The Coordinated Entry System Triage Tool Research and Refinement (CESTTRR)
project was a three-year community-based research project from March 2020 to May 2023. The goal of the project was to investigate the use of triage tools within the context of the Los Angeles’ Coordinated Entry System (CES) and to improve these tools, with respect to race equity. We understand that structural racism impacts housing and homelessness in Los Angeles, particularly as it impacts Black people. The goal of CESTTRR was thus to research these triage tools and make recommendations as to how the tools could be changed in order to reduce bias and improve access for Black, Latinx, and other racial/ethnic minority groups; women; transgender and non-binary individuals; gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer or questioning individuals; and aging persons.
Since 2012, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has
required communities who receive funding to implement coordinated entry by standardizing assessment practices and prioritizing the most vulnerable persons to receive available housing resources (HUD, 2014; 2015a; 2015b; 2017; 2019b). In Los Angeles, the
assessment tools de-veloped by OrgCode – the VI-SPDAT, the Family-VI-SPDAT and the
TAY-VI-SPDAT – were the triage tools selected. Until very recently, and up until the
inception of this project, the most widely used tool for prioritizing services to persons experiencing homelessness was the VI-SPDAT. Of approximately 400 CoCs in the United
States, more than 1 in 4 report implementing the VI-SPDAT (OrgCode Consulting, Inc. and Community Solutions, 2015). The tools were designed to assist communities in assessing vulnerability and assist in making decisions about prioritization. While the VI-SPDAT family of tools have been valuable for Los Angeles, early research, provider feedback, and client experience suggest that the tool and how it is utilized may need to be enhanced to better serve all populations.
Los Angeles is home to one of the largest communities of persons experiencing homelessness in the country, with an estimated 69,144 people experiencing homelessness on any given day (Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count, 2022). Additionally, while 9% of the overall population is Black, Black people represent 30% of those experiencing homelessness (Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count, 2022). In response to this crisis, Los Angeles convened an ad hoc committee to address issues of structural racism in homelessness and housing. In December 2018, that committee released “Report and Recommendations of the Ad Hoc Committee on Black People Experiencing Homelessness,” (LAHSA, 2018). Report recommendations noted a need for research on the CES Triage Tools and how they may unequally impact Black people experiencing homelessness. These recommendations were echoed by the Ad Hoc Committee on Women and Homelessness, which indicated that these tools may not be capturing the full vulnerability of particular populations. Thus, the understanding that systemic racism impacts homelessness and housing is one of the major drivers of the CESTTRR effort. The work presented in this report focuses on the tool used in the Single Adult system, as that is the largest system in Los Angeles and the tool which was identified by our community partners as being in the most urgent need of revision.