Rural Alabama Coordinated Access System (RACAS)

Coordinated Entry is defined as a process designed to coordinate program participant intake, assessment, and provision of referrals.  RACAS is intended to facilitate the most appropriate housing intervention for those individuals or families that meet the HUD definition of category 1 and category 4 homeless with immediate and long-term housing needs and  ensure that the limited resources are targeted to those who are most appropriate for the housing solution. Coordinated Entry can create a collaborative, objective environment that can provide an informed way to target housing and supportive services to:

• Divert people away from the system who can solve their own housing need

• Quickly move people from the streets to permanent housing

• Create a more defined and effective role for emergency shelters

• Create an environment to target housing resources

Coordinated Entry changed the CoC from a project-focused system to a person-focused system by asking that communities prioritize people who are most in need of assistance “and strategically allocate their current resources and identify the need for additional resources".