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Why Housing Needs a Warning First, Not a Violation · Ryan's Journal

• 0:15
  You know, I was looking at this message from a guy who turned in his electric bill
• 0:20
  for winter energy assistance.
• 0:22
  Just trying to get a little help with the power bill for the cold months,
• 0:26
  right?
• 0:27
  He does all the work, takes the picture, texts it over, and boom.
• 0:32
  The response he gets back is, hey, looks like you got a past due notice,
• 0:37
  pay it by tomorrow or they might shut it off, and by the way,
• 0:41
  that is a lease violation.
• 0:43
  It is unbelievable!
• 0:45
  Absolutely unbelievable!
• 0:47
  You hand them the paperwork to get help, you show initiative,
• 0:51
  you do the work, and what do they do?
• 0:54
  They turn right around and threaten you with a lease violation!
• 0:58
  It is total leverage, total administrative trap door behavior,
• 1:03
  and it is a disaster!
• 1:05
  Yeah.
• 1:05
  It is a complete bait and switch.
• 1:07
  I mean, he never asked to discuss his lease, you know?
• 1:11
  He was applying for LIHEAP, the winter heating program, to get funds coming in
• 1:15
  December.
• 1:16
  But the automated system doesn't care.
• 1:19
  It sees a piece of paper, sees a date, and immediately drops the hammer.
• 1:24
  That is why Ryan's idea for a preliminary warning protocol is so smart.
• 1:29
  So powerful!
• 1:31
  You do not just throw a violation in someone's face.
• 1:34
  You set up a mandatory preliminary gate!
• 1:37
  A warning comes first, a violation comes second!
• 1:40
  And here is the kicker, you have to get a signature!
• 1:43
  The tenant has to sign off on the preliminary warning before anything can ever
• 1:47
  become an actual lease violation!
• 1:49
  Slows the whole train down.
• 1:52
  Right now, these property management portals, they act like automated compliance
• 1:57
  traps.
• 1:58
  You touch the system to ask for support, and it uses that touchpoint to search for
• 2:04
  something to penalize you for.
• 2:06
  If you force them to give a preliminary warning that requires a written sign off
• 2:10
  first, you take away that instant weaponization.
• 2:14
  Exactly!
• 2:15
  It creates validation!
• 2:17
  It creates real procedural rules instead of just letting an algorithm or a hasty
• 2:23
  manager blast you with violation rhetoric that rattles people and gets them mad!
• 2:28
  And he goes even further, which I love, absolutely love.
• 2:32
  Separate the credit scores!
• 2:35
  The dual scoring idea, right?
• 2:37
  Yes!
• 2:38
  A single credit score specifically for Idaho Power, and a single credit score
• 2:44
  specifically for your housing agency!
• 2:47
  Keep them completely isolated from FICO!
• 2:51
  Keep them away from the big financial environment!
• 2:55
  If you pay your utility month by month, your Idaho Power credit score is top
• 3:01
  tier, period!
• 3:03
  It makes a lot of sense, honestly.
• 3:06
  Because right now, one minor administrative overlap, like waiting on federal heating
• 3:12
  grants to clear between November and December, gets treated like you are a default
• 3:17
  risk on your entire housing standing.
• 3:20
  That is insane.
• 3:22
  And look at how we treat loyalty everywhere else in the modern economy!
• 3:25
  You go to Albertsons, you get grocery points, right?
• 3:28
  Five bucks off, ten bucks off!
• 3:31
  You play on Google Play, they award you points for participation!
• 3:35
  You go to a casino, what do they give you when you show up and play for years?
• 3:39
  They give you comps!
• 3:40
  Rewards!
• 3:42
  Casino comps for paying your electric bill.
• 3:46
  It sounds wild at first, but think about it.
• 3:49
  It is not wild, it is brilliant!
• 3:52
  It is pure momentum!
• 3:54
  If a tenant has paid their bill reliably for five or six years,
• 3:58
  five or six years of hard work and consistent standing, why do they have zero
• 4:03
  equity?
• 4:04
  Why do they get a red check mark the second there is one bump in the road?
• 4:08
  Right.
• 4:09
  Ryan talks about getting like a get out of jail free card, or earned passes.
• 4:13
  You build up comps over years of on time payments.
• 4:17
  Then when a crisis hits, or when there is a thirty to fifty five day lag while
• 4:22
  LIHEAP federal assistance funds are processing, you drop a comp.
• 4:27
  It absorbs the gap.
• 4:29
  It buffers the hardship!
• 4:30
  People love a system that rewards them!
• 4:33
  When you give people comps for their track record, they feel recognized,
• 4:38
  they feel invested, they want to stay in good standing!
