GREATER HARTFORD COORDINATED ACCESS NETWORK
MEETING NOTES
WEDNESDAY, May 6th, 2015
NEXT MEETING: WEDNESDAY, May 13th, 1:30 –
3:30 pm
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In Attendance:
Rubi Alegria – Mercy Housing
Janet Bermudez- Hands On Hartford
Aisha Brown – CHR
Crane Cesario – DMHAS
Roger Clark – ImmaCare
Rebecca Copeland – CHR
Stephanie Corbin – CHR
Bryan Dixon – InterCommunity
Fred Faulkner – The Open Hearth
Chris Fortier – The Open Hearth
Nate Fox – Center Church
Sevasti Galanis – Chrysalis Center
Amanda Girardin – Journey Home
Tenesha Grant – Mercy Housing
Mollie Greenwood – Journey Home
LaQuista Harris – VA
Eunice Hernandez- Chrysalis Center
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Amber Higgins - CHR
Matt Morgan – Journey Home
Gerilyn Maciel – Salvation Army Marshall House
Veronica Nixon – My Sisters’ Place
John Oliver – Chrysalis Center
Heather Pilarcik – South Park Inn
Patricia Pollicina – Chrysalis Center
Tiana Purvis – Salvation Army Marshall House
Chris Robinson – Chrysalis Center
Amy Robinson – CRT SSVF
Iris Ruiz – Interval House
Kathy Shaw – CHR
Sarah Simonelli – Chrysalis Center
Rob Soderberg – CHR
Sandra Terry – CRT
Sarah Trench – Journey Home
Jose Vega – CRT McKinney
Tamara Womack – My Sisters’ Place
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1. Introductions & GH-CAN Meeting Notes for last week, 4/29/2014 (emailed)
2. GH CAN Stats Update – See p. 2
a. We are booking out a little less for
individual women now. One question has
come up- would any other agencies be willing to move to double-booking for your
appointments?
b. Over the past couple of weeks, the
rate at which we were booking into the future for upcoming GH CAN appointments
had slowed. As the dates continue to
book out further, some sites are considering whether they would be able to
switch to double-booking. We are
currently scheduling into July.
3. Updates: Journey Home –
a. The Universal Housing Application has
been changed, and all of the questions from the Vulnerability Index have been
removed. We hope that this will make the
UHA a shorter process, and will limit some question repetition between the UHA
and the VI-SPDAT.
b. Additionally, today JH purchased 24
mattresses, anyone who is requesting furniture, subtract the mattress cost,
because this is now something we can pay for.
The mattresses come with bedbug covers.
i.
They
have been purchased from Bob’s, and they’re handling mattress delivery and storage. As we get people into housing and leased up,
Bob’s will make that delivery.
4. 100 Day Team Update –
a. The highly anticipated Homeless
Document Fair will be held this Friday, May 8th, at Chrysalis
Center. We are expecting wonderful
weather for the event, and we have a lot of people signed up to volunteer. We are hoping to have volunteers arrive by
8:30 on Friday morning, and are expecting a full-day event, running until 3:00
PM. Please tell clients about this
event, and let them know there will be pick-up provided from the south green in
Hartford.
b. The CT BOS Continuum of Care new
funding grant agreement with HUD was signed on Monday. There are 20 units outside of Hartford (in
Balance of State COC Communities) for the Greater Hartford CAN.
i.
This
means we need to get 20 or more people document-ready as soon as possible, to
try and streamline entry into these new units.
Journey Home will work on getting that new program eligibility into the
Universal Housing Application as soon as possible.
5. CAN Self-Assessment – Can we move to bi-weekly meetings by the end of the 100 Day
Campaign?
a. In the past year of weekly CAN
meetings, we have spent a lot of staff time in weekly meetings. Moving forward, after the 100 Day Campaign,
we hope to shift to bi-weekly meetings.
