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The Center for Urban Community Services (CUCS) has a core mission to help people rise from poverty, exit homelessness, and be healthy. Since becoming an independent nonprofit in 1993, CUCS has been recognized as a pioneer in supportive housing and a leader in homeless services – creating bold, effective programs that help people achieve stable housing and live healthier lives. Today, CUCS supports and serves 50,000 individuals annually in New York City and across the country.
CUCS operates a wide range of direct service programs, including overseeing street outreach and housing placement across Manhattan, shelters and Safe Havens, stabilization beds, permanent supportive housing, primary medical care, psychiatric services, street medicine, Intensive Mobile Treatment, employment programs, and professional training for people across the human services and justice system sectors.
One of these programs, CUCS Connects, provides benefit screening, application assistance, and enrollment support throughout New York City. With staff based in locations like Veterans Affairs hospitals and Workforce1 centers, CUCS Connects helps a wide range of clients – including young adults, families, senior citizens, and the recently unemployed – access essential resources such as health insurance, food, rental assistance, and cash aid.
Before implementing Single Stop, CUCS Connects relied on manual methods for benefits screening and case tracking. Staff used paper forms, pens, and Excel spreadsheets to determine eligibility and document client information. These methods made it difficult to assist clients efficiently or to keep systematic records of the services provided.
Staff could only offer limited support, primarily assessing potential eligibility without being able to fully assist with applications in real time. Calculations for eligibility were done by hand, and client progress was hard to follow over time. There was no centralized way to document outcomes, and the process created unnecessary administrative burden.
“The ease of access was just not there… it was really paper and pen, trying to figure out someone’s income and what their expenses were” said Megan Sergi Howard, Program Director for CUCS Connects.
CUCS was one of the early partners involved in shaping the Single Stop platform. After using other tools for a period, CUCS returned to Single Stop following a recommendation from another organization and a period of grant-supported exploration.
The decision was based on several factors. Staff were already familiar with the platform, which eased the transition, and the latest version offered a more comprehensive and user-friendly system.
The platform was integrated into CUCS’s workflow to enable case managers to use it live during sessions with clients. Instead of collecting intake information on paper and entering it later, staff could now screen for benefits in real time, improving the flow of sessions and enabling immediate support.
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The impact of Single Stop is seen daily at CUCS. In one recent example, CUCS staff working with young adults through the Future First New York initiative found that three out of five clients screened in a single day did not have health insurance. While some were already receiving SNAP or working part time, they were unaware they were eligible for Medicaid. With Single Stop, these gaps were identified and addressed in real time.
“This happens every day with Single Stop,” Megan explained. “Just today, I was working on the platform with a group of 18- to 25-year-olds. Out of five individuals, three were uninsured and unaware they were eligible for health coverage. Through Single Stop, we were able to immediately identify that gap and begin connecting them to benefits.”
That’s the power of Single Stop: clients may come in seeking help for one issue, but they often walk away with solutions to multiple challenges they didn’t even realize could be addressed in one place.
According to CUCS staff, they view Single Stop as far superior to other tools they’ve used in the past. Unlike earlier platforms, it allows them to support clients holistically and track services over time. It’s also flexible enough to evolve alongside changing needs and benefit structures.
While CUCS expressed a desire for even more seamless integrations – like direct data transfer into application portals – they view Single Stop as an essential part of their workflow.
