Metro Housing Alliance

Metro Housing Alliance's website had fallen behind the organization. The site was built on a platform the communications team couldn't navigate without technical help, which meant updates stalled, campaigns didn't get landing pages, and program information sat out of date longer than it should have.

The technical debt ran deeper than the surface. The previous CMS wasn't structured around the way the team worked. Content types were inconsistent. There was no clear separation between what the communications team owned and what required developer involvement. And the site had no connection to the tools the team used daily — no CRM integration, no analytics, no email capture.

The ask was a full rebuild. Before we agreed on what to build, we needed to agree on what the new site had to make possible.

We scoped this as a Tier 3 Website Modernization: a full platform replacement, not a redesign on top of the existing system.

Platform decision: Next.js and Sanity. Sanity's structured content model would give the communications team direct publishing access organized around content types they recognized — news, programs, staff, resources — rather than pages that required manual management. Next.js handles performance and SEO, with the flexibility to add integrations without rebuilding.

Integration plan defined before a single page was built. HubSpot for contact form routing, GA4 with key event tracking configured from day one, Mailchimp with a confirmed opt-in flow. Each integration was scoped and tested independently before going into the build.

32 pages in scope. Content was migrated from the existing site with URL preservation to protect organic search rankings.

We built in the prescribed order: Sanity schema first, then TypeGen, then layout components, then shared UI, then pages in priority order. Key decisions made during execution:

Content model built around the communications team's workflow. Rather than mapping the Sanity schema to the existing site structure, we designed it around how Sandra and her team would actually use it — by content type, with clear ownership and permissions that matched their internal roles.

Integrations built and tested individually before going live. HubSpot, GA4, and Mailchimp were each configured and verified against real test data before launch. No assumptions about what would work.

Accessibility addressed at build time, not retrofitted. Skip links, semantic landmarks, focus management, and color contrast were built in from the start. Accessibility was not treated as a final review step.

Two of three revision rounds used. The first round addressed visual refinements on the program and staff pages. The second addressed copy changes Sandra's team submitted after seeing the full build. One round remains available through August 2026.

32-page site launched at metrohousingalliance.org on June 12, 2026 — on schedule, within original scope.

All three integrations confirmed working at launch: HubSpot form routing, GA4 real-time tracking, Mailchimp opt-in flow.

Post-launch verification passed across all gates: live URL, form submissions, Open Graph preview, redirects, sitemap, and analytics real-time tracking.

Sandra and the communications team managing content independently from day one — no developer involvement required for routine updates.

30-day and 60-day performance data to be added by July 2026 and August 2026.

Content independence is not a nice-to-have for an organization with active communications. It is the minimum bar. An organization like Metro Housing Alliance publishes program updates, event information, and news on a regular cadence. A CMS that requires technical involvement for routine updates is a communications bottleneck, not a content management system.

The integration work mattered at launch, not 60 days later. HubSpot, GA4, and Mailchimp were live and tested before the site went public. That decision prevented the common pattern of a well-built site that launches without data collection or lead capture because the integrations get deferred to a future sprint that never comes.