Dane Men's Shelter Referral Workflow - Street Outreach

Background

The following workflow and resources are available to support users of the Madison / Dane County Continuum of Care in referring participants from Street Outreach programs to Men's Shelter.

The Waitlists

There are two waitlists, Unsheltered Priority and First Come First Served. 

The lists include those who :

1) have an HMIS enrollment in a relevant project, 

2) are eligible and have expressed interest in staying at the men’s shelter, and 

3) have a recent attendance or CLS record documented in HMIS.

The Unsheltered Priority Waitlist consists of those with an active enrollment in a Street Outreach project who meet the criteria for priority shelter referral based on their age or reported medical vulnerabilities. The list is sorted by the number of vulnerabilities and the length of time without a shelter bed.

The First Come First Served Waitlist consists of those with an active enrollment in a Street Outreach and/or Day Shelter project. The list is sorted by the length of time without a shelter bed.

On both lists, the length of time without a shelter bed is measured by whichever is most recent between:

■     The most recent shelter stay or

■     The start date of the longest active relevant enrollment 

Adding clients to the waitlists

1. Clients must have an active HMIS enrollment in a Street Outreach project. Refer to the standard Street Outreach HMIS workflow for additional information on enrolling guests.
2. To be added to the waitlists, enrolled clients must also have a completed Men’s Shelter Referral and Street Outreach Assessment indicating the guest is interested in staying in shelter. This link has general information on finding and entering a new assessment.
1. First navigate to the program level assessments tab. 

   

2. Next, select the Men’s Shelter Referral and Street Outreach Assessment

3. 1. Confirm the correct assessment date. If the date the information was collected was not today, edit the date.
   2. Confirm the client’s gender. Only guests who do not identify as “female” are eligible for men’s shelter. Updates to the gender field are entered on the client’s Profile page.
   3. Select the correct shelter interest response. 
   4. 
   5. Guests who previously declined a shelter bed or shelter staff were unable to contact may have this status carry through from their most recent assessment. Update the shelter interest field to match the client’s current wishes, which will add them back to the list.
   6. Confirm the client’s age. Updates to the age field are entered on the client’s Profile page.
   7. If a client reports they have one or more of the medical vulnerabilities, indicate that by clicking the toggle for that question. Clients without one of the designated vulnerabilities are placed on the First Come First Served list along with all other individuals experiencing homelessness.
      1. Any changes to a client’s shelter interest and/or vulnerability are documented on a new shelter interest assessment. Waitlist data pulls from the most recent assessment.
      2. If a client is no longer active in at least one DS or SO project, they are no longer included in the waitlists. Upon returning to services, a new shelter interest assessment should be completed.