SparkPost Supports DwellWell in Their Efforts to Develop a Solution to Address the Nation's Affordable Housing Crisis

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- SparkPost, the most performant cloud email delivery service available, today announced it has joined the effort to end the affordable housing crisis in the US by providing its technology to the PublicBnB application. Developed by DwellWell, the app will use SparkPost's email service to facilitate communication between prospective tenants with landlords who have excess units available. Earlier this year, DwellWell won the top award at the SparkPost hackathon; as part of their prize, SparkPost donated its email service to support development of the PublicBnB app. PublicBnB provides a community-based marketplace for affordable housing.

While there over 2 million participants in the Housing Choice Vouchers public housing assistance program, formerly known as the Section 8 program, approximately 250,000 households that have already qualified are unable to find a place to live due to the limited housing supply. PublicBnB is helping to solve this problem by creating a marketplace to match providers that have excess capacity (extra rooms, units, houses) with Housing Choice Voucher holders that are actively searching for housing.

The integration of the SparkPost best-in-breed cloud email technology will help to alleviate many of the challenges that make the search for affordable so difficult and frustrating. Hosts will find that PublicBnB makes the process of working with their local housing authorities to get their units public-housing certified much easier. Prospective tenants can use PublicBnB to quickly search available inventory, and use email to connect with landlords. By leveraging SparkPost's innovative web relay hook, PublicBnB can ensure that email communication between hosts and tenants is reliable, secured, and completely anonymous.

"That anonymity is critical to improving the selection process on the part of the landlord or tenant because they will only be able to base their decisions on information relevant to the transaction," said Phillip Merrick, CEO of SparkPost. "Users will be able to send and receive transactional emails such as notifications of application submissions, denials, and approvals without having to provide personal information. We're extremely honored to be part of this campaign to help so many people find their next homes."

Prospective tenants will be able to use the PublicBnB app to search for properties based on different filters that are important to them, such as location and cost, and save lists of their favorite properties. They can then send email inquiries to the hosts and apply for units. Hosts can quickly and easily create property listings, and transmit requests to the housing authority to schedule inspections upon an applicant's approval. Furthermore, in an effort to improve trust levels in the public housing market, all users will be able to post reviews of their counterparts.

"I grew up in a poor neighborhood and was surrounded by the prevalence of homelessness which shaped who I am today," said Marlon Frausto, founder and CEO of DwellWell. "Because of this, we see PublicBnB -- and housing in general -- as a catalyst for life changing moments like getting a better job or a simple bank account, which drives our immediacy in providing an auxiliary supply of affordable housing to prospective tenants. AirBnB, for example, has already uncovered an excess capacity of over half a million units for short-term stays in the United States alone; similarly, we want to discover how many people are open to generating an extra source of income by helping to provide longer-term housing for a family in need which will greatly improve their quality of life. We are very thankful for SparkPost's involvement in the development and rollout of the PublicBnB app as it has been critical to the success of our mission."

DwellWell plans to send Beta program invites for hosts and prospective tenants to try the PublicBnB application on December 19, 2016.

About SparkPost

SparkPost is the world's #1 email infrastructure provider, offering the most performant cloud email delivery service available. Customers including Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter, Groupon, Marketo, Zillow, CareerBuilder, the Financial Times and Comcast send over 3 trillion messages a year, more than 25 percent of the world's non-spam email. These companies chose us to provide the deliverability, speed to launch and data insights they need to drive customer engagement for their business. Follow us on Twitter @SparkPost or go to sparkpost.com.

Press Contact
Rachel Kaseroff
SparkPost
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