GREATER HARTFORD COORDINATED ACCESS NETWORK
MEETING NOTES
WEDNESDAY, May 20th, 2015
Day 75 Check-In with 100 Day Leadership Team
NEXT MEETING: WEDNESDAY, May 27th, 1:30 –
3:30 pm
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In
Attendance:
Janet
Bermudez – Hands On Hartford
Sharelle
Blatche – Salvation Army Marshall House
Traci
Burdick – Community Health Network
Crane
Cesario – DMHAS
Rebecca
Copeland – CHR
Steve
DiLella – DMHAS
Brenda
Earle – Department of Housing
Bryan
Flint – Cornerstone
Chris
Fortier – The Open Hearth
Sevasti
Galanis – Chrysalis Center
Lou
Gilbert – ImmaCare
Mary
Gillette – Consultant for 100 Day Team
Amanda
Girardin – Journey Home
Mollie
Greenwood – Journey Home
Tenesha
Grant – Mercy Housing
LaQuista
Harris – VA
Eunice
Hernandez – Chrysalis Center
Brittany
King – The Open Hearth
Gerilyn
Maciel – Salvation Army Marshall House
Dave
Martineau – Mercy Housing
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Philomena
McGee – CHR Enfield
Debra
Minzy – Veteran’s Affairs Supportive Housing
Matt
Morgan – Journey Home
Theresa
Nicholson – Chrysalis Center
John
Oliver – Chrysalis Center
Faith
Palmer – City of Hartford
Diane
Paige-Blondet- My Sisters’ Place
Darlene
Perez – My Sisters’ Place
Heather
Pilarcik – South Park Inn
Patricia
Pollicina – Chrysalis Center
Tiana
Purvis – Salvation Army Marshall House
Jamie
Randolph – CHR
Chris
Robinson – Chrysalis Center
Amy
Robinson – CRT
Iris
Ruiz – Interval House
Kathy
Shaw – My Sisters’ Place
Sheena
Stringer – Chrysalis Center
Sandra
Terry – CRT
Sarah
Trench – Journey Home
Jose
Vega – CRT McKinney Shelter
Tamara
Womack – My Sisters’ Place
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1. Introductions & GH-CAN Meeting Notes for last week, 5/13/2015 (emailed)
2. 100 Day Team Update – Day 70
a. Document Fair-
i.
The
group watched a slideshow of photographs from the Document Fair, photography
and slideshow by Jose Vega of McKinney shelter.
As the photos showed, the Document Fair on May 8th was a
beautiful day.
ii.
We
believe we served over 150 individuals that day- some clients took their
Releases of Information with them, so there were 132 clients whose attendance
is confirmed from check-in. There were
approximately 75 volunteers from different agencies, as well as over 40
Chrysalis Center member volunteers on site that day. There were 11 different agency vendors
including the City of Hartford, Department of Public Health, Department of
Correction, Court Support Services Division, Department of Social Services,
Veterans Administration, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Community
Health Network, the Charter Oak Health Center Van, the Department of Motor
Vehicles, and Social Security Administration.
The event was received very positively by all agencies, and many
agencies were eager to offer suggestions of how to improve a future event.
iii.
At
the document fair, 47 Birth Certificate applications were completed, including
28 for the city of Hartford, 8 for Puerto Rico, 8 for other parts of
Connecticut, and several others.
iv.
23
Replacement Social Security Card applications were completed. In addition to these applications, Social
Security assisted with benefit verifications, updates on Social Security
claims, and answering questions.
v.
The
Department of Social Services was busy all day, helping to complete budget
sheets, benefit applications, and providing printouts that could help clients
obtain identification at other stations.
vi.
The
Department of Motor Vehicles estimated speaking to 100 individuals throughout
the day in regards to a new ID, 15-20 clients looking for duplicate IDs, and 10
for renewals. In addition, the DMV is
open to having a special line in the
morning of Thursday, 5/21 to complete photo IDs for clients from the document
fair. The flexible funding from the 100
Day Campaign can cover any costs that day.
We hope that the possibility of having a special line will continue into
the future as an option to help our clients obtain much-needed photo
identification.
vii.
GH
CAN staff and other trained volunteers completed 57 VI-SPDATs on the day of the
fair. In addition, staff helped clients
complete 30 Universal Housing Applications, and a few clinicians were able to
provide several disability determinations throughout the day.
viii.
