Thanks to San Francisco Magazine for their coverage on the arrival of the Online Navigation and Entry (ONE) System in San Francisco. This system will help social programs and nonprofit organizations better serve individuals experiencing homelessness. Our very own Ilsa Lund, Senior Director of Operations, shares her thoughts on the contributions the ONE System will make to Larkin Street Youth Services Here’s a short excerpt:

“Larkin Street Youth Services, one of the city’s nonprofit transitional housing partners, is eagerly awaiting the arrival of ONE System, says Ilsa Lund, senior director of operations. Currently, when a homeless young person walks into Larkin Street’s Lark-Inn emergency shelter, Larkin staff might have no information on him or her; at best, if that particular youth has ever used the city’s adult shelter system, caseworkers can see basic biographic data. “We really need that real-time, widely accessible data that is available to all stakeholders on who is in housing at any time and where there’s housing availability citywide,” Lund says. As it stands now, anything else a caseworker would want to know—records relaying whether the youth uses drugs, has a disability, or has been in foster care or the juvenile justice system—must be self-reported, since databases from other departments and providers are siloed. ONE System, with its data sharing between a wide range of agencies, could eliminate the need for clients to recount the story of how they became homeless to every single service agency, which “can be a traumatizing thing, especially for a young person,” Lund says.”

“We really need that real-time, widely accessible data that is available to all stakeholders on who is in housing at any time and where there’s housing availability citywide,” Lund says. As it stands now, anything else a caseworker would want to know—records relaying whether the youth uses drugs, has a disability, or has been in foster care or the juvenile justice system—must be self-reported, since databases from other departments and providers are siloed. ONE System, with its data sharing between a wide range of agencies, could eliminate the need for clients to recount the story of how they became homeless to every single service agency, which “can be a traumatizing thing, especially for a young person,” Lund says.”

For more, check out the article from SF Magazine