Greater Hartford CAN Meeting 10/7/15

Greater Hartford Coordinated Access Network Meeting

Wednesday, October 7^th, 2015

Next Meeting: Wednesday, October 21^st, 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

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

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.