GH CAN Leadership Meeting Notes 9/15/2021

 

GREATER HARTFORD COORDINATED ACCESS NETWORK LEADERSHIP

MEETING AGENDA

Wednesday, September 15, 2021 via Zoom - 1PM – 2:15PM

 

Welcome and Introductions Covid Updates? ·         Chrysalis – Mandating vaccines for all employees by Oct 1st.	Matt Morgan	5 mins
CAN Performance Measures/Quality Assurance ●     Evaluating performance measures ●     Data was shared (LOS, Diversion rates and Returns) ●     Numbers coming in vs going out (Net inflow) trends of when it is high and low, how we can make an impact on the number identified ●     CAN Survey will be distributed soon ●     Possible workgroup to come soon – Andrea will facilitate a small workgroup. Interest – Tina, Patricia, Amanda ●     Beacon – tracking mental health diagnosis (reporting/receiving services), CAN does not track this information at the moment. This is difficult to track because of the information that is shared sometimes by the client.	Sarah Pavone/Matt Morgan	10 mins
Advocacy ●     ARPA – requested 5mil for additional funding to the state for shelter, cold weather, etc. Request has been increased to 11mil. 1 mil from local municipalities to fund programs, 2 mil for regular shelter operations (flexible), 2 mil for outreach services, 1 mil for prevention and diversion, 1 mil for housing case managers (RRH and emergency vouchers), - compiled by PSC, and CCEH ●     Legislative Housing Committee update – available on Youtube. Discussion on why the funds are needed. Prevention, Diversion and RRH were Kara’s focus. Meeting went well, questions around hotel use and FEMA dollars.	Matt Morgan/Kara Capone	10 mins
Cold Weather ●     Prioritization of Funding Allocation ●     Live Poll – one vote per agency. ○     Question #1 What do you feel should be GH CAN's top priority in planning for this winter?                                              ■     a. COVID beds/coordination                                       ■     b. Non congregate housing (i.e., hotels)                                            ■     c. Assisting existing programming to increase services                                               ■     d. Increase capacity with new programming                                      ■     e. Other                                               ○     Which of these program types should be prioritized for funding (choose up to 3)?       In bold, top choices.                                                 ■     a. Hotels                                                         ■     b. Warming Centers                                                  ■     c. COVID beds/Coordination                                                           ■     d. Single Women Overflow- more capacity this year, SPI created capacity. Many declined to go to SPI. Some were banned, unable to overturn ban. SPI did not provide the ban from shelter.                                                ■     e. Family Overflow – SA has contract with the city.                                                      ■     f. Cold Weather Activation Overflow                                                  ■     g. East of the River shelter beds                                                        ■     h. Family Triage                                                          ■     i. Extended day time hours for overnight shelters                                                            ■     j. Other	Sarah Pavone	25 mins
Basecamp Brief Introduction to Basecamp - launching October 2021	Lisa Quach	10 mins
Subcommittee/Statewide/External Regional meeting reports (3rd meeting of the month) ●     System Issues? ●     Changes to system ●     New information/advocacy ●     Resources ●     *see attached sheet for all GH CAN representatives*	Matt Morgan	5 mins
Approval of Ops Invite List	Lisa Quach	5 mins
New Business ●     Future Agenda Items - ●     Announcements - DOH released a new RFP today for consulting services to assist thinking through our funding allocations and prepare for rebidding ●https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/DOH/CT-Homeless-Redesign-RFP-FINAL.pdf	Matt Morgan	5 mins

 

 

 

 

GH CAN Leadership Meeting 9/1/2021

 

GREATER HARTFORD COORDINATED ACCESS NETWORK LEADERSHIP

MEETING AGENDA

Wednesday, September 1, 2021 via Zoom - 1PM – 2:15PM

 

