What is the Quality Data Foundations Toolkit?

Outreach Coverage

Questions 1A-1D

Does our community provide comprehensive, collaborative outreach services that covers our geographic region and meets the self-identified needs of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness, and are we able to account for at least 90% of all unsheltered single adults on our by-name dataset?

The resources on this page will help you answer these questions by providing tools and information to better understand your community’s outreach system. The outreach scorecard questions cover four main themes:

  • A community’s ability to map their outreach coverage to ensure that all folks experiencing unsheltered homelessness can quickly and easily be connected to services that meet their self-identified needs.
  • A community’s ability to collaborate efforts in serving the unsheltered population to ensure that folks’ needs are met and there is minimal duplication of services.
  • A community’s ability to document practices and demonstrate a shared approach to working with unsheltered folks. 
  • A community’s ability to confidently say that they are able to connect with at least 90% of their unsheltered population and that this population is reflected on their By-Name Dataset.

It is important to note that the purpose of the All-Singles Scorecard is to zoom in on single adult individuals and adult households experiencing literal homelessness. This does not mean you should not consider how outreach coverage and services reach families and youth experiencing unsheltered homelessness. However, when you evaluate the outreach scorecard questions, you will want to answer those questions specifically for the single adult population.


  • Outreach – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development defines street outreach as activities “designed to meet the immediate needs of people experiencing homelessness in unsheltered locations by connecting them with emergency shelter, housing, or critical services, and providing them with urgent, non-facility-based care.” In practice, outreach aims to connect with people experiencing unsheltered homelessness who would otherwise be unknown to the system.
  • In-reach – Built for Zero adopted the term In-reach to refer to the practice of deploying staff to brick-and-mortar areas that do not contribute data to the by-name dataset, like libraries, hospitals, and food banks where individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness are likely to be, with the aim of connecting them to services.
  • Unsheltered – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development defines unsheltered as “on the street” or “place not meant for human habitation.” As HUD explains, “the phrases ‘on the street’ or ‘the streets’ are used as shorthand for any place that meets the statutory definition of ‘place not meant for human habitation’ and means a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings, including a car, park, abandoned building, bus or train station, airport, or camping ground.”
  • Outreach Referral Pathways – Processes designed to link individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness with outreach teams when staff capacity and geographic complexity prevent thorough and consistent canvassing.

Accounting for providers that conduct outreach, but don’t collect or contribute data

Providers who conduct outreach but do not directly contribute data to the by-name dataset should have a pathway to ensure clients served by their program are included. Examples of pathways include referring to community access points, completing paper intake forms, or combining client rosters across programs. Establishing these outreach referral pathways enable the community to have confidence that everyone experiencing unsheltered homelessness can connect to resources and will be included in the community’s counts to comprehensively understand how many people are truly experiencing unsheltered homelessness at any given time. See additional information on referral pathways in the sections below. 


Ensures everyone experiencing unsheltered homelessness is known and connected with system providers

Outreach is an integral part of a community’s homeless response system. How a community responds to and collaborates around addressing unsheltered homelessness is key to building a strong system. Outreach services are critical to ensuring that folks who cannot or choose not to be connected to sheltering services are accounted for and served in an effective and timely manner. Many communities do not have adequate shelter resources to serve the large number of people in need, and individuals have no choice but to stay in an unsheltered location. Additionally, many communities have high barrier shelters that do not meet the needs of people experiencing homelessness, forcing people to sleep in an unsheltered location. For these reasons and others, it is critical that outreach services are able to connect with folks wherever they are to meet their own self-determined needs.

Improves effectiveness & efficiency 

A coordinated outreach approach can help to ensure that folks are served in a way that best meets their needs, and can also ensure that a community’s outreach resources are used effectively. Bringing outreach teams together to coordinate services and collaborate is an effective way to ensure that a homeless response system does not lose track of folks experiencing unsheltered homelessness and that people can be connected to the right resource at the right time. An outreach collective (described further below), an outreach committee or workgroup, or a regular outreach team meeting can help communities get clarity on how other teams are functioning across the geographic areas. This can help to reduce duplication of services, prevent gaps in coverage, and ensure a higher level of care coordination. 

Establishes a shared understanding and approach to outreach

Developing and maintaining written outreach policies and procedures ensures that all outreach teams and the larger community have a shared understanding and approach to how outreach is conducted locally. If practices are not documented, there are often gaps between what is known by the team conducting outreach and what is expected by others in the community. Additionally, documenting practices gives teams a shared starting point for adapting and improving those practices. This is especially important when considering outreach schedules and how schedules are continuously assessed to meet the needs of those experiencing unsheltered homelessness. 