Participant
feedback was very positive and appreciative, many people were surprised by how
pleased clients were by what got done that day.
The 100 Day Team wants to extend a HUGE thank you to all participants
who made this successful. It really was
a great collaborative effort, based on outcomes there are discussions about
continuing event regularly, perhaps twice a year. Chrysalis Center has expressed that they may
be able to host future document fairs.
b. An ongoing project of the 100 Day
team has been to examine the length of time between a conditional match and
when someone is actually placed in conditional housing. Sometimes this process takes months at a
time, due to a variety of factors including locating and engaging the client,
gathering documentation, completing RAP applications, negotiating with
landlords, having the unit inspected, and a number of other variables.
i.
One
of the barriers to quickly housing clients who have been matched is scheduling
inspections for RAP vouchers. Several
referrals are still pending for clients who were conditionally matched to
housing in February and March. The 100
Day Team has heard that inspections are typically scheduled 4-6 weeks out,
which is a significant amount of time that is being added to the housing
process in some cases. Only one agency
is able to provide these inspections, and we wonder if there may be a way for
leadership to help expedite this inspection process, or if it would be possible
to prioritize inspections for those clients who are literally homeless.
ii.
In
addition to this request, the 100 Day Team asked that if there are any housing
programs whose referrals have been pending for a few months, that leadership
use any influence they have to expedite referrals within their own
program. The 100 Day Priority List was
available for leadership to review.
There are currently 41 different households that are conditionally
matched, but not yet housed that the team asked for leadership to review.
iii.
A
systematic barrier that the 100 Day Team has noticed throughout this housing
process is a shortage of staff to serve as client navigators. Throughout this 100 Day process the GH CAN
has tried to assign a navigator to clients who have been conditionally matched
to housing. The 100 Day team, as well as
staff at other agencies have stepped in to fill this role. The 100 Day team is currently working on a
handbook for navigators to help clarify the role of a navigator, as well as to
outline what is needed to navigate a client from a conditional match to
permanent housing. Other regions of CT
are having similar conversations about navigations. When we started the CAN we figured out who in
the agency was a DSC, we want to ask for that in each agency. We would like each agency to designate TWO
individuals who will serve as navigators, not as a full time position, but as a
component of their duties.
a. We would ask leadership to support
the need of these navigators. We know
what we are asking may be outside the standard roles of your staff. We are hoping to prioritize this coordinated
matching and placement. We would ask
that you support giving your navigators to do that matching legwork between a
match and housing. For providers who
require a record of time spent in various functions, we’re asking that navigation
time not be counted negatively against performance measures.
i.
There were some concerns that people have time very clearly structured
within their agencies, and there is concerned that navigation is not one of the
items included for their time. We’re
asking that if at all possible, agencies use whatever flexibility possible to
include navigation as a component of other positions. Leadership from DMHAS and DOH indicated that
any funding provided through their agencies for staffing would be flexible to
include this role, as needed. This
year’s DOH contracts are already submitted, but if agencies are still seeking
new funds, they should look into any available ESG funding that may be
available through cities.
ii.
Crane will work
with Brenda of Department of Housing to get a list of budget line items that
allow for navigation charges to distribute to all agencies with these funds,
for next year’s application
iii.
We discussed that there are already some staff, including Chrysalis CABHI
staff and some CRT case managers who have been committing time towards client
navigation so far. Additionally, a
number of 100 Day staff have stepped in to fill this role throughout the
campaign.
iv.
Mercy Housing said they would look at available staffing, ImmaCare also
said they would look at how staff could be flexible.
b. Finally, one of the goals we did want
to add was to, as this 100 day period winds down, we want to make sure there
are sustainable processes transitioning back to the whole GH CAN
organization. This process of not only
coordinated access, but coordinated exit is one that the whole CAN needs to be
equally engaged in once the campaign comes to a close. Now that many processes have been
established, we want to consider moving towards meeting every two weeks. The 100 Day team supports this move, and this
switch to bi-weekly meetings would begin following the completion of the 100
days. As the new two week format would
open up staff time every other week, part of what we’re asking is that each
agency designates someone who is committed to being here every two weeks. We know there’s a learning curve to showing
up at this table and picking up on acronyms.
