GH CAN Operations Committee Agenda 11/6/19

November 6, 2019 Greater Hartford Coordinated Access Network

Operations Meeting Notes

1. Welcome and Introductions

• Sofina Begum - Journey Home
• Steve Bigler - CRT
• Tahira Bruff - ImmaCare
• Letticia Brown-Gambino - Chrysalis Center
• Crane Cesario - CRMHC, DMHAS
• Carmen Crespovalle - CRT McKinney
• David Duverga - South Park Inn
• David Dyment - Mercy Housing and Shelter
• Heather Flannery - Interval House
• Alexis Gaynor - Journey Home
• Kelly Gonzalez - Salvation Army Marshall House
• Kelly Abigail - Hands on Hartford
• Rebekah Lyas - ImmaCare
• Geri Maciel - Salvation Army Marshall House
• Elijah McFolley III - The Open Hearth
• Andre McGuire - CRT/McKinney Shelter
• Denise Mitchell - ImmaCare
• Teresa Nieves - Chrysalis
• Maureen Pujols -  CRT/McKinney Shelter
• Amy Robinson - VA
• Tyeisha Stafford - CRT East Hartford Family Shelter
• Zenetah Sasser - CHR
• Monique Shand - YWCA
• Barbara Shaw - Hands on Hartford
• David Sierra - CHR/ Manchester
• Chris Venable - Journey Home
• Sharon Redfern - Cornerstone
• Jennifer Kirchmerer - Cornerstone
• Faust Parra - National Guard
• Melody Bager - National Guard

2. Request to be added to CAN Release of Information
1. Veteran’s Rally Point- Xavier Roman
1. Presentation done by Xavier Roan from Veteran’s Rally Point and Fausto Parra from National Guard requesting to join the CAN. They have great programs for Veterans such as employment opportunities, transitional living facilities, medical services and general service. Joining the CAN would allow both Veteran’s Rally Point and National Guard to receive and provide additional resources to Veterans. They want to be able to receive referrals from the CAN and give referrals of clients to the CAN. 
2. After a presentation was done by both the GH CAN Operation team voted to add both Veteran’s Rally Point and National Guard to the Release of Information. 

3. Coordinated Entry– David Dyment
1. New Diversion model 
1. As of November 1st Diversion will accept appointments in 4 locations based on population:

• CHR Manchester - everyone East of the River
• Mercy (Main location)
• Salvation Army
• ImmaCare (Hartford Public Library - 3 days of the week)

2. GH CAN 211 Protocols and workflow 
1. Journey Home has provided 211 with a new workflow and protocol  for Greater Hartford on how to direct a client to a Diversion appointment. Some of the major changes are:

• Youth seeking shelter and/or housing assistance with other family members or a partner who are aged 25 and older should NOT be referred to an appointment with a Youth Navigator. They should be given adult appointments so that they can be served with the other members of their household.
• Women in their 3rd Trimester of Pregnancy can be scheduled for a family assessment and the Urgent Family Protocol can be followed as needed. Pregnant Youth (18-24yo) without children can also be scheduled as an Urgent Family appointment if needed. If not in an urgent situation, they can be scheduled at a Youth appointment site.

4. Cold-weather updates- Sarah Dimaio/Kelly Gonzalez
1. Warming Center

• Salvation  Army Marshall House is continuously meeting with the city to plan and discuss logistics for the warming center. They are planning to operate as they have in past years, but the city is looking to open a second Warming Center location in the Hartford region for more capacity. 
• Salvation Army Marshall House is also recruiting churches in Hartford to host once a week to open capacity for families and women.

i.     Required documents for a Hartford Municipal ID

• Residency letter qualifies as a document for Municipal ID
• Anyone unable to pay for a Municipal ID will be paid for by Journey Home
• Two locations in Hartford that offer a Municipal ID
• Hartford Public Library
• Office of Town & City Clerk

5. Outreach
1. Immacare changes- Rebekah Lyas
1. Diversion appointments will be taken by ImmaCare staff at the Hartford Public Library 
2. ImmaCare will assist with Diversion appointments at the Warming Center starting in December

6. Leadership Updates – Lisa Quach, Crane Cesario, Rebekah Lyas
1. Leadership will purpose two suggestions for additional resources:   
1. We ask the city for a larger site that can hold a greater capacity of 75 or more beds/cots and no chairs (12 votes)
2. Larger site with chairs  having chairs allows more capacity than 75 (11 votes)
2. Statewide is working on outreach methods

7. PIT Update

a.      Database will be open until 11/21/19 for data entry - providers must provide updated data by November 21st.

