As you may be aware, EDEN transitioned to a new software system in July. TENMAST, our previous system, was no longer meeting EDEN’s needs. After much research, senior management determined that YARDI would not only meet EDEN’s needs, but offered significant features that would enable EDEN to expand its service offerings.

YARDI is a comprehensive property management software that allows EDEN to conduct many of its operations using one integrated system, including:

• Keep all contact info for participants, housing providers, vendors, and more.
• Track housing, programs, and special needs of participants.
• Manage program and demographic information so that EDEN can submit comprehensive reports to its funders.
• Process all required HUD actions related to program compliance.
• Manage payroll, accounts payable, and accounts receivable.
• Dispense utility assistance funds for eligible participants.
• Issue all HAP payments to property owners via direct deposit.

Because agencies like EDEN are always seeking ways to become more efficient in their work in order to benefit partners and participants, large software conversions are common in the housing industry This is why senior management made the choice to move to a new system.

EDEN strongly believes that both property owners and participants will benefit from separate online portals that will improve communication and access to information, as well as improve efficiency in how EDEN processes the many tasks related to serving you and our participants. With this new system, one of the biggest upgrades will come in 2025 when we can open a 24/7 portal for participants, residents, and housing providers so that they can access their information and documents in the system directly. 

That being said, large software conversions bring with them an impact on operations that is not always immediately positive nor always anticipated, and that was the case with EDEN’s transition. Almost everything in our day-to-day work was impacted in a way we did not anticipate, causing delays and understandable frustration for you and our participants. EDEN staff worked tirelessly to become familiar with the system in order to remedy issues and continue their work, putting in extra hours and managing the stress that comes with such a significant change to how they perform their jobs.

Our top priority was to make sure property owners received their monthly rental payments because we understand how critical cash flow is to your business and for our participants to remained housed.

In the three months since converting to YARDI, EDEN has made significant strides towards reestablishing full operating capabilities. While we unexpectedly had to issue paper checks for July and August payments, all of our payments were issued via direct deposit in September. In addition, participants received all money owed for utility assistance.

EDEN staff are now comfortable in using the system and are able to process required actions, including initial, annual, emergency and special inspections. While we understand there will continue to be issues that need resolution as a result of this conversion, we are tracking those closely and working to resolve them as quickly as possible.

We would like to extend a sincere thank you to all who showed EDEN grace during this time, and who understood that this decision was made to improve operations with all of our property owner partners. We acknowledge the strain that this placed on a number of you, resulting in significant frustration, but please know that we focused our best efforts on resolving issues and mitigating their impact as quickly as possible. We continue to be grateful for your patience and understanding as we work through the outstanding issues related to the conversion.

If you have any questions, or notice something that needs to be addressed, please contact our Property Owner Hotline at 216-503-6369 or EDENLandlordInfo@edencle.org. We will respond as soon as we are able.

Again, thank you for partnering with EDEN. We appreciate your ongoing partnership with us on our mission to provide housing solutions to people facing the challenges of housing insecurities and homelessness.

Communicate with us!

We value our partnership with you. EDEN cannot fulfill its mission of providing housing solutions to people facing the challenges of housing insecurities and homelessness without the support of property owners and managers like you. If you have any concerns, please reach out to our Community Housing Agents at the information line 216-503-6369 or email EdenLandlordInfo@edencle.org and we will do our best to offer solutions or refer you to the person at EDEN who can help.

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