Coordinated Entry  - update on access points -  http://www.pchomeless.org/Facilities/Openings

• Gerrit Nyland, Catholic Community Services, gerritn@ccsww.org
• Coordinated Entry is the front door to most of the homeless system – to access it you just have to be staying in your car or in a shelter or sleeping in a test or encampment, stayed last night in Pierce County, and be low income. 
• Coordinated Entry starts with a conversation about strengths and tries to find options for folks to get safe using their own strengths and support structures.    
• As coordinated entry is expanding its presence in shelters, there more new locations for coordinated entry
• Used to just connect to coordinated entry through the Coordinated Entry Phone Line and through the outreach workers going into encampments
• Now, we have a number of drop in locations, including Nativity House Shelter, Tacoma Rescue Mission downtown shelter, the Catholic Community Services Day Center, and the Beacon Center Youth Shelter. 
• Families can also connect to coordinated entry over the phone by calling 211. 
• And the Coordinated Entry Phone line remains active at 253-682-3401, where appointments can be made. 
• An update list of the ways and locations to connect to Coordinated Entry is at http://www.pchomeless.org/Facilities/Openings
• The goal of this page is to answer the question of how to connect someone in front of you to the coordinated entry system in the most convenient way for the client.
• In the future, we’ll be rolling out a program to partner with agencies working in the Cities and towns outside of Tacoma as well as the more rural parts of the County.  We need to better serve folks who becoming homeless who aren’t in Tacoma.