• 4:41
  But current property management systems?
• 4:44
  Zero loyalty equity!
• 4:46
  All punishment, no incentive!
• 4:49
  It is all friction.
• 4:50
  I remember dealing with a municipal water bureau years back.
• 4:55
  They had a two week accounting lag on mail in payments.
• 4:59
  Even though I had paid on the exact same day for four years straight,
• 5:04
  their system automatically generated a shutoff threat letter every single autumn.
• 5:09
  No human looked at the four year record.
• 5:12
  Just a cold, dumb script.
• 5:14
  And that is how you destroy morale!
• 5:16
  You destroy trust!
• 5:18
  Powerful systems build momentum by honoring stamina and loyalty.
• 5:24
  You keep the good customers by rewarding them, not by terrifying them with eviction
• 5:30
  language!
• 5:30
  Now, if we look at the financial sector, there are tools trying to address part of
• 5:37
  this.
• 5:37
  Like Experian Boost.
• 5:39
  According to Experian, utility companies typically do not report your payment
• 5:46
  history to credit bureaus automatically.
• 5:49
  Experian Boost is a free opt in tool that scans your accounts for on time utility,
• 5:55
  gas, electric, and streaming payments and adds them to your Experian report to help
• 6:02
  raise your FICO score.
• 6:04
  See?
• 6:04
  That is an opt in tool where only on time payments count to give you a lift!
• 6:09
  It does not penalize you with negative marks on that feature if a payment is late!
• 6:15
  Right.
• 6:15
  But on the dark side of utility tracking, you have things like the National Consumer
• 6:19
  Telecom and Utilities Exchange, the NCTUE.
• 6:24
  That is a specialty consumer reporting agency with around ninety five utility and
• 6:30
  telecom member companies.
• 6:32
  They share payment data, especially unpaid balances and collections,
• 6:38
  among themselves.
• 6:39
  So if you owe money to one natural gas or power company, another utility might see
• 6:45
  it and demand a huge deposit before turning your lights on.
• 6:50
  So the institutions build massive, negative data sharing networks to lock people out
• 6:56
  and punish them, but when a resident asks for a positive reward system or a grace
• 7:02
  period inside housing, suddenly everyone acts like it is impossible!
• 7:07
  Well, there is a real debate here about gamification, though.
• 7:12
  Should basic human needs like power and shelter be run on points,
• 7:17
  reward tiers, and comps?
• 7:19
  Some folks would say putting a casino style point system on top of public housing
• 7:25
  just puts a friendly game mask on a system that is fundamentally hostile.
• 7:31
  I disagree!
• 7:32
  It is not about masking anything, it is about shifting the power dynamics!
• 7:38
  Right now the algorithm is set to destroy your good work over one missed step.
• 7:45
  If you introduce comps and preliminary protocols, you force the algorithm to
• 7:50
  acknowledge years of successful payments!
• 7:53
  It really comes down to the vocabulary of enforcement versus the vocabulary of care.
• 8:00
  Words like breach, default, and violation, they provoke people.
• 8:07
  They cause panic and anger, especially when someone just completed the labor of
• 8:12
  submitting assistance paperwork.
• 8:15
  It provokes people!
• 8:16
  It irritates them!
• 8:17
  It makes them feel like all their hard work over five years meant nothing!
• 8:23
  You fix the system by changing the words and changing the rules!
• 8:27
  You replace violation threats with preliminary warnings, signature requirements,
• 8:33
  and comps!
• 8:34
  And economically, it actually makes sense for housing authorities too.
• 8:39
  Legal fees for processing lease violations, administrative churn,
• 8:45
  tenant turnover, all that costs real money.
• 8:48
  Giving a tenant a signature validated preliminary warning and a thirty day grace
• 8:54
  period costs practically nothing compared to legal notices.
• 8:58
  It is cheaper, it is smarter, and it wins!
• 9:02
  Renter advocacy groups and legal aid advocates need to push for this exact
• 9:07
  blueprint!
• 9:08
  Mandate written consent before utility records can be weaponized into lease
• 9:14
  violations!
• 9:15
  Demand preliminary warning gates in public housing contracts!
• 9:20
  At the end of the day, housing agencies have a fundamental choice.
• 9:25
  They can run punitive, automated compliance that treats residents like suspects,
• 9:31
  or they can build human centered protocols that actually honor the effort people put
• 9:36
  in every single month.
• 9:38
  Human centered wins every single time.
• 9:41
  Respect the work, build the momentum, and stop governing by threat.
• 9:46
  Alright, that is the bottom line.