Report 2020-112 Recommendation 25 Responses

Report 2020-112: Homelessness in California: The State's Uncoordinated Approach to Addressing Homelessness Has Hampered the Effectiveness of Its Efforts (Release Date: February 2021)

Recommendation #25 To: Santa Barbara County Housing and Community Development Division

To increase the efficiency of the coordinated entry process, the County of Santa Barbara should coordinate with its CoC to determine how long it takes to locate individuals after they have been matched with a service provider. Specifically, it should use the referral data that HUD required CoCs to collect as of October 2020 to determine whether locating individuals after they have been matched with a service provider is a cause of delay in providing them with services. If it finds that excessive delays exist, it should coordinate with its CoC to implement processes such as deploying a dedicated team to locate these individuals when appropriate housing and services become available.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From September 2023

In 2020, CoC implemented HUD CES Coordinated Entry System Housing Needs Assessment and Referral Event requirements in HMIS with vendor Wellsky. When CES Administrator makes a referral, it is documented in system. Provider to whom the referral is made has five business days to locate individual and five business days to enroll if eligible per our CES Policies and Procedures. Provider uses a standard Non-Acceptance Form and Location Tracker form to document a reason for not enrolling an individual. Provider also notifies CES Administrator if individuals is not eligible for program. Collaborative Applicant and CoC maintain mapping software with HMIS IDs included to expedite locating clients for referrals that is maintained by street outreach workers. Current data reflects most matches through CES result in a referral event with positive outcome. In addition, no data reflected excessive delays impacting access to services and therefore no additional process was implemented.

In most recent update to CES Policies and Procedures providers are directed to upload the Non-Acceptance or the Location Tracker Form to HMIS. Notes are kept in HMIS in "CES Notes (Admin use ONLY)." CES Administrator follows up if no outcome by a provider has been reported as the outcome of referral event is needed in HMIS to complete referral. CoC holds bi-monthly CES Case Conferences and Regional Outreach Team Meetings where providers can ask Street Outreach and other providers if they have contact with an individual they are trying to locate. CoC maintains a roster of Street Outreach contacts providers can use when trying to locate an individual. CoC has surveyed to better understand reasons providers have difficultly contacting individuals and extent of delays. Survey was distributed to Rapid Re-Housing, Permanent Supportive Housing and Joint Component programs that accept referrals from CES. 100% of respondents reported that they do utilize Street Outreach assistance in locating clients.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Fully Implemented

1-Year Agency Response

CES Staff maintains a CES Master List that is updated with provider notes at 2x monthly Case Conferences and between meetings. Providers use the Location Tracker Form and Non-Acceptance Form to document their attempts to locate clients. CES Staff have been trained on documenting referral events in HMIS and exiting clients from the shared CoC program when they are housed, move-out of the CoC area, are deceased, cannot be located or refuse assistance after three offers. With the increased tracking of Services in HMIS, we have better information about what clients are active. To determine the time elapsed between a referral date and a move-in date, CES staff has a parallel process to compare the housing referral date/move-in date with the HMIS enrollment. A mobile phone app supports outreach efforts. Through mapping of exact locations of encampments, and client location, outreach teams have expedited finding individuals in the field when housing opportunities and appointments become imminent. The CoC is committed to quickly using housing resources when they become available; by CoC policy programs are not required to allow units to remain vacant indefinitely while waiting for an identified homeless person to accept an offer of housing. Instead, if a referral remains unfilled after 5 to 10 calendar days of attempting to locate a client & prepare the client for housing, then the housing placement may be considered open again, and returned to the Coordinated Entry system for additional referral attempts with new client(s). Assertive and proactive attempts will be made with enhanced outreach multi-disciplinary teams to locate and engage in-field clients. Coordinated Entry staff shall complete a standardized form with case notes recording when and how attempts were made to contact the client during this period.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Pending

Although the County of Santa Barbara provided documentation to support that it tracks referral dates and move-in dates, it did not provide any evidence of analysis to determine whether locating individuals after they have been matched with a service provider is a cause of delay in providing them with services. Until it does so, we will continue to report this recommendation as not fully implemented.

6-Month Agency Response

Providers use the Location Tracker Form to document their attempts to locate clients. Increased tracking of Services in HMIS gives better information about what clients are active. The HMIS vendor does not have the capability to run a report showing the time elapsed between a referral date and a move-in date. CES staff has a parallel process to compare the housing referral date/move-in date with the HMIS enrollment. Another innovation is the use of a mobile application to support outreach efforts. Through mapping of exact locations of encampments, and client location, it will expedite efforts for outreach teams to find individuals in the field when housing opportunities and appointments become imminent. The use of this mobile application will be increased over the next year. In addition to quickly and proactively locating in-field clients for housing and services, the CoC is committed to expeditiously using housing resources when they become available. According to the Coordinated Entry Policies and Procedures, "Providers shall spend up to five business days attempting to locate the matched client(s) and an additional five business days to enroll the client in to their program." Programs are not required to allow units to remain vacant indefinitely while waiting for an identified homeless person to accept an offer of housing. Instead, if a referral remains unfilled after up to three calendar days of attempting to locate a client and up to three business days of attempting to prepare the client for housing, then the housing placement may be considered open again, and returned to the Coordinated Entry system for additional referral attempts with new client(s). Assertive and proactive attempts will be made with enhanced outreach multi-disciplinary teams to locate and engage in-field clients. Coordinated Entry staff shall complete a standardized form with case notes recording when and how attempts were made to contact the client during the six-day period.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

Providers use the Location Tracker Form to document their attempts to locate clients. With the increased tracking of Services in HMIS, we have better information about what clients are active. However, the HMIS vendor does not have the capability to run a report showing the time elapsed between a referral date and a move-in date. CES staff is developing a parallel process to compare the housing referral date/move-in date with the HMIS enrollment. Another innovation currently being adopted is the use of a mobile application to support outreach efforts. Through mapping of exact locations of encampments, and client location, it will expedite efforts for outreach teams to find individuals in the field when housing opportunities and appointments become imminent. The use of this mobile application will be increased over the next year. According to the Coordinated Entry Policies and Procedures, "Providers shall spend up to five business days attempting to locate the matched client(s) and an additional five business days to enroll the client in to their program." Programs are not required to allow units to remain vacant indefinitely while waiting for an identified homeless person to accept an offer of housing. Instead, if a referral remains unfilled after up to three calendar days of attempting to locate a client and up to three business days of attempting to prepare the client for housing, then the housing placement may be considered open again, and returned to the Coordinated Entry system for additional referral attempts with new client(s). Coordinated Entry staff shall complete a standardized form with case notes recording when and how attempts were made to contact the client during the six-day period.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2020-112

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.