Significant Impact: Baltimore County Homeless Services

Summary

Despite challenges such as limited funding, rising service demands, and systemic gaps, over the past three years, Baltimore County, Maryland, has made significant progress in addressing homelessness through strategic outreach, innovative partnerships, and community engagement. Led by Heather Sheridan, Chief of Homeless Services, the county has expanded its outreach capacity and implemented collaborative, resourceful approaches that do not solely depend on direct funding. Instead, the strategy harnesses the power of the entire community as a unified outreach team. This comprehensive strategy includes leveraging community volunteers, integrating with public health and emergency services, educating citizens and service providers, and utilizing data-driven insights to improve service delivery.

Challenges

Resource Constraints:

• Baltimore County faces a problem common to many communities: a struggle to meet outreach demands, paired with a lack of resources and funding to support the ever-growing need. 
• While the innovative volunteer-driven strategies Baltimore County employs mitigate some of this burden, informal networks cannot fully replace professional capacity.

Systemic Gaps:

• The Coordinated Entry System (CES) phone line closes at 7 pm on Fridays, which previously created service delays. Individuals contacting CES after hours would be redirected to voicemails or internet searches without immediate human support until Monday.

Follow-Through Limitations:

• Building trust through initial education requires dependable follow-up by Outreach to institutionalize new response habits.

Data Integration:

• Harm reduction teams and others currently lack formal communication and HMIS data entry, limiting coordinated, person-centered care.

Key Strategies

Outreach Expansion:

• Added a second outreach team to divide the county’s response. One team focuses on housing placements while the other addresses substance use treatment.
• Despite this division of labor, a gap remained in support for unsheltered individuals, prompting further innovation.

Community Engagement:

• Mobilized regular citizens as volunteers to foster community buy-in without financial burden.
• Volunteers were equipped with knowledge and tools to support unhoused individuals, helping to create a community-led support network.

Targeted Opportunities:

• Heather attended community, police, and resource meetings to identify stakeholders expressing concerns about the unhoused population.
• Engaged with these groups (neighbors, business owners, law enforcement, EMS) to educate them on appropriate responses and direct contacts.
• Provided de-escalation training to improve outcomes during public encounters with unhoused individuals.

Cross-Sector Partnerships:

• Persistent collaborations with departments such as law enforcement, EMS, Parks and Rec, MTA, DOH, and more.
• By partnering with the Department of Health, they reactivated a mobile van used by the harm reduction team to identify nonfatal overdoses.
• Overlaid overdose data with encampment outreach to cross-reference and target service delivery.
• Actively worked to re-educate partners on appropriate service provider contacts, strengthening interdepartmental coordination.

Role Clarity:

• With so many partners and intense coordination needed, Heather and her team diligently worked to share the Homeless Response Coordinator contact information with emergency services and the community at large. Now, EMS and police are aware of the Homeless Response Team’s information, and they have an innovative strategy to close the gap on immediate services needed after CES hours. 
  • Heather and EMS created a flow chart showing exactly who to reach out to in each situation based on needs, location, day, and time of day. This flow chart is stored in every single EMS bus.

Technology Utilization:

• EMS vans are equipped with trackers that can identify individuals as homeless, sending that information directly to Heather’s team.
• This data is critical for reconnecting with individuals who have fallen out of contact with Outreach and identifying high-need areas.
• Used EMS data to recognize the need for additional freezing shelters and prioritize housing for high EMS utilizers.
• Example: A man with nearly 100 EMS calls was identified and connected with mental health and substance use services through coordinated case conferencing and transported to rehabilitation.

Consistent Coordination:

• All county personnel with “Outreach” in their title now attend quarterly meetings.
• These meetings ensure immediate issue resolution, collaborative teamwork, and skill/resource sharing across the county.

Public Education and Process Mapping:

• Shared Homeless Response Coordinator contact information widely to replace police as the first point of contact.
• Developed and distributed a situational flow chart stored in every EMS vehicle.
• This chart guides responders on whom to contact based on need, location, and time of day, especially outside Coordinated Entry hours.

Hands-On Engagement

• Heather participates in ride-alongs with police to better understand field conditions.
• Encourages officers to physically inspect encampments rather than relying on vehicle observations, which has aided in relationship building, as well as knowledge of encampment and citizen needs..

What’s Next

Baltimore County plans to continue deepening and expanding its outreach efforts by formalizing relationships with additional service interfaces, such as harm reduction teams, and integrating their data into the HMIS system. This step will ensure more seamless, person-centered support and allow for better tracking and service coordination.

Future goals include ongoing community engagement with business owners and civic groups, as well as providing de-escalation and support training to those frequently interacting with the unhoused population. Additionally, strengthening follow-through processes will help ensure that calls to the Homeless Response Coordinator replace 911 as the default response, further institutionalizing a humane, service-oriented approach.

The county will also maintain its quarterly coordination meetings to ensure alignment among outreach staff, encourage shared learning, and coordinate services across systems. Plans to involve this expanded outreach network in Point-in-Time counts reflect a broader goal: to reach every individual experiencing homelessness, wherever they may be, with compassionate, coordinated care.