Greater Hartford CAN Meeting 12/3/14

GREATER HARTFORD COORDINATED ACCESS NETWORK

MEETING NOTES

WEDNESDAY, December 3, 2014

NEXT MEETING: WEDNESDAY, December 10, 1:30 – 3:30 pm

 In Attendance:

Rubi Alegria- Mercy Housing

Sandy Barry – Salvation Army Marshall House

Steve Bigler – CRT

Crane Cesario – DMHAS

Roger Clark – ImmaCare

Fred Faulkner – The Open Hearth

Bryan Flint – Cornerstone

Rosemary Flowers- My Sisters’ Place

Tenesha Grant – Mercy Housing

Mollie Greenwood – Journey Home

Kat Hannah – The Open Hearth

Mark Jenkins – Blue Hills Civic Association

Steve MacHattie – ImmaCare

Dalila May – Interval House

Matt Morgan – Journey Home

Theresa Nicholson- Chrysalis Center

 Pieter Njissen – Tri-Town Shelter

Veronica Nixon – My Sisters’ Place

Heather Pilarcik – South Park Inn

Lionel Rigler – City of Hartford

Amy Robinson – CRT

Iris Ruiz – Interval House

Barbara Shaw – Hands On Hartford

Kathy Shaw – My Sisters’ Place

Sarah Trench – Journey Home

Jose Vega – McKinney Shelter

Dan Walsh – Veteran’s Inc.

Tamara Womack – My Sisters’ Place

David Eppner – Veteran’s Inc.

Philomena McGee – CHR

Clarissa Garcia - ImmaCare

1.      Introductions & GH-CAN Meeting Notes for last week, 11/19/2014 (emailed)

2.      Updates:

a.      Assessment Appointment Scheduling Update- Need to evaluate our 7 day time-frame

                                                              i.      Currently the GH CAN is scheduling appointments more than 33 business days in the future.  When we first started with CAN, we had a mission of scheduling appointments for people who were 14 days away from literal homelessness.  In light of long delays, other regions had between the initial 211 call and the date of the appointment, we decided to only schedule assessment appointments for people who were 7 days or less away from literal homelessness.  Even using our shorter time-frame, we are already facing large delays between the date of the initial 211 call and the date of assessment. 

                                                            ii.      We discussed a particular case in which a client made an appointment to come to the CAN when she was more than 14 days away from literal homelessness.  The client was living in Puerto Rico with family and was not homeless there, but insisted on relocating to Greater Hartford, even though this appointment could not guarantee shelter space for her.  The Greater Hartford CAN is responsible for serving all clients who choose to be in our CAN, but we need to figure out how to stop people from relocating to Hartford solely to access services they may not need in another region.

                                                          iii.      We also discussed a case in which a family was in a DCF-paid hotel room right now.  They have a CAN appointment scheduled, and we determined that we did not need to refer them to a shelter in order to work with them, and that if the household seemed eligible and prioritized for Rapid ReHousing, we should expedite that process as much as possible. 

                                                           iv.      We discussed a few scheduling glitches including sites not having all of their appointment slots filled.  Journey Home will follow up with 211 to try and clarify any scheduling confusion.

                                                             v.      Appointments are not consistently taking 80 minutes at each site, but the length of the appointment often depends on the client.  We discussed shortening appointment times, but decided to leave them at 80 minutes for now because different client times varied significantly.

                                                           vi.      OUTCOME: Ultimately we determined that to meet the high demand for appointments and to lessen the time between the client’s initial 211 call and the assessment, sites are now allowed to host interim assessment appointments.  In cases where assessment location staff have time available to meet with a client whose assessment is days or weeks away, the staff may complete the GH CAN Release of Information, the diversion tool, the VI-SPDAT, and the GH-CAN HMIS intake.  If staff are going to host an interim assessment appointment, they must call 211 afterwards and tell them that the client has been assessed, and no longer needs their scheduled appointment date. 

                                                         vii.      Many sites have reported high no-show rates for their appointments.  Journey Home will contact 211 to investigate what the rates of no-shows are across the GH-CAN.

