Greater Hartford CAN Meeting 3/3/15

GREATER HARTFORD COORDINATED ACCESS NETWORK

MEETING NOTES

WEDNESDAY, March 4th, 2015

NEXT MEETING: WEDNESDAY, March 11th, 1:30 – 3:30 pm

In Attendance: Brian Baker – South Park Inn Shannon Baldassario – MACC Sandy Barry – Salvation Army Marshall House Aisha Brown – CHR Enfield Crane Cesario – DMHAS Roger Clark – ImmaCare Fred Faulkner – The Open Hearth Clarissa Garcia – ImmaCare Tenesha Grant – Mercy Housing Mollie Greenwood – Journey Home Amber Higgins – CHR Mark Jenkins – Blue Hills Civic Association Matt Morgan – Journey Home Veronica Nixon – My Sisters’ Place John Oliver – Chrysalis Center Heather Pilarcik – South Park Inn

Patricia Pollicina – Chrysalis Center Lisa Portal – Columbus House Jamie Randolph – CRT / East Hartford Shelter Chris Robinson – Chrysalis Center Amy Robinson – Chrysalis Center Sara Salomons – CRT Kathy Shaw – My Sisters’ Place Rob Soderberg – CHR 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 Gwendolyn Williams – Department of Social Services Winsome Harvey – Department of Social Services Lindsay Polhemus – Salvation Army Marshall House

1.      Introductions & GH-CAN Meeting Notes for last week, 2/25/2015 (emailed)

2.      Updates:

a.      GH CAN Updates – See p. 2

                                                              i.      Staff from the Department of Social Services were present for the meeting, and had questions regarding a client of theirs who was trying to find housing.  After calling 211, the client was referred to McKinney.  Due to physical limitations the client was unable to stay at McKinney and ended up spending the night in the hospital.

                                                            ii.      Staff from DSS also had questions about why their client could not be placed directly in one of Mercy Housing’s openings that are prioritized for clients 62 or older.  We reviewed the prioritization guidance that we have adopted as a community which indicates that we will prioritize the chronically homeless for those housing spots.  Shelters and Permanent Housing Programs in Connecticut all have their own policies and must adhere to the restrictions created by funders. 

                                                          iii.      After discussing what we think an acceptable call-wait time is with 211, the GH CAN decided that between 5-15 minutes was acceptable- any longer was not appropriate.

b.      Cold Weather Protocol – What has changed since last week’s discussion?

                                                              i.      After discussing the problems with clients taking advantage of 211 staff, we discussed that it may be more effective for clients to be transferred directly to triage staff. 

c.       HUD Updates – Coordinated Entry Policy Brief, placement of transgender clients in single-sex shelters.

                                                              i.      Journey Home will email these HUD updates to the GH CAN as soon as possible.

d.      CABHI Updates- Staff have hosted 5 days of drop-in appointments so far.

                                                              i.      After some scheduling problems with 211, staff have been seeing clients very regularly on Tuesdays and Thursdays. 

3.      Working Groups:

a.      Duty Services Coordinators:

                                                              i.      We revisited the Missing Pieces list- shelter staff identified clients that they knew were housed, as well as clients that they could help assess with a VI-SPDAT and UHA

                                                            ii.      We started discussing what happens when someone fails out of a GH CAN housing program- in terms of their spot on the unified referral list will they need to be reassessed?

                                                          iii.      An exciting announcement- a client that was very difficult to shelter is supposed to be housed through CHR Rapid ReHousing in the coming days.

b.      Housing Referral Group:

                                                              i.      Journey Home would still like to receive hard-copy VI-SPDATs.

                                                            ii.      We reviewed HUD guidance on prioritization for units dedicated for chronically homeless households, as well as units prioritized for non-chronically homeless households. 

                                                          iii.       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

4.      ANNOUNCEMENTS

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	15 Hours per week	12 at Chrysalis Center Tues and Thurs 3 at CHR Manchester on Thurs More coming soon- Hands on Hartford and Center Church
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	1	CRT Bloomfield Scattered Site
Total Number of Rapid ReHousing Referrals this week	2
Total Number of CA HMIS Data Quality Issues in GH CAN	172	That is 95 fewer issues than last week!
Next Available Appointment Slot: Individual Men	6/11/15	Booking out 3 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