Greater Hartford CAN Meeting 2/18/15

GREATER HARTFORD COORDINATED ACCESS NETWORK

MEETING NOTES

WEDNESDAY, February 18th, 2015

                          NEXT MEETING: WEDNESDAY, February 25th, 1:30 – 3:30 pm

In Attendance: Sandy Barry – Salvation Army Marshall House Steve Bigler – CRT Crane Cesario – DMHAS Roger Clark – ImmaCare Fred Faulkner – The Open Hearth Rosemary Flowers – My Sisters’ Place Chelsea Fortson – CHR Amanda Girardin – Journey Home Ruby Givens-Hewitt – Salvation Army Marshall House Maria Gomes – Mercy Housing Mollie Greenwood – Journey Home Andrea Hakian – CHR Amber Higgins – CHR Steve MacHattie - ImmaCare

Philomena McGee- CHR Enfield Matt Morgan – Journey Home Theresa Nicholson – Chrysalis Center Pieter Nijssen – Tri-Town Shelter Roxan Noble – YWCA / Chrysalis Center John Oliver – Chrysalis Center Heather Pilarcik – South Park Inn Chris Robinson – Chrysalis Center Amy Robinson – CRT SSVF Rob Soderberg – CHR Sheena Stringer – Chrysalis Center Sarah Trench – Journey Home Josephine Wilson – Salvation Army Marshall house Tamara Womack – My Sisters’ Place

1.      Introductions & GH-CAN Meeting Notes for last week, 2/11/2015 (emailed)

a.      Please note, the agenda distributed at the meeting was dated incorrectly.  The agenda was dated February 11^th, and should have been February 18^th. 

2.      Updates:

a.      PIT Update – Sheltered PIT will be 2/18 from 7-11 PM, unsheltered PIT will be 2/19 proposed time of 5-7 AM.  Need to discuss if this will be our timeframe for unsheltered PIT.   PIT participants will be asked to complete a VI-SPDAT, as well as a document readiness checklist.  Everyone who chooses to complete the document readiness survey as a part of the census can receive a $5 gift card to CVS, to incentivize participation in the survey process.

                                                              i.      We are sending volunteers to assist at 7 of the 10 shelters in our region, and training for the PIT volunteers will take place at 5:30 PM at the Lumsden Center at CRT, 555 Windsor St., Hartford.

                                                            ii.      In addition to the sheltered PIT, we have 5 teams in Hartford doing outreach for unsheltered PIT, as well as 3 teams outside of the city.  Every area has received the survey forms, outreach packages, and maps of their outreach area, block by block.  Please bring your own flashlight for this unsheltered count.

                                                          iii.      Following this year’s PIT census, we should debrief how we can improve the process for the future.

b.      Assessment Appointment Schedule – Currently booked out until 5/27 for individual men, out till 5/20 for women and 5/25 for families.

                                                              i.      In Greater Hartford we’re still seeing about a 75% no-show rate for assessment appointments.

                                                            ii.      Chrysalis’s new CABHI staff hosted their first drop-in day on Tuesday, were able to meet with a handful of clients.  Moving forward, they will have drop in hours Tuesday and Thursday, 9-3.  In addition, CABHI staff will be going through the list of upcoming appointments, calling the clients to see them sooner, and trying to manage some of our volume of scheduled appointments.

                                                          iii.      Center Church and Hands on Hartford have also expressed interest in operating drop-in centers for CAN appointments, and will be starting up in a couple of weeks.

c.       CABHI Updates- Staff have received training, started hosting appointments.

d.      Statewide Cold Weather Protocols- Please see attached p. 2-3

                                                              i.      Protocols for each region of the state were distributed to the group.

                                                            ii.      We also revisited some of the challenging cases we had discussed previously.  One client whose medical limitations prevented her from staying at many shelters was accepted for Rapid ReHousing, and last week one shelter was able to accommodate.  However, after violating several shelter policies she was discharged.  She continues to work with Rapid ReHousing, and was placed in a hotel by 211 using DOH funding.

