What is Coordinated Access?
A Coordinated Access System (CAS) is the process by which individuals and families who are experiencing homelessness or at-risk of homelessness are directed to community-level access points where trained workers use a common assessment tool to evaluate the individual or family’s depth of need, prioritize them for housing support services and then help to match them to available housing focused interventions. Using a process of consent-based information sharing across organizations that work with the same individuals or families at-risk of or experiencing homelessness, participants will only need to tell their story once rather than every time they access a different service. This will also bring more consistency to the service path for accessing housing and related services in Abbotsford.
Quality Coordinated Access Systems share several features, including a centralized database that collects and displays real-time data on clients and available housing and supports; clear access points of entry; common assessment; standardized protocols; and resources (for example, staff) focused on ensuring that people can connect with appropriate housing and housing supports in an efficient and more equitable manner. Key to this will be the roll out of an integrated Homeless Individuals & Families Information System (HIFIS) in Abbotsford, a database used and shared by local organizations and programs providing direct services to those at-risk of or experiencing homelessness. Case workers will be able to ensure participants are accessing all of the services and resources that will best serve them in a coordinated manner, thereby reducing gaps in services, preventing duplication of services, and building a true wraparound approach to addressing their needs.
The City of Abbotsford, through the Housing, Homelessness, and Community Development department, is developing the Coordinated Access System in partnership with Infrastructure Canada, the Province of BC, BC Housing, and numerous community partners in Abbotsford. Locally, there are numerous community tables that are part of developing and implementing the Coordinated Access System:
- CAS Working Group – Government and non-government organizations that provide services and housing for those at-risk of or experiencing homelessness who meet bi-weekly to help develop the CAS.
- SUMMA Table – Indigenous organizations, communities, and programs who meet bi-weekly to help develop the CAS.
- HIFIS Working Group – A small group of frontline and supervisory staff from different organizations who work with people experiencing homelessness that meet bi-weekly to develop processes related to the use of HIFIS in the CAS.
- Integrated Outreach Meeting – Frontline and outreach workers who work with those experiencing homelessness who meet weekly to coordinate services, identify and address trends in homelessness, and conduct case conferencing.
- Situation Table – Representatives from human service agencies and community-based organizations who attend weekly meetings to address situations where individuals or families are at acutely elevated risk of harm and put together multi-disciplinary interventions that are carried out within 24 to 48 hours to reduce the level of risk.
Definitions:
- Access: the engagement point for the individual or family experiencing a housing crisis. This may include emergency shelters, mobile outreach teams, day centres, other community-based organizations and hotlines.
- Assessment: the process of gathering information about an individual or family accessing the crisis system and accessing their need and eligibility for services and resources in the community.
- Prioritization: the process of determining the individual’s or family’s priority for housing and services based on information gathered through the assessment.
- Matching and referral: the process whereby the individual or family is matched to and offered housing and services based on project-specific eligibility, needs and preferences.
