Sign in to Fortress OSApplicants become residents here
They do their own paperwork. Your team checks it.
The online application, stage by stage
Stages open in order. Shorter applications keep more applicants.
Application
This stage decides eligibility. It collects who lives in the household and what the household earns and owns.
The affordable or conventional path is already set at pre-qualification, from the income the applicant entered.
Credit and Criminal Screening
The applicant pays the fee and signs consent here. One credit and criminal check covers every adult in the household.
Applicants can reset their own application until the fee clears. After that, resetting is blocked on both sides, and your office cannot undo it either.
Documentation
The applicant uploads income and asset proof here, plus identity documents for every household member.
Submission is the last card in the stage, so an application showing up in Fortress does not mean the applicant is finished.
Same process, less typing
They start it themselves
A prospect opens the checklist and works the first stage. The two below it stay locked until that one is done, so nobody skips ahead and nobody calls the office to ask what is next.
The questions fit the household
Inside a stage, sections open one at a time, and which ones appear depends on the household and the property's program. Your team sets none of it per applicant.
Documents go in the portal
Once screening is submitted, documentation opens and the applicant uploads their own paperwork, which is the step that used to land on your desk as an email attachment.
See Fortress ComplianceIt lands ready to review
Every stage completed, signatures already on the forms, and the qualification tabs filled as far as the application can take them. You review instead of starting from a blank tab.
See how your team works the fileNone of this stays automatic if the office finishes applications on the applicant's behalf.
When an application looks stuck
Most of these are the portal working as designed. Your team will field these six most often.
A stage is greyed out
It is waiting on the stage above it. Stages open one at a time, and so do the sections inside them. If Documentation will not open, screening is not finished yet.
Nothing has moved in days
Check the household before you check the system. Every adult has to finish their own screening section and sign their own consent. One outstanding adult holds up everyone.
An answer needs changing
Applicants can reset their own application until the fee is paid. Once it clears, resetting is blocked on both sides, so sort out any uncertain answers first.
Documents arrived by email
Walk the applicant through uploading it themselves. Paperwork that skips the portal does not count, and the application will not complete without it.
Screening did not start
Three things decide it: the property's auto-screening setting, complete screening information, and consent signed by every adult. Any one missing and screening waits.
Two applicants saw different questions
That is the application adapting. The path is set at pre-qualification from the income entered, and the questions come from the household and the property's program.
Inside the affordable housing resident portal
Pay Rent in a Few Taps
Residents see their balance, pay online, and switch on autopay from any device.
See PaymentsEvery Document, One Login
Leases, addendums, and community rules live in the portal, so your team stops re-sending PDFs.
Answers Without a Phone Call
Residents open a work order or check a request status without waiting on the office.
See MaintenanceOne Thread With the Office
Two-way messaging keeps every question and answer in one place, tied to the right unit.
Rent, documents, work orders, and messages, all under one resident login.
Finishing an application
The parts that decide whether someone actually gets through it.
Save it, come back
An application saves where the applicant left it, so they can close the tab mid-stage and pick it up once they have the documents they need.
Finishing does not lock it
A complete application still takes an extra payment, a second signature, or another document. Nobody has to reset anything to ask for more.
Built for a phone
We designed the portal around a phone screen instead of squeezing it onto one, because that is the device most applicants have on them.
Switch languages
The whole portal runs in other languages, from the first stage through to paying rent, so language is not what decides whether an application gets finished.
Everything the portal hands off to
What a resident starts in the portal, your team finishes in Fortress OS.
Payments
A resident pays rent in the portal and it posts straight to the ledger. Nobody re-keys a balance by hand.
See PaymentsFortressHUB
A photo and a work order from the portal become a tracked maintenance job, updated both ways.
See FortressHUBFortress Compliance
Every document an applicant uploads lands audit-ready, filed against the household record.
See ComplianceFortressConnect
A message a resident sends from the portal lands in the inbox your team already works.
See FortressConnectWhat is MyFortress?
MyFortress is the resident and applicant portal in Fortress OS. Applicants use it to apply, upload documents, and sign. Residents use the same login to pay rent, read their lease, open work orders, and message the office. It is the portal behind the resident portal side of Fortress OS.
How does the MyFortress online application work?
It runs in three stages, worked in order. Application collects household, wages and income, assets, and deductions. Credit and Criminal Screening collects payments, identifying details, and the check itself. Documentation collects self-identification, uploads, and the final submission.
What lands in Fortress once an applicant is done?
The household application, the full Application Details record, every uploaded document, and the signatures already applied to the forms. That record holds answers the standard application form has no field for, so check it before you call an applicant back for something you may already have. For affordable applications, Fortress also fills the income, assets, deductions, and citizen status tabs as far as the application can take them. Auto-filled is not finished. Your team still works through each tab.
Can residents pay rent online?
Yes. Residents pay by ACH, card, or online paper check where the property allows it, and autopay stays tied to the account, so a balance never gets keyed in twice. See how payments post on your side.
What can residents do without calling the office?
Open a work order, attach a photo, and track its status, which feeds the same maintenance queue your team already works. They also read their lease, addendums, move-in checklists, and community rules in the portal, so nobody re-sends files that leasing already generated.
Is MyFortress built for affordable housing?
Yes. It is built for affordable housing operations as part of Fortress's affordable housing property management software, including the program questions, identity and eligibility documents, recertifications, and the document trail those programs require.