One Platform, Three Solutions: How Harrison Street Reduced Risk and Achieved 100% Compliance

Harrison Street Snapshot

• Featuring: Matt Page, Assistant VP of Operations
• Type of Company: Owner
• Property Type: Student Housing
• Units: 100,000+ beds
• Assets Under Management: $109B
• Foxen Products: WaiverFlex, Rentistry, PetClear

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Harrison Street is a Chicago-based investment management firm with $109 billion+ in assets under management including student and multifamily housing. As a private equity owner, Harrison Street partners with third-party property management companies to oversee their 100,000+ bed portfolio. That structure makes portfolio-wide renters insurance compliance a challenge. Harrison Street partnered with Foxen to achieve 100% compliance, and, since then, the relationship has grown into a full platform partnership spanning renters insurance compliance monitoring and waiver program administration with WaiverFlex, rent reporting with Rentistry, and, most recently, pet management with PetClear.

The Challenge

As a private equity owner, Harrison Street raises capital, acquires or develops properties and then partners with property management companies (PMCs) to operate those assets. Today, that means 15+ PMC partners spread across a 100,000+ bed portfolio, flexing as Harrison Street acquires and sells assets.

"Foxen’s the best at what they do — API connectivity, service agreements, all the documentation and conversations that go into it. It’s been lightning speed."

Working with many PMCs is necessary across a portfolio of their size, but creates challenges for managing risk consistently. That’s what led Harrison Street to Foxen — they needed a solution that could deliver 100% renters insurance compliance across their portfolio without adding headcount or asking on-site teams to become insurance experts.

Additionally, Harrison Street’s captive insurance entity required a precise approach to meet the complex requirements needed to guarantee total compliance across the portfolio.

"I don’t think that anyone is doing as much strategic forward thinking as Foxen. The heavy lifting, the trainings, and the property level coaching and support, it’s all first class."

Before Foxen, Harrison Street tried other vendors to power their waiver program administration. “We worked with enough vendors to know what makes a solution bad in the tenant legal liability space,” said Matt Page, Assistant Vice President of Operations at Harrison Street. The issues the firm ran into included reconciliation errors that went undetected, and no real API connection to the property management software that on-site teams relied on for day-to-day operations. This limited visibility into real-time resident compliance status and added risk exposure.

A Platform and Partnership, Not a Patchwork of Vendors

The biggest difference that Matt noticed when Harrison Street migrated its tenant legal liability program to Foxen back in 2021 was the dedication and partnership of Foxen’s account team. Foxen’s customer success and relationship management teams know Harrison Street’s unique needs, and that, combined with Foxen’s AI-enabled technology, provides Harrison Street with unified reporting and support.

"There’s a succinct vision at Foxen that’s a breath of fresh air. Foxen is a one-stop shop, not only do they bring real estate expertise across a variety of asset classes, but they provide deep tech expertise as well."

For Matt and his colleagues, that consolidation is a differentiator. Rather than stitching together point solutions to achieve their resident compliance goals, Harrison Street works with a single partner that owns the technology, the renter experience, and the support for diverse property management partners, end to end.

Building the Foundation: 100% Compliance with WaiverFlex

WaiverFlex, the renters insurance compliance program for customers who choose to self-insure with their own captive insurance, is the anchor of Harrison Street’s relationship with Foxen. Since the full migration in 2022, Harrison Street has used Foxen to administer their renters insurance compliance solution, enjoying full compliance — with no gaps left to chance — across the portfolio.

Compliance the Team Can Rely On

That standard matters beyond the balance sheet. Harrison Street reports its compliance to investors, property owners, and its corporate leadership, and having the confidence to say the portfolio is fully compliant is a claim Matt says he couldn’t make with prior providers. Foxen's API connections into each property management platform means there's no lag between a change in resident policy status and the system taking action to maintain 100% compliance.

A Support Team That Operates as an Extension of Harrison Street

Because Harrison Street works with many operators, their team has limited day-to-day visibility into resident sentiment on the ground. Their Foxen account team closes that gap. Matt’s Foxen account manager brings resident feedback to every training call, especially during student turn season, giving Matt and his colleagues insight that they otherwise wouldn’t have.

