An article in the The Charlotte Observer describes a new service designed to help homeless people in Mecklenburg County. According to the article, the goal of the “Coordinated Assessment” program “is to prevent homeless people from being referred from one agency to the next as they struggle to get off the streets.” The Foundation for the Carolinas is a “driving force” behind the program, as is the United Way:

United Way helped craft the approach, which will station social workers at five agencies in the county where the homeless can go for help. Those social workers will be responsible not only for knowing which programs are the best fit for a homeless individual, but which have real-time data on available beds at any given moment.

“Currently, we placed the onus on the homeless individual or family to find the right door into the system. We have created one door to go through now, but it’s at any one of five places,” Stacy Lowry, director of Mecklenburg County Community Support Services, told the paper.