How Ready Rooms Handles Your Information

Who this applies to

This policy covers information Ready Rooms collects through readyrooms.org and its related tools: the individual and family housing request form, the professional referral form, the housing-provider application, the referral-partner application, the Ava chat assistant, the resident feedback form, tour requests, and communications with our staff. It applies to individuals seeking housing, professionals referring a client, housing providers, referral partners, and current residents placed through our network.

This policy explains our practices to the extent this organization controls them. Where you're speaking with a housing provider directly after a referral, that provider's own privacy and screening practices apply to that conversation, not this policy.

Information we collect

Depending on which form or service you use, we may collect:

• Contact information - name, phone number, email address, and mailing address.
• Housing needs - preferred metro area, region, city, move-in timeline, household size, housing type needed, and accessibility or logistical needs.
• Financial and funding information - monthly income or housing budget range, and funding or benefit source (for example SSI, SSDI, VA benefits, Medicaid, employment, or private pay).
• Background information relevant to placement - credit history, prior eviction or broken lease history, and criminal or sex-offender-registry history, when disclosed as part of an intake or referral.
• Referring-professional information - for professional referrals, the case manager's or referring professional's name, organization, phone number, and email address.
• Resident and outcome information - for people placed through our network, check-in responses, housing stability information, and placement outcomes.
• Provider information - for housing providers, property details, contact information, capacity, pricing, acceptance criteria, and photos submitted through the property listing form.
• Technical information - IP address and submission timestamp, recorded with form submissions as part of our consent record.

We do not knowingly request Social Security numbers, government identification numbers, or medical or clinical records through these forms. If you believe you've submitted this kind of information to us in error, contact us using the information below and we will help you address it.

How we use this information

• To evaluate housing needs and identify potentially suitable housing providers.
• To share an approved referral with one or more housing providers so they can screen and consider the applicant.
• To communicate with applicants, referring professionals, and providers about a submission, referral, or placement.
• To track referral and placement outcomes, including for program reporting and quality-improvement purposes.
• To operate the housing-provider network, including provider approval and ongoing communication with providers.
• To comply with legal, funding, or grant-reporting obligations that apply to Ready Rooms as a nonprofit organization.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not use housing-need or background information to serve targeted advertising.

How and when we share information

Ready Rooms shares an individual's or referred client's information with housing providers only after the applicable consent has been given, as described on our Consent & Terms page. In general:

• A defined set of fields (such as name, contact information, housing need, timeline, household size, income bracket, funding source, and accessibility needs) may be shared with one or more approved housing providers as part of a referral.
• Sensitive background information is only shared with a provider when the applicant has specifically authorized it, or when required under Ready Rooms' approved disclosure process, and always alongside the placement-relevant context a provider needs to make a fair, informed decision.
• We do not share one applicant's information with another applicant, or one housing provider's information with a competing provider.
• We share information with service providers who help us operate - our database provider (Airtable), our email delivery provider (Brevo), and our hosting provider (Vercel) - solely to run the services described in this policy, under their own data-handling and security practices.
• We may disclose information if required by law, subpoena, or valid legal process, or to protect the safety of an individual or the public.

Retention

We retain intake, referral, consent, and outcome records for as long as reasonably necessary for placement follow-up, program reporting, and compliance purposes. If you'd like your information deleted or corrected and it is not still needed for these purposes, contact us and we will address the request.

Security

We limit access to submitted information to Ready Rooms staff and the service providers described above, and staff access to our internal systems requires authentication. No online system is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security, but we take reasonable steps to protect the information you share with us.

Access, correction, and questions

You can ask us what information we have about you, request a correction, or ask us to delete information that is no longer needed for the purposes above, by contacting us using the information below.

Cookies and analytics

Our website may use standard analytics tools (such as Google Analytics or Google Search Console) to understand how visitors use the site in aggregate. These tools may use cookies or similar technology. They are not used to build individual profiles for advertising, and they are separate from the housing-navigation data described above.

Children

Ready Rooms' forms are intended to be used by adults on their own behalf, on behalf of a household that includes children, or by a professional referring a client. We do not knowingly collect information directly from children for the purpose of independently creating an account or submission in their own name.

Not a substitute for medical, legal, or benefits advice

Nothing on this site or collected through these forms constitutes medical, legal, or official government benefits guidance. Our benefits estimator and similar tools are informational only; eligibility for SSI, SSDI, Medicaid, VA benefits, and similar programs is determined by the relevant government agency.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The "Last reviewed" date at the top of this page reflects the most recent update.

Contact us

Questions about this policy or your information can be directed to info@readyrooms.org, (281) 949-8064, or by mail at 1919 Taylor St. Ste F, Houston TX 77007.