Greater Hartford CAN Meeting 6/3/15

GREATER HARTFORD COORDINATED ACCESS NETWORK

MEETING NOTES

WEDNESDAY, June 3^rd, 2015

NEXT MEETING: WEDNESDAY, June 10^th, 1:30 – 3:30 pm

In Attendance: Sandy Barry – Salvation Army Marshall House Janet Bermudez – Hands On Hartford Cordelia Brady – The Open Hearth Aisha Brown – Community Health Resources Crane Cesario – DMHAS Roger Clark – ImmaCare Rebecca Copeland – Community Health Network Stephanie Corbin – Community Health Network Rosa DeJesus – Mercy Housing Dawn Dickenson-Kerr - CRT Fred Faulkner – The Open Hearth Alfredo Echevarria – ImmaCare Louis Gilbert - ImmaCare Amanda Girardin – Journey Home Ruby Givens-Hewitt – My Sisters’ Place Tenesha Grant – Mercy Housing Mollie Greenwood – Journey Home Andrea Hakian – Community Health Resources Amber Higgins – Community Health Resources

Steve MacHattie - ImmaCare LaQuista Harris – VA Brittany King – The Open Hearth Philomena McGee – Community Health Resources Dave Martineau – Mercy Housing Sarah Melquist – MACC Matt Morgan – Journey Home Patrice Moulton – CRT / East Hartford Theresa Nicholson – Chrysalis Center Diane Paige-Blondet – My Sisters’ Place Heather Pilarcik – South Park Inn Patricia Pollicina – Chrysalis Center Yolanda Potter – Mercy Housing Chris Robinson – Chrysalis Center Amy Robinson – CRT SSVF Sarah Simonelli – Chrysalis Center Beth Stafford – MACC Rob Soderberg – Community Health Resources Tamara Womack – My Sisters’ Place

1.      Introductions & GH-CAN Meeting Notes for last week, 5/27/2015 (emailed)

a.      The Greater Hartford CAN was excited to welcome Commissioner Klein and Deputy Commissioner Lundgren from the Department of Housing to our meeting!

2.      100 Day CAN Data Update as of 6/1/15:

Population Housed	During 100 Day Campaign-  3/11/15 – Present
CHRONIC	PSH	45
	Rapid ReHousing	6
	Subtotal	37
NON-CHRONIC	Transitional Housing	65
	Rapid ReHousing	40
	Subtotal	108

3.      Announcements

a.      CT RRH through CHR is no longer accepting new referrals. 

                                                        i.      While CHR and Salvation Army’s Rapid ReHousing programs are unable to accept referrals at this time, any agency who signed the MOU through AIDS CT for Rapid ReHousing is able to access that funding through June 30, 2015.

b.      The 100 Day Campaign Wrap Up will be held on Wednesday, June 24^th, from 12:30-3:00 PM at CRT’s Lumsden Center, 555 Windsor St., Hartford.  We hope to see everyone there!

c.       Zero 2016 Chronic Homeless Veterans Check-In –

                                                        i.      We asked whether any staff were aware of any chronically homeless veterans who were not currently connected to services.  One staff person indicated knowing a homeless veteran, but was not certain about chronic status.  Amy Robinson of SSVF shared her contact information.

                                                      ii.      When we can no longer locate any additional chronically homeless veterans in our region, we need to understand which population is the next highest priority for any housing openings that were originally intended for chronically homeless veterans.  We are currently waiting on additional guidance from DMHAS regarding HUD's determination on this issue.

                                                    iii.      As a reminder, Balance of State received a 183 new housing certificates in the last round of HUD funding.  Chrysalis received a number of those certificates, and currently has 20 that are available for the Balance of State around Hartford.  For any clients that are being referred to this Balance of State Chrysalis program, all referrals must be faxed to Balance of State staff, and must include homeless verification.  Part of the concern is that in the past, PSH units have been provided to clients who were not chronically homeless, and with HUD’s new standards for documentation of chronic homelessness, we need to be able to provide strong verification of homeless status for each client referral.

4.      Greater Hartford CAN Overview since 11/17/14

Achievements	Challenges
1.       53 agencies collaborate; weekly meetings 2.       338 people housed since 11/17 3.       92 scheduled assessment appointments weekly 4.       1,046 assessment appointments since 11/17 5.       Immediate Need Protocol for shelter 6.       24/7 shelter triage 7.       UHA screens eligibility for 37 housing programs 8.       Discretionary funds collected for 100 Day 9.       Identification and prioritization of CH population 10.   Multiple trainings in CAN, UHA, VI-SPDAT 11.   Homeless Document Fair 12.   Sustainability planning for future of CAN	1.       Maintaining up-to-date information 2.       Outreach to disconnected clients 3.       Backlog of scheduled appointments 4.       HMIS upgrade data challenges 5.       RAP inspection delays 6.       Housing clients with zero income 7.       More navigation hours needed 8.       Shelter hopping 9.       Unintended barriers to shelter
Enhancements Needed
Lowering 211 wait times                                                                 SPDAT training Reducing the backlog of CAN appointments                              Diversion Funds Improved pre-screening/diversion before                                 CAN management/ CAN staffing Appointment                                                                     Landlord recruitment/engagement  Navigation training                                                                         Assistance working with Housing Authorities

a.      We discussed with the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner a number of successes we’ve seen in the Greater Hartford CAN over the course of the last year.  We outlined the substantial improvements in collaboration throughout the region, as well as the networking of staff from a variety of agencies each week.  We knew that at least 338 clients had been housed through our programs since the beginning of CAN implementation on 11/17/14.

b.      We mentioned that each Triage Center is a 24 hour resource that costs about $100,000 to operate.

