, and (4) an analysis showing what was learned. This assessment should be updated at least once every three years.

    This tool was formerly called a Resident Opportunities & Needs Assessment

  • Resident Services

    Programs, services, and referrals provided in a housing context, to support greater stability and well-being for residents.

  • Resident Services Coordination

    A Resident Services Coordination system refers to all functions tied to the organizational mission to implement resident services in affordable housing rental properties, including corporate and site-based staff, funding, technology systems, services and programs, research and evaluation, organizational knowledge, and the tools necessary to support resident services.

  • Resident Services Coordinator

    The staff person(s) responsible for the implementation of programs/services either directly or through partners at a property. This staff person may be hired through a property management company, but is not a property manager and has a distinct scope of work and hours dedicated to resident services coordination.

  • Resident Services Program Areas

    Categories of services offered at a property either by an organization's staff or by a partner providing a specific program (such as a healthy clinic providing blood pressure screenings). These categories include:

    Service Categories Examples
    Housing Stabilization Support referrals for back rent support, housekeeping support through classes or referrals, focusing on households with 14-day notices to get them connected to jobs, accessing benefits, eviction prevention etc.
    Health & Wellness walking clubs, nurses/doctors on site, wellness centers, fall prevention, chronic disease management, childhood asthma prevention, fitness programs, etc.
    Nutrition/ Healthy Food Access farmers market, nutrition classes, food pantry/free food access, community gardens etc.
    Mental/ Behavioral Health counseling, peer support groups, stress management techniques, partnering with mental health providers, parenting programs, etc.
    Financial Capability Programs increasing % of banked residents, matched savings accounts, financial education classes, FSS program, budget workshops, financial coaching, fraud prevention etc.
    Workforce Development partnerships with career centers/job training, job fairs, partnerships with employers, industry-specific job training classes etc.
    Adult Education Support English as a Second Language (ESL) classes, Adult Basic Education (ABE) classes, GED, connections to community colleges/universities etc.
    Youth Education Support tutoring, school success partnerships, early education enrollment support, school to college support etc.
    Youth Programming youth employment, out of school activities, youth leadership programs, youth art programs, etc.
    Social Cohesion/ Reduce Isolation connecting to local senior centers or other groups, community events, social activities organized by residents or by staff etc.
    Community Engagement leadership development, civic engagement, voter registration etc.
    Referrals connections to a variety of different services, programs, and benefits.
    Other (Please Specify)  
  • Resident Services Systems

    ​​​​​​Organization-wide infrastructure that supports resident service coordination such as technology, policies, data collection and analysis, research and evaluation, or other procedures.

  • Senior Housing

    ​​​​​​Housing in which units must be occupied by households comprised of at least one person who qualifies as a senior, typically defined as 62 years old or older.

  • Streamlined Third Party Resident Services Coordination Contractor

    This CORES application option has been developed for organizations that operate under a Direct Model, but have also developed a business of providing Third Party Resident Services Coordination services to other owners. This pathway allows applicants to use portions of their application under the Direct model (where questions/answers are applicable) in their Third Party Model application. To qualify for this option, an organization must first successfully apply for CORES under the Direct model. Once the applicant has been certified under the Direct model, they can seek Third-Party Certification through a streamlined application. If interested in this pathway, please contact CORES staff for more information.

  • Supportive Housing

    Supportive housing is an evidence-based housing intervention that combines non-time-limited affordable housing assistance with wrap-around supportive services for people experiencing homelessness, as well as other people with disabilities.

  • Systems Approach

    A consistent approach for how to do work across a portfolio that is scalable.

  • Theory of Change

    A comprehensive picture or “roadmap” defining long-term goals and mapping the intermediate steps necessary to get there. It does this by first identifying desired long-term goals and then working backwards from there, to identify all the conditions or outcomes that must be in place for those goals to be achieved.

  • Third Party Resident Services Contractor

    This refers to an organization that an owner contracts with to provide staff or services for property-based resident services coordination. The contractor may be a third-party property management company that also hires resident services staff or it may be a third-party services organization.

    Under the Hybrid Resident Services Coordination Model, an owner may still retain leadership, management, and support for resident services coordination at their properties while using a third party resident services contractor to help support on-site staffing.

    Under the Third Party Resident Services Coordination Model, a third party may provide ALL functions of resident services coordination (management, delivery, and implementation).

  • Third Party Resident Services Coordination Model

    An owner of affordable housing may contract with an external (third party) organization to provide all aspects of resident services coordination. This will include the management, delivery, and implementation of Resident Services Coordination at the property level and corporate/regional levels. An organization that falls into this model may provide third party services for one owner or for multiple owners. In this case, the third party organization would be certified (and not the owner of the affordable housing).