We think having some consistency and having people come to speak about
their agency, housing placements, we want to have folks come to the table
prepared to do that every two weeks. The
team requested that each agency choose at least one person to come to bi-weekly
meetings, and for that person’s attendance to be consistent, as variations in
present staff could delay processes up to a month.
c. A lot is still in process for this
campaign! We are still gathering ID’s
and we are still linking up documents to UHAs since the Document Fair. We have made some serious progress with the
numbers of people housed, and with conditional matches. Adding all of those things up takes us around
88 different people. There has been a
lot done in terms of prioritization and sustainability planning.
2. The leadership team provided some
insight into the inspection process for RAP certificates. RAP inspections are subcontracted by D’Amelia
out to local housing authorities. These
inspections are currently being prioritized for VASH, and because of this
precedent it may be possible to prioritize for the literally homeless as
well. Because inspections are
subcontracted through housing authorities, the process takes different amounts
of time in different regions. While it
has been an added time period for some regions, other parts of our CAN have
seen speedy turnaround times for inspections. Steve DiLella of the Department of Housing and
Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services volunteered to check-in with
their contacts at D’Amelia to see if there was any way to prioritize
inspections.
3. In the next month, the 100 Day Team
is hoping to put together a navigation handbook, including any suggested
time-frames for the CAN housing process.
After this handbook has been created, Journey Home volunteered to help
conduct a navigation training for the region.
4. One staffing suggestion in regards to
navigation was to have a staff person designated to do CAN access tasks, like
completing assessments and helping with 211 calls and the UHA. That staff person could float between
different soup kitchens, to make sure clients aren’t falling through the
cracks.
5. Different agencies discussed the
staff they currently employed who helped with client navigation. Some of the challenges are created by having
staff with multiple duties, who cannot prioritize this role, and some are
caused because staff time is so limited, especially with part time positions.
3.
211 CAN Data Update
a.
We reviewed the 211 statistics page, and
discussed that we are monitoring the distance into the future that appointments
are booked out. Right now, we are still
booking into July. We have asked 211 if
they have the ability to see which clients have already completed a VI-SPDAT,
and will be asking that they do not schedule CAN assessment appointments for
any client who does have a VI-SPDAT.
b.
We are still hearing from providers that
clients are coming to appointments who are not in need of homeless services, or
eligible for any of our programs.
c.
We discussed the efforts Journey Home is making
to track the sum of episodes for all clients.
Because of the HUD prioritization guidance, our CAN should be housing
first those chronically homeless clients with the longest history of
homelessness and high service needs. The
second priority group of people are those chronically homeless clients with the
longest history of homelessness. The
third priority level are those chronically homeless clients with a homeless history
of less than 365 days, but with high service needs, as determined by the
VI-SPDAT. The fourth priority level are
all other chronically homeless households.
i.
Journey Home has been involved with trying to track
the sum of episodes for clients, in order to determine which priority level
they fall into. They have created
timelines for all clients who self-identified as being chronically homeless,
but know that there are many clients whose information sharing restrictions has
made it impossible to view their entire homeless history.
ii.
Going forward, if we need to make referrals out of
the second priority level, we may need to create a form stating that the GH CAN
currently has no more clients who fall into priority 1, and that is why a
housing program has gotten a referral for a priority 2 client.
d. We made a decision
to commit and request for staff to participate in the surge at Soup Kitchens and with outreach staff
during the week of June 1. This is an immediate plan to try to identify more
Tier 1 CH, get documentation for Chronic Maybe’s with VI-SPDAT scores of 10 or
higher, and hopefully reduce the assessment backlog. We still need a long range plan and would
like to continue the discussion and keep it as an agenda item.
4. GH CAN Stats Update – See p. 8
5. Mission Statement Plan
a. We drafted GH CAN Policies and
Procedures last fall, and revised them in the winter. We know that policies and procedures will
continue to evolve as we move forward with coordinated access, but want to work
as a group to determine a mission statement to guide our work moving forward.
6. Zero: 2016
a. Chronic Homeless Veterans Check-In – No staff at the GH CAN meeting knew of any homeless
veterans who were not currently engaged in services.
b. For programs that serve chronically
homeless veterans, if we as a CAN are unable to locate chronically homeless
veterans, what is the next population that should be served? Should the CAN prioritize chronically
homeless non-veterans, or non-chronic veterans?
