Programs & Best Practices

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The St. Louis City Continuum of Care is committed to helping the community implement and utilize proven, effective, and efficient best practices with a focus on permanent housing as the means to end homelessness in the City of St. Louis.

Best practices are models of care that have been successfully utilized in other communities as proven by positive outcomes of moving homeless individuals and families from homelessness to permanent housing.

On this page you will find information about the best practices currently being implemented in the St. Louis City community along with links to resources to learn more about each practice/model.

  • St. Louis City Continuum of Care Program Type Best Practices
  • Housing First
  • Trauma-Informed Care
  • Coordinated Entry
  • Fair Housing and Equal Access
  • Racial Equity

Program Type Best Practices

Best practice refers to a technique that is generally accepted as the most effective approach to addressing a problem, this acceptance is based on supportive research.

Housing First

Housing First is an approach to addressing homelessness that is grounded in the belief that, above all else, homelessness is a crisis best responded to by providing housing as quickly as possible to those in need.

Trauma-Informed Care

Trauma-informed programs and services are based on an understanding of the vulnerabilities or triggers a trauma survivor may experience and how they may impact the way the individual accepts and responds to services.

Coordinated Entry

Coordinated entry processes help communities prioritize assistance based on vulnerability and severity of service needs to ensure that people who need assistance the most can receive it in a timely manner. Learn more about the coordinated entry process.

Fair Housing and Equal Access

Coordinated entry processes help communities prioritize assistance based on vulnerability and severity of service needs to ensure that people who need assistance the most can receive it in a timely manner.

Racial Equity

The St. Louis City Continuum of Care (CoC) sees the pain of Black communities in this country, especially our own community in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of the police, the weaponizing of police towards a black man by Amy Cooper, and the health disparities that cause Covid-19 to disproportionately affect Black people. We recognize the profound impact that these racially driven events have had on the individuals we serve and our Black colleagues. We support the Black Lives Matter movement and their fight for Freedom, Liberation and Justice.

Black lives matter!

While we see the pain, we also recognize that words of support must be accompanied by concrete and significant action. The CoC leadership acknowledges the responsibility we hold and the obligation we have to use our position to call out systems that overly affect the population we serve. While the city of St. Louis’ population is roughly half Black, the unhoused population is 73.17% Black. The racial disparity in our unhoused population did not occur by accident, and shrinking the gap will not occur without recognizing the racist policies that brought us to this point in time and working to dismantle and rebuild our internal and external policies for a more equitable future.

These actions will be taken by the St. Louis City Continuum of Care:

  1. By the end of 2021, publicly share and implement a racial inequity response plan currently under development.
  2. Review local policies that criminalize homelessness.
  3. Bring more Black people into the systems that serve the homeless population by:
    • Requesting CoC membership organizations to review their recruiting, hiring, and promotion policies to identify ways to promote more Black people to leadership positions within their organizations.
    • Recruiting more Black people to serve on the CoC board.

We are clear that tackling racial injustice is an ongoing process and are committed to it for the long-term.

The St. Louis City Continuum of Care is a membership organization comprised of more than 100 organizations and individuals from the private and public sector who work in partnership to prevent and end homelessness in the City of St. Louis.

Learn More About the CoC

There are many ways you can get involved with the work we do at St. Louis Continuum of Care. Through CoC membership, committees, volunteering, and donating, we can work together to end homelessness in our region.

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If you or someone you know is experiencing homelessness, we're here to help. Please check out our resources on how to get help yourself or gather information to share with others.

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