COORDINATED ENTRY
&
DIVERSION

A system that allows for coordinated entry into our local homeless services system, as well as coordinated movement within, and ultimately towards exiting from the system. Coordinated Entry increases the efficiency of our homeless assistance system by standardizing access to homeless programs, services, and coordinating referrals. Diversion is a "light touch" approach to ending homelessness that encourages and helps households to identify their own solutions to housing crises. Because Diversion does not require intensive case management or other system resources, it is quicker and more cost-effective than other approaches, which frees up resources for more individuals and families in need. Coordinated Entry & Diversion provides:

ACCESS
To ensure the Northwest Michigan region is covered and that service entry points are easily accessible and advertised.

ASSESSMENT
To standardize information gathering on service needs, housing barriers, and vulnerabilities.

PRIORITIZATION
To match the output of the assessment as it relates to the community priorities (based on severity of need) and to establish a priority ranking for available housing and services; and

REFERRAL
To coordinate the connection of individuals and their families to the appropriate and available housing and service interventions they need.

HOMELESS PREVENTION

A program that offers assistance necessary to prevent an individual or family from moving into an emergency shelter or into homelessness. The Prevention program is designed to assist individuals or families in regaining stability in their current permanent housing or move into other permanent housing to achieve stability. The program can assist with rental arrearages (up to 3 months past due) for those who are at risk of eviction at times, at times covering 100% of what is due, but will also work with other partner agencies to assist with the past due amount; so, in many cases the money will be coming from various agencies/sources. The Prevention program also offers Housing Based Case Management (HBCM) where the case manager linked with the tenant who meets with them in home at minimum one time per week. These basic principles influence every aspect of the Prevention program and services, and they include:

Principle 1: Crisis Resolution: Every situation that could result in homelessness is a crisis for the person experiencing it. Crisis resolution responses must include rapid assessment and triaging, based upon urgency; an instant focus on personal safety as the first priority; de-escalation of the person's emotional reaction; definite action steps the individual can successfully achieve; assistance with actions the individual is temporarily unable or unwilling to attempt; and returning the person to control over their own problem-solving.

Principle 2: Client Choice, Respect, and Empowerment: People in crisis may feel paralyzed by the urgency and the potentially devastating consequences of their situation. Homelessness prevention services must help people in crisis regain a sense of control and feeling of empowerment to actively overcome obstacles. A constant emphasis on the client's goals, choices, and preferences, an unwavering respect for their strengths, and reinforcement of progress are essential for empowerment. This does not mean clients are protected from the natural consequences of their actions.

Principle 3: Provide the Minimum Assistance Necessary for the Shortest Time Possible: Respect includes letting go as soon as the person has the resources, knowledge, and tools to continue their lives--however they choose to live them. Providing just enough to prevent homelessness enables a program to help far more people in crisis. Often this means ensuring resources are used to help persons at-risk of losing housing or any persons who would otherwise end up on the street or in an emergency shelter before using resources to provide assistance for other needs. Providing non-essential assistance to a program client will cost someone else in the community their housing.

Principle 4: Maximize Community Resources: Mainstream assistance programs are intended to be the backbone of every community. Creating duplicate services for a sub-population such as people at risk of homelessness allows mainstream agencies to continue to bypass or ineffectively serve people who have a right to better quality and access. Duplication also wastes valuable, limited resources that could be spent to keep more households from becoming homeless.

Principle 5: The Right Resources to the Right People at the Right Time: The earlier a program intervenes in a housing crisis, the lower the cost. The outcomes may look impressive, but research shows that most people who receive prevention assistance would not have become homeless even without assistance. The later the intervention, the more costly and the lower the success rate. But at the latest stages of an individual's housing crisis, it is virtually certain she or he would have become homeless without assistance. Good prevention programs strive to target people who have the highest risk of becoming homeless but who also have a good chance of remaining housed if they receive assistance.

STREET OUTREACH

A program that provides essential services necessary to reach out to unsheltered homeless people; connect them with housing, emergency shelter, critical services, and/or provide urgent, non-facility-based care. The Street Outreach program offers:

Engagement
Activities to locate, identify, and build relationships with unsheltered homeless people and engage them for the purpose of providing immediate support, intervention, and connections with homeless assistance programs and/or mainstream social services and housing programs. This include making an initial assessment of needs and eligibility; Providing crisis counseling; Addressing urgent physical needs, such as providing meals, blankets, clothes, or toiletries; and Actively connecting and providing information and referrals to programs targeted to people living in homelessness and mainstream social services and housing programs, including emergency shelter, transitional housing, community-based services, permanent supportive housing, and rapid re-housing programs.

Case Management (CM)
For assessing housing and service needs, arranging, coordinating, and monitoring the delivery of individualized services to meet the needs of the program participant. CM services and activities include using the centralized or coordinated assessment system; Conducting the initial evaluation, including verifying and documenting eligibility; Counseling; Developing, securing and coordinating services; Obtaining Federal, State, and local benefits; Monitoring and evaluating program participant progress; Providing information and referrals to other providers; and Developing an individualized housing and service plan, including planning a path to permanent housing stability.

RAPID RE-HOUSING
(RRH)

A program/intervention, which uses a Housing First approach that is a critical part of our community's effective homeless crisis response system. The program targets individuals and households with children that are coming directly from the streets or emergency shelter to make each household's experience of homelessness as brief as possible by quickly moving them into permanent housing and supporting the household in their efforts to live as independently as possible. Rapid Re-Housing connects individuals and families experiencing homelessness to permanent housing through a tailored package of assistance that may include: (i) Financial/Rental Assistance; (ii) Security Deposits; (iii) Rental Application Fees; (iv) Moving Costs; (v) Housing Navigation/Search/Placement: (vi) Housing Based Case Management (HBCM); (vii) Mediation (landlord/tenant); (viii) Legal Services; (ix) Targeted Supportive Services; (x) and Linking/Referrals to community resources.