Faces of ECC | Meet Kanisha

Inner City News

1 year ago

My name is Kanisha Newman, I am the Landlord Liaison Supervisor of the Housing Choice Voucher Program. I’ve been working for the Housing Choice Voucher Program since January of 2024. My background is in housing along with behavioral and mental health. Prior to working for ECC, I was a Housing Locator for a non-profit agency in Hartford. This agency’s goal was to help end homelessness in Connecticut. I would assist with securing safe and stable housing for families in the Greater Hartford and Central area. I conducted housing quality standard inspections and lease-ups. In addition, I was responsible for the agency’s landlord engagement. I recruited landlords willing to provide housing to families who often faced barriers to housing like evictions, criminal background, or low credit. I held several landlord workshops and partnered with other agencies to ensure the landlords and families received the best help possible.

This role helped me familiarize myself with housing laws, lease requirements, housing standards, resources to assist anyone who is facing homelessness in CT, engaging, and retaining housing partners along with so much more. As the Landlord Liaison for ECC my role is to engage and assist with our current partners while recruiting new partners to the HCV program. I’m the centralized point of contact for all landlord inquiries. Quarterly I host landlord workshops to keep our partners informed of any changes within ECC. I assist with our quality control inspections, processing change of ownerships, abatements to ensure no family is staying in a unit that has not passed inspection. A current project that I’ve been working on is assisting the implementation of Bob.Ai, a web-based information center for our landlords and tenants. This platform is being used to allow landlords to submit a request for tenancy approval packet, rent increases, vacant units, along with direct communication with their Housing Specialist electronically. Tenants will utilize Bob.Ai to request a move, submit a change of income or family composition, communicate with their Housing Specialist, and complete their recertification. Bob.Ai is available from a computer or mobile device. Continuing to build and nourish our relationships with landlords and tenants is what I enjoy most in my role as the Landlord Liaison. A fun fact about myself is during the pandemic I taught myself how to do my own acrylic nails and designs. I now consider myself ambidextrous.