GH CAN Operations Meeting 6/29/2016

1. Updates from Document Fair – Rubi Alegria - More than 80 households were served at the document fair, and 7 chronically homeless clients were able to get completely Document Ready at that event!
2. In order to reach our goal of ending chronic homelessness this year, there will be a Chronic Clients Case Conference on 7/6 for all clients on Priority list! – 7/6/16 1:30-3:30 My Sister’s Place – Pliny St.
1. Recently Housed Clients - 4 people since last CAN meeting
3. Referrals to PATH Outreach Team – Malika
1. Homeless verifications for unsheltered folks all over the state. Lack of information provided when making referrals. They put together a sheet attached to the agenda for what kind of information is really helpful to them when they’re doing Outreach.
4. Smartsheet Shelter Waitlist -  Where did you stay last night? Additional Options Needed? 

-          Folks staying unsheltered, folks staying in car. Identified some other places people may be coming from. For example, hospital, incarceration, medical facilities, psychiatric facilities.

-          There are issues of people who are unsheltered and cannot be contacted and then Steve gets contacted afterwards saying they were actually in the hospital. Hartford Hospital has allowed people to stay in the ER. Is it possible to add something that includes “other” and then type in what it is? Mollie said: Where do you want the other option to be? Highly prioritized or somewhere down? Have you been living outside? Crane said: Where did you stay last night is different than where have you stayed the past couple of weeks? Kara said they have talked to hospitals to see if they would be willing to be in the CAN so they train the staff to add people into shelter waitlist. Don’t want a taxi from hospital to shelter or waitlist. Heather said the folks that aren’t ready to be discharged is a hassle for anyone calling for shelter bed because you have to go through nurses stations and call around.  Kara said if they’re in the hospital how are they going to get on the list? How are they going to get to a CAN assessment? Jose likes the idea of having the hospital staff trained to add clients to shelter waitlist. Sara from CCEH said they did diversion training to the Yale-New Haven hospital because they have different definitions of homeless. They consider doubled up as homeless. Jose said they don’t think they have the idea very clear. He got a call from Hartford Hospital doctor begging him to take client into McKinney but he explained that that is not the process anymore. Kara believes the more dropdown the better. Refused/UTC all fall under Refused right now. Heather suggested to add drop down box of “No Show” for those who turned green but didn’t show up. Another option is self-resolved. Mark suggested to add “shelter” as a where you stayed last night for someone who maxed out their time at one shelter or someone who was banned. Kara said they are essentially trying to go back through the CAN to get into a different shelter. Priority for those exiting shelter last night should be high because they are technically unsheltered – no longer can stay at shelter. Kara said she doesn’t want people to leave one shelter to the next just because they didn’t like the previous shelter. Current priority is unsheltered, sleeping in a car, and then unsafe doubled up. Kara is advocating against adding shelter as a separate category. Heather said maybe it should say “Where do you intend to stay tonight?” – Do we want to change the question? If people are in an institution then you have to rephrase the question? Fairfield County just found out how to get to the top of the waitlist. They went to assessments and said they were sleeping in a car. Duty Service Coordinators will add additional questions if the circumstances fit. Heather said for families with 2 parent HOH, can we add a space for both parent’s names since we’re taking both? Had incident with individual male who didn’t clarify he was part of the family on waitlist.

-          Back to CHR PATH Referral – Malika –

                Malika developed a form for CHR PATH referrals. Sometimes they get good info and they can go out. Sometimes they get vague information and don’t know where to start. Hopefully with this information we can get to the client faster. Amy had a request to remove the “homeless Verification Form” to prevent confusion to others. Will change to “Homeless Outreach Team Referral Form” – Crane suggested adding to it “Use this form to request services from CHR PATH team? 3 attempts within 2 weeks. After that we send it back to you with outcome and findings. Locations – be as specific as possible. For the Town Social Services and Police Dept. is it okay for them to use it without HMIS access? Malika said yes. Crane also suggested adding GH CAN to the referral form.

