The regional team addressing homelessness, one person at a time
In early November, Upper Valley MEND Social Worker Liz Hazen got a call. The call came from John at Coordinated Entry, a hub in Wenatchee that helps find housing for people in the area who are homeless.
Coordinated Entry wanted to know if Liz had seen a man on their list, who was homeless and had last been known to be in the Leavenworth area. Liz thought she might be able to find him, and she did. She told him he needed to get in touch with Coordinated Entry. They had been trying to reach him because they had a private room ready for him. MEND’s partnership with Coordinated Entry meant more people were involved in the search for the man in question. By having rural navigator sites like MEND farther afield than just Wenatchee, the Coordinated Entry program was able to ensure the man didn’t lose the housing they had waiting for him.
Creative solutions to homelessness
Coordinated Entry is a project run by Chelan County. The County awards grants to social service organizations like MEND to help people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. The grant can be used to pay utilities, a month’s worth of rent, or even to buy a bus ticket to help someone get to a relative or friend who is willing to give them a place to stay.
In exchange, Liz represents MEND at monthly Coordinated Entry meetings, where she and representatives from other member organizations—about half a dozen throughout the area, including the YWCA and SAGE—go through a list of homeless people in the region who have registered with Coordinated Entry. The representatives will discuss any updates about the people on the housing list. Those updates can include whether one of the organizations has been able to get them into housing, or if someone knows they’ve moved out of the area. They may troubleshoot how to find someone; it could be that a person from another organization has spotted them while doing outreach.
“People come off the list when we’re able to get them successfully housed, or we’ve been able to divert them from homelessness,” says Liz.
The list itself is consistently long. There are far fewer housing resources available than the number of people who need them.
Coordinated Entry will also refer people directly to the member organizations who may be able to help them, like Upper Valley MEND.
“People are referred to agencies that can help meet their needs,” said Liz. “We’re all working to help people get housed.”
Liz is very careful to make sure providing assistance helps in a sustainable way. MEND will only provide financial assistance to any single household once every six months.
For example, someone might have an unexpected medical expense that they had to pay, which doesn’t leave them with enough to pay their rent that month, putting them at risk for homelessness. Helping cover that single month’s rent can help them get back on track and stay in their home.
If the person is homeless and doesn’t have a steady income or make enough to keep up with their rent, Liz will try to find a creative solution. That could be helping them find a relative or friend willing to house them, or calling RV parks together.
“Every person has a unique situation,” says Liz. “It’s not one size fits all.”
If a solution cannot be found, they’ll be referred to Coordinated Entry’s list for housing.
As much as the Chelan County grant is invaluable, it can only be used for cases that are specifically related to preventing homelessness or helping the homeless get into homes. It requires a lot of paperwork and has very stringent rules. It can’t help with mortgage assistance, nor with other needs people may have, such as medical or dental bills. That’s when the funds that MEND gets through donations come into play.
“The funds that come from donors are amazing because there’s no red tape,” says Liz. “Donors donate to the greatest need, and they trust us to know what that is.”