GH CAN Leadership Committee Meeting 5/18/16

Greater Hartford CAN Leadership Committee

Wednesday, May 18^th, 2016

1.       Welcome and Introductions

2.       CAN Subcommittee Updates

a.       At the last GH CAN meeting Leadership requested updates on the purpose, progress made, and challenges faced by all GH CAN subcommittees.

a.       Shelter Triage Subcommittee

1.       Smartsheets Shelter Waitlist will be implemented starting tomorrow, Thursday 5/19

-          We discussed protocols for working with folks who present at the shelter door, seeking immediate shelter, and discussed that a shelter can take people in for one night on an interim basis on the discretion of their agency.  Because there will continue to be folks who present at the shelter door, or who present on the weekend when there are no CAN appointments, Heather talked about agencies needing to navigate the area between safety and compassion, to ensure that we are sheltering people as safely as possible within the limitations of each program.

-          The Leadership Committee requested that Mollie send around a draft policy for after hours/weekend procedures regarding taking people into shelter temporarily.  The group determined that it was at the discretion of individual shelters to take folks in for one night if they present at shelter, but that those individuals need to go through to a CAN appointment as soon as one is available.

2.       Duty Service Coordinators

-          The Duty Service Coordinators have not met regularly for many months, so rather than a committee report the Leadership Committee reviewed the Coordinated Entry Report that CCEH prepares on a monthly basis.

-          The unprocessed referrals are very high in the Greater Hartford area, and is an area that we’d like to improve moving forward.

-          Because South Park Inn is not completing assessment appointments, one suggestion was that at some point during the week a staff person could review any unprocessed referrals that had happened earlier in the week.  At this point, there are a great number of unprocessed referrals

-          Leadership has approved to checking if duty service coordinators are checking out on appointments when clients do not show up. Also to send a weekly e mail out when duty service coordinators are not closing out on appointments.

3.       Coordinated Outreach

-          Theresa has proposed a point person for outreach when seeing a person on the street who is homeless, and requested that Janet create sort of a business card that staff could carry, so that if they encounter someone out on the streets they can know where to call, to make sure that person can get connected.  Janet will bring this up at the next meeting for discussion.

-          Kara has proposed a housing representative to be present at the outreach meetings, to try and increase communication between the housing matching process and the outreach workers.

-          Janet will bring this up at the next outreach meeting on June 6^th.

4.       Coordinated Exit

1.       Communication and Collaboration Challenges

-          Tenesha expressed that there have been challenges with folks not reporting their updates in advance of the call, but this has improved in recent meetings, so now the calls aren’t spending as much time on the pending referrals. 

2.       Support Needed

-          Tenesha has proposed that shelter case managers to be on the calls so that they know which of their clients are at the top of the priority list, and to promote warm hand-offs from shelter staff to housing staff when a client is referred to a program.

-          Heather proposed that an e mail with HMIS numbers is sent out day before call meeting, so case managers at shelters can be on the call for that client they have in their shelter.

3.       Formerly Chronically Homeless Client, Currently in Skilled Nursing Facility

-          This client had met the definition of chronically homeless prior to a major car accident that left him in a coma.  The Coordinated Exit Committee wasn’t sure whose programs would be able to serve him, since after his time in multiple medical facilities he had been in an institution for more than 90 days and no longer appeared to meet the definition.  This individual is also required to register on the sex offender registry, and is not eligible for any of the state funded programs.  It was decided that he will work with a HUD-funded program for housing.

4.       Changes to rapid rehousing referral process

-          Tenesha asks how to prioritize rapid re housing and is requesting leadership to help out in that process.

-          Andrea stated that we were planning to phase out the Google Doc for housing referrals in the next couple of weeks, and would begin working down the by-name-list during housing matching meetings. 

                 e. Veterans – This report was shared during the meeting, no major action needed by Leadership at this time.

3. TLP Transition-TLP Providers –No updates were reported at this meeting

4. GH CAN Leadership Meetings/Opening Doors Greater Hartford Meetings/Sub COC Meetings – There was no time to discuss this agenda item, it will be at the top of our next meeting’s agenda.