What Makes a Good BoS Coordinated Entry Access Point

What Makes a Good BoS Coordinated Entry Access Point? The answer comes down to three simple factors:

  • A firm understanding of which clients need to be added to the Prioritization List and which clients do not
  • Regular case management and follow-up with clients, including updating Current Living Situation records to maintain the client's active status on the Prioritization List
  • A commitment to high quality data- the accuracy, completeness, and timeliness of the data entered directly impacts whether and how clients are being prioritized, and your agency must be willing to commit time each month to complete data quality cleanup and review.

Table of Contents

Firm Understanding: What is a Coordinated Entry System?

Access points are places–either virtual or physical–where an individual or family experiencing a housing crisis accesses the coordinated entry system. See Coordinated Entry Access Point Level Descriptions to learn more about the different Access Point levels. See below for the full workflow based on your Access Point level:

The Crisis Needs Assessment, also formerly known as the Prevention/Diversion Assessment, is in the HMIS on the Assessments tab. The Crisis Needs Assessment needs to be completed for all households to assess if the participant is eligible for prevention or diversion services. If a participant is eligible, the Access Point should attempt to provide prevention and diversion resources. Then, the Access Point can determine if the prevention or diversion resources have resolved the participants housing crisis, even temporarily.

If resources do not resolve the housing crisis, and the participant is homeless (meaning they meet the criteria for Category 1: Literally Homeless or Category 4: Fleeing/Attempting to Flee Domestic Violence - see HUD's Definition of Homeless) you will enroll the client (and household, if applicable) into your Coordinated Entry project. To do this, you will create an Entry on the Entry/Exit tab and complete the ICA Missouri – BoS CoC Entry Assessment. Only clients that meet the definition of being homeless are enrolled in Coordinated Entry and placed on the Prioritization List.

Maintaining Current Information: What Follow-up is Needed once the Client is Placed on the Prioritization List?

Clients on the BoS CE PL must be contacted at least every 60 days to maintain their active status. The Current Living Situation (CLS) is used to document contacts with all adults, and those recorded for the Head of Household (HoH) will be used to monitor that 60-day requirement. See Recording Contacts for Clients on the PL using Current Living Situation for more information.

If, during one of these contacts, a client informs they are now working with another Coordinated Entry Access Point, you will need to exit the client from your CE project and use the instructions located under the section “Exiting a Client who is Working with Another Agency” in this guide.

If you are exiting a client from your BoS CoC CES provider because they have been housed, have self-resolved, or because they are inactive, you will need to exit the client from your CE project and use the instructions located under the section “Removing a Client from the Prioritization List” in this guide.

Utilizing Reports: What Reports Should an Access Point be Reviewing and How Often?

Monitoring Data Quality

Due to the high volume of client data being entered into the Balance of State Coordinated Entry System, data quality reports must be run frequently to address data quality issues in a timely manner. Ideally, this should be done at least monthly and prior to case conferencing. To meet the need for BoS CES Access Point Providers to effectively monitor their CE data, client information is divided into two reports: BoS CES Assessments DQ Report Part 1 and BoS CES Assessments DQ Report Part 2.

BoS CES Assessments DQ Report Part 1 includes data collected for all clients during the initial part of the BoS CE intake process, such as Demographics and Income; COVID-19 Survey and P/D Assessment; Mainstream Referrals and HMIS ROI. Information in Part 1 is limited to the Head of Household only, and there must be a "Date P/D Assessment Completed" or a BoS CES enrollment for the selected provider within the report date range.

BoS CES Assessments DQ Report Part 2 focuses on the additional information collected, specifically for clients who are homeless, such as Prioritization Assessment and BoS CoC CE ROI; Information for other household members; Homelessness History and Housing Plan; Housing Referrals and Exit Outcomes. Part 2 captures information relevant to all household members with an enrollment during the report date range.

Prioritizing Prevention Clients

The BoS Prevention Prioritization Report includes information from the Crisis Needs Assessment for clients identified as Prevention only as a result of completing the Crisis Needs Assessment. Please note that agencies must establish their own standards for prioritizing prevention clients, so unlike the BoS Prioritization List Report, clients in this report are not listed in order of priority.

A Note Regarding Domestic Violence Survivors

DV survivors must be identified prior to entering any data into HMIS and offered a referral to DV resources. Those who accept that referral, but also need PSH/RRH must be tracked outside of HMIS. Only clients who decline that referral and choose to sign the HMIS ROI/Consent to Share can be entered in HMIS through this process. See Non-HMIS Resources – MO BoS CoC for more information. 

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