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Angel from OH had a question. Gentlemen on Friday had nowhere to go. Assessment was scheduled on Tuesday. He got robbed at Bushnell on Friday night. Is there someone who is working on Friday night? We need triage and weekend coverage. Maybe we can figure out how we can have someone cover 1 weekend day a month. We had a mom and baby in car who couldn’t get into an open available bed because of lack of coverage. Jose said 211 should be the ones adding someone to Smartsheet. If someone calls 211 on Friday why do they have to wait until the week to get added to Smart Sheet. It is a disservice to the homeless. Crane said 211 can’t figure out who’s in crisis for us. Why do people from 211 not have access to shelter waitlist? 211 covers the whole state and covers 7 other CANS. For 211 to train their staff for Smart sheets for just Hartford, they won’t do it. We can’t overwhelm 211 anymore because we will lose them. What they’re doing is basically for free right now due to lack of funding. Jose said what is going to happen is… McKinney opened because the City of Hartford found a man froze to death. Someone who called on a Friday who can’t get an assessment yet will die and sh*t will hit the fan. Crane asked if someone from McKinney shelter can cover 1 weekend a month. Jose said his staff doesn’t have access to HMIS. Kara said they only need access to Smartsheets. But they said they need a HMIS ID#. For emergency weekend situations they can just put #000000. Kara said with all the shelters in the room we are asking each agency to rotate once every 6 weeks. Roxan Noble said her staff is available after 1pm on Saturdays so they can be available. Roxan can also make herself available. Also willing to make herself available Sunday. Mollie said they may have a lead for Sundays. Cordelia said if an email goes out they can go to their leadership and figure out how they can help. Amy Robinson said she is willing to do it on her personal time. EHFS has staff available on Saturdays/Sunday from 8-4 and is savvy and can be trained. Jose has some staff available for Sundays. What is the process? Crane said Mollie is going to email you. Mollie will email out schedule tomorrow. Are there CAN assessments for Mondays? No.

Mercy Diversion Center

One Stop Shop for CAN assessments in Hartford. Started working with agencies to get CAN staff to diversion center. Mercy is providing staff Monday-Friday in addition to CAN assessment. She has schedule to have full coverage Monday-Friday for single individuals. Kelly asked what if someone at shelter is not trained on Smartsheets. We can add someone to the waitlist but what if someone is unable to pull people off Smartsheet because they’re not trained. Kara said this also doesn’t guarantee that there is a bed available. 211 needs to be able to explain that although it’s a crisis situation, we may not have a bed available. We are not a right to shelter state. The problem is that there are beds but there aren’t people being pulled. Heather said there is an issue with beds being empty all weekend and then staff come in on Monday and try to pull people off the shelter waitlist but they’ve exhausted all their options so they have longer emptier beds.

Jose asked if we are reassessing single men every 30 days. They said we are reassessing them 30 days if they haven’t been in the system in the last month. Jose thinks that by doing that, the only thing that may change in 30 days is where did you stay last night? Kara said this is a segue to diversion center CAN assessments schedule. The guys that are in and out of shelter go to an assessment but aren’t really going to assessment – updating their info and adding them back to shelter waitlist.. Another change to reengage and see what happened and build more rapport. New guys go to Mercy Diversion. Others in system go to “can assessment”.

City of Hartford Housing Choice Voucher Program – Created preference for CH for HCV program. Announcement in newspaper in the next couple of weeks. Application to meet the preference. Preference in supportive housing who want to move on to housing without services or chronically homeless clients. If you have clients in PSH, they would be prioritized. There is an application. JH is happy to assist you with the application to get into Imagineers. If someone is doing really in PSH but want to move on, they can get HCV voucher to cover rent of where they are if it’s a scattered site. Some of you may be ready to mark those clients green, yellow, ready to move on. Anyone that is chronically homeless is eligible. Ideal for those who are chronically but don’t need too many services.

Referrals to RRH – Amber Higgins – Referrals through Coordinated Exit Meetings going forward - No more Google Doc for LT RRH. When they do open back up, she will make announcement. All referrals will be handled through Coordinated Exit Call on Tuesdays for individuals and Wednesdays for Family RRH referrals. No waiting list. Kara said they lowered barriers – social security card/numbers. Not necessarily birth certificates – something with name and DOB. Trying to lower barriers across the state. Don’t need ID.

Clients at doc fair who tried to get DMV IDS. Special line at DMV on Thursday 7/7 at 8:30 for folks from Doc fair.  Will be calling everyone who applied.