To Find Shelter for Homeless, San Francisco Scores Their Trauma
The program, known as Coordinated Entry, matches people based on answers to 16 questions designed to assess an applicant's vulnerability level, but it may still be leaving many people out on the streets.
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Coordinated Entry, a system designed to match people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco with housing based on answers to 16 core questions that are scored and tallied to decide whether an applicant’s vulnerability level qualifies or not, may still be leaving many people out on the streets, reports ProPublica. The system reflects the reality that there simply aren’t enough permanent supportive housing units available to accommodate the thousands of homeless people in San Francisco, despite an annual budget of $598 that is primarily spent on housing. Today, roughly one-third of people who take the assessment score high enough to qualify.
However, feedback on the coordinated entry questionnaire from front-line workers, academics and people experiencing homelessness reveals objections to how the questions were phrased, inequities in the scoring, and heavy criticism of the way it was administered, suggesting that the process itself might be flawed. Interviews suggest that the survey fails to identify many of the vulnerabilities it was intended to catch, even making it harder for certain populations, such as immigrants, young people, and transgender people, to get in. A recent report from the Coalition on Homelessness, San Francisco’s largest nonprofit advocating for homeless people, recommended that the city develop a better assessment tool based on the time of housing available.
