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The past couple of weeks have brought a lot of news spotlighting problems with coordinated entry systems (CES). 
Courtney Cronley published a study showing gender and racial biases in the VI-SPDAT, the bewilderingly gold standard CES assessment tool. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10530789.2020.1852502#.X9Tv5ByiKj0.twitter
Subsequently, @orgcode announced their intention to phase out the VI-SPDAT. https://www.orgcode.com/lbteotvispdat
A portrait of CES policies and practices went public through a beautiful report by @katiemingle on @99piorg. https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/according-to-need-chapter-4-the-list/
These are not new problems; they have been called out for years with no real change to CES mandates at the federal level.
In conversations with various stakeholders in homeless service sectors at the onset of CES, they were hopeful about this new and innovative “solution” to homelessness. They were duped into believing the VI-SPDAT was an evidence-based tool when no psychometric evidence existed.
It was not long before cracks in the system began to show and disillusionment emerged. Attaining accurate assessments proved to be impossible. Racial disparities in those who received housing through CES were found. Homelessness rates continued to rise and housing waitlists grew.
In light of the growing wealth gap in our county, CES was, unsurprisingly, not the silver bullet we needed to #endhomelessness. To be fair, HUD is faced with allocating insufficient funding for homelessness services necessary to pick up the pieces of a broken economy.
However, developing new service systems without evidence for their utility does nothing more than create a (costly $$$) distraction from the real problem at hand: PEOPLE CANNOT AFFORD HOUSING.
We have forthcoming qualitative research that will raise up the voices of stakeholder groups in one CES. There is much to be said about the potential harms of CES on the wellbeing of people experiencing homelessness with no major payoff. We must listen and respond accordingly.
