Client
Mission First Housing Group, a Philadelphia- based, non-profit affordable housing development, management and services organization, has been an ION Water partner since 2024. Having successfully reduced water use, saved money and increased NOI at six other properties, Mission First sought to achieve similar success at its 82 unit House of Lebanon property in Washington, DC.
Challenge
Mission First’s Key Challenges at House of Lebanon:
- Water rates are amongst the highest in the nation – $.023 vs. the national average of $.015 per gallon
- ION’s assessment revealed water use of 122 gallons per bedroom per day (GBD) – suggesting high invisible leak volume
- Total water loss was estimated at 2.6M gallons per year
- Without unit-level water visibility, maintenance teams had no clear way to locate excessive usage or leaks, leaving management unable to control water costs
Solution
Implementation of ION’s End-to-End Water Management System was completed using ION Detection™ technology at a single point of entry (SPOE) for each unit.
In mid-December ION’s Partner Support team conducted two 30-minute onboarding sessions with House of Lebanon’s property management and maintenance teams to ensure ION’s End-to-End Water Management system delivered maximum value. These sessions focused on:
- Interpreting daily leak reports
- Prioritizing work orders
- Using the ION Control™ platform to pinpoint specific unit-level issues
House of Lebanon’s site team quickly integrated ION’s daily leak report reviews into their routine, allowing them to address the largest leaks first and prevent prolonged water waste.
Importantly, Mission First leadership provided top down communication to House of Lebanon property and maintenance teams, explaining the need to control water use and cost and the value of incorporating ION’s End-to-End Water Management into daily operations.
“In today’s environment, where controlling expenses has become increasingly critical for affordable housing operators, ION Water has been a major asset in achieving real, measurable savings. Gaining visibility into daily consumption has been transformative. The combination of unit level insights and ongoing partnership with the ION team has empowered our property management staff to stay educated, respond quickly, and ultimately improve overall property performance.”
Kara Brogden, Sr. Asset Manager, Mission First Housing Group
Results & Impact
Within two weeks of ION Assist™ Partner Support training, House of Lebanon:
- Decreased daily water use by 70% (from 10,000 to approximately 3,000 gallons per day)
- Reduced leak volume to <10%* within 10 days
- Achieved 38 GBD
- Saved ~$60 per unit per month and $9.6K in two months
House of Lebanon also gained:
- Long-term control over water use via continuous visibility into unit level water use
- Improved maintenance team efficiency through
- ION alerts that pinpoint leaks and runaway water use, enabling teams to respond quickly and bring water-use spikes under control in one day
- Increased annual NOI by $750 per unit
*Note that 10% or lower leak volume is considered optimal as all properties waste water due to aging infrastructure, inefficiencies, etc., making visibility into daily water use essential for stabilized use & cost
