The By-Name List (BNL) is a real-time list of all people experiencing homelessness in our community who are known to the housing and homelessness system (Coordinated Access to Homes) and who have provided consent to have their name and other identifying information included on the list. The BNL changes every day because people’s experiences of homelessness change every day. With the information from this list, we gather a monthly picture of flow into and out of homelessness in our community, as we can see it through CAH. At the end of each month, we take a snapshot of the BNL as it stands that day, which we use for the monthly dashboard you see here.

The BNL is populated by updates from staff and agencies in the community who work with individuals experiencing homelessness who are part of the Coordinated Access to Homes system in St. John’s. You can learn more about CAH and the participating agencies at www.ehsjportal.com/cah. People’s journeys through homelessness are often very complicated, and the information and updates that are received about those journeys can be complicated too. As we get new and updated information, sometimes including information from weeks or months prior, we integrate it as best we can to get the clearest picture that we can about what we know right now. Sometimes this new information conflicts with prior months as we make corrections. We are always working to ensure our information and updates are as timely, accurate, and complete as possible, and always improving.

The data points we gather monthly help us understand how people are flowing into, remaining, or flowing out of homelessness on a community-wide level. This helps us see patterns, accurate, and complete as possible, and always improving.

Inflow comes from 3 different sources:

Newly identified – Someone is homeless when they first interact with CAH and is added to BNL at that time.

Returned to homelessness from housing – Someone is experiencing homelessness again after having been housed previously. They have been homeless before and was known through CAH, then they were in housing, and now they are identified as homeless again in this month.

Returned to homelessness from inactivity – Someone is experiencing homelessness again after having been inactive previously. They have been homeless before and was already known through CAH. They were in a situation that was considered “inactive” but not known to be housed, and now they are identified has homeless again in this month. More in “inactive” below!

Chronic homelessness has a fourth source of inflow – “Aging in” or timing in to newly meet the definition of chronically homeless. When someone has been homeless for 6 months or more of the last year, or 18 months or more of the last 3 years, they are considered chronically homeless. If someone has been known to CAH as experiencing homelessness since last month, and as of this month crossed the threshold of 6 months of homelessness, they are not newly experiencing homelessness, but they are newly considered to be chronically homeless.

Outflow happens in 2 different ways:

Housed – People who moved into housing at some time this month and were still there as of the last day of the month. This can be a rented apartment or house, a unit in a group housing arrangement, a room or bed in a supportive housing or care home arrangement, or with family or supports such that the person can stay there safely for as long as they want.

Inactive – People who were experiencing homelessness who have left the system this month for some reason other than being housed. This includes entering hospital, prison, or some other institution, leaving the community, or passing away. It also includes people who have not been reached by anyone in the community for 90 days or longer, meaning they may or may not be experiencing homelessness, but no one has been able to contact them or confirm their situation for 3 months. After 90 days, the person is considered inactive, until such time that they make contact with the system again and CAH has another update on their situation.

These definitions and the method in which we calculate the monthly flow of homelessness comes directly from Built For Zero Canada, an initiative lead by the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness. You can learn more about BFZ-C and all the other communities in Canada working to end homelessness with the same methodology here: https://bfzcanada.ca/