Homelessness is a complex social problem with significant health and economic consequences. Prevention‐based responses seek to reduce the number of people who go on to experience homelessness, but effective homelessness prevention is challenging to implement and can require service integration across mainstream referral organisations and specialist homelessness service agencies. The ‘At‐Risk Screening Tool’ was piloted over August 2018 to March 2019 to enable such mainstream and specialist organisations to coordinate their screening and referral process in the context of homelessness prevention. The tool was used by mainstream referral agencies to assess a client's risk of homelessness, and a tailored referral pathway to a specialist homelessness agency was produced based on this assessment. This article discusses the evaluation of the pilot, exploring three key insights around service integration in a community service context. These insights emphasise the importance of embedding an awareness of staff needs and organisational constraints into the design and application of similar tools.