Emergency shelters offer safe, short-term housing for individuals and families who have no other safe housing options.
During their stay, residents receive help finding permanent housing or connecting with other necessary services, such as treatment. Shelters serve people who either lack a safe place to stay or do not have the means to secure another safe living situation.
They may serve specific groups, such as families with children, single adults, or transition-age youth, in both congregate and non-congregate environments.
Shelters do not require occupants to sign leases or occupancy agreements. They aim to maintain low barriers to entry by minimizing eligibility requirements or rules and, at minimum, provide for basic needs, offer housing-focused services, and link guests to voluntary supports.
The Coordinated Access System (CAS) simplifies the process of accessing housing by connecting participants to the services needed. As the organization facilitating the CAS, Sacramento Steps Forward coordinates housing openings with the provider, not directly with the client.
The CAS is focused on establishing centralized access to shelter, waitlist navigational support, and problem-solving diversion efforts.
Households can call the Housing Crisis Line (2-1-1) to be assessed and triaged to appropriate resources. Shelter referrals and waitlist management for CAS-participating shelters are maintained by 2-1-1.
The Coordinated Access Navigation (CAN) team will support households on the shelter waitlist with placement and case management. A primary focus will be utilizing housing problem-solving services to help divert or rapidly exit households from homelessness.
Housing problem-solving should always be attempted as the very first intervention with households seeking assistance from the homelessness system. Trained staff will engage the household in a household-centered, strengths-based, exploratory conversation that seeks to understand their strengths and existing support networks.
The goal of this conversation is to explore safe housing options, even if temporary, and to connect the household to community supports and services. This could include mediation and conflict resolution with family, friends, and/or landlords, connections to mainstream resources, housing location assistance, housing stabilization planning, family reunification, and, in limited cases, financial assistance that directly results in housing being secured.
CAS Assessors are trained service providers with Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) access who can directly conduct Crisis Assessments on behalf of clients to place them on a shelter waitlist.
The Crisis Assessment is used to refer your client to a shelter, to determine PSAP eligibility, and/or to refer a client to a Case Management program. The Crisis Assessment was designed to replace several of our older assessments, using questions and filtering to allow one assessment to serve a variety of clients.
This assessment should be used for:
The Extremely Vulnerable Households policy prioritizes households that are defined as “extremely vulnerable” to be immediately placed into the next available and appropriate shelter unit, regardless of current geographic location, within Sacramento County boundaries.
“Extremely vulnerable” is defined as a score of 6 or higher for an individual, and 10 or higher for families on the Crisis Assessment.
This assessment has many diverse questions. This is because when the 211 CAS team reviews an assessment to determine if there is a shelter opening for your client, they examine multiple shelters that each have their own criteria, focus, and restrictions.
The CAS participating shelter programs determine these restrictions – SSF has no control over these restrictions or the number of beds they allow the CAS system to manage.
Currently, only 2-1-1 can refer households to shelters participating in the CAS, listed below.
Meadowview Navigation Center (MNC)
North A Street
North 5th Street: The Gathering Inn
X Street Navigation Center (XNC)
Mather Singles Interim Housing
Florin Safe Stay
Saint John’s Program for Real Change (also available to families)
Next Move Family Shelter
Step up on Second Motel Shelter
Saint John’s Program for Real Change (also available to single individuals)
Common Ground
LGBT Center: Short-Term Transitional Emergency Placement (STEP) Shelter
The Grove
The Village
CAS Assessors and 2-1-1 CAS Specialists can administer the Crisis Assessment to enter the client to the shelter waitlist. Assessments are active for 90 days to be considered for placement.
2-11 has a backline available for Extremely Vulnerable Households (EVH). This line is intended exclusively for CAS Assessors who have completed a crisis assessment with an EVH.
The CAS Assessor backline is available Monday through Friday, from 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
CAS Assessor Backline Phone Number: (916) 809-8006
Process for CAS Assessors:
If you are unable to find the information or resources you need, reach out via the form below. We will respond as quickly as possible. Thank you for your partnership!
