Supporting the public-interest work
Sponsors & funders
HomeBase turns fragmented housing information into personalized action and measurable progress for aspiring homeowners who might otherwise abandon the process.
The problem
Assistance exists — but it’s scattered across dozens of agencies, written in jargon, and constantly changing. People who most need help often can’t tell what they qualify for, so they give up before they start.
Theory of change
- 1Buyers lack understandable, situation-specific information.
- 2HomeBase uncovers the programs relevant to them.
- 3HomeBase organizes those into a few actionable paths.
- 4Buyers complete classes, connect with professionals, prepare documents, and apply.
- 5Partners help buyers keep moving.
- 6HomeBase measures movement from uncertainty toward homeownership.
What we measure
Labeled honestly. We show what we measure today versus what we’re building — and we never present a number we haven’t collected.
Reach
- Measuring nowAssessment starts & completions
- Starting to collectGeography of buyers served
- Starting to collectReturning-user rate
Action
- Measuring nowPlans created
- Measuring nowPrograms & classes saved
- Starting to collectOutreach to professionals requested
- Starting to collectMilestones completed
Outcomes (self-reported, opt-in)
- Starting to collectApproved / closed on a home
- PlannedAssistance accessed
- PlannedTime from first visit to milestone
System insights
- Starting to collectCommon barriers
- PlannedGeographic program gaps
- Starting to collectPrograms with high interest
Where the database stands today
Live counts from the system right now — real numbers, not projections.
- 607
- Published programs
- 395
- Official sources monitored
- 228
- Leads in human review
- 891
- Records re-audited to date
Inside the review queue — a pipeline, not a backlog
- 3 mined from our 2023 database (deduped, liveness-checked)
- 0 found by open web discovery
- 98 pre-verified by automated checks against current official pages
- 3335 promoted to published programs
- 78 resolved as duplicates (strengthening existing records)
- 6rejected leads & blocked domains
Oldest unreviewed lead: 74 days. Humans review and publish; machines only find and check.
Buyers taking action
- 0 messages sent to counselors & lenders
- 1 partner & funder inquiries
- 2 consented email subscribers
Plus anonymized product analytics (assessments completed, plans built, official-application clicks, self-reported closings) — aggregate-only, never personal.
How we would evaluate
- Baselines first: reach and action metrics are collected from launch, so change is measured against a real starting point.
- Self-reported vs verified, always separated: milestones a buyer reports are labeled self-reported; nothing is presented as confirmed without a confirmation method.
- Cohort over anecdote: movement (assessment → plan → education → preapproval milestones) reported in aggregate bands, never as cherry-picked stories.
- Independent review welcome: our event taxonomy and privacy contract are documented and auditable.
Why this beats linking people to government websites
The information exists; the navigation doesn’t. Programs are scattered across dozens of agencies, written in jargon, and changing constantly. HomeBase maintains one verified, dated, plain-language layer across all of them — then turns it into a personal plan with next steps, and keeps that plan current as programs change. That last mile is what no individual agency site does.
Privacy & responsible data
- Sponsors receive aggregate, privacy-protected information — never individual buyer records.
- We never send personal financial details or identities into analytics or reports.
- Buyers control what they share; nothing goes to a partner or funder without consent.
Ways to support the work
- Sponsor a county, city, or employer cohort
- Support program-data verification (the work that keeps every listing trustworthy)
- Fund buyer education and navigation
- Support multilingual access
- Support independent evaluation and outcome measurement
We’ll scope specifics — including any funding levels — together. No set amounts are published here.
Start a conversation
Tell us what you care about and we’ll follow up.
