1. Coordinated Entry: Building a homeless response system
Meeting of HUD Region I CoCs
Northern Region / Manchester, NH
Robert Pulster, Regional Coordinator
May 7, 2015

2. Opening Doors The Plan set forth four bold and ambitious goals:
No one should experience homelessness and no one should be without a safe, stable place to call home.
The Plan set forth four bold and ambitious goals:
Finish the job of ending chronic homelessness by 2017
Prevent and end homelessness among Veterans by 2015
Prevent and end homelessness for families, youth, and children by 2020
Set a path to ending all types of homelessness

3. Themes of Opening Doors
Increase leadership, collaboration, and civic engagement
Increase access to stable and affordable housing
Increase economic security
Improve health and stability
Retool the homeless crisis response system

4. USICH Roles Coordinates the Federal response to homelessness
Maximizes the effectiveness of 19 Federal agency partners
Shares best practices
Drives collaborative solutions at the national and community level

5. Progress with Opening Doors
Since the launch of Opening Doors, we have changed the trajectory of homelessness.
Opening Doors
Source: HUD 2014 AHAR

6. Keys to advancing progress
Using a Housing First orientation
Building a system of programs
Implementing Coordinated Entry
Being goal and data-driven
Collaborating with mainstream systems

7. Housing First orientation
Everyone is ready for housing and can achieve stability in housing.
The ultimate goal is connection to permanent housing
Housing First recognizes “resistance” as ambivalence to change and requires persistent engagement to overcome ambivalence.
It has a practical focus on addressing barriers to housing entry.
It is connected to housing referral and placement systems (coordinated entry and assessment).

8. Building a systems approach
Programs and services work together as a single system across organizational lines
Ensure full community coverage with overlapping catchment areas
Shared data and information on clients
Joint case conferencing on hard-to-engage clients
Complementing services and expertise (psychiatric assessment capacity, mobile medical services)

9. Being goal and data-driven
Contributes to larger community goals of ending homelessness among Veterans by 2015 and individuals experiencing chronic homelessness by 2017
Useful to set short-term (e.g. 100 day) housing placement goals
Allows monitoring of performance goals
Uses data for case finding and prioritization
HMIS - Longest term homeless
Data matching - High utilizers of hospitals, jails, detox, etc.
USICH SHOP tool – Uses PIT and HIC to target PSH to chronic clients

10. Implementing Coordinated Entry
HUD is requiring all CoCs to establish a coordinated entry system
HUD published a Policy Brief in February 2015
A coordinated entry process is a critical component to any community’s effort to meet the goals of Opening Doors.
Ensures that community assistance is allocated as effectively as possible and is easily accessible no matter where or how people present

11. Current Crisis Response Systems: (Using Boston as an example)
Emergency shelters
Street Outreach
Day & Meal
Programs
Healthcare for the Homeless
Youth
Programs
Staying with Friends/Family
Boston VA
County Jail/Prison
Psychiatric & Mainstream Hospitals
Detox/ Treatment
Pilgrim (Shelter)
Pine Street Inn (Shelter)
New England Center
(Shelter)
Woods Mullen
(Shelter)
DV Shelters
St. Francis House (Day and Overflow Shelter)
DMH Shelter
Long Island (Shelter)
DMH Safe Haven
Transitional Housing
Waitlists, screening criteria
Waitlists, screening criteria
Waitlists, screening criteria
Screening criteria, financial barriers
Permanent Supportive Housing
Public Housing
Affordable Housing
Market Rate Housing
@USICHgov
Source: Boston Mayors Task Force on Individual Homelessness (modified from “Coordinated Access Houston: The Shift”

12. Coordinated Entry Policy Brief
An effective coordinated entry process is a critical component to any community’s efforts to meet the goals of Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness. This policy brief describes HUD’s views of the characteristics of an effective coordinated entry process. This brief does not establish requirements for Continuums of Care (CoCs), but rather is meant to inform local efforts to further develop CoCs’ coordinated entry processes.

13. Clients face barriers & challenges
Difficult for individuals and families to access services and housing
Separate referral processes for each agency
Unique assessment at each agency
Questionable housing match accuracy
Difficult to know service and housing availability across the system
Challenge to evaluate effective utilization to manage to achievement of goals

14. System building
Programs
Homeless Response System
Talented and committed providers using different methods and providing different services
(program-centered model)
An integrated network of providers whose efforts are well-coordinated to achieve a COLLECTIVE IMPACT
(client-centered model)
Source: From Boston Mayors Task Force on Individual Homelessness
(Modified from Houston’s Plan to End Chronic Homelessness)

15. Coordinated Entry The goals of building a coordinated entry system:
Reorient system to focus on those being served
Minimize time and frustration accessing help
Maximize use of system resources
Identify service gaps for planning

16. Programs vs. system model
Without Coordinated Assessment, programs use:
Program-centric decisions making
Different forms and assessments
Ad-hoc referral processes
With Coordinated Assessment, systems use:
Client-centric decision making
Standard forms and assessments
Community agreement on where to refer
Coordinated referrals through regional/CoC entity

17. Community Example: Houston
Operational philosophy: We need to do a better job of orienting our system toward housing and housing stabilization
Match resources with need
Remove barriers that keep people from getting the housing and services they need
Coordinate and simplify the process
Use data to drive decision making
Build capacity
Enhance collaboration among funders

18. Community example: Houston
Coordinated entry system operational as of 1/2014
Three months test phase using paper to asses and place while building out workflow
Second phase began HMIS integration and continued system build out
Coordinated entry initial target for individuals that are experiencing chronic homelessness and Veterans
Incorporate reporting ability and performance measures

19. Community example: Houston
Roles and Responsibilities
CE Implentation Manager
Support all partners; develop project management workbook and action plans, facilitate workgroups, trouble shoot
CoC Progam Manager
Support all partners, maintain oversight of manual processes, facilitate case conferences, develop all MOUs, managing ongoing operations

20. Houston learned: Electronic build-outs take longer than expected
Technology and staffing require repurposing and/or finding new funds
The shift in thinking is more challenging than the shift in operations
There is a housing option for everyone
This is community data, not agency data
The repurposed CE staff are not “helping out” a new system but they are the new system.
The clock starts from the moment of initial engagement – metrics matter

21. Houston’s example shows
Coordinated Access can:
Control access to units through sole referral source
Ensure housing placements – system cannot say “no”
Hold everyone accountable – denials get attention
Produce system-wide data on placement and utilization
Track collective impact – manage to achieve goal

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