Zillow is proud to partner with the Seattle Housing Authority (SHA) and support the Creating Moves to Opportunity Program (CMTO), which helps families with young children move into homes in higher opportunity neighborhoods.
Research shows that moving from lower-opportunity neighborhoods to higher-opportunity neighborhoods improves later-life outcomes for children and may reduce the intergenerational persistence of poverty.
The program helps families with children move to higher-opportunity neighborhoods by breaking down barriers to entry for families within the Housing Choice Voucher program. CMTO brings services and assistance to these families, providing education about opportunity areas, coaching, housing search assistance, financial assistance, and the ability to enter into a lease more quickly.
One significant barrier to entry for families in the CMTO program is a lack of awareness of the program among private landlords in opportunity areas—and how it can benefit them.
Zillow is able to leverage our research, platform, relationships and skills to support CMTO in multiple ways:
- Zillow’s analytics team identified properties and landlords in specific opportunity neighborhoods throughout Seattle.
- Zillow’s creative studios team managed the production of a short video explaining how CMTO works for property managers and private landlords.
- Zillow’s marketing team created email communications to share this video and invite property managers and private landlords to learn more.
- Zillow employees from across the company participated as volunteers in a phone bank to reach private landlords and invite them to consider leasing to a family in the program.
Zillow is proud to have connected several new landlords and property managers in opportunity areas with the CMTO program through these efforts.
We look forward to continuing to support SHA and their mission to enhance the Seattle community by creating and sustaining decent, safe and affordable living environments that foster stability for people with low incomes.