Why That Family Told Their Story Four Times Yesterday

Maria's Tuesday

Maria lost her apartment in October. Since then, she's visited our shelter, a food bank, a health clinic, and a job training program. At each one, she answered the same questions: How long have you been homeless? Do you have children? Any health conditions? History of domestic violence?

By the time she got to us, she was tired. Not just physically—tired of being a case file. Tired of her worst moments becoming intake data.

We Were Supposed to Fix This

HUD mandated coordinated entry specifically to prevent Maria's experience. One assessment, shared across agencies, so people don't have to relive trauma at every door.

But implementation is messy. Some agencies use different systems. Some share data; some don't. Some have privacy concerns that haven't been resolved. The result? Coordinated entry on paper, chaos in practice.

What Actually Works

I've seen communities get this right. The ones that succeed share a few things:

• They use a single shared database, not multiple systems that "sync"
• They've worked through data sharing agreements before going live
• They train everyone—not just intake staff—on why the system matters
• They ask clients for feedback and actually change things based on it

The Trust Problem

Here's what we don't talk about enough: for coordinated entry to work, people have to trust that sharing their information helps them. Maria has been in systems before. She knows that information can be used against you.

Technology alone doesn't solve this. We need to earn trust one interaction at a time, and that starts with explaining clearly what we're collecting, why, and who can see it.

Maria deserves better than telling her story four times. We're getting there—but we're not there yet.