It’s a one-stop shop for people in the Quad Cities who don’t have a home.
The Quad Cities Bi-State Coordinated Entry Process launched Jan. 2 as part of a collaborative effort between service organizations focusing on homelessness and housing.
Coordinated Entry is under the director of Quad Cities Salvation Army with about two-dozen partnering organizations.
The program is part of a requirement for Federal Housing and Urban Development funding Salvation Army and other area agencies.
Coordinated Entry works like this: homeless individuals or families come to the Salvation Army’s office on Kirkwood in Davenport or are deferred through another agency.
Once they complete the intake process, a caseworker tries to find how they can help through programs and services throughout the Quad Cities.
Quad Cities Salvation Army Coordinator Major Scott Shelbourn said, “To make sure that all the resources in the community are at their disposal.”
Quad Cities Salvation Army is developing a centralized hub to ease the search for housing resources.
Salvation Army Program and Operations Director Kelle Larned said, “They would call from place to place to place, and they’d usually be told we’re full, come back later, or we’ll put you on our waiting list and now it’s one place, one number that they can come to and they will work with one person to try to resolve their homelessness.”
Looking for options to address a housing crisis is what brought Kewanda Ramsey into the Salvation Army’s office.
Kewanda Ramsey said, “I’d be on the streets for a minute.”
But from now on, when she and others without a permanent address visit, coordinated entry will open the door to what resources exist not just at the Salvation Army but throughout the area.
Ramsey said, “It shows how the community is coming together and helping each other.”
Under the leadership of the Salvation Army, 22 agencies are participating in the system designed to divert people to one starting point and create one centralized waiting list.
Major Shelbourn said, “If there is an agency out there with open bed space or open space in their program, that is gets utilized as quickly as possible to help people get back on their feet and back to a future that they’re able to sustain.”
For the Salvation Army, this network is making the most of services, by helping those in need find what best fits their specific case.
“In a coordinated meeting, make sure the resources that are best applicable to that person get applied to them, so it’s going to help people right away in a very efficient manner and make sure the community resources are being used very, very well and efficiently,” said Major Shelbourn.
It’s also getting a clearer picture of the issue.
Larned said, “A streamline to be able to see how many people we’re helping, home many people are going into these [services] and how many people are on this waiting list to get into these housing programs.”
It’s creating one resource for those with one goal.
Larned said, “We’re all here to meet the same need, which is to end homelessness, and so it’s important that we’re all working together.”
The Salvation Army also told Local Four News they hope coordinated entry will help lead to additional funding and grants that can be used to expand the inventory of housing programs.
Depending on funding, they also want to open a coordinated entry location in Rock Island as soon as 2020.
To reach the coordinated entry process, call 563-324-4808.
Agencies involved include:
Bethany Children and Family Services
Department of Veteran Affairs
CADS
CASI
CHC
Christian Care
City of Davenport
Family Resources SafePath
Goodwill of the Heartland
HELP Regional Office of Iowa Legal Aid
Humility Homes and Services’
One Eighty
Project Now
Scott County Community Services
Scott County Housing Services
SEAP
St. Joseph the Worker House
Salvation Army
Unity House
Vera French
Winnies Place
DelaCerta House
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