In a continued effort to address homelessness, the City of Boston will seek a vendor to create a system that provides available housing services to individuals, Boston Mayor Martin Walsh announced Wednesday.
The Coordinated-Access system will connect housing providers with homeless individuals, a press release stated. The effort comes as a part of the City of Boston’s Action Plan to End Veterans and Chronic Homelessness.
“We must do more as a community to better connect Boston’s homeless individuals with the resources available throughout the City,” Walsh said in the release. “By using technology to create a more efficient and streamlined process, we are continuing to use innovation to tackle some of our City’s most complicated challenges.”
The program will use data already in the existing Homeless Management Information System along with new information regarding housing vacancies and other available services, the release stated.
The release also stated that the “matching engine” will be equipped in order to give priority to the city’s most vulnerable populations and ensure they are provided with viable housing options.
“The system will also track available housing units, programs, and housing vouchers through an easy-to-use front-end system,” the release stated. “This will include a registry of all housing units, including their eligibility requirements and accompanying services, and an interface for service providers to enter vacancies and program availability.
Kaye Wild, vice president of the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance, said there is a need to help the homeless in a streamlined manner in Boston and other areas of Massachusetts.
“The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has mandated that each Continuum of Care come up with some sort of coordinated assessment plan so that [it’s] not each shelter on its own trying to figure out what they know about resources,” Wild said. “It’s a way of having one front door, the person who comes in the front door can figure out what kind of housing this person needs.”
Wild said the uniform matching system would be beneficial to save individuals from having to search for assistance at multiple locations.
“That’s exactly what’s needed, because things have been too splintered for too long, and everybody’s working as hard as they can, but when everybody’s working together, it’s not only more effective, it’s easier on the person who’s homeless,” Wild said.
Members within the MHSA have been involved with the mayor’s effort to end veteran homelessness for a while, Wild said.
Several Boston residents said they appreciated the city’s effort in utilizing technology to help the homeless in the area.
Marla Marquez, 23, of Brighton, said she is relieved that the city is using new approaches to help solve a longtime problem.
“Homelessness is a problem everywhere, but especially for bigger cities like Boston,” she said. “ I know the city has been trying to address it, but I think it’s great that they’re trying to use technology to create a new way of addressing the problem.”
Alex Greenway, 46, of Brighton, commented on the efforts of city officials to help the homeless population around the city.
“It’s great that Mayor Walsh and other city officials are working hard to fix problems like this,” he said. “It’s important that they work hard to help address problems like this within Boston.”
Kayla Kyle, 31, of Allston, said Walsh is doing well in addressing the various concerns facing Boston.
“Mayor Walsh is doing an awesome job,” she said. “I always hear about everything great that he is doing around the city and this is just one example of it.”
Olivia Quintana contributed to the reporting of this article
