Portland to Launch Online Platform to Ease Rental Applications

PORTLAND, OR – Today, Mayor Wheeler, joined by Commissioner Eudaly and Portland innovator Tyrone Poole, announced the project launch of One App Oregon, an online platform piloted by the City of Portland to reduce barriers to accessing affordable housing for Portland’s renter households.

The lack of a user-friendly, comprehensive listing of available and affordable rental units for Portland is a barrier for renters searching for housing in the current market and exacerbates our city’s housing crisis.

Portland renters often have to search multiple sources to find vacancies, make numerous phone calls, drive from property to property, receive multiple denials, and pay fees to apply for units they may not ultimately qualify to rent.

This repetitive, laborious process means it can take months for a family to get approved for housing. Portland’s low vacancy rates, inflated rents, and a growing population heighten these challenges for renters and make looking for housing an inefficient and potentially cost-prohibitive process for working and low-income households, families with young children, and those with limited mobility or access to transportation.

A new partnership between the City of Portland and local tech company NoAppFee will pilot an online platform that will list both private market and regulated affordable rental units.

The app NoAppFee.com was developed by Portland innovator Tyrone Poole, a 34-year-old African American entrepreneur, following his own experience with homelessness and housing instability.

NoAppFee.com -- for which Poole won a spot in Prosper Portland's 2014 start-up incubator and 2015's Pitch Black competition -- screens applicants against a comprehensive listing of vacancies in rental properties for a single fee, and connects them with the properties for which they qualify, reducing the time and cost to families in search of housing.

The new One App Oregon system will build upon this innovative concept by including listings of affordable housing regulated by the City of Portland through the Portland Housing Bureau.

Development on the project begins this month and is expected to go live later this year.