[Xtern Software] Our work with Community Housing Solutions

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We are thrilled to be one of the sponsors of Community Housing Solutions’ signature yearly event, the Ambassadors Breakfast. 

The mission of CHS is “to make Guilford County homes warmer, drier and safer by providing repairs and ownership opportunities to low-income homeowners.”

In addition to event sponsorship, Xtern recently partnered with CHS on a custom software project. CHS Executive Director Gene Brown and Xtern founder Keir Davis met at a Summit Rotary chapter event. It became apparent that a custom software solution could end Brown’s software search of eight years. It was cost-effective and also developed locally, a huge bonus. 

Project details


The Xtern Software team built a database to track needed information for home repairs. Typically, this type of database is costly and inflexible. Xtern created a database that links three categories together in a flexible manner — Home, Homeowner, and Project. The result is a nimble database that can track multiple projects for a given homeowner or change the homeowner on a particular home. From there, CHS utilizes its skilled construction staff to lead over 900 volunteers each year. This team repairs more than 150 homes, investing over $900,000 in preserving homeownership.

The database is accessible by various user types with various permission levels. The result is that employees can access applicable secure client information. CHS can now access records from outside the walls of their office. And employees have appropriate and applicable access for each type of user.

The result


The improvements have been vital to the success of the organization during the pandemic. With staff working remotely, ordinarily this type of work would have ground to a halt. Instead, work can continue seamlessly, with staff able to access homeowner information, work write-ups, and pictures. 

Kudos to CHS for providing vital services to our community!