- Denied referrals on the decline
- Close the feedback loop
- Coordinated entry shout outs
- Engage landlords
- Families coordinated entry leadership committee seeking members
- Leadership recap
Denied referrals on the decline
In 2018, for single adults and youth, that had a referral in Hennepin County's coordinated entry system, 39% of referrals ended in a denial. The most prevalent reason for a denial was the client was "not able to be found or disappeared".
 But, in March 2019, the denial rate of referrals dropped to 23.6% and in April it plunged even further to 14%. The downward trend of denied referrals means people are getting connected to housing faster and more efficiently and housing programs are getting their units filled quicker. This didn’t happen by accident or luck…
Not all denials mean a negative outcome. When a referral ends in "not able to be found or disappeared" there isn't clarity as to what happened, and more importantly, the coordinated entry system doesn't know if the client was helped. This can also cause housing providers to sit with open vacancies while assessors, navigators, outreach, and shelter staff spend time trying to track down an individual.
In March of 2019, the Singles and Youth CES Leadership committee instituted a new policy with an aim of improving referral outcomes. The Coordinated Entry System Inactive Policy, removes individuals who have not been active in Hennepin County’s homeless response system for 90 plus days.
The process for this happening is a team effort. Assessors and advocates should be removing assessed individuals when they know they are no longer eligible for coordinated entry. The Coordinated Entry Team also regularly runs an "inactive report in HMIS that looks back at the last 90 days for all individuals on the priority list. If an individual does not have have any HMIS activity then they are flagged on the report. The CES team then verifies each person to see if they have any open entry/exits, service transactions, and confers with street outreach, case conferencing teams to assure there is no longer a need.
Individuals are able to be added again to the priority list if they return to services. This policy does not effect individuals that utilize databases outside of HMIS like minor youth and victims/survivors of domestic violence.
Close the Feedback Loop
Housing Move-in Date
Housing Move-In Date is the date a household moves into housing. It is vital to record this date to track the length of time it takes for a household to move from the assessment to being housed.
If there is no Housing Move-in Date then the client should be canceled/declined (see above). All referrals should should have an outcome of Cancel/Decline or a Housing Move In Date.
Reminder: When housing someone, please make sure to exit them from the priority list. This entails creating an Exit to their corresponding Entry onto the CES Hennepin Priority list.
Update the CES Housing Referral Tracking sub assessment
The CES Housing Referral Tracking sub assessment, located in the coordinated entry assessment, always needs to be updated at the conclusion of a referral. Below you will see the two sections that Housing Providers are asked to fill out.
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Coordinated Entry Shout-Out |
The Scoop wants to hear from you to lift up all the great work that is happening in our community! Do you know an awesome assessor that went above and beyond? Is there a housing provider that bends over backwards to get people housed? Have you seen an uptick in people moving out of your shelter or outreach program into safe and permanent housing? Share your stories with the Scoop!
Send your shout outs to ces.hennepin@hennepin.us with the subject line CES Shout Out. We want to hear from you!
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One of the greatest challenges in assisting households who are transitioning out of homelessness is finding a property that they can rent. With an extremely tight and increasingly expensive rental market this challenge has never been greater or more urgent. Engaging with landlords is crucial for any program that operates a scattered site housing program. Below is a list of tools and resources to help overcome this challenge. This is by no means a complete list, but rather something to get ideas flowing.
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Sell your program
There are many benefits for landlords to work with your program, from saving costs on marketing to having access to a neutral party to mediate if things do go wrong. Here are ideas on how to market your services:
Landlord Engagement
Below is a list developed by rapid re-housing providers of potential landlord recruitment strategies. It was originally posted on the National Alliance to End Homelessness' website.
Landlord Events
Be persistent – Host landlord event (with food) to educate, solicit feedback, coordinate
Host event as a collaborative/community
Recognition to landlords for participating
Invite to an open house
Landlord fair
Use volunteers to sponsor landlord outreach meeting
Social Media
Ad on Chamber of Commerce website
Post on website/Facebook/Twitter/social media to highlight landlord
Outreach through community listserv
Email blasts
Advertise on Craigslist
Ads on social media, Craigslist, public access TV, our websites, newsletters
Include in all organization’s marketing materials
Use the Faith Community
Use volunteers to build relationships
Blurb/Ads in church bulletins
5 minute mission moments
See more ideas here.
The Families Leadership Coordinated Entry Leadership Committee is looking for new membership. They are especially looking for individuals that can represent one or more of the following criteria:
- Housing Services Provider,
- Family Navigation/Diversion,
- Suburban,
- Lived experience of homeless,
- Native American service/housing provider,
- Parenting Youth Provider
Submit a Coordinated Entry Leadership Application if you are interested. All applications Due By August 1st.
Meeting Minutes
Singles and Youth Leadership Committee (6/17/2019)
Families Leadership Committee (June meeting was cancelled)
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