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Dear Hennepin Continuum of Care members,
On March 3, 2020, the Hennepin County Coordinated Entry Leadership Committees voted to stop using the VI-SPDAT as part of the CES assessment. This decision was made based on the C4 Innovations report, feedback from the community and CES assessors.
The C4 Innovations study (shared with the Hennepin County CoC listserv on December 12, 2019) reported “that use of the VI-SPDAT unfairly favors white people over people of color, thereby perpetuating racial inequities within the homeless system”. Given the C4 research and the concern that the VI-SPDAT is unnecessarily traumatizing to households, the CES Leadership Committees determined it is time to move forward with the elimination of the VI-SPDAT and explore alternatives to assess people experiencing homelessness in our community. The CES Leadership Committees are committed to advancing racial equity in our homeless response system and believe ending the use of the VI-SPDAT as an imperative step in that direction.
ALL assessors will stop administering the VI-SPDAT portion of the CES assessment on March 23, 2020. Please continue to use the VI-SPDAT until March 23, 2019 as the prioritization list will still use the VI-SPDAT score until that date.
Impact/Changes
The VI-SPDAT scores will be removed from the prioritization list and prioritization will occur utilizing the existing components outlined below.
- Households will now be prioritized using:
- Disability (1st)
- Chronic homelessness (2nd)
- Number of HUD months homeless (3rd)
Households will be referred to housing providers based on program requirements (outlined on the vacancy request form) and the prioritization listed above. Referrals will still use the supplemental questions to help match households to program vacancies.
If you have any concerns or would like to discuss further, please let the following contacts know before then.
Contacts
CES Family and Youth Leadership Committee Co-chair – Charlotte Moris - cmoris@ststephensmpls.org
CES Family and Youth Leadership Committee Co-chair–Charlotte Kinzley-Charlotte.Kinzley@mpls.k12.mn.us
CES Singles and Youth Leadership Committee Co-chair – Jay Wagner - jwagner@rseden.org
CES Singles and Youth Leadership Committee Co-chair – Susannah King - Susannah.King@hennepin.us
CES Principal Planning Analyst – Tracy Schumacher – Tracy.Schumacher@hennepin.us
CES Principal Planning Analyst – Amy Donohue – amy.donohue@hennepin.us
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