Transforming Emergency Homelessness Response in Fairfield County
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Prior to 2014, individuals experiencing homelessness in Connecticut needed to find a shelter and check–hope–that the shelter had room for them. Shelters operated on a first-come first-served basis and did not necessarily communicate with one another. Individuals would often move back and forth between spaces through a “revolving door” while navigating a patchwork network of services, sometimes without getting any closer to a permanent home. Despite working hard to serve vulnerable residents, providers could not prioritize service based on need, or ensure the highest and best use of resources. As a result, the system could not maximize impact or even measure it. Connecticut needed a new, more coordinated model.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recognized this challenge and began requiring a more coordinated approach to homelessness response, in order to ensure the highest and best use of federal funding. HUD had already introduced the Continuum of Care (CoC) model in the 1990s, which required that organizations in a community come together to submit a single application for federal homeless assistance funding. (CoCs correspond to a geographic area, like a county or multiple metro areas.) In 2014, HUD required that each CoC establish a comprehensive and standardized coordinated access system for shelter, prevention, rapid rehousing, transitional housing, and permanent supportive housing.
In response, the Housing Collective, known at the time as Supportive Housing Works, helped design and lead the creation of regional Coordinated Access Networks (CANs) throughout Connecticut and began serving as the “backbone” for a group of providers throughout Fairfield County. In this role, we provided the dedicated staff and administrative capacity to align all homeless service providers in Fairfield County around a new, coordinated system of care–the Fairfield County CAN or Opening Doors Fairfield County.
With a new single point of access (211 Connecticut ) providers could identify everyone in need as soon as they entered the system, then prioritize services based on greatest need. The approach allowed providers to address those with the greatest and most expensive service needs first, which then freed up more resources for everyone else. This acted as a force multiplier. Providers could now establish common outcomes and goals, and capture the data required to measure progress.
Today, dedicated staff within the Housing Collective continue to manage and support the CAN, providing leadership, administrative capacity, training, data, and the ongoing coordination of 150 provider organizations in Fairfield County. The Housing Collective is also responsible for applying for annual federal and state funding for the region in aggregate and for reporting annually to HUD and the Connecticut Department of Housing.
The new, coordinated approach transformed homelessness response in Fairfield County and eventually all of Western Connecticut.
After the system could begin to target resources more effectively, in 2016 Fairfield County and Connecticut became one of the first regions and states in the nation to end veteran homelessness. With better data tracking and a coordinated approach to funding, we’ve helped increase the amount of federal funding Fairfield County receives for homelessness response by 160% since 2014, from $9 million to $23 million. As a result of the success in Fairfield County, the state asked the Housing Collective to fulfill the same “backbone” role in Northwest CT.
Today we provide the leadership, dedicated staff, and funding vehicle for the homeless response system throughout Western Connecticut through Opening Doors Fairfield County and Opening Doors Northwest CT. In 2024, during spring and summer, the Opening Doors Initiative and our partners were able to house 358 households.
