Google Cloud COVID Emergency Rental Relief: Simple Scalable and Secure

Colorado and Michigan are already seeing remarkable results

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With the launch of the Biden administration, came a new round of CARES funding to assist those hit hardest by COVID-19. Of this funding, $25 Billion dollars was allocated to provide immediate relief to those directly impacted and unable to pay their rent. Similar to other CARES funding the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) was pushed to State and Local government agencies to administer. In most cases, these agencies have inadequate tools to administer a program of this scale therefore need to find and deploy a solution fast. This formula has had disastrous results in some previous programs leading to unacceptably long processing times and intolerable high payouts of fraudulent claims.
Anticipating the need to address this problem, Google reached out to BlueVector AI; A trusted partner with deep experience building State and Local technology solutions. Together, Google and BlueVector developed a simple, scalable and secure solution that will not only meet the requirements of the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, but provide a foundation to manage future programs.

Simple

The idea of funding those impacted by COVID-19 is simple, and shouldn’t the system that administers it be too? We designed a solution with the end-user in mind. We took every step possible to ensure the process was simple. From applying, either as a tenant or landlord, to the claim management system used by an agency worker. We even applied Google’s Document AI, to automatically import paper based applications. We thought of everything to ensure seamless functionality. The resulting product is a robust , yet intuitive application requiring little to no training or explanation. We also simplified the payout process. With a pre-built integration to Stripe, Agencies can quickly deliver funds with little effort, allowing this money to get to work in the community faster. Finally we added some dynamic dashboards to help visualize claim processing, fund allocation and fraud prevention. Document AI provides users the ability to upload single or batch documents to a Cloud Storage bucket, which automatically triggers the entity extraction and data storage process. This allows teams to substitute manual reviews of paper or handwritten documents with AI powered entity extraction and processing.

Scalable

Recognizing that most of these agencies are not staffed to support the influx of claims, our solution heavily and uniquely leverages artificial intelligence to: Provide a virtual agent to answers the most common questions tenants and landlords have on the web and over the phone. Automatically scan, parse and import paper applications (a federal requirement to support disadvantaged citizens who lack internet access) Proactively detect and prevent fraud by analyzing historical claims

Secure

This solution was designed to meet the security, audit and reporting requirements provided by the US treasury. It is a FedRamp compliant solution pulling together the best of Google Cloud managed services; Including Google AppEngine, Cloud SQL, Document AI, CallCenter AI, Big Query, BigQueryML, and Looker/Data Studio. In addition to these great GCP products, we have integrated this solution with Stripe (PCI Service Provider Level 1 certified) for payout processing and Twilio SendGrid (SOC2 Type II certified) for email delivery.
BlueVector is currently assisting County clients, who are currently manually processing applications, payments, and workflows, streamline their application intake and payment processes. Offering users an easy to use application portal will result is higher constituent engagement and the delivery of payments more efficiently will raise program approval. In addition, we provide the client with backend approval and workflow rules in order to detect, prevent, and label fraudulent activity. FInally, new, visualized data is provided to the client about their program applicants and payouts in order to make actionable decisions about the program going forward.
Now, more than ever, Government needs technology solutions that are simple, scalable and secure. The Google + BlueVector ERAP solution can be implemented in a matter of weeks and eliminates the headaches associated with the processing, approving, and distribution of funds while detecting and preventing fraud to ensure funds are getting to the right people as quickly as possible.
About BlueVector AI
BlueVector AI’s sole mission is to transform Government and Healthcare leveraging Google Cloud technology and the ethical deployment of artificial intelligence. BlueVector maintains the BlueVector marketplace, a large collection of GCP solutions available free to Government agencies.