"It’s a true partnership. If a roadblock comes up, Foxen steps in every time to provide recommendations and strategies that always ensure a successful resolution. They are in the trenches with us."

Speed and Scale on Harrison Street’s Terms

With a big portfolio that is constantly expanding, it’s important that Harrison Street can move fast. When the company makes a new acquisition, onboarding an entirely new portfolio with tens of thousands of beds to WaiverFlex is now a matter of weeks, not quarters. As confirmed by Matt, “If we acquire 10,000 beds tomorrow, we know we could get it up and running with Foxen in roughly 60 days.”

Extending the Value: Helping Residents Build Financial Wellness with Rentistry

After Harrison Street launched WaiverFlex, the firm was excited to launch Rentistry, Foxen’s rent reporting program. Reporting rent payments to credit bureaus helps those residents build financial health, which fits squarely into Harrison Street’s philosophy around supporting resident wellbeing.

"Rentistry gives residents the chance to grow their credit history, whether they’re moving from student housing to multifamily or into other parts of their lives."

The rollout was fast and easy. Because the properties eligible for Rentistry were already live on WaiverFlex, onboarding Rentistry didn’t require any new integrations or technical training for property staff. As Matt explained, “Once we had most of our ecosystem in the waiver program, it was a very easy lift to flip the switch and incorporate Rentistry.”

Not only has Rentistry given Harrison Street properties a competitive edge with added value to the resident, but reporting on-time payments to credit bureaus also gives residents an incentive to pay rent on time and greater incentive to renew.

From Pilot to Platform: How Adoption Spread Across Harrison Street’s Partner Network

Several of the PMCs that Harrison Street partners with took notice of the benefits of Rentistry and waiver and decided to implement the solutions at other properties they operate.

"Many of our property management partners have become Foxen customers in their own right — whether it’s waiver or Rentistry —because they piloted it with us first and saw the benefit trickle down to their own operations and P&L."

These benefits expand beyond the revenue impact, Foxen’s solutions also deliver time savings for property staff, convenience for residents, and reduced risk for properties.

What’s Next: Closing the Pet Compliance Gap with PetClear

After an internal audit revealed that Harrison Street did not have reliable visibility into pet ownership or policy compliance, the firm realized there was an opportunity to not only streamline and drive compliance around pet policies, but recoup lost pet rent. When pet data isn’t centralized, it’s easy for residents with pets to slip through the cracks, leading to revenue leakage and unaccounted risk.

"We conducted an internal audit and recognized how little visibility we had into pet participation across our portfolio. For us to have real compliance around that is incredibly strategic and important."

To fix this issue, Harrison Street is preparing to implement PetClear, Foxen’s pet management solution, in fall 2026. Rolling out PetClear will reduce risks caused by unreported pets, streamline review of support animals and service animal accommodation requests, and gather the data needed to accurately collect pet fees. It’s the next chapter in a multi-year relationship that keeps expanding for the same reason it started: real partnership with connected solutions to their unique challenges, supported by automation and technology that scales across their complex portfolio.

Harrison Street’s Results with Foxen

• 100% renters insurance compliance across the eligible ecosystem since 2022
• 145,000+ beds managed at peak across 15+ property management partners
• ~60-day onboarding timeline for a new 10,000-bed portfolio addition
• 0 uninsured renter incidents since 2022
• 82% average Waiver enrollment rate over the first three years
• Rentistry adoption scaled from ~15,000 to 30,000+ monthly participants within 3 months of launch, peaking near 33,500
• 71% average Rentistry enrollment rate over the first three years

Looking Ahead

Foxen and Harrison Street first started working together to fix a specific problem — gaps in renters insurance compliance across a complex, multi-owner portfolio — today that relationship has become a full partnership that expands across several solutions and enables Harrison Street to reduce risk while continuing to deliver an excellent experience for residents and property staff.

"We want it done right the first time around. We don’t want to have to be clawing back years later to correct mistakes because we didn’t go with the most solid, professional partner out there."

Click here to download a PDF version of the Harrison Street customer spotlight.