Addressing Homelessness with Coordinated Access in Langley

On Tuesday afternoon, Langley City Council received a presentation from Kyle Mellish of the Lu'ma Native Housing Society and Warren Chan, who is part of the federal government’s Reaching Home homelessness strategy. They were talking about coordinated access.

It is a fair statement that decisions over the last 30-plus years, as governments and society have led to more people experiencing homelessness, mental health crises, and addiction. It will take at least a generation to resolve these multiple crises, but this does not mean we should give up. The solutions are well-known.

One of the significant barriers is that our current system is fragmented, with multiple service providers, including BC Housing, provincial ministries, federal ministries, health authorities, and non-profits, each with mandates to support people experiencing homelessness. We tend to use the term “entering the system,” but it really is a collection of services. It means that people routinely fall through the cracks, and communities don’t receive the right mix of services to help them. This is where coordinated access helps.

Mr. Mellish shared that the coordinated access really has two purposes. One is to provide data about the services required and delivered in a community at a higher level. The other is to ensure that each person in the coordinated access system has a clear path forward to accessing the actual supports they need, as governments, housing authorities, health authorities, and non-profits work together.

As you could imagine, getting all these organizations together and the data system connected is a big effort.

So, where are we at in Langley City?

Earlier this year, the coordinated access system launched in Langley with Stepping Stone, Lookout Society, Encompass Support Services, and other non-profit organizations that received funding from the federal government’s Reaching Home program. Data is starting to flow into the system, but there are gaps as more organizations need to come on board.

BC Housing will be connecting to the system shortly. At the meeting, I raised that the Salvation Army Gateway of Hope would seem to be an important organization to have connected with the coordinated access system, as they operate services for people experiencing homelessness, such as the shelter.

The next step in the coordinated access approach that I’m excited about is the actual coming together of service providers to start coordinating services with a client-first approach. This means that someone experiencing homelessness will have one case worker who will serve as their advocate, ensuring they receive the required help from multiple service providers. Mr. Mellish noted that this work is ongoing and is set to launch earlier next year in Langley.

Setting up this type of system takes a lot of work, and I’m happy to see it starting to come together in Langley. I’m looking forward to seeing how things roll out over the coming year and any impacts on helping people experiencing homelessness and the broader community.