Coordinated Entry
What is Coordinated Entry?
Coordinated entry is a process that ensures that all people experiencing a housing crisis in a defined geographic area have fair and equal access, and are quickly identified, assessed for, referred, and connected to housing and homeless assistance based on their needs and strengths, no matter where or when they present for services.
It uses standardized tools and practices, incorporates a system-wide Housing First approach, participant choice, and coordinates housing and homeless assistance such that housing and homeless assistance is prioritized for those with the most severe service needs.
How Does Coordinated Entry Work?
Ideally, coordinated entry is a framework that transforms a CoC from a network of homeless assistance projects (similar to individual CoC programs) making individual decisions about whom to serve, into a fully integrated crisis response system.
By gathering information through a standardized assessment process, coordinated entry provides a CoC and community partners with data that can be used for client level service linkages, system and project planning, and resource allocation. Historically, CoCs allowed each project to operate individually by developing and implementing their own admission criteria, assessment and eligibility screening, prioritization processes and enrollment decisions. CE orients the community to a standard set of prioritizing principles by which the community is able to make consistent decisions about how to utilize its resources most effectively.
By having standardized processes, the system increases accessibility for clients; it is no longer about who the person happens to speak with on a given day or making a person fit into a program. Rather, it is about understanding and responding to the person’s individualized needs so that veteran homelessness can be rare, brief, and nonrecurring.
What are the Core Elements of Coordinated Entry?
A Coordinated Entry process includes four core operational elements:
Access – the initial engagement point (virtual or site-based, including multiple access sites) for persons experiencing a housing crisis.
Assessment – process of documenting a participant’s housing needs, preferences, and vulnerability.
Prioritization – process of assigning level of need or vulnerability to persons seeking assistance so that housing and services can be allocated to those persons with the greatest need.
Referral – matching persons to available community resources, housing and services.