Greater Hartford Coordinated Access Network Meeting
Wednesday, October 7th, 2015
Next Meeting: Wednesday, October 21st, 2015
In Attendance:
Janet Bermudez – Hands On Hartford
Suzan Bibisi – Tabor House
Latisha Birchett – CHR Enfield
Cordelia Brady – The Open Hearth
Aisha Brown – CHR
Traci Burdick – CHN
Marcel Cicero – CRT / East Hartford Shelter
Roger Clark – ImmaCare
Rebecca Copeland – CHR
Stephanie Corbin – CHN
Rosa DeJesus – Mercy Housing
Kayan Dewar – CRT East Hartford Shelter
Anna Ebora – Journey Home
Jacqueline Farmer – Veterans’ Inc.
Lynette Gibson – My Sisters’ Place
Amanda Girardin – Journey Home
Ruby Givens-Hewitt – My Sisters’ Place
Tenesha Grant – Mercy Housing
Tomiko Grant – Salvation Army Marshall House
Mollie Greenwood – Journey Home
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Andrea Hakian – CHR
Amber Higgins – CHR Rapid ReHousing
Mercedes Johnson – Interval House
Aaron Jones – VA
Steve MacHattie – ImmaCare
Helen McLavin – The Connection
Philomena McGee- CHR Enfield
Jazmin Mitchell – CHR Manchester
Matt Morgan – Journey Home
Roxan Noble – YWCA/ Chrysalis Center
Yolanda Ortiz – CRT SSVF
Heather Pilarcik – South Park Inn
Patricia Pollicina – Chrysalis Center
Jamie Randolph – CHR Rapid ReHousing
Michelle Simon – Catholic Charities
Sarah Simonelli – Chrysalis Center
Rob Soderberg – CHR
Sandra Terry – CRT
Jose Vega – McKinney
Anne Ventimiglia – The Connection
Tamara Womack – My Sisters’ Place
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1.
Introductions
a.
We owe a big thanks to our friends at CHR Manchester for
letting us know that today is Andrea Hakian’s birthday- happy birthday, Andrea!
2.
Housing Referrals
a.
In order to ensure that we had enough time to really focus
on housing referrals, we started the meeting with new referrals and a review of
pending referrals.
b.
Three new individuals were reported as housed at this
meeting- one through CRT’s Project TEACH TLP and two through Chrysalis’s CABHI
Balance of State program.
c.
Out of three clients who had been housed independently since
the 100 day campaign, two clients have returned to the homeless services
system, and appear on our current prioritized list.
d.
For family referrals, there are two 3-bedroom apartments in
Manchester S+C and one 2-bedroom apartment at My Sister’s Place.
i.
One of the family referral clients had been on a rapid
rehousing program but may have lost her job on purpose. According to the CAN
notes, her apartment was going to be condemned but this has been confirmed as
untrue.
ii.
Another family referral client has all her documents on the
Universal Housing Application and works for the school system.
e.
CHR staff updated us on a family who had been working with
Rapid ReHousing staff. Some of their
children have been taken by a biological parent to another state, and they are
no longer eligible for family services.
f.
Philomena of CHR Enfield brought up a specific case of a
client being afraid to enter housing after such a long time being homeless, and
asked whether staff had suggestions on how to engage him.
g.
Rapid ReHousing Document Ready Checklist
i.
Because Rapid ReHousing programs only have a 30 day timeframe
to work with clients to obtain housing, all clients should be document ready at
the point of referral. Amber Higgins, of
CHR, distributed a handout to help staff understand what documents were
required at the point of referral to long term Rapid ReHousing.
ii.
The rapid rehousing program in Manchester is now taking
referrals and they will take people from Hartford. They must be document ready
and be single person with a VI-SPDAT
score of 6-9.
h.
Pending Referrals – The GH CAN reviewed all pending
referrals, and agency staff provided updates on all active referrals.
i.
FUSE list – CCEH was able to provide a secure list of all
FUSE eligible candidates to Journey Home prior to this GH CAN meeting. Based on the information in that FUSE list,
there were 30 clients who were identified as FUSE eligible who are also on the
GH CAN Priority list. Theresa Nicholson
of Chrysalis will try to determine whether it is possible to prioritize
chronically homeless individuals on the FUSE list for enrollment in the
program.
3.
Registry Week
a.
After a huge push from a number of different providers, the
Greater Hartford CAN had a very successful registry week, with more than 200
VI-SPDATs entered into HMIS over the course of the week. We presented some of the data collected over
the course of the week, attached at the end of these ntoes.
b.
Following registry week, 100 CAN appointments have been
cancelled after checking for active VI-SPDATs. There are still 565 upcoming appointments.
c.
When should I-SPDAT be completed? Best practice is after two
weeks according to the State CAN.
d.
The registry list will be updated on a weekly basis by
Mollie of Journey Home, and the updated list will be housed in HMIS. For information on how to access this list,
please contact mollie.greenwood@journeyhomect.org
4.
Due Diligence
a.
Following decisions made in other parts of the state,
Journey Home proposed introducing a due diligence policy for housing providers,
to make sure that all providers are attempting to contact clients in a number
of different ways before indicating that they were unable to contact the
client.
b.
Because, particularly with PSH, we are now trying to serve
some of the most vulnerable clients, many do not have phones, and some do not
stay in shelters. Because of this, we
hope that housing providers will be
willing to try a couple different methods of outreach to clients before
returning a referral to the GH CAN.
Suggestions of other ways to reach clients include contacting regional
soup kitchens and outreach workers to see if the client has been locating, and
checking multiple databases to try and identify a phone number for the client.
c.
The group voted to accept the new due diligence protocols,
and decided that as many different methods of outreach should be used for every
client referred to a housing program.
Now, whenever a provider completes a Housing Outcome form to update the
status of a referral, they will be prompted to indicate which methods they used
to contact the client.
5.
Zero 2016 Summit
a.
The summit will be on 10/28/2015 at Hartford Public Library
from 9:30-4. We have selected
representatives from many GH CAN agencies for the Zero: 2016 CAN team, and are
optimistic that the day will bring a lot of opportunity to brainstorm.
b.
From 9-11, the leadership of any and all GH CAN agencies
should plan to attend.
c.
Anyone who is planning to attend should RSVP to Mollie
Greenwood at mollie.greenwood@journeyhomect.org
6.
Announcements
a.
There are openings in the 2 day CAN/UHA training offered by
Journey Home for 10/15 and 10/16. Send Mollie an email if interested.
b.
“Safe Shelter and Fair Housing for Transgender Individuals”
training from CCEH will be coming to Manchester on 11/10 from 1-3. Look out for
an email from CCEH.
c.
CAN Leadership will have next meeting on 11/3 right before
Hartford COC meeting.
d.
Helen from The Connection in Bridgeport announced that there
are eleven spots open at Winter Grove in Southington. The place will go easy on
criminal records and credit score but will not accept sex offender. Utilities
are included. They will accept open DCF cases for supportive housing for
families. Referrals need Balance of State form, disability verification form,
and homeless verification.
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