We are hoping to receive guidance on this issue in the next month.
7. Vocabulary for Zero:2016
Instead of “Take Down Target” or “Housing Placement Rate”,
the GH CAN has elected to use “Housing Connections Rate” to measure the number
of people that we need to house monthly to hit functional zero.
8.
Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner of the Department
of Housing will be attending our June 3rd GH CAN meeting.
a.
The
Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner are visiting all the CAN meetings
throughout the state to hear about progress and challenges with the GH
CAN. This is an opportunity for us to
present all the changes we have been able to implement in the past year, as
well as indicate all the potential improvements we could make.
9.
Assessment Concern/SPDAT
a.
The creator of the VI-SPDAT, Iain DeJong, presented
at the ATI last week. When questioned
about how to appropriately handle a VI-SPDAT that isn’t truly reflecting a
client’s needs, he said the best way is to use the full SPDAT.
b.
It is important to marry intellect and
compassion when assessing client needs, but to override the score without
implementing a standard tool could be a slippery slope. We do not currently have staff trained in the
SPDAT, but that could be a resource we look for in the future.
10. Housing Referrals
a. Review Pending Referrals
i.
We
reviewed the status on 49 previously made referrals through the GH CAN.
b. New Referrals – we made a number of
new referrals, but also discussed further how to handle reporting on taking
clients out of priority level 2, if we can not find any more priority level 1
clients. Many staff believe that there
are other priority 1 level clients on the “chronic maybe” list, or believe that
some priority 2 clients are underreporting their needs on the VI-SPDAT.
c. Rapid Rehousing Referrals – Journey
Home will be submitting clients from priority levels 3 and 4 with the
appropriate VI-SPDAT scores to CT Rapid ReHousing in the hopes of accessing a
different housing resource for these lower needs clients.
11.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
a.
Section 8 Housing WaitList opened
GH CAN Coordinators:
Matt Morgan,
Journey Home matt.morgan@journeyhomect.org
Crane W Cesario,
CRMHC – DMHAS crane.cesario@ct.gov
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Greater Hartford
Coordinated Access Network Statistics
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Updated as of May 19th,
2015
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Changes from last week
have been bolded
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Topic
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Data
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Comments
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Coordinated Entry
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Total Number of GH CAN Assessment Appointments Per Week
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89
|
|
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Total Number of Hours at Drop In Centers
|
15 Hours per week
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6 hrs at
Chrysalis Center Thurs.
3 hours at
CHR Manchester on Thurs
3 hours at
Hands on Hartford
3 hours at
Center Church
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|
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No-Show Rate for March, 2015
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65%
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557
Appointments Scheduled for March
194
Appointments Completed
35%
Attendance to appointments
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|
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No-Show Rate for April, 2015
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71%
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29%
Attendance to appointments
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|
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Next Available Appointment
Slot: Individual Men
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7/21/15
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Booking out 0 days further since last week
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|
|
Next Available Appointment
Slot: Individual Women
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7/22/15
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Booking out 16 days further since last week
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Next Available Appointment
Slot: Families
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7/23/15
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Booking out 21 days further since last week
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Total Number of CA HMIS Data
System Modifications
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304
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That is 22 additional cases to resolve compared to
last week.
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Coordinated Exit
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Total Number of New Available
Housing Units Reported to GH CAN this week
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0
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As a reminder, all units must be submitted through
the Housing Availability Report: http://goo.gl/forms/j5iWZBqKVR
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Housing Units Awaiting
Referrals
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Up to 16
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Shelter Plus Care, Next Steps Enfield, Chrysalis
BOS, Mercy RAP, ImmaCare RAP
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|
|
Total Number of Available Housing Units Reported through GH CAN in
2015
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84
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Available
Units have been reported in the following programs: MSP TLP, CRT PSH, CRT
Project Teach, Chrysalis Veteran’s Support, Chrysalis Family Matters, Mercy
DMHAS RAP, CRT Bloomfield Scattered
Site, Mercy St. Elizabeth, Shelter Plus Care, Chrysalis Project HEARRT 20,
Chrysalis BOS
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|
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Total Number of Available Housing Units expected for 100 Days Team
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92
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These are
from a variety of programs. Some units are available immediately, others in
the next few months.