                                                       viii.      One final question we had on the issue of booking out assessments is that perhaps the language that housing specialists have been using with clients has occasionally been unclear to the clients.  We agreed as a group that we would be interested to see what language is being used on the 211 level.

b.      Rapid Rehousing Program Comparison Chart- From now on, we are asking that all assessors whose client is eligible for a Rapid Rehousing program refer the client directly to the program at the time of assessment.  A handout was provided with information about how to refer eligible clients to appropriate RRH programs.

                                                              i.      Due to the fast-moving nature of Rapid ReHousing, the different Rapid ReHousing providers have chosen to have clients referred directly to programs at the time of assessment.  If someone scores in the appropriate range of the VI-SPDAT at an assessment appointment and meets the other eligibility criteria outlined in the chart we passed out, the assessor should immediately call or email the appropriate RRH staff and provide them with client ID, zip code of last permanent residence, and date of birth, so that the RRH staff can review and contact the client immediately.

                                                            ii.      Because the DOH MOU funding did not come with any service dollars, the MOU agencies are only able to serve current shelter guests with their funding, and so should only be referred to those programs if the clients are current shelter guests.

                                                          iii.      The CT Rapid ReHousing program completely cleared its waitlist, and is currently able to accept applications.

c.       VI-SPDAT Training- Tuesday, January 6 from 1-4 PM at United Way of Greater New Haven, 370 James Street, New Haven.  You must register on www.cceh.org in advance to attend this training.

                                                              i.      If any staff in your agency has completed the VI-SPDAT training, they should be able to train other staff in your agency on the correct utilization of the tool.

d.      VI-SPDAT – Discussion needed: should be completed at shelter intake if person is not literally homeless at time of assessment appointment.

                                                              i.      After conversations with other regions, the Greater Hartford CAN has decided to recommend not completing a VI-SPDAT with a client who is not literally homeless.  If a client has been staying doubled up, or in hotels they pay for themselves, or has not yet had to leave their housing, they are not literally homeless.  Only literally homeless clients should be given a VI-SPDAT assessment.

                                                            ii.      For clients who are not literally homeless at assessment, during the HMIS CAN Intake staff should put a 0 for VI-SPDAT score and then make a case note indicating that the client was not literally homeless.  If a client becomes literally homeless after the assessment (ie, stays in a shelter) it is then the responsibility of the shelter staff to conduct a VI-SPDAT assessment with the client. 

3.      Working Groups:

a.      Duty Services Coordinators:

                                                              i.      Questions, concerns, or feedback on the system so far?

1.      A question was raised about how we would handle a situation where no beds are available in the region.  We determined that currently we have enough beds to meet all the need we have seen in Greater Hartford for individual men.  However, shelters also indicated that they thought their numbers seemed lower this year than in the past for this season, and wondered if it was a result of the new 211 system creating a barrier to some seeking shelter.

2.      Clients who want to access the No-Freeze shelter will need to call 211 to access the shelter, but can come inside prior to making the phone call to ensure all clients are being kept safe as much as possible.

3.      We discussed the definition of being literally homeless.  To be literally homeless, the client must have spent the previous night on the streets, in a shelter, or staying somewhere unfit for human habitation.  Doubled-up does not count as literally homeless, and status is based on where they stayed the night before.  So if a client presents for an appointment and was staying with an uncle last night, they are not literally homeless yet, and should not do the VI-SPDAT.   If a client later goes to shelter and is literally homeless, shelter staff can administer the VI-SPDAT at that point.  Additionally, clients must be literally homeless to qualify for any of our CAN’s Rapid ReHousing programs.

                                                            ii.      Additional Shelter Info

1.      Shelters filled in a chart indicating if there was any additional information clients should know before coming to shelter (such as how many bags they were permitted to bring into the shelter, room style, etc).

                                                          iii.      No-Shows- What do you do when no client presents?

1.      Shelter staff indicated that there is certainly no shortage of work, and when a client no-shows, they continue working on other projects. 

2.      We discussed how we handed lateness- some agencies have a cut-off time, and so clients who show up after that cut-off time will not be served.  Across the board, all agencies indicated they could be flexible up to a half hour in terms of lateness.  In cases where clients present too late to have their appointment, they are asked to reschedule.  It hasn’t been problematic yet.

