Earlier today I attended a Task Force meeting for homeless families and unaccompanied youth for ESHC with a handful of other professionals from different agencies. One of the topics that’s got some more direct focus now is brainstorming of a Single Point of Entry (SPO) to determine if a family is better suited directed to resources to prevent homelessness as opposed to getting them to a bed before the night falls.
The recurring problem I’ve seen is family “A” having to go from place to place because many facilities can only accomodate a family “B” type. One place offers shelter for single parents and children, while others only allow male children up to age 10.
In the past handout sheets of resources were repeatedly copied and distributed by well intentioned employees, with nobody checking later on if the information was still applicable. Again, well intended, but the end result in many cases means lost energy and time spent by homeless families simply walking around getting nowhere fast.
Over the next week I’m tasked with investigating and providing information on a program I’ve seen that resolves this problem and gets people in beds quickly. The issue with getting this duplicated locally will be to determine what agency would be the best candidate to take on such a role as well as finding the necessary funding to pay for the staff, since it’s not been done and existing systems are already over tasked.
Maybe I could see if the CEOs might consider throwing in a term life insurance medical exam for employees. Anything’s possible.