   

8. Case Conferences – Fred Faulkner
1. Cornerstone-#107072
1. Client is 7 months pregnant and considered a youth, shelter does not have the capacity to host client. Cornerstone is looking for an alternative shelter that can facilitate the client providing her with the proper care she needs. As she entered her third trimester she is considered a “family” now and can be transferred to a family shelter. At this moment the Operations Team has thought of two options for her:   
1. She can be placed in a Youth Crisis bed at Salvation Army Marshall House
2. She can go to East Hartford Family Shelter after giving birth

9. Journey Home Updates
1. Please allow up to 48 hours for response when submitting homeless verification forms.
2. Security Deposit Guarantee & Rapid Exit – at least 7-10 days for Mary to process applications
3. Still funding available for rapid exits!

10. Announcements
1. All GH CAN Appointments for non-parenting youth are now being conducted by the Youth Navigators at CRT and Salvation Army.
2. Family Shelter Check-In will be taking place immediately after today’s meeting from 3:30-4:00PM
3. My Sisters’ Place Security Deposit Funding is available – contact person is John Thomas at 860-969-1906
4. Greater Hartford & Central CAN Training – 11/15/19 – email Lisa or Alexis to register!

Oct. 16, 2019 GH CAN Leadership Meeting Notes

1.  Welcome and Introductions

●       Sofina Begum - Journey Home

●       Yoshi Bird - South Park Inn

●       Sonia Brown - CRT

●       Letticia Brown-Gambino - Chrysalis Center

●       Kara Capobianco - Department of Housing

●       Crane Cesario - DMHAS

●       Sarah DiMiao - Salvation Army Marshal House

●       Lauren Fair - Salvation Army Marshall House

●       Fred Faulkner - The Open Hearth

●       Heather Flannery - Interval House

●       Alexis Gaynor - Journey Home

●       John Lawlor - The Connection

●       Rebekah Lyas - ImmaCare

●       Elijah McFolley - The Open Hearth

●       Lionel Rigler - City of Hartford

●       Tyeisha Saffold - CRT EH Shelter

●       Sharon Redfern - Cornerstone

2. Career Pathways Program Presentation – Roy Mainelli, Journey Home

●       Successful 5 year program that Journey Home would like to continue to grow by training prospective employees for trade jobs

●       In the past 5 years 50 plus people have been employed through this employment program

●       The Open Hearth has been a big participant of the program

●       Hartford Foundation for Public Giving would like to continue to fund and support the growth of the program

●       Right now there are 14 positions with 5 companies open, the Career Pathways Employment Program would like to open the opportunity to all CAN members to encourage clients to join the program

●       3 month vetting process for selecting candidates

3. Cold Weather Update – Sarah Dimaio

●       Opening date for Willie Ware Warming Center will be December 1st with a possible closing date of March 31st

●       The Warming Center will have up to 20 front line employees

●       Salvation Army Marshall House has started to interview for positions and is hoping to hire

●       The Salvation Army Marshall House Overflow Shelter will have 23 beds for families and 4 dedicated beds for single women

●       Salvation Army Marshall House is recruiting churches in the area to host one night a week to open capacity, they have reached out to 7 churches with the possibility of 3 of them coming on board.

●       This year at the Warming Center, there will not be a case manager. However, diversion appointments will be done on site to divert as many clients as possible. Immacare will provide one FTE to assist with diversion

4. Shelter Report Out on Progress in Changing the Narrative to be Strength-based – South Park Inn, McKinney, Salvation Army, YWCA, East Hartford Shelter, Open Hearth

●       McKinney, YWCA, and South Park Inn were not present for the discussion

●       East Hartford Shelter reported that they are training their staff to focus their conversations to be more about housing; having the clients consider housing options with family/friends, shared housing, or roommate situations (doubled-up safe)

●       Open Hearth is encouraging staff to engage in a casual conversation with clients more often. Staff is having a 2nd “Diversion” conversation with clients, to explore options to self-resolve.

●       Shelters are working on training their staff on how to engage with clients to help them get out of the shelters

●       The Salvation Army changed job descriptions about a year ago. It is now mandatory for all staff to complete (3) NAEH webinars per month. Each client has a housing plan, which are kept in the front office so that each shift has access to the housing plan. Each shift has been given assignments, specifically to search for housing resources/listings.

●       Report out on Potentially Chronic clients – shelters, outreach programs

●       Some shelters have reported that many of the clients are missing Disability Verification

●       The Open Hearth has reported that all 4 of their Potentially Chronic clients have or are receiving support. Two of their clients have moved on to permanent based housing, one of their clients has a Disability verfication, and one is difficult but they are receiving the support they need from Open Hearth.

