Greater Hartford - Coordinated
Access Network
Meeting Notes
January 7, 2015
In Attendance:
Sandy Barry – Salvation Army Marshall House
Steve Bigler – CRT
Crane Cesario – DMHAS
Roger Clark – ImmaCare
Bryan Dixon – InterCommunity
Willem Donahue – Journey Home
Fred Faulkner – The Open Hearth
Bryan Flint – Cornerstone Shelter
Clarissa Garcia – ImmaCare
Mary Gillette – Mercy Housing
Amanda Girardin – Journey Home
Ruby Givens-Hewitt – Salvation Army Marshall House
Tenesha Grant – Mercy Housing
Mollie Greenwood – Journey Home
Andrea Hakian – CHR
Amber Higgins – CHR
Mark Jenkins – Blue Hills Civic Association
Donna Larcen – Charter Oak Cultural Center
Steve MacHattie- ImmaCare
Dalila May – Interval House
Asra Mir – CHR
Matt Morgan – Journey Home
Theresa Nicholson – Chrysalis Center
Philip O’Brien – Chrysalis Center
John Oliver – Chrysalis Center
Heather Pilarcik – South Park Inn
Patricia Pollicina – Chrysalis Center
Linda Prout – Charter Oak Cultural Center
Jamie Randolph – CRT East Hartford Shelter
Lionel Rigler – City of Hartford
Amy Robinson – CRT SSVF
Christopher Robinson – Chrysalis Center
Iris Ruis – Interval House
Sara Salomons – CRT/ Hartford COC
Sheena Stringer – Chrysalis Center
Jose Vega – McKinney Shelter
Josephine Wilson – Salvation Army Marshall House
Tamara Womack – My Sisters’ Place
1. Introductions & GH-CAN Meeting Notes for last week, 12/31/2014
(emailed and attached)
2. Updates:
a. Assessment Appointment Schedule – Currently booked out until March 25th.
i.
Although
this is still booking very far away from the date of the phone call, the rate
at which we are booking out has slowed.
Since last week, we have only booked out one additional week.
b. CA Data Quality Updates- DQ updates will be distributed to each site.
i.
Congratulations
to My Sisters’ Place and South Park Inn on having totally clean CA HMIS data
this week!
c. CAN HMIS Training – Available training slots will be posted January 12th.
i.
In
our last round of training, we did not know how many slots were available, and
so did not prioritize training DSCs, and people who will conduct assessment
appointments. Whatever slots are
available this time around will need to be prioritized for GH CAN staff who
plan to host assessment appointments.
Until further training slots are available, we will need to continue to
rely on assessment site staff who have already received training to assist with
CA HMIS data entry. If you are
interested in receiving this training, please contact Mollie Greenwood at mollie.greenwood@journeyhomect.org.
d. HMIS Downtime due to New Haven Conversion – HMIS will be down from Friday 1/16
until Wednesday 1/21.
i.
Nutmeg
purposefully chose this weekend to conduct the conversion because Monday, 1/19
is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and many staff may not be in the office that
day.
e. CABHI Update-
New Chrysalis Staff coming on board.
i.
Chrysalis
Center has just received new staff through a Cooperative Agreement to Benefit
Homeless Individuals (CABHI Program).
The goals of the program are to provide service-rich critical time
intervention to homeless clients, and work closely with those clients for 9
months. There are no subsidies attached
to this program, only services, and all clients need to come through the CAN,
be singles, and be chronically homeless.
The goal is to serve 40 people in the first year of the program, and 52
people in the following two years. The
program will include housing case management, peer support specialists,
employment services, and SOAR. As soon as
these staff are able to be trained in CA HMIS they will also be available to
help with GH CAN assessment appointments.
f.
Airport Trip- Updates from Monday’s trip to
Bradley.
i.
On
Monday, January 5th, 12 people from the GH CAN went up to Bradley
Airport to see how many people were staying up there, and what kind of services
they needed. We encountered 12 homeless
persons. A few shelter staff were able
to bring up food, hats, gloves, bus passes, and comfort kits (soap toothpaste
& toothbrush etc). Tony Mack from
ImmaCare drove up their van so they could bring people to shelter- three people
came back to shelter. We assisted people
in calling 211. We heard that there are
a lot of people coming up on the 11:46 bus, and they are leaving on the 7:46
bus. The airport will be a part of our
out-of-doors PIT count.
ii.
In
advance of this trip, Crane has been working with state police and airport
administration. The airport is trying to
implement a new no-trespassing policy, and has asked crane for guidance. So far, their implementation varies based on
which staff are working, and they have a couple of posters hanging up that are
about the new policy.
g. 211 and Cold Weather Protocol
i.
At
yesterday’s COC meeting, the issue of wait times to call 211 was
discussed. Unfortunately, we are still
hearing reports of extremely long wait times, and will need to start collecting
information about how long calls are taking at each site, so that we can better
advocate for the challenges in our region.
All sites should do their best to start documenting every long call at
their site, and send that information to Journey Home as a central data
collection location. A call log draft
will be sent out by Journey Home after today’s meeting.
ii.
Cold
Weather Protocol has been instituted statewide.
There has been a statewide announcement that shelters can let people in
prior to making the 211 call.
iii.
East
Hartford Shelter reported that when clients call 211 during Cold Weather
Activation, there is an option to immediately press 5 if you are in need of
shelter.
h. VI-SPDAT Master List- In preparation for PIT, we want to develop a community-wide master list
of scores
i.
As
part of the 100 day campaign and part of the PIT count, we have put together a
data subcommittee. Our CAN does not have
all client VI-