Welcome and Introductions	Matt Morgan	5 minutes
HUD NOFO – McKinney Vento – COC/PSH,RRH, HMIS & Planning Grants ·         Renewal project applications due to CTBOS Thursday 9/16 at 5pm ·         Export application to PDF in eSnaps & submit in Zengine. (don’t submit application in e-snaps) ·         HI will give feedback on applications. Grantees submit final renewal project application in eSnaps 10/11/21 ·         In the past couple of years only 1 or 2 applications were submitted from GH CAN – encourage GH CAN to apply. ·         CTBOS COC has posted new project application guidelines ·         SPI applied with BOS in June, waiting to hear back September – what’s next steps?	Lisa Quach	5 minutes
COVID-19 FEMA Extension – hotels reimbursed through FEMA right now – still a possibility after 9/30 only if governor extends CT public health emergency – if extended Dec hotel would be reimbursed 100% - after that 75%. Advocate for 100% at least throughout winter – waiting to hear if extended. Only those projects at hotels have been able to be reimbursed through FEMA – other COVID reimbursement for shelters to access is ESG COVID-19 funds What about COVID+ individuals? Agency in the CAN has interest in COVID response & interest in quarantine space – waiting on budget In the meantime –if anyone needs isolation or quarantine due to testing or positive test and don’[t have quarantine space in own facility and Sarah P will work on hotel placement through 211	Sarah Pavone	10 minutes
Advocacy Update from Emergency Shelter meeting with Commissioner Seila Mosquera-Bruno $5million ARPA funds discussed Pay equity issues/needing to pay front line staff – support infrastructure within shelter – Funding cliff at Sept 2022. Currently resource rich and expected to end Sept 2022. Role of day shelters in the crisis response system. Didn’t come up on this CAN’s call – funding for capital improvements – send to Steve DiLella.	Matt Morgan	10 minutes
Cold Weather Funding – compiled budget for estimate (what’s unfunded & needed) - Local planning meetings – scheduling meeting with local churches to ask for basic needs/site for triage (Mercy’s will most likely be unavailable this winter) All proposals were for overnight services, not outreach – budget estimated costs for potential COVID beds or COVID coordination in case COVID cases rise Combined statewide ask outweighs $2million allocated GH estimate – not including pending, committed or leftover funds from last year – unfunded amount is about $825,000 based on proposals that were submitted – less than GNH & Fairfield County’s overall ask for their budget gap. GHRRC submitted budget JH budgeted having to pay 25% of hotel costs in case	Sarah Pavone	15 minutes
Structure of Meeting Review CAN Organization Structure Chart What subcommittees should report out? All? Frequency?  Can committees submit something in writing? Highlight issues. Previously had quarterly reports for each subcommittee. How to keep communication strong between these committees?  Strategic/Systems barrier that hasn’t been resolved at Ops or Individuals. Leadership – talk about collaborating, sharing resources, dealing with sensitive things, system barriers Top accomplishment/top need from subcommittees? Emphasize GH CAN leadership members are decision making leadership – resource issues/sensitive issues. Value in making sure group doesn’t get too big. EDs need to know what’s going on in Operations – think about liability – treating people in our system – need clear communication – funding/liability – information gets lost from other committees – Subcommittee submits reports to Operations – Operations votes and brings recommendation to leadership and leadership makes final votes Boots on the ground develop the system – identify things they needed from leadership. What can we do to remove barriers. When timing is critical – have to respond quickly. What to do? Need to include CTBOS reps on this chart. Moved far away from looking at performance – monthly outliers. Reporting out but are we looking at? Do we know who our long term folks are? What are we doing to address that? Getting away from that purpose. What’s our performance? How can we improve? Where are we seeing best practices? Right people attending leadership meeting – right people attending ops meeting – needs to be more managerial level – not just leadership – making sure information is being communicated. Program manager/director – more awareness – Should be evaluating performance.  Perhaps regular review of dashboards, etc. would be worthwhile. Quality control mechanism. Group to look at quality control across the board? Being transparent Identify program managers/director who should attend GH CAN Operations – CAN Chart: not sure if you're the right person, but on the chart I noticed that the Indiv Solutions group also should be seeing some of the DMHAS funded programs too, right?  and hopwa matching meeting includes city hopwa funded agencies too Check in with ACT about Learning Management system through DOH – CCEH was looking for consultant to help launch using platform. ACT has license – check with Amber Freeman Statewide meetings: Who sits on statewide meetings? Matt: ·         CAN homeless delivery – RH ·         CAN COVID TF – RH ·         Landlord Engagement/Shared Housing ·         RH Data Workgroup ·         Regional planning for COVID recovery – DEMAS ·         United Way ED meeting/ ESFP advisory board ·         Community Solutions/Zero Inflow – North End of Htfd. ·         COVID-19 response Barbara Shaw ·         Sustainability work group of RH.  ·         Advocacy Strategy work group. ·         Front line provider funding ad hoc work group Reaching Home has list of their meetings Amanda Gordon: ·         Sustainability Work Group ·         Veteran's Workgroup Meeting Crane: CT BOS COC Steering Committee, co-Chair CT HMIS Steering Committee Housing Solutions Committee Steve Bigler: CT Veteran Workgroup (Monthly) - VA and all Community VA providers Lisa Quach - Housing Solutions Committee Joel Cox: Amplify Defining Critical for updates: ·         Changes to system ·         New information/advocacy ·         Resources Fred may be interested in Re-Entry council	Matt Morgan	15 minutes
New Business  Future Agenda Items Communications between meetings Quality Control Adding trainings (ops identifying gaps)	Matt Morgan	5 minutes

Marshall House is currently experiencing some building issues. 

We sustained some water damage following last week’s storm, specifically to the second floor where triage rooms are. We have contractors and insurance adjusters involved to assess the damage; however, given the continuing rain and damage to some rooms, we have moved triage families to a hotel. 

Families in the shelter remain in their rooms as there does not appear to be any damage to that floor; however, we are awaiting an air quality test and until that is done we are not taking in new families.

