GH CAN Leadership 10/19/16

GH CAN Leadership Committee
Wednesday, October 19, 2016

1. Welcome and Introductions
2. Zero: 2016 Updates
1. We reviewed the Trends data produced by Journey Home, which showed that as time goes on we are identifying fewer chronically homeless households.
2. At this time, we believe that throughout the state we have sufficient resources to match all chronic households to housing.
3. As a community, one area we can improve is utilizing RRH as a bridge until subsidies become available. 
4. One area where we are struggling with the Moving On program continues to be transitioning households in place because of rental amounts, as discussed at the last meeting.
5. Theresa reported that there has been no movement on the 20 possible vouchers through the Hartford Housing Authority at this point.
6. Department of Housing NOFA
1. The group discussed the upcoming NOFA through the Department of Housing, for staff who can assist with document readiness, outreach, landlord engagement, housing stabilization services.
1. No agencies expressed interest in applying for this funding, so Journey Home offered to apply for this funding.
2. Theresa requested, and the group agreed, that whatever staff is hired using this funding report to the CAN leadership on activity and that the position continue to be flexible as needs in the CAN change.
3. Kara proposed that this new staff person could serve in a pre-CTI role, helping households gather necessary documentation pre-housing, and assist with housing search.
7. Zero: 2016 Training Request: Uploading Documents
1. At the last Zero: 2016 Team meeting we discussed that some case managers were having difficulty in uploading client documents because they weren't comfortable with the scanning equipment at their site.  Leadership committed to train their staff on how to use scanning equipment as well as how to upload the files into HMIS.
2. A handout was distributed with information on how to upload client documents into HMIS.
3. Cold Weather Protocol Planning - Nate Fox
1. Nate updated us that Holy Trinity church on Capitol Ave had committed as a location for the No-Freeze shelter, but it may be helpful if the CAN Leadership group could send a letter of support to the Catholic archdiocese to ensure that we continue to see forward motion.  
4. Consistency in Staff Communications 
1. The Operations Committee drafted a document for case managers to use so that we can continue to be on the same page about the definition and criteria of chronic homelessness.  Leadership suggested that we clarify the section about episodic homelessness to explain what makes an episode.
5. GH CAN Process and Timing For Housing Referrals - Crane Cesario and Sonia Brown
1. In addition to all of our federal housing programs undergoing review by HUD during the NOFA season, the Balance of State also scores our housing program performance each year, and with the introduction of this CAN process there have been a number of delays in the housing matching process.  
2. One of the barriers we continue to face in the process is that we don't yet have as many households document ready as we have openings, and continue to see a delay in Disability Verifications.  Steve MacHattie, Andrea Hakian, Theresa Nicolson, and Kara Capobianco volunteered to assist in cases where we were unable to connect people to mainstream resources for disability assessments.
3. GH CAN Housing Metrics
6. Announcements:
1. Journey Home's next Dinner in the Park at Bushnell Park will be held Saturday, October 29th
2. Short Term RRH through CHR will no longer be accepting referrals through the Google Document - all Rapid ReHousing referrlas will now take place at the RRH matching meeting on Wednesdays opposite this meeting.
3. After today's meeting, there will be scarves and hats available through Journey Home's Making A House A Home project.  Case managers can take as many items as needed for their clients!
4. Journey Home's Landlord Mitigation project is up and running!