GuideSolano County7 min read

Coordinated entry: how the homeless system decides who gets housing

One front door, one assessment, one list. Here is what coordinated entry is, how its four steps work, how to reach it in Vallejo and Solano County, and the gap it leaves after the referral.

By Marco, founder of Pathfinders for HopePublished October 6, 2026

Why it exists

Before it, every program had its own line

Picture someone sleeping in their car in Vallejo. Without coordinated entry, they call a shelter, then a housing program, then another, telling the same painful story each time and landing on a different waitlist at every door. Whoever calls the most, or happens to know the right number, gets in first.

Coordinated entry replaces that with one process. In HUD’s own words it moves a community from a project-focused system to a person-focused one. HUD made it a requirement in Notice CPD-17-01 (see HUD’s Continuum of Care page): every Continuum of Care (the local body that plans homeless services) had to have a coordinated entry process by January 23, 2018. You will also see it called coordinated assessment, a coordinated entry system (CES), or simply CE.

2012
HUD’s Continuum of Care rule calls for a centralized or coordinated assessment system.
2017
January 23: Notice CPD-17-01 spells out what coordinated entry must do.
2018
January 23: every Continuum of Care must have it running.
2027
January, projected: Operation Iron Gate begins tracking what happens after the referral in the North Bay Pilot.

The four gates

How coordinated entry works, step by step

The front door
Access
You call, walk in, or an outreach worker finds you. In a coordinated system every door leads into the same process, so it should not matter which one you use first.
Ask: Is this an official access point for coordinated entry?
Telling your story once
Assessment
A trained staff member asks a standard set of questions about your housing situation, health, safety and what you need. Everyone is asked the same way, so the answers can be compared fairly.
Ask: Was I assessed for coordinated entry, and when?
Who is helped first
Prioritization
The community uses written rules to decide who is offered the next opening. Usually the people who are most vulnerable or have been homeless longest come first. It is not first come, first served.
Ask: Am I on the list, and how do I stay active on it?
The match
Referral
When a housing program or service has an opening, the system refers the person at the top of the list who fits that program. The program then contacts the person and checks eligibility.
Ask: Which program was I referred to, and who will call me?
The gate nobody owns
Arrived?
Did the person reach the program, and did the program take them in? Coordinated entry is built to make the match. Confirming what happened next is the step most systems leave to chance.
Ask: Who confirms I got there?

Each step also writes to the community’s shared database, the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS). In Solano County that database runs on Clarity HMIS.

In Vallejo and Solano County

Coordinated entry in Solano County

Solano County’s coordinated entry system is Resource Connect Solano, a program of Abode Services. It is the front door for Housing First Solano, the Continuum of Care for Vallejo, Fairfield, Vacaville, Suisun City, Benicia, Dixon and Rio Vista.

The county’s Health and Social Services department does not run coordinated entry itself; its own housing page sends people to Resource Connect Solano or 211.

Outside Solano County? Every Continuum of Care has its own front door. Call 211 or search for your county’s name with “coordinated entry”.

Front door

Resource Connect Solano

A program of Abode Services

Call: 707-346-5870 or 211
Email: rcs@abode.org
Walk in: 1840 Capitol Street, Vallejo
Hours: Tuesday to Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

At the walk-in desk

Triage
Enrollment in HMIS
Coordinated entry assessment
Problem solving
Referrals to partners across Solano County

Checked October 6, 2026 on resourceconnectsolano.org and the Solano County HSS housing page. Hours can change; call before you travel.

Plain expectations

What coordinated entry is and is not

Set expectations before the first call
The myth	What actually happens
The assessment gets me housing	It puts you on the community list; housing comes when an opening matches you
First come, first served	Written priority rules decide the order
It is a bed for tonight	Ask separately what emergency options are open tonight
I have to apply everywhere	One assessment covers the programs in the system
Once on the list, I can wait	Keep your phone number current so a program can reach you

The gap

Referred is not the same as housed

Coordinated entry is very good at one thing: deciding who should be offered the next opening. What happens after the referral is a different job. The program has to reach the person. The person needs a working phone, a ride and their documents. Somebody has to notice if the call never connects.

When nobody owns that last step, a referral can quietly turn into nothing, and the system may never learn why. That is the gap a closed-loop referral closes: the sender finds out what happened. Here is how a referral differs from a confirmed handoff, and what happens after a homeless services referral.

It is also why Pathfinders for Hope is building Operation Iron Gate, referral tracking and accountability software for the North Bay Pilot in Vallejo. It is meant to work alongside coordinated entry, not replace it. The projected launch is January 2027.

The shared room

Bring it into GATEHOUSE

Pathfinders for Hope, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in Vallejo, built GATEHOUSE so outreach workers, case managers, churches and agencies across Solano County have one shared place to line up handoffs and report referrals that went nowhere. Joining from outside the North Bay? You are welcome, but joining GATEHOUSE does not put you or your agency in the North Bay Pilot, which runs only in Vallejo and Solano County.

GATEHOUSE is a smaller working version of Operation Iron Gate, our referral tracking and accountability software. It is free, and there is nothing to install.

GATEHOUSE is not a crisis line. Need help today? Call 211 (24 hours, anywhere in California). In an emergency, call 911.

Put your services on the map
Post open intake slots, beds or meals for Tonight
Report referrals that went nowhere
Ask and answer questions in the Q&A

Create my free account →See how GATEHOUSE works

Straight answers

Coordinated entry questions

What is coordinated entry?

Coordinated entry is the shared front door to a community’s homeless services. Instead of applying to every program separately, a person is assessed once with a standard tool, placed on one community list in priority order, and referred to housing or services as openings come up. HUD requires every Continuum of Care to run one.

What are the four parts of coordinated entry?

Access (the front door), assessment (a standard set of questions), prioritization (written rules for who is helped first), and referral (matching a person to an opening in a program).

How do I get into coordinated entry in Solano County?

Contact Resource Connect Solano, the coordinated entry system for Solano County, run by Abode Services. Call 707-346-5870 or 211, email rcs@abode.org, or walk in at 1840 Capitol Street, Vallejo, Tuesday through Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Hours can change, so call before you travel.

Does coordinated entry guarantee housing?

No. Coordinated entry decides the order in which people are offered openings. When there are more people than openings, many people wait, sometimes for a long time. Keep your contact details up to date so a program can reach you when your turn comes.

Is coordinated entry the same as a shelter waitlist?

Not exactly. Coordinated entry is the shared process for the housing and services in the system. If you need somewhere to sleep tonight, say so when you call. Staff can tell you what emergency options are open now, which is a different question from where you are on the housing list.

Who requires coordinated entry?

HUD. Notice CPD-17-01, issued January 23, 2017 under 24 CFR 578.7(a)(8), required every Continuum of Care to have a coordinated entry process in place by January 23, 2018. Programs funded by the HUD Continuum of Care and Emergency Solutions Grants programs must take part.

What if I am fleeing domestic violence?

Your safety comes first. HUD expects coordinated entry to offer people fleeing domestic violence safe, confidential ways in. You can also call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 (24 hours). If you are in danger right now, call 911.

Keep reading

Next doors

If someone is in danger right now, call 911. Thinking about suicide or hurting yourself? Call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, open 24 hours). Need shelter, food or services? Call 211 (open 24 hours, anywhere in California).