Greater Hartford CAN Meeting 9/23/15

Greater Hartford Coordinated Access Network

Meeting Notes

Wednesday September 23, 2015

Next meeting: Wednesday October 7, 2015

In Attendance: Brian Baker – South Park Inn Janet Bermudez – Hands On Hartford Latisha Birchett - CHR Cordelia Brady – The Open Hearth Crane Cesario – DMHAS / Hartford COC Marcel Cicero – CRT / East Hartford Shelter Roger Clark – ImmaCare Rebecca Copeland – CHR Supportive Housing Catherine D’amato - CRT Rosa DeJesus – Mercy Housing and Shelter Corp Anna Ebora – Journey Home Lynette Gibson – My Sisters’ Place Amanda Girardin – Journey Home Ruby Givens – Hewitt – My Sisters’ Place Tenesha Grant – Mercy Housing and Shelter Corp Mollie Greenwood – Journey Home

Nathalie Guzman – Salvation Army Marshall House Andrea Hakian – CHR Brittany King – The Open Hearth Steve MacHattie – ImmaCare Philomena McGee – CHR Matt Morgan – Journey Home Yolanda Ortiz – CRT SSVF Malika Nelson – CHR Theresa Nicholson – Chrysalis Center Heather Pilarcik – South Park Inn Jamie Randolph – CHR Chris Robinson – Chrysalis Center Amy Robinson – CRT / SSVF Sarah Simonelli – Chrysalis Center Rob Soderberg – CHR Sandra Terry – CRT Jose Vega – McKinney

1.      Introductions

2.      Registry week

a.      This week is the big push to have every client experiencing homelessness assessed with a VI-SPDAT by October 1^st and to make sure every paper VI-SPDAT is accounted for, which means all paper VI-SPDATs need to be entered into HMIS as soon as possible.

b.      There will be a list of everyone who has completed a VI-SPDAT uploaded on HMIS including all assessments faxed in by shelters, and this list will be updated each day of registry week.  GH CAN leadership and other essential shelter leadership will receive an email each morning when the updated list is posted.

c.       Shelters gave updates on how many people they had assessed and were trying to assess- due to high turnover in some of the larger shelters, it may not be possible to capture everyone in shelter this week on our VI-SPDAT registry.

d.      It is possible to do a VI-SPDAT over the phone but it is important to stick with your gut on certain questions. The VISPDAT does have a manual for over the phone observation, but generally it’s better to do the assessment in person.

e.      As a reminder, VI-SPDATs should only be completed with clients who are literally homeless.

3.      Housing referrals

a.      Rapid Rehousing – CHR’s Long Term Rapid ReHousing program is officially open, and has just been notified that they can accept referrals from the City of Hartford.  However, due to the short time the program has to house people, it will be essential that all clients are document-ready prior to beginning their program.

b.      My Sister’s Place, Mary Seymour Place

                                                              i.      Mary Seymour takes in single individuals who are chronically homeless, and have been sober for a year.

c.       Priority List

                                                              i.      Amanda Girardin explained some of the different statuses currently used to organize our registry.

1.      A client is considered active is they are currently homeless and MIA if they haven’t been heard from in four months to a year.

2.      After a year, they are considered inactive.

3.      A client is placed on the On hold list if they have been temporarily incarcerated or cannot obtain documents. The notes column will clarify their situation.

4.      The goal is to assign everyone in our CAN a status.

                                                            ii.      We discussed the process of switching certificates for inside or outside of Hartford due to the challenges some programs have faced in trying to find landlords in the suburbs who will work with our clients.

                                                          iii.      As a reminder, any clients on the lifetime sex offender registry are not eligible for a RAP certificate.

                                                           iv.      We discussed the possibility of using Rapid ReHousing as a bridge for clients when they are no permanent supportive housing program openings – in this way, people could be rapidly housed rather than just waiting for a different program to open up.

1.      This would present challenges, however, in case the client failed out of Rapid ReHousing, if they were not the highest priority household for the next Permanent Supportive Housing unit, they may return to homelessness which is not a desirable situation.  Because openings in PSH are limited, it would also depend on when a certificate became available that could be used in the city where they were rapidly rehoused.

                                                             v.      We discussed how many extensions different types of housing programs could request, and whether the GH CAN had a policy on how many units a client could deny.  At this point, the GH CAN does not have a unified policy, though specific programs may have their own policies at this time.

                                                           vi.      We discussed the number of people housed through the GH CAN, that information is available in the updates page below.

4.      There is a meeting for transitional housing coming up, with a date to be determined, so please check your emails. 

a.      As we continue moving forward with the CAN process, it is important that any TLP providers are working through the GH CAN to ensure that chronically homeless individuals are not being placed in transitional housing programs, which may cost them an opportunity at permanent supportive housing.

5.      Announcements

a.      We submitted suggestions to 211 regarding the language that they use for clients who are already in shelter, to try and discourage churning.

b.      Dinner in the Park will be held Oct. 3 at Bushnell Park, and is open to any food-insecure households.

c.       Hands On Hartford is looking to hire one part-time employee at MANNA, Community Meals on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesday.  For more information, please contact Janet Bermudez, 860-726-1528, jbermudez@handsonhartford.org

d.      CHR brought up a family situation in which the family of a man, a woman, and the woman’s three children living in a car. DCF has been contacted though only one person has actually laid eyes on the 3 children. Kids are repeatedly mysteriously missing. Supposedly they are not document ready because their documents are in storage. This is a challenging situation, and CHR will continue to update us on the status of this household.  If the children truly are not with either head of household, they will not be eligible for any family openings in permanent supportive housing.