                                                           iv.      Upcoming holiday staff availability:  Please update Mollie immediately if you will be unavailable for Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve.

1.      Most staff had already indicated their holiday availability.  There had been a couple of appointments mistakenly scheduled on a date that an assessment site was unavailable, so Journey Home will connect with 211 to troubleshoot this issue.

2.      We then discussed snow, and what our protocol should be in cases of a snow-storm barring staff from being available for an appointment. 

a.      Although shelters will be open during a storm, in many cases case management staff will not be available in a major weather emergency, and so appointments will not be feasible, even if shelters are open to clients.

b.      After some discussion, it was decided that if a staff person is unable to be present for a scheduled appointment time, it is the responsibility of that agency to informally re-schedule with the client, and find an alternate time for an appointment.  If a storm is forecast and staff has adequate time to try and reschedule, they should attempt to contact the client and let them know that in case of a major storm, the appointment will be rescheduled for as soon as possible. 

b.      Housing Referral Group:

                                                              i.      The group discussed the regularity with which they need to meet- they determined that they would need to meet every week, and people who sit on both the oversight and housing group may need to be flexible.

                                                            ii.      Housing Availability Report

1.      This form will be emailed out by Journey Home, and should be used to report any availabilities for programs.   By filling out this form, we will be able to create the list across the CAN of all available units week by week.

2.      Unfortunately, we do not yet have the Universal Housing Application upgrade, and cannot yet create the prioritized lists of clients for the Housing Referral Group.  Until the upgrade is completed, we can look at the UHA waitlists program by program.

                                                          iii.      Verify who will report openings for each program- all persons present in the Housing Referral Group filled in the names of the staff person who would be the Housing Placement Coordinator for each housing program.

                                                           iv.      If people complete an Assessment Score Concern form- how will we handle this procedure at HRG meetings?

1.      We discussed whether people should have their priorities raised on the list, but right now we don’t know how it’s going to look.  The HRG will look at the Housing Availability Report, check openings, look at people at the top of the unified referral list, and see if they’re document ready. 

a.      One suggestion to help with document readiness is to utilize a group called Retired Person Volunteers to assist with document readiness.

                                                             v.      Transitional Housing Priorities- Providers need to figure out how they will prioritize.

1.      Transitional Housing providers will be meeting next week, December 10, after the CAN meeting to discuss prioritization, and how to more quickly get people into available transitional beds.

                                                           vi.      Rapid Rehousing Group- Review Google Doc for referrals

1.      The Google Document for Rapid Rehousing will be distributed to the Rapid Rehousing program contacts for review.

                                                         vii.      Please continue to send documents that are required by clients for entry into housing programs to Sarah Trench at sarah.trench@journeyhomect.org

c.       Core Review Group- How will we proceed with referrals to this group moving forward?

d.      Oversight Group- How will we hold programs accountable and track data?

4.      Future Meetings- Oversight Group, Core Review Group, Housing Referral Group, Duty Services Coordinators all need a time to meet- some people sit on multiple committees.

a.      Mollie will send around the current group compositions.  If you would like to add yourself, or another member of your staff to a group, please let her know.

5.      ANNOUNCEMENTS

a.      We will be meeting in a different location next week.  Our next meeting will be held at 237 Hamilton St., Hartford.  The meeting will take place in the My Sisters' Place Administrative offices on the second floor. 

b.      Interval House reminded the group that as a DV shelter they were not completing VI-SPDATs or UHAs with clients.  Additionally, they recently had a client show up on their door, which is a safety problem because their address should not be distributed publicly.  If you need to refer a client to DV services, utilize the DV hotline, but do not send them to the shelter’s location!

c.       José Vega thanked everyone who attended the World AIDS Day Vigil on Monday.

d.      Mollie reminded the group that there was a Program Profile being circulated for all the housing programs in the Greater Hartford CAN (PSH, TH, and RRH).   Please complete this profile as soon as possible!

GH CAN Coordinators:

Matt Morgan, Journey Home  matt.morgan@journeyhomect.org 

Crane W Cesario, CRMHC – DMHAS   crane.cesario@ct.gov