From Paper Files to Powerful Impact: How We Modernized Homeless Services with Quickbase

When I joined Neighborhood Legal Services of Michigan (NLSM), I walked into a nonprofit with an incredibly important mission—rehousing individuals experiencing homelessness across Detroit and Wayne County. But the systems supporting that mission were stuck in the past. 

We were managing more than 2,000 client cases on paper. Thick files. Excel spreadsheets. Manual processes that slowed everything down. And for an organization that receives HUD funding, that’s a real problem. HUD has strict rules and tight reporting requirements.  Further, for our agency, when we receive a new client into services, we work hard to rehome them in 30 days or less. 

That kind of turnaround isn’t just a goal—it’s a lifeline. But with the tools we had, we were constantly playing catch-up. 

So, I was brought in to change that. Not as an IT expert—I’m a nonprofit professional. I know grants. I know HUD compliance. I know human services. And what I needed was a tool that could bridge the gap between our deep subject matter expertise and the digital transformation we so badly needed. 

That tool was Quickbase. 

Building the App That Changed Everything 

I created what we now call the NLSM Housing Application. It's a centralized Quickbase platform that supports every step of our housing assistance workflow—from intake to inspection to move-in. 

Here’s what it does: 

• Client Intake: As soon as a new client enters our care, their case is entered into the app. We capture all HUD-required fields right up front. That includes things like current living situation, income verification, household size, and documentation status. Once complete, the app generates a case record that triggers downstream processes automatically. 
• Case Assignment: The system instantly alerts a housing specialist via email that a case has been assigned. We’ve even built logic into the app to help us assign cases geographically—so the right staff member is matched with the right client based on location. 
• Property Selection: Once a client is approved, the app gives our housing specialists a place to track potential housing matches. Clients have a choice in their options, but we use affordability and household size guidelines to keep the process fair and efficient. The app helps us make those decisions faster and more transparently. 
• Inspection Scheduling & Tracking: Here’s where things really changed. Before Quickbase, we had a clunky, manual process for requesting inspections of potential housing units. Now, it’s all automated. Housing specialists submit an inspection request through the app, and that request goes directly to the inspector’s queue. Once complete, the inspection results are automatically synced back into the client’s case file. 
• Document Management & Lease Signing: We’ve integrated with DocuSign so lease agreements and approval letters can be sent and signed electronically. The app tracks document status, deadlines, and sends alerts when something needs follow-up. 
• Case Notes & Communication Logs: Every interaction—whether it’s with a client, landlord, or inspector—is logged in the app. It creates a full history of each case, ensuring we never miss a detail and always have the context we need. 
• Compliance & Reporting: Because HUD requires us to submit specific data about every case, we built in the ability to generate reports directly from the app in the correct format. This has saved us hours of manual prep and ensures our funding stays secure. 

And the best part? I built it all without a background in IT. Quickbase made that possible.