 

GH CAN Leadership Meeting 7.21.2021

 

GREATER HARTFORD COORDINATED ACCESS NETWORK

LEADERSHIP MEETING AGENDA

Wednesday, July 21, 2021 via Zoom

Next meeting: August 4, 2021

 1PM – 2:15PM

 

1.      Welcome and Introductions – 5 minutes

2. NAEH/ DOH Next Steps to Support Shelters  – 15 minutes
1. Will revisit goals at next month’s meeting in August

a.      Shelter Goals/CAN Overall Goal and needs of shelters/CAN to meet these goals?

-        Standard system that was used in MA was total capacity / 12

-        Would we want to use percentage rather than an actual number?

o   No discussion on what it needed to be, just what is your sense of what the goal should be?

-        Performance driven approach to outcomes – driven by past performance

-        Smartsheets modeled off old model – more aligned with performance driven approach

-        If we housed 100% last year – we would look to house 125% (regardless of the capacity) the coming year

-        What is the time frame we’re looking at? Are we looking to house x amount of people in a certain amount of time. Goal set for the rest of 2021 – check-ins weekly.

-        Structural injustices from these numbers, population changes, decreased numbers may not be very good statistics

-        Monthly goal or by end of the year? – input info on a weekly basis – the ask was a weekly goal

-        Email Matt and Nadine at JH your goal by the end of this week

-        Shelters can develop their own system and then we can look at numbers as a CAN

b.      How do these goals align with previous goals set in past learning collaborative?

c.      Since the learning collaborative meetings, what have been the immediate next steps?

 

3.      Cold Weather Planning/ Shelter Funding Discussion – 25 minutes

a.      Salvation Army has applied but they have not heard anything as of yet, we don’t know who else has applied – check in next time

b.      Lionel Rigler to try and get an update

c.      Programs and ESG / FEMA expenses reviewed

                                                    i.     Nutmeg created hotel covid enrollments – people were inaccurately enrolled in some of them.

                                                   ii.     $153,335 from City of Hartford ESG still needs to be spent – must be used in the city of Hartford

1.      This money could be used to hotel people in the event of another COVID outbreak

2.      Any priority? – hard to say, unsure of Delta variant of COVID, unsure of effect of eviction moratorium

3.      Funds need to be spent on temporary shelter by end of January 2022, could be spent later than January if someone reaches out to HUD to make a case for it.

                                                  iii.     Should be additional funding for those outside of Hartford

                                                  iv.     Family triage has already been subtracted from these numbers already

                                                   v.     Manchester – still determining what to do this winter, would support additional funding

                                                  vi.     Maybe look to some of the other day time supports as a way to reducing day time cost burden – 1^st look at making sure we have enough beds then look at day centers

4.      CCEH Listening Session – 25 minutes

a.      Next legislative session – what would providers like to see reflected in Reaching Home agenda? What are needs and challenges?

b.      Survey is still open https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/6TSNSNR – feedback from survey

                                                    i.     Most helpful advocacy materials

1.      Housing and homelessness talking points

2.      Housing and homelessness data

3.      Data infographics

4.      Op-ed templates

5.      Email templates

6.      Social media postings

                                                   ii.     Challenges

1.      Funding levels

2.      Lack of staff / staff turnover

3.      Landlord unwilling to rent to high-risk clients

4.      Lack of affordable housing

5.      Flat funding from state agencies

6.      Minimum wage increases (contracts have not kept pace with rising costs)

                                                  iii.     What else would you like to share?

1.      Need an influx of funding from state agencies

2.      Housing first now a one fits all approach for everyone

3.      Need funding frontline services providers (livable wage)

4.      Focus on prevention services

5.      Uplift voices of those with lived experience

6.      Lack of affordable housing impedes ability to permanently house

                                                  iv.     What CCEH is hearing

1.      Additional diversion funding

2.      How to get landlords to work with us

3.      Tiny houses

4.      Increase outreach

c.      What else should CCEH know?

                                                    i.     Need more money for staffing

                                                   ii.     Careful about not taking care of all of the components of our response system – educating people about all the things that go into diversion, prevention, outreach, day centers etc. – a portion of our system was funded last time – not enough to impact multiple components of the system.

                                                  iii.     Diversion and RRH

                                                  iv.     Keeping CANs right-sized

                                                   v.     Lack of enough housing stock & creative housing stock solutions

                                                  vi.     How much would it cost to run the system at optimal levels? What was the impact on outcomes when we had additional COVID money?

d.      $300 million from American Rescue Plan left over to spend – letters being worked on to advocate for homelessness system needs

e.      What do you need in order to engage in advocacy better?

                                                    i.     Need more opportunities to engage with statewide advocacy groups

5.      Critical COVID – 19 Agency Updates and ESG Updates – 4 minutes

a.      Salvation Army is 100% back on-site.

6.      Future Agenda Items or Additional Announcements – 1 minute

a.      Add triage to agenda for next meeting, Salvation Army and possibly ImmaCare