There will be issues that may need to be address more frequently, and so
we will need to consider how to structure communication between meetings.
b. We also wanted to self-assess, what
is working at these meetings, and what could be modified.
c. One thing the 100 Day team wants to
look at after the 100 day team is figuring out the steps between assigning a
navigator. Hopefully that gives some
guidance, but two weeks is a large time-gap when we are trying to track client
engagement as a community.
i.
One
suggestion was to have a weekly conference call for navigators. This would allow us to check in with
navigation staff weekly.
ii.
If
anyone has additional ideas on how we can better structure the GH CAN meetings
moving forward, please contact mollie.greenwood@journeyhomect.org.
d. Please note, today we distributed
some workflows that show the different steps between it takes from being
determined as eligible for a program and actually moving into an apartment. These workflows show all the different
nuanced steps between when a client is matched with a housing program before
they can actually move-in.
6. HMIS Release of Information – Modifications at the statewide level
a. In the past, HMIS was a closed system,
and you could only see records for clients who were connected with your
program. HMIS is now an open system, so
one staff person can enter a client, and then staff at another agency can see
it. This option is especially helpful
for clients who are shelter-hopping, or seeking services at a number of
agencies. What we’re realizing is that we have not updated the HMIS Release of
Information to reflect an open system.
b. Statewide providers have been very
conscious about making sure clients have informed consent. Clients have the option to share data, or
not. It’s all in or all out. As a community, we’re saying, “We are going
to enter your data into HMIS in hopes of finding your best option, or we’re not
putting it in”.
c. Another option for clients who do not
want to enter their data is for programs to enter them anonymously so that
providers are still able to track outcomes for each client, and share those
outcomes with funders.
d. If anyone has further questions about
these HMIS Release changes, feel free to contact Crane.Cesario@ct.gov
7. Inclusion/Outreach - Unsheltered
List
a. Mercy has
helped get some of those unsheltered clients complete UHAs and VI-SPDATs which
has been really helpful. In order to
make sure that we are serving those who are unsheltered, any help that soup
kitchens and outreach staff can provide would be really helpful!
b. We are
continuing to work with airport staff at Bradley for clients who have been
staying at the airport. The team that
has committed to meeting to discuss airport efforts will schedule a meeting
soon.
c. Any
outreach workers who know of people who are staying outside can complete a GH
CAN Release of Information with that client, and could then bring the case up
for discussion with the CAN.
8. Chronic Homeless Veterans Update
a. Last week we discussed this, but Matt
wanted to make sure that at the statewide level they’re working with different
agencies, the VA sends info, they believe every chronically homeless veteran is
engaged and in the process of obtaining housing.
b. CT Heroes, after reviewing
information from a number of sources statewide, believe that all chronically
homeless veterans are currently engaged with services and are on the path to
housing. They have asked regional CANs
to connect with their service providers and see whether anyone knew of
chronically homeless veterans that they did not believe were engaged in
services.
i.
Two
GH CAN staff thought they might know of a chronically homeless veteran who is
not currently connected to services- they will be referring these clients to
the VA.
9. “Housing….Rate” Vocabulary for Zero:2016
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“Take Down Target”, “Housing Placement” ? ? “Housing
Matching”, “Housing Referral”
a. We need to figure out the language
we’re going to use for the Zero:2016 campaign.
The goal is to end Veteran Homelessness by 2015 and Chronic Homelessness
by 2016. They’re using the words “takedown target” for how many people we try
to get housed each month. We don’t
necessarily believe that any of the above phrases express our housing goals
correctly, so the group brainstormed other possible language. Housing connections rate, key housing
connections, lease-up rate, and key connections were all suggested phrases. We tabled this conversation and will commit
to a phrase next meeting.
10. Trainings – A number of GH CAN staff
announced trainings that could be set up.
a. Iris Ruiz expressed that her site may
be able to connect interested staff with training on how to take down an active
shooter
b. At the COC meeting yesterday,
Michelle Bickling, LCSW from the Self-Injury Awareness Network attended to
share information on trainings that they would be able to provide for
interested providers. The same guest is
also the Executive Director of the Multicultural Leadership Institute, based in
New Haven. They offer workshops on
cultural competency. If anyone is
interested in setting up workshops with either group, they can contact Crane.Cesario@ct.gov and she can connect
you.
c. Shawn Lang of CT AIDS is planning give
a training to the GH CAN on NARCON overdoses at some point in July.
d. The Commissioner and Deputy
Commissioner of the Department of Housing will be attending the GH CAN meeting
on June 3rd at 1:30. They
want to visit each CAN across the state to hear the good progress that has been
taking place.