The importance of communication and community partnerships

Many communities face challenges in building outreach teams capable of reaching all individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness. Forming an outreach collaborative significantly alleviates the burden on staff and enables more efficient use of limited resources. This collaborative approach allows teams to brainstorm collectively, ensure consistent care, coordinate their efforts effectively, make the best use of limited resources, and quickly identify clients served by multiple teams.

Developing outreach referral pathways

While it might be challenging to reach every corner of a geographic area through canvassing, communities can create effective referral pathways that allow the public and community partners to easily request outreach services. These pathways should be designed to be accessible and widely known throughout the community. For example, they could include an online request form on the outreach agency’s website or a dedicated hotline for individuals seeking assistance.

Once these referral pathways are set up, it’s crucial to promote them effectively. This can be achieved by engaging with local resource navigation hotlines, collaborating with adjacent systems such as hospitals, law enforcement, and libraries to ensure their staff are informed about the services available, and distributing flyers with clear instructions to request outreach. Additionally, social media campaigns and local news coverage can further enhance awareness and accessibility.


Scorecard Assessment

This scorecard question focuses on understanding 1) where your outreach staff are deployed, 2) how areas of deployment are determined,  3) and when these practices are modified to ensure that outreach teams are deployed to areas where they are most likely to engage with individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness. This can be considered the “where” of outreach provision.

Scorecard Question

Is the geographic coverage of your outreach clearly mapped out, informed by your data, and regularly assessed to ensure you are able to reach all unsheltered individuals within your community?

Initial Quality Data Threshold
  • There is a documented map and process which depicts how outreach teams are deployed throughout the geographic coverage area.
  • The documented map/process is regularly assessed by the community’s outreach teams for gaps in geographic coverage.
Sustaining Quality Data Threshold
  • There are community-wide documented policies and procedures in place, including an outreach map, to regularly evaluate and assess the geographic coverage of the community’s outreach teams.
  • The documented policies, maps, and evaluation processes have been approved by the community’s outreach teams and are easily accessible to the broader homeless service system. 

This scorecard question focuses on understanding 1) when outreach staff are deployed and 2) how teams are able to reduce duplication of services. This can be considered the “when” of outreach provision.

Scorecard Question

Have you coordinated your outreach, ensuring that your outreach teams are deployed at the locations and the times that they are most likely to effectively engage with unsheltered homeless individuals, while minimizing duplication between providers?

Initial Quality Data Threshold

The community is able to clearly articulate how outreach is deployed throughout the geographic coverage area to engage with the unsheltered population.

Sustaining Quality Data Threshold

There are community-wide documented policies and procedures in place that demonstrate a coordinated approach to their outreach efforts by highlighting when and how outreach teams collaborate both formally and informally.

This scorecard question focuses on understanding 1) how outreach processes are documented  2) what channels of communication are utilized to facilitate cross-team collaboration, and 3) how this information is documented and shared with the larger community. This can be considered the “how” of outreach provision.

Scorecard Question

Do you have a documented outreach policy that clearly states how your outreach teams will be deployed and how they work with each other to swiftly connect individuals to their self-determined needs?

Initial Quality Data Threshold

There is a written policy that defines and describes how the community continually reassesses outreach schedules with evidence of an ability to pivot when needed.

Sustaining Quality Data Threshold

There are community-wide documented policies and procedures in place that have been co-developed with outreach teams to define how outreach teams operate and collaborate within the homeless response system.

This scorecard question assesses if your community is reaching at least 90% of individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness and including them in the by-name dataset. It requires a thorough review by a diverse group of providers and individuals with lived experience. This question asks community teams to assess their coverage by looking at their ability to respond yes to the other outreach questions in determining its comprehensiveness.

Scorecard Question

Do you have consistent, coordinated, and reliable outreach and in-reach efforts across your geographic coverage area that gives you confidence that at least 90% of the unsheltered population is captured on your by-name list?

Initial Quality Data Threshold
  • The community’s outreach system and teams have demonstrated their ability to meet criteria for questions 1A, 1B, and 1C (i.e. they are able to respond “Yes”) and feel confident at least 90% of the unsheltered population can be connected to the by-name dataset.
Sustaining Quality Data Threshold
  • Community is able to articulate their shared understanding and agreements that 90% of the unsheltered population is accounted for in their by-name dataset.

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Outreach Tools and Resources

Hub Resource

BFZ Outreach Policy Guide

This document aims to guide communities in creating comprehensive outreach policies and procedures that align with the BFZ initial quality data standards. Communities can use this guide as a starting …

Outreach Case Studies

Hub Resource

Colorado Balance of State – Roaring Fork

Since joining BFZ in the fall of 2019, Roaring Fork, Colorado, has diligently worked towards achieving All Singles Quality Data and reached this milestone in August 2024.