Coordinated
Assessment
Norm Suchar &
Denise Neunaber
September 2013
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The National Alliance to End
Homelessness is a nonprofit,
non-partisan, organization
committed to preventing and
ending homelessness in the
United States. By improving
policy, building capacity, and
educating opinion leaders, the
Alliance has become a leading
voice on this issue.
The Alliance’s Center for
Capacity Building is leading the
implementation of solutions
that reduce homelessness in
communities across the
country. The Center accelerates
the adoption of solutions that
are cost effective, data driven,
and that will ultimately
accomplish the goal of ending
homelessness.
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Agenda
• Why are we here?
• Break
• Learn about
coordinated assessment
• Coordinated
assessment planning
exercise and debrief
• System design overview
• Next steps
• Exercise about
assessment tools
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Big, Important Questions
What is the end goal
of all the work that
we do?
How will our
coordinated assessment
process connect people
to permanent housing?
How can we make
things easier for the
consumer seeking
assistance?
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Project Phases
• Kickoff and Goal Setting: Beginning
immediately through October 2013
• Planning and Design: September
2013 – March 2014
• Implementation and Evaluation:
April 2014 – June 2014
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Examples of Front Doors
Shelter or transitional
housing program
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Government office
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Intake Center or Centers
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2-1-1
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Combinations
+
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Problems with Front Doors?
• May admit people to a program without proper
screening • Program staff have limited access or knowledge of
other community resources
• Potential waste of staff time, program resources
• Potential waste of consumer time
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What should front doors do?
• Be accessible
• Do an initial assessment of need
• Provide some services/crisis-oriented support
• Capture data
• Provide referrals/admit households to the program
that fits them best
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Coordinated
Assessment
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? Centralized Intake ?
? Coordinated Intake ?
? Coordinated Entry ?
? Single Point of Entry ?
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Why Do We Care About Coordinated
Assessment?
• Sends households to best program fit from the
start
• Provides system-wide prevention and diversion
opportunities
• Improves system efficiency
• Fosters more collaboration among providers
• Improves ability to perform well on HEARTH
outcomes
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Instead Of…
?
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One Way In
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Models
• Centralized
• Decentralized
• Virtual
• Mixed
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Best Practices
• Prioritize people with greatest
need
• No side doors
• Simple
• Drives system change
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Assessment Tools
• Can this episode of homelessness be
prevented? (Diversion Screening)
• What assistance does this household need right
now? (Emergency Needs Assessment)
• What assistance does this household need to
exit homelessness? (Barrier Screening)
• Given the lack of resources available, how much
of a priority is providing assistance to this
household? (Triage/Prioritization)
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Assessment Tools
• Diversion Screening
Easy
• Emergency Needs
Assessment
Easy
• Barrier Screening
Hard
• Prioritization
Painful
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Exercise
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2 minutes
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30 seconds
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Time's up!
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System
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Ending Family Homelessness
Diagram of Coordinated Crisis Response System for Families
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www.usich.gov
Prevention and
Diversion
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What Does Prevention Entail?
• Assistance to help a person maintain their
current housing (usually financial
assistance)
• May be one-time
• May include short-term service provision
(case management, budget help, landlord
mediation, etc.)
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Prevention – Best Practice
• Offer as little as is necessary to resolve crisis
• Use an assessment tool to determine extent of
crisis and level of need
• Target funds to households whose profiles
closely match those of households in shelter
• Connect households with mainstream
resources to improve chances at housing
stabilization
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What Does Diversion Mean?
• Finding temporary alternate housing options
outside of shelter when appropriate (safe)
• Prevents unnecessary shelter entry and the
accompanying stress
• Happens when a household comes to the
system to request shelter
• Requires service flexibility
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Diversion – Best Practice
• Do prevention/diversion assessment before
admitting someone to a shelter or other
program
• Create a system where services are
accessible outside of shelter
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How do you know if it is working?
• Outcome measures: fewer people
becoming homeless, shorter episodes of
homelessness, and fewer people
experiencing multiple homeless episodes.
• Consumer surveys
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Exercise
Using the materials at your table,
diagram a coordinated
assessment process.
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• Where and how do people first access assistance?
• What questions get asked? What kind of things are
assessed? (no need to be too specific)
• Who does the assessment? (government agency? nonprofit?
clinic?)
• Where do they get referred? (no need to be specific)
• What additional assessments (if any) does the referee agency
do? • Is there any point at which people get reassessed? How?
Why?
Note: This exercise is intended for you to use your
creativity and try out some ideas?
It is OK to be "wrong!"
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2 minutes
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30 seconds
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Time's up!
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Next Steps
Visioning Exercises October 3
8:30 am to 12:30 pm
• Kickoff and Goal Setting: Through October 2013
• Planning and Design: September 2013 – March 2014
• Implementation and Evaluation: April 2014 – June 2014
• "Switch On" Date: May 1, 2014
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