5. Homeless Outreach Gap/Issues

●       Evening outreach is still needed but Salvation Army is planning on hiring two full time employees dedicated to outreach

●       Salvation Army plans to do night time outreach 3 days a week for about 6 weeks; Staff will only canvass the community to surveys in order to capture demographics and last zip code

●       Teams of 3 people will be going out from 6pm to 11pm to verify clients

●       Alexis is forming a volunteer group to do outreach after hours- date to be determined based on doodle poll that was sent out by Alexis

6. PIT Update – Crane Cesario and Alexis Gaynor

●       2020’s PIT count will be held on January 22nd in the morning from 5 am to 7am

●       HUD CoC grants require organizations provide at least one volunteer for PIT

●       PIT office hours to be determined

7. Updates and Next Steps on Local Strategies on Long Stayers in Shelter – Stephanie Corbin, Sarah Dimaio, Rebekah Lyas, Barbara Shaw, Crane Cesario, Lisa Quach

●       All shelters need to report on the changes they are implementing for more strength based results

●       Trainings to come soon with CSH collaborative training focusing on race and equity

8. New Agenda Items

●       Wiping Smart Sheets clean in preparation for Cold-weather

●       Proposal: No longer having diversion staff add people to shelter-waitlist. Outreach will canvass, verify, and add to the waitlist. 

9. Announcements

GH CAN Operations Committee Agenda 10/16/19

Operations Agenda

Wednesday, October 16, 2019 2:30-3:30 PM

My Sisters’ Place 76 Pliny St. Hartford, CT

1.  Welcome and Introductions

• Nimo Ahmed - Salvation Army
• Sofina Begum - Journey Home
• Tahira Buff - ImmaCare
• Crane Cesario - CRMHC,DMHAS
• Carmen Cespovalle - CRT McKinney
• Latoya Fitzwilliam - Salvation Army
• Heather Flannery - Interval House
• Alexis Gaynor - Journey Home
• Kelly Gonzales - Salvation Army
• Amanda Gordon - Journey Home
• Abigail Kelly - Hands on Hartford
• Rebekah Lyas - ImmaCare
• Elijah McFolley - The Open Hearth
• Andre McGuire - CRT/ McKinney Shelter
• Denise Mitchell - ImmaCare
• Teresa Nieves - Chrysalis Center
• Holly Hodgson - Salvation Army
• Chris Venable - Journey Home 

2.  Clients in Jeopardy of Losing Housing

       PB #214040/221447 - Itzel (Chrysalis absent)

• One person at risk of losing housing is getting certificate back to find housing; Per Crane, John Mack will get his certificate back after DMHAS reviewed case. 

3.  Coordinated Entry

a.  Proposed Shelter Waitlist Wipe (Starting fresh for warming center)

• Proposed plan to wipe waitlist for shelters and start new when the warming center opens December 1st
• The goal is to wipe SmartSheets before December 1st to start with a new list
• Some questions and concerns from the team were:
• What happens if we accidently remove those who are verified homeless?
• Can the list be archived before purging?
• When will Diversion staff stop adding clients to waitlist? 
• Will the Diversion staff receive advance notification? - Diversion team will be notified far in advance before they can stop adding to SmartSheets. Leadership will be meeting with the Diversion staff to clarify roles.
• A vote was taken by the Operations Team that determined that the list can be wiped but we must archive the current waitlist

b.  Refusal of shelter due to safety reasons

          i. Protocol (Remove or not)

• If a client expresses that they can not go to a certain shelter because they feel unsafe CAN should be selecting “Refuse - Safety/Special Reason” in SmartSheets. They will be considered for the next shelter.

         ii. Documentation in Smartsheets on shelter waitlist

• CAN can select “Refuse - Safety/Special Reason” in SmartSheets and include in the notes column what the exact reason is, examples can be that the area is a trigger, there is someone who stays at the shelter that they may have problems with, etc. 

4.  Cold Weather Updates – Sarah and/or Kelly

• Warming Center in Hartford is expected to open on December 1st through March 31st
• Salvation Army is in the process of hiring part time staff for the Warming Center, they are expecting for trainings for new hires to start in November
• Salvation Army has reached out to seven churches in Hartford to have them host families and single women one night per week for larger capacity, so far three churches have been in contact with the Salvation Army to be possible hosts.
• The City of Hartford would like to designate the Warming Center for Hartford residents. 
• Warming Center will have onsite CAN appointments available for clients to divert them if possible.

5.  Leadership Updates

• Strength focused trainings to occur soon.
• Point In Time (PIT) planning in progress, PIT team is looking for volunteers.
• For the first time Central CAN will be doing the PIT count in the morning like Greater Hartford from 5am to 7am. 

 6.  Youth Updates 

• YHDP is implementing a new program with HUD and DOH to help youth couples and individuals under the age of 25
• Navigators can work with youth and CCEH
• There are a total of 16 youth beds (12 at the Connection, 4 at Salvation Army)
• Youth cannot be on shelter waitlist until they are verified as unsafe or doubled up/unsafe.