Coordinated Entry Policies and Procedures v2.0 Approved and Released

Overview

The LA BOSCOC Board has unanimously approved for release the LA BOSCOC Coordinated Entry Policies and Procedures v2.0.

This document significantly revises the LA BOSCOC’s Coordinated Entry System (CES). The LA BOSCOC urges all organizations that receive funding through the CoC Program, ESG, PATH, and SSVF to read the new policy in full.

This document goes into effect April 1, 2019.

The LA BOSCOC Coordinated Entry Policies and Procedures v2.0 can be found here.

Training

The LA BOSCOC will provide comprehensive training on the new CES policies and procedures to all organizations that receive funding through the CoC Program, ESG, PATH, and SSVF, and to any other agencies that use CES to refer people experiencing homelessness to housing or to receive referrals for housing.

Organizations are STRONGLY encouraged to send outreach workers, case managers, etc. to training (in addition to manager- and director-level staff).

Training will be provided by the Louisiana Housing Corporation, Capital Area Alliance for the Homeless, and the Coordinated Entry Committee. Training will include:

• “Mini guides” for each project type that is required to interact with CES (e.g. CoC Program PSH, ESG Emergency Shelter, etc.) summarizing each project’s CES process in simple-to-understand language;

• Updated HMIS workflows for Diversion, Intervention, and other elements of the updated CES process;

• Louisiana Housing Corporation staff will provide on-site training to each CoC Program-funded Coordinated Entry project as requested (as soon as possible, schedule permitting);

• Louisiana Housing Corporation staff will provide some level of online training via webinar in March;

• Louisiana Housing Corporation and Coordinated Entry Committee staff will provide training during the Baton Rouge Subcommitee meeting on March 12, 2019 in Baton Rouge;

• Louisiana Housing Corporation staff will provide training during the LA BOSCOC General Meeting on April 1, 2019 in Baton Rouge.

Additional training and materials may be available. If you have a specific need that isn’t addressed by the list above, please submit a training request to Gordon Levine, CoC Manager, at glevine@lhc.la.gov or Laura Martinez, Coordinated Entry Committee Chair, at laura.martinez@startcorp.org.

Changelog

This document is a comprehensive rewrite of the v1.X Coordinated Entry Policies and Procedures; the LA BOSCOC encourages you to read the entire document.

A selection of core changes include:

• Document has been rewritten to provide specific guidance to each project type (broken down by funding source) regarding which components of the Coordinated Entry System it is required to implement;

• The Coordinated Entry process has been broken down into several stages (“components”), each of which has specific actions and requirements;

• A new component, Diversion, has been added:

  • Diversion occurs at the time a person initially presents for housing to a Coordinated Entry Access Point or outreach worker;

  • All Access Points and outreach workers are required to provide Diversion;

  • Diversion means “a one-time service, recorded in HMIS or an HMIS-comparable database, in which a case manager or outreach worker attempts to return a person to housing before enter an emergency shelter or spend the night on the streets or in place not meant for human habitation”;

  • Diversion is intended to be our CoC’s first response to people experiencing homelessness; it will reduce the number of people experiencing first time homelessness by ensuring people who can return to housing with few barriers do so as quickly as possible;

• A new component, Intervention, has been added;

  • Intervention occurs any time after a person initially presents for housing to an Access Point or outreach worker;

  • All Access Points and outreach workers are required to provide Intervention;

  • Intervention means “a service, recorded in HMIS or an HMIS-comparable database, in which a case manager or outreach worker attempts to return a person to housing via their existing support networks and/or other non-permanent housing benefits before they are referred to the Coordinated Entry Prioritization List”;

• The Coordinated Entry Prioritization List will be kept in a database outside HMIS and will draw referrals from HMIS, HMIS-comparable databases, the RRH to PSH Bridge, and the Emergency Transfer Plan;

  • HMIS referrals will be taken directly from HMIS by the LA BOSCOC’s HMIS Specialist (i.e. our current practice);

  • HMIS-comparable databases will need to refer participants by email or fax to the HMIS Specialist using a dummy name for participants to ensure confidentiality is maintained;

  • The RRH to PSH Bridge allows RRH projects to — rarely — request that the CoC Manager approve transferring an eligible participant from RRH to PSH;

  • The Emergency Transfer Plan allows participants who are fleeing domestic violence and who are already enrolled in a TH, RRH, or PSH project to be quickly transferred to another TH, RRH, or PSH project in a different Region;

• Participants cannot be added to the Coordinated Entry Prioritization List until they meet BOTH of the following criteria:

  • The participant has received at least one instance of Intervention (recorded in HMIS or an HMIS-comparable database);

  • At least 30 days have passed since the participant initially presented for housing (measured as 30 days from the participant’s date of entry into the Coordinated Entry project in HMIS or using an equivalent measure in an HMIS-comparable database);

    • RRH to PSH Bridge and Emergency Transfer Plan participants do not need to meet either of the above criteria.