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|
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Total Number of Rapid
Re-Housing Referrals this week
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0
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Salvation Army Marshall House’s two
Rapid Re-Housing programs are temporarily closed.
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|
|
100 Day Campaign
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Total Number of Clients on
Prioritized List
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136
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This list is comprised of clients who have a
length of time homeless that could classify them as chronically homeless.
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On Prioritized List, number of
clients with UHA
|
62
|
|
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On Prioritized List, number of
clients with a navigator
|
37
|
This number is all of the clients who are not yet
housed, but who have a navigator assigned.
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|
|
On Prioritized List, number of
clients conditionally matched
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41
|
|
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On Prioritized List, number of
clients housed
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32
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28 were housed through GH CAN programs
4 obtained independent housing
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|
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Clients housed through RRH or
Transitional Housing during the 100 Day Campaign
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94
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With the exception of 1 client housed through CT
RRH, we do not believe any of these clients are chronically homeless.
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Households enrolled in non PSH Housing Programs
since the beginning of GH CAN:
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Rapid ReHousing Programs 11/17/14-3/10/15
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Households Enrolled
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|
Chrysalis Center - DoH ESG
RRH STATE Funds (Short Term)
|
1
|
|
City of Hartford ESG Program
(HP)
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1
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|
Community Health Resources
DSS RRH Region 4
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17
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CRT - DoH ESG RRH STATE Funds
(Short Term)
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7
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CRT - SSVF-RAPID REHOUSING
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19
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Salvation Army MH - Greater
Hartford Rapid ReHousing Program
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13
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Veterans
Inc.-SSVF-CT502-Hartford-RRH
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2
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Grand
Total
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60
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Transitional Housing Programs 11/17/14- 3/10/15
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Households Enrolled
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CRT - Supportive Housing
Collaborative (TH)
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9
|
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CRT- Veterans Crossings(THP)
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4
|
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House of Bread - Transitional
Program (THP)
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3
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|
Mercy Housing and Shelter -
Catherine's Place (THP) (SW)
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9
|
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Mercy Housing and Shelter St.
Elizabeth - 2 Year Clients(SMF)(DSS) (TLP)
|
11
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Mercy Housing and Shelter-
St. Elizabeth House WOMEN'S PROGRAM- 90 Day
(SF) (DMHAS) (TLP)
|
6
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My Sister's Place -
Transitional Living Program (THP)
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5
|
|
Open Hearth Association -
Transitional Living Program (THP)
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13
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South Park Inn - Transitional
(THP)
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18
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Grand
Total
|
78
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Households enrolled in non PSH Housing Programs in
the 100 Day Campaign:
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Rapid ReHousing Programs 3/11/15- Present
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Households Enrolled
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|
Community Health Resources
DSS RRH Region 4
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9
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CRT - DoH ESG RRH STATE Funds
(Short Term)
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4
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CRT - SSVF-RAPID REHOUSING
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22
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Salvation Army MH - Greater
Hartford Rapid ReHousing Program (RRH)
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2
|
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Veterans
Inc.-SSVF-CT502-Hartford-RRH 1
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1
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YWCA Of The Hartford Region
(THP) 1
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1
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Grand
Total
|
39
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Transitional Housing Programs 3/11/15- Present
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Households Enrolled
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|
CRT - Supportive Housing
Collaborative (TH)
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2
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House of Bread - Transitional
Program (THP)
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5
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Mercy Housing and Shelter -
Catherine's Place (THP) (SW)
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6
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Mercy Housing and Shelter St.
Elizabeth - 2 Year Clients(SMF)(DSS) (TLP)
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9
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Mercy Housing and Shelter-
St. Elizabeth House WOMEN'S PROGRAM- 90 Day
(SF) (DMHAS) (TLP)
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7
|
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Open Hearth Association -
Transitional Living Program (THP)
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13
|
|
South Park Inn - Transitional
(THP)
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12
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YWCA Of The Hartford Region
(THP)
|
1
|
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Grand
Total
|
55
|
Number
of Days booked out for Assessment Appointments
Greater
Hartford Coordinated Access Network
(updated
5/20/15)
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