c.       We also outlined our progress in identifying and documenting clients who are chronically homeless in our region.  This has truly been a community effort, involving use of HMIS client records, staff awareness of client homeless history, and information from homeless outreach staff.

d.      We also discussed the widespread use of the VI-SPDAT, our standard assessment tool, as well as our Universal Housing Application, as well as the variety of trainings that have been offered in these tools.

e.      One final achievement noted was the work being done in the 100 Day Campaign, including the availability of flexible funding, and the Homeless Document Fair successes.

f.        We discussed some of the challenges, focusing in on the role of client navigator for our region.  Although some funders have encouraged agencies to be flexible with funding for this position as needed, agencies are struggling to establish this new responsibility of helping clients gather documents and prepare for housing without taking away from other services offered.  CHR announced that they had been awarded funding for one part time navigator in the region, but on the whole we do not have enough staffing allocated to serve this essential role.  As part of CAN implementation, we had to ask existing staff to add the role of Duty Service Coordinator (CAN appointment host) to their responsibilities.  As we have continued to work, we have determined that the role of navigation is also essential, but staff time is stretched very thin already, and we are struggling with adding this responsibility to the role of existing staff. 

g.      We also discussed concerns about shelter funding constraints, and expected funding reductions that will begin with the new Department of Housing shelter contracts on July 1.  The region will be losing a number of shelter beds this summer, which has caused great concern about what everyone will face this winter.  With this shortage of beds, many are concerned about how to implement Cold Weather Protocol. 

h.      We discussed the challenges of identifying and prioritizing our most vulnerable clients, and the added push that has come with the 100 Day Campaign and recognized that there are currently 3 full time Journey Home staff are currently dedicated to CAN implementation for our region. 

i.        In addition, we discussed ongoing concerns related to booked-out appointment dates, and the high no-show rates we have seen associated with these appointments.  We also identified unintended consequences. The system is often a barrier to disconnected unsheltered people, long waits are challenging for all, and clients may not have phones or enough cell phone minutes for the long 211 wait times. As we have created a centralized system for clients to more easily locate an available shelter bed through 211, shelter hopping to find a more desirable bed among limited resources has been an increasing problem that was prevented in the past through inter-shelter communications regarding transfers. One particular case was noted, where a client called 211 from a shelter bed at 10 pm, to say he was banned from the shelter,  in order to get a hotel room that night.  People experiencing homelessness are resourceful.

j.        Other challenges include data sharing difficulties as HMIS shifted from being a closed system to an open database, as well as long wait times for a housing inspection for RAP certificate units.

k.      A final concern that staff expressed was trouble engaging with new landlords as well as trouble engaging with Housing Authorities.  These difficulties in enticing new groups to work with our clients are not new, but they are something we need to continue to improve.  Convincing new parties to work with our programs could benefit landlords and housing authorities, as our staff has extensive experience in landlord mediation and conflict resolution.  Moving forward, we would encourage the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner to help us brainstorm ways that homeless service providers could work with better integration with these outside housing resources. 

l.        Review of the value of total extrapolated CAN costs provided for this unfunded mandate for system change, provided by the participating entities:

                                                        i.      Annual Estimated Cost of GH CAN:

Staffing cost:                     $1,097,255

Fringe cost:                       $263,425

Admin cost:                       $105,370

Management cost:            $360,920

TOTAL COST:                    $1,826,970

5.      The Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner responded to the discussion, and outlined some plans for affordable housing that were already underway at the state level.  Last month 22 new affordable units were constructed, and an additional 2,987 are under construction right now.   The Department of Housing is in the process of both building new affordable housing units, as well as rehabilitating existing units to make them self, desirable places to live.  There are current competitions for development, in which affordable housing, veteran preference housing, and handicap accessible housing are being prioritized. 

a.      The Commissioner committed to checking into the RAP inspection delays.  She also expressed that housing authorities are in a change mode right now, doing redevelopments is a huge process for many areas, and some Housing Authorities are beginning to change their practices.  She’s optimistic that homeless services providers will be better able to foster positive relationships with Housing Authorities in the future. 

b.      The Commissioner mentioned the possibility of some capital funding for improvements to shelters, particularly for family shelters.  There is also more flexible CIA funding that may allow for creative options. . Additionally, she congratulated our region on the work we did around Cold Weather Protocol this past year.

c.       The Commissioner talked about the process for implementing systems change, and commended the hard work our region has done with this huge systems change.

d.      The Deputy Commissioner mentioned that our federal funding amounts have not increased, and that locating new funding is a challenge.  However, the latest version of the state budget does not have all the funding diverted, and there may be some support funds available this winter. 

e.      He also mentioned that legal services is considering issues with housing sex offenders from a statutory perspective, with the hope of ensuring that clients with sex offender records could potentially be facing fewer barriers when searching for a landlord, depending on the severity of the charge.

6.      Housing Referrals

a.      New Referrals

                                                        i.      New referrals were made to Next Steps Manchester as well as Chrysalis BOS CABHI for housing. 

                                                      ii.      The need for a GH CAN subcommittee to develop and recommend a process to integrating into the current priority list was identified. 

b.      We discussed the difficulty in verifying chronic homeless status for clients who are unsheltered, and who are not connected with any homeless outreach staff.  One possibility is to make connections with police departments.  There may be client arrests and convictions available online, but in cases where no arrests have been made, sometimes there are incident reports from police who have encountered clients who are unsheltered.  These incident reports can be obtained from local police departments, and can serve as 3^rd party verification of a homeless episode.

c.       In addition to utilizing police records, Stephanie Corbin of CHN indicated that she can work with staff and clients to look up medical records, which may contain information from clients about time spent unsheltered.  CHN has access to a language line, and so may be able to provide assistance for some of our clients for whom documentation of homeless status is proving difficult.

GH CAN Coordinators:

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

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