                                                          iii.      We also discussed two clients who have been staying at the airport, who were recently placed in a hotel by a church’s funding.  They have been accessing homeless services for a long time and are known by the community, but are difficult to engage. 

e.      Disability and Homeless Verification Forms – Please see attached disability verification form (p. 4-5), homeless verification form (p. 6-10), and homeless verification documentation guidance (p. 11-12).

                                                              i.      This summer on 7/28/14,  HUD put out new regulations on documentation requirements. Statewide Shelter Plus Care had modified forms finalized on 7/7/14.  Otherwise In the past, every agency has used their own forms for verification.  Now that we are operating as a coordinated network, we need common community-wide forms.   We are working to finalize the necessary forms and they will be distributed electronically soon.

3.      Working Groups:

a.      Duty Services Coordinators:

                                                              i.      When hosting an appointment, please make sure that you use the 211 client ID to process the referral. 

1.      Please remind all staff that when they are completing CAN appointments they should always process the GH CAN referral using the HMIS number associated with the 211 referral.

                                                            ii.      Rapid ReHousing Referrals- Moving forward, please make all referrals for Rapid ReHousing through the survey here: http://goo.gl/forms/HPa3W0vkca

                                                          iii.      We discussed a client who contacted CHR for their Rapid ReHousing program.  The client indicated that he had not yet met with a case manager at his shelter, and was waiting for his appointment to be referred to a Rapid ReHousing program.  We discussed the problem that many clients in our shelters right now have assessment dates far in the future.  Unfortunately, shelter staff are not always able to accommodate an interim CAN appointment, and in some cases shelter staff is not the staff hosting appointments.  Because all of our programs operate differently and continue to maintain their own policies, it is not yet possible for all current shelter clients to complete an interim CAN appointment before their scheduled date.

                                                           iv.      CABHI staff shared a couple of difficult cases they encountered on their first day of drop-in appointments.  One client was not yet literally homeless, but would be soon, and was pregnant.  The recommendation for that client was to call 211 on the first day that she was in need of immediate shelter.   Another case was a large family, and no shelter currently had the space to accommodate them.  They were assessed, and because shelter could not be located, referred back to 211.  We believe they will be placed in a hotel by 211 again.

                                                             v.      We discussed that clients have recently been calling back to their assessment locations after appointments are completed- and often directed to management staff, rather than the case managers who hold the appointments.  The appointment is not a guarantee of longer term case management.  Journey Home will investigate with 211 and see what may have started these calls.

                                                           vi.      Finally, we discussed the resource gap in this system.  Shelter and housing staff have already been stretched thin, and so while all staff have been extremely flexible, the reality is that the unfunded mandate is taking a toll on staff.  We started to discuss resources that agencies would want to see in the future, particularly staffing who could be dedicated completely to hosting these assessment appointments in the future.

b.      Housing Referral Group:

                                                              i.      This morning Mercy Housing informed us of 10 new upcoming slots for Permanent Supportive Housing.  After entering all the VI-SPDAT information tonight we may have more information to help guide our referral process.

                                                            ii.      Two weeks ago we referred 5 people to Project TEACH.  They could find all of the referrals and were able to take 2.  One of the two are referred back to JH, were able to obtain some missing documentation.  Referral to a different CRT PSH program is in the process. 

                                                          iii.      Chrysalis staff found a Project HEARRT referral from the list of people who were missing either a VI-SPDAT or UHA- Chrysalis had been thinking of that list as a referral list.

                                                           iv.      Last week we had discussed reporting outcomes of clients once they have been matched with housing.

1.      Housing Outcome Forms – Please update these new forms to help us track the outcome of a housing match through GH CAN.  Available here: http://goo.gl/forms/yaaux0M27Y

2.      The group determined that we needed to add a field for agency at the beginning, as well as another field to add the lease date. 

GH CAN Coordinators:

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

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