GH CAN Operations 3/8/17

GH CAN Operations Committee

Wednesday, March 8, 2018

In Attendance:

Janet Bermudez - Hands On Hartford

Crane Cesario - DMHAS

Tylon Crump - CRT

Rochelle Currie - The Connection

Fred Faulkner - The Open Hearth

Angel Fernandez - The Open Hearth

Ruby Givens-Hewitt - My Sisters' Place

Kelly Gonzalez - CRT

Tenesha Grant - Mercy Housing

Gerilyn Maciel - Salvation Army

Marueen Perez - CRT

Heather Pilarcik - South Park Inn

Chris Robinson - Chrysalis Center

Amy Robinson - VA

Kyren McCrorey - The Open Hearth

Jose Vega - McKinney

Wendy Walker - CRT

Klaudia Lobeska - CRT 

Julie Bernstein - CHR

Kelanda Santos - MSP

Sarah DiMaio - Salvation Army

1. Cold Weather Protocol Updates – Nate Fox
2. No Freeze overflow shelter for men will be closing on 3/31/17. As of 4/1/17 – no more no freeze. Welcome center is closing 3/31/17. Hoping for another welcome center. MANNA/Community Meals is not ending, still happening Monday & Tuesday night. Center Church won’t be open Wed-Sunday. SAMH exhausted all journey home funds for motel placement so Salvation Army kicked in. About $5,000 through, halfway through. We except to have funds for 2 more weeks with the cold weather coming up. After that, no funds for motels for families on the streets. Folks staying in no freeze who is chronic or potential – get them connected to someone to get them document ready. May be looking for other folks to step up. 
1. Interested in end of the month to connect folks at no freeze center, reach out to Mollie. Want to make sure folks we see during the winter time do not get dropped off. Next meeting 3/22/17 will have presentation by Nate/Christie to see what message the guys are getting. Jose asked has it been full every day? Not full every day. Most days are 50 but the recent cold weather activation had about 70. Sarah said they cannot case manage the families in motels, currently referring to diversion center. Only 2 families in hotels right now. Need someone to help absorb the work that needs to be done. Shelters have been pretty full. Jose suggested transitioning them to shelters. He had 7 beds last night. Maybe 2 weeks before discharge. 
2. Heather made a suggestion to consider what’s worked and what hasn’t. Specifically, the lack of beds for single women. Would be something to consider for next year. Cold weather planning will start in may this year instead of Sept/October. Anyone who is involved in cold weather discussions, let Mollie know. Jose asked if City of Hartford will be attending the meetings. Roger suggested planning the location for No Freeze early as oppose to next year waiting until last minute.
3. Veteran Services – Tylon
4. CT referrals for veterans experiencing homelessness – what to do if you identify a veteran. Tylon just recently became Sr. Case Manager at SSVF. Get an intake, anyone who has veteran status should be immediately referred to CRT SSVF and Amy Robinson at VA at the same time. Have to do it immediately because they have a 90-day window to get things ready. Maureen Hearn is outreach person so they will meet with someone for an intake. Dishonorable discharge is not eligible but anything underneath is eligible. Can request for dishonorable discharge can possibly be changed to Bad Conduct discharge. If you encounter a veteran, call Tylon or Maureen. SSVF provide the housing – that’s why they don’t go through CAN or RRH. National Guard – never activated, wouldn’t qualify. Navigator who sees someone is homeless should call, help with arrears as long as they meet certain criteria and can sustain their rent.
5. Coordinated Exit –
1. Getting on BNL – In order to be on BNL, client has to have VI-SPDAT completed in HMIS. If you don’t see someone on the by-name-list, please let us know. They might be active in another CAN or it may be a duplicate ID.
2. Next Steps Tool – Please use this tool for individuals 18-24yo. If pregnant or parenting, continue to use family VI-SPDAT. The next steps tool will also get someone the by-name-list and the scores are same as regular VI. We will be asking folks to complete full SPDATs on HMIS. That reduces room for error and not remembering to input converted scores. Full SPDAT feature is currently now in HMIS but the scores are not converting yet.
3. Accessing the BNL – Tool developed by CCEH/DOH distributed. Able to pull by name lists of all who is enrolled, matched or housed. Should do this before rapid rehousing meeting to see who may or may not be discussed at your shelter.
4. Getting on priority list – In order to get on priority list, we have to have evidence of chronic length of homeless history. We get that either by obtaining a letter for 3^rd party verification from outreach providers or churches or community member to prove the time. Journey Home also does a quarterly review and continue to review timelines when clients go in and out of shelter. In the past we were able to match folks who were chronic verified within the week that they were matched so the homeless verification stayed current. Now that the resources have slowed down and there is a lag between someone being verified and matched, the homeless verification may need to be updated when they get matched. Example = if someone is verified in January but they aren’t matched until March, we will need to update homeless verification to reflect where they’ve been since January. This is because the homeless verification has to be current at intake to prove literal homelessness status at intake. If client is at a shelter, we can just update enrollments. If client is unsheltered or in an institution, we will need an updated letter once matched. Not trying to give extra work to you guys but all documents need to be aligned. Also getting a lot of pushback for 3^rd party verifications so we have been stricter with the letters coming in. We have the HUD FAQ’s that discusses what is acceptable in terms of 3^rd party verifications. If someone did not physically observe the client sleeping in places not meant for human habitation, other information may be accepted in lieu of the physical observation.
6. New agencies to release of information: Clause in the ROI that states that the agencies can change at any time so it’s okay to continue using current ROI even though we are adding new agencies.
1.    HBID – staff or volunteers? Paid staff. Do agencies get information on confidentiality prior to getting added? Don’t want them to have access to HMIS. Do they need a vote to see who would have access to HMIS? No voting process. Has to go through HMIS right now. Concern with client’s sensitive information. Only voting for Outreach Committee. HBID will be added to CAN page of ROI.
2.    The Village for Children & Families – Much more involved in youth process. Trying to make sure active part of youth committee we’re getting started. Hoping they get more involved with family matching meeting down the road. Voted yes.
3. Job Corps – interested in youth steering committee. Expressed interested in joining RRH committees or coordinated exit committee. Enough homeless youth coming in and out that it would be worth it. Voted yes.
4. First Choice Health Centers – have assisted with homeless verifications and disability verifications in the past. Voted yes.
5. Atlas Behavioral Health – Interested in assisting with disability verifications and services for programs where case management isn’t attached. Voted yes to be added to CAN release.