"When a surge in homelessness struck Chattanooga during the Covid-19 pandemic, the community’s homeless response leaders saw an urgent need for change. “We realized we don’t have an effective system, and it’s time to start looking at how to make those changes,” said Mackenzie Kelly, Executive Director at Chattanooga Regional Homeless Coalition.
This increase in unsheltered homelessness during the pandemic became a catalyst for improvements. The first thing they set out to improve was their data.
Chattanooga/Southeast Tennessee (TN-500) has achieved Built for Zero’s quality data milestone for all single adults, which means the community now has a real-time, comprehensive data source for all single adults experiencing homelessness, including veterans and those experiencing chronic homelessness. It marks a critical milestone on their journey to making homelessness rare, brief, and nonrecurring for all individuals.
“Our theme through this has just been taking the next best step for our community,” added Jodie Legg, Data Analyst at Chattanooga Regional Homeless Coalition. “It’s a lot of work, but it’s what’s best for the people we’re serving and our providers.”
Redesigning assessment and data collection tools
Chattanooga, a midsize city of 180,000 in rural Hamilton County, leads a Continuum of Care (CoC) covering 11 counties with 375,000 residents. With the Appalachian Mountains and Tennessee River Valley nearby, this varied landscape necessitates different strategies to address the needs of its populations experiencing homelessness. The team deploys coordinated and organized outreach teams familiar with the varied terrain — such as caves, mountains, rivers, and woods — to ensure no one is overlooked.
As they sought to reach quality by-name data, Chattanooga had to strengthen its coordinated entry system. Providers use this system to allocate housing and services through a single process with standardized assessments and data procedures. Currently, most providers across the community have been trained to serve as intake points to ensure that individuals can access resources and housing support. By adopting a “no wrong door approach,” Chattanooga is now confident that they are capturing data on at least 90% of single adults experiencing homelessness, even within more rural areas.
But that wasn’t always the case. The community’s efforts to achieve quality data “felt like a season of change for everyone,” explained Steven Howell, Director of Operations at the Chattanooga Regional Homeless Coalition. The team had been using an assessment tool to screen and prioritize clients, but it wasn’t meeting the needs of their specific community.
“We wanted an assessment tool that was more trauma-informed and one that would open up access to our clients … so other providers could use it,” said Legg.
After piloting other options, they developed a web-based tool to thoroughly protect clients’ privacy and security. The mobile-friendly design enabled street outreach workers to utilize it more easily. Additionally, enhanced accessibility ensured that agencies with different systems, such as domestic violence providers and VA, could employ the tool.
This increased the community’s access points by allowing coordinated entry assessment to be available in the areas where people were experiencing homelessness. “We were able to get that assessment tool into our schools, hospitals, health clinics, and libraries,” Legg said. “Most of those places want to be able to help, and this gives them a tangible way to do so.”
Coinciding with launching their new assessment, the Chattanooga team also tailored their data collection system to match the new tool better. This transition involved switching from Google Suite to Microsoft products to provide a more secure way to share information. Their previous Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) allowed data errors to go unchecked and restricted many providers from using it. By customizing their HMIS, the community aligned its specifications with partners that had stringent privacy standards, ultimately expanding the number of homeless service providers contributing data.
“One of our primary goals has been increasing data transparency,” Howell said. “When people understand what you’re doing with the data they’re much more likely to participate when you’re collecting it.”"
Read the full article here: Chattanooga achieves quality data milestone for all single adults - Community Solutions