Greater Hartford CAN Meeting 2/25/15

GREATER HARTFORD COORDINATED ACCESS NETWORK

MEETING NOTES

WEDNESDAY, February 25th, 2015

NEXT MEETING: WEDNESDAY, March 4th, 1:30 – 3:30 pm

In Attendance: Shannon Baldassario – MACC Sandy Barry – Salvation Army Marshall House Aisha Brown – CHR Enfield Crane Cesario – DMHAS Roger Clark – ImmaCare Bryan Dixon – InterCommunity Fred Faulkner – The Open Hearth Bryan Flint – Cornerstone Clarissa Garcia – ImmaCare Mary Gillette – Mercy Housing Amanda Girardin – Journey Home Ruby Givens-Hewitt – Salvation Army Marshall House Mollie Greenwood – Journey Home Andrea Hakian – CHR Amber Higgins – CHR Steve MacHattie – ImmaCare

Dalila May – Interval House Matt Morgan – Journey Home Pieter Nijssen – Tri-Town Shelter Roxan Noble – Chrysalis Center John Oliver – Chrysalis Center Heather Pilarcik – South Park Inn Patricia Pollicina – Chrysalis Center Jamie Randolph – CRT / East Hartford Shelter Chris Robinson – Chrysalis Center Sheena Stringer – Chrysalis Center Sandra Terry – CRT Sarah Trench – Journey Home Jose Vega – McKinney Shelter Josephine Wilson – Salvation Army Marshall House Tamara Womack – My Sisters’ Place Sevasti Galanis – Chrysalis Center Eunice Hernandez – Chrysalis Center

1.      Introductions & GH-CAN Meeting Notes for last week, 2/18/2015 (emailed)

2.      Updates:

a.      Triage Center Updates – Feedback on the system now, and how to improve communication

                                                              i.      211 has been tracking the number of clients that they have place in hotels as part of Severe Cold Weather Activation.  This number of clients in hotels has been steadily increasing for the last couple of weeks, and they are alarmed by this trend.  The highest volume continues to be from Hartford.  On the back page of the handout are shelter utilization rates.  Some shelters are over 100% capacity, but others are under 100% capacity.  The concern is that 211 should not be placing clients in hotels when we have availability in our regional shelters.  It looks like there is a bottle neck at the triage sites.

                                                            ii.      South Park Inn indicated that they have had overall a good experience with both triage points, and that there is constant communication throughout the day.  South Park Inn staff will take referrals throughout the day, but the challenge is that after curfew, many of the beds they were holding are no-shows.  East Hartford shelter indicated they were facing similar concerns with no-shows at curfew leading to underutilization.

                                                          iii.      MACC shelter indicated that they will often hold a bed for the night, expecting someone to come back.  That leads to their shelter showing inaccurately higher utilization than they always have.

                                                           iv.      Clients have started to hear the message that hotel beds are available after 10 PM if you call 211.  This is due to the funding that 211 has during Cold Weather Activation, however since this word has gotten out on the street, people who have shelter beds have been trying to leave shelter beds and get to these hotel spots. 

                                                             v.      Some shelters, especially larger ones, have indicated increases in client turnover rates.  In the past, because clients had to call directly from shelter to shelter, staff at a second shelter would tell a client that if they already have a bed, they cannot leave it for a new shelter.  211 is not telling clients that they will not have a bed if they leave an available bed, which we think is increasing the ease with which people are shelter hopping- this shelter hopping is leading to high turnover, and shelters having un-filled beds that they had expected to fill.

                                                           vi.      Additionally, many beds are being filled for people who have said they are coming, but they show up very late or not at all.

1.      Decision: Triage staff will now tell clients what time they must arrive to shelter.  If clients don’t arrive to shelter at the indicated time, their bed will not be held.  Shelters will stay in communication with triage throughout the night to update who has beds available and who does not. 

b.      GH CAN Updates – See p. 3

c.       CABHI Updates- Staff have hosted 3 days of drop-in appointments so far.

                                                              i.      CABHI staff saw very high volume at their drop in times so far.  CABHI staff have been completing a VI-SPDAT, CAN appointment, and Universal Housing Application with all clients who arrive for the drop-in times. 

                                                            ii.      CABHI staff asked if there were any other things they should be helping with when they see clients at drop-in time, we suggested possibly assisting people to complete Safelink phone applications at the time as well.

d.      PIT Debrief – Feedback on this year, and suggestions for next year.

                                                              i.      We located some clients out of doors, including people staying at the airport.  Our unsheltered numbers are lower than some other areas of the state because we operate overflow shelters rather than warming centers.  Warming centers count all clients on PIT night as unsheltered, whereas our clients staying in overflow shelters are considered sheltered.

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. 

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

                                                          iii.      Feedback for the system, suggested modifications – people have continued to have difficulty with the Google document.  All sites are encouraged to update the document as frequently as feasible, but also to recognize that DSC staff and triage staff may continue to call sites even if it appears a shelter has updated recently.  In this cold weather, all shelters are under enormous pressure to fill their spots and not leave people outside, and so staff have been doing their best to make sure all beds are filled by calling around often.

b.      Housing Referral Group:

                                                              i.      Moving forward, it will be very important for clients to complete a Universal Housing Application, as this will screen for most of the housing programs in the region.  CABHI staff have agreed to try and contact people who appear high priority based on their CAN appointment, but who have not yet completed a UHA.

                                                            ii.      Mercy Housing has 10 available housing spots.  Journey Home has identified the top 10-12 people on our Master List for discussion.  Because two of Mercy’s spots must go to clients 62 or older, we are having a little trouble because none of our highest priority clients fit that description.

                                                          iii.      Revisiting old referrals- what is the status of referrals made in earlier HRG meetings?

1.      Some referrals have led to a housing match, but not all.  In cases where referrals did not appear to be working, Amanda has been in communication with the agencies to try and provide new referrals.

2.      We’re finding that our population seems to be a lot of low-scoring chronic individuals, which makes prioritizing more difficult.

                                                           iv.       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

GH CAN Coordinators:

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

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

Greater Hartford Coordinated Access Network Updates
As of February 24, 2015
Topic	Data	Comments
Total Number of GH CAN Assessment Appointments Per Week	90 Scheduled Appointment Slots
Total Number of Hours at Drop In Centers	12 Hours per week	At Chrysalis Center with CABHI staff.  Number of appointments varies based on number of staff completing appointments.
Total CA HMIS-Trained Staff in GH CAN	74	52 were trained in our original training, at least 22 additional staff were trained in the February trainings.
Total Number of Available Housing Units Reported to GH CAN	10	Units for Mercy Housing: DMHAS RAP
Total Number of Rapid ReHousing Referrals this week	2
Total Number of CA HMIS Data Quality Issues in GH CAN	267	267 Data Quality Issues out of more than 1,500 appointments scheduled.
Next Available Appointment Slot: Individual Men	6/8/15	Booking out 12 days further since last week
Next Available Appointment Slot: Individual Women	5/20/15	Booking out 0 days further since last week
Next Available Appointment Slot: Families	5/25/15	Booking out 0 days further since last week