11. Mission Statement Exercise – This exercise was postponed until next week due to time
constraints.
Example: Coordinated Access Network (Coordinated Entry
System) streamlines the process of finding housing for those who are chronically homeless – with
the goal of housing the most vulnerable people first
Definition Example: Standardized access, assessment, and referral
process for housing and other services across agencies in a community
12. Housing Referrals – New referrals, as well as any updates on previous referrals.
a. Pink and orange highlighted rows indicate clients who are housed.
Please note that the people included on this weekly
to-review-for-housing-connection white list are also the people on the
color-striped pages.
i.
Housing
programs have continued to have difficulty getting connected to some of the
clients who were referred. One
suggestion to improve this situation is to create a sheet with contact
information for the navigators in the CAN, so that if clients that we are
looking for present at soup kitchens, staff there can help connect them to
navigators.
ii.
Another
concern that was discussed is the fact that many programs have taken a number
of clients without income. Grant programs
are limited in the number of clients without income that they are able to
serve, and is a situation we will continue to examine as we move forward in the
housing match process.
iii.
Many
HUD and other grants are funded with the expectation that the program cannot
house every recipient at 100% of rent amount.
The funding is based on Fair Market Rent values, with the expectation
that participants will contribute a Tenant Portion (TP) of rent, and the
program supports the remainder with the Housing Assistance Portion (HAP). The Available HAP is reduced by any security
deposits or damages that may be paid from the funds. Especially in smaller grants, it is critical
to manage the financial component and not exhaust the funds prior to meeting
the grant performance obligations. This
is why there will be limits on the number of zero-income participants in any
given grant.
iv.
Another
expectation is that HUD funded Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) programs are
only intended to serve Chronically Homeless households. Included in the definition of Chronic is a
disability, and the expectation that some type of benefit (and/or income) has
been or will be obtained. Of course, a
person’s abilities vary with time.
Hopefully we can work to assist our most vulnerable to apply for and
obtain available resources to help them with their needs. Review- referrals
made:
v.
One
referral was made for CRT’s Project Teach Permanent, and four were made for
CHR’s Next Steps Enfield program. One
additional referral was made to DMHAS’s Shelter Plus Care, and one additional
referral was made to CHR’s Next Steps Manchester.
13.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
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 5th,
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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There are 89 scheduled slots each week, as St.
Elizabeth will no longer be holding appointments.
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Total Number of Hours at Drop In Centers
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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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No-Show Rate 11/17/14 – 3/30/15
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75%
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1752
Appointments Scheduled in Nov – Mar
435
Appointments Completed Nov – Mar
25%
Attendance to appointments
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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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Next Available Appointment
Slot: Individual Men
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7/7/15
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Booking out 7 days further since last week
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Next Available Appointment
Slot: Individual Women
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7/1/15
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Booking out 2 days further since last week
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Next Available Appointment
Slot: Families
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7/1/15
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Booking out 2 days further since last week
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Total Number of CA HMIS Data
System Modifications
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308
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That is 35 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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4
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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 9
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Project Teach Permanent, Project Teach
Transitional, Next Steps Manchester, Shelter Plus Care, Next Steps Enfield
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Total Number of Available Housing Units Reported through GH CAN in
2015
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64
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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
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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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Total Number of Rapid
Re-Housing Referrals this week
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5
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100 Day Campaign
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Total Number of Clients on
Prioritized List
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110
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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
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54
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On Prioritized List, number of
clients with a navigator
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40
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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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31
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On Prioritized List, number of
clients housed
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22
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19 were housed through GH CAN programs
3 obtained independent housing
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