1. Eastern Pennsylvania Continuum of Care Strategic Plan for Coordinated Entry
Status: Approved by Eastern PA CoC Governing Board on October 19, 2015
Revised: October 19, 2015
Consulting & Design: Capacity for Change, LLC
Eastern PA CoC Coordinated Entry Plan

2. What is coordinated entry?
Coordinated entry refers to coordinating access, assessment and referral for housing and services for people experiencing or at imminent risk for homelessness in a community.
Creates one or more coordinated points of entry (or “front doors”) into a community’s housing crisis response system
Exits more people from homelessness directly to permanent housing with stability
Uses standard assessment tools to match consumers to appropriate housing and services as they become available throughout the entire community
Is aligned with Opening Doors, the HEARTH Act and best practices endorsed by the National Alliance to End Homelessness and the Pennsylvania Housing Alliance
Is a HUD priority for CoC Program application scoring and worth significant points for funding
Frequently initiates positive systems change at every level
Eastern PA Continuum of Care Coordinated Entry Plan
Eastern PA CoC Coordinated Entry Plan

3. Who Benefits from Coordinated Entry?
Consumers
Connects more people to the right solution to end their housing crisis as quickly as possible
Ensures fair and equal access to services
Reduces the number of times people have to tell their story
Helps overcome geographic, cultural and linguistic barriers to access
Prioritizes service for families and individuals who are literally homeless and most at risk of violence, trauma, health problems and death
Service Providers & Funding Partners
Empowers providers to end homelessness rather than simply manage it
Frees providers to focus on service provision with more accurate information to make decisions
Improves communications, response time, data collection and efficient use of scarce funding and resources
Generates better data about community needs, gaps in service, system performance and system/community/provider outcomes
Eastern PA Continuum of Care Coordinated Entry Plan

4. Coordinated Entry for the Eastern PA CoC
Authorized by the Eastern Pennsylvania Continuum of Care (CoC) Governance Charter
Overseen by Coordinated Entry Task Force comprised of representatives from all five CoC Regional Homeless Advisory Boards (RHABs)
Inclusive of input from consumers, providers and funders via an online survey and two Community Summits
Informed by best practices and models successfully implemented in other large geographic CoCs with a mix of urban, suburban and rural areas
Eastern PA Continuum of Care Coordinated Entry Plan

5. Eastern PA Coc Coordinated entry design
Access
Assessment
Referral
Consumer Experience
Any family or individual experiencing a housing crisis anywhere in Eastern Pennsylvania can either call one toll-free hotline or visit a RHAB-designated coordinated entry provider.
Any family or individual residing in the Eastern Pennsylvania CoC region experiencing a housing crisis will be given a standard intake and assessment at a coordinated entry point.
Informed by their VI-SPDAT assessment results, families and individuals will be referred to the nearest appropriate provider(s) of housing and services as they become available.
Operational Processes, Policies & Procedures
Systemwide toll-free hotline operator for virtual entry
Physical entry points in every region (w/mobile outreach)
Handoff to 911 & DV hotlines
HMIS data record at entry, including verbal/written client data sharing agreement
Out of county residency agreements with other CoCs
Diversion of people with other options to free limited shelter resources for those with none
Intake will ask basic program eligibility questions
Standard assessment will be completed using the Vulnerability Index-Service Prioritization and Decision Assistance Tool (VI-SPDAT)
VI-SPDAT results will be entered directly into HMIS and yield a score to guide prioritization and referral
Continually updated list of housing inventory and services, including Prevention, Shelter, Transitional Housing, Rapid Re-Housing and Permanent Supportive Housing
Ideally, centralized wait lists
Policy on declining referrals
Regular case conferences
Systemwide embrace of “Housing First” approach
Eastern PA Continuum of Care Coordinated Entry Plan
Eastern PA CoC Coordinated Entry Plan

6. Benefits of The VI-SPDAT Assessment tool
The Vulnerability Index-Service Prioritization Decision Assistance Tool (VI-SPDAT) is a completely free, evidence-informed standard assessment tool informed by the “Housing First” approach to exiting people from homelessness directly to permanent housing.
Used in over one thousand communities across the United States, Canada, and Australia, including large balance of state CoCs and other CoCs in Eastern Pennsylvania.
Developed as an assessment tool for front-line workers at agencies that work with homeless clients to prioritize which of those clients should receive assistance first.
Designed to help guide case management and improve housing stability outcomes.
Made in collaboration with Community Solutions, leaders of the 100,000 Homes and Zero:2016 Campaigns.
Eastern PA Continuum of Care Coordinated Entry Plan

7. Coordinated Entry System Funding
The 2015 HUD CoC Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA), published on September 17, 2015, provides funding for Coordinated Entry Systems (CESs) as follows:
HUD has defined a CES as a Supportive Services Only (SSO) project and as such, a proposed budget can only include supportive services, homeless management information system (HMIS) costs, and administration costs that cannot exceed seven percent of the grant request. Thus, a 25% match is required for these budgeted expenses. (Source: Ventura County CES RFP 2015)
Match and leveraged funds are required.
Sources of match and leveraged funds may include United Way and foundation grants, county funds and contributions from providers (who realize cost savings from no longer having to conduct assessment and referral or provide coordinated entry services in-kind).
Eastern PA Continuum of Care Coordinated Entry Plan

8. Eastern PA CoC Coordinated Entry Roadmap
Operations Planning
Secure funding
Develop operations manual
RFP for Coordinated Entry Centers
SPDAT training
Pilot Project Phase
2016
Pilots across RHABs and within urban, suburban and rural communities
Learning community established
Pilot expansion in second half of calendar year
Systemwide Implementation
2017
Systemwide hotline referrals to all providers
Physical coordinated entry points in all five RHABs
Ongoing learning and quality improvement
Eastern PA Continuum of Care Coordinated Entry Plan

9. For More Information http://pennsylvaniacoc.org/?page_id=2576
Eastern PA Continuum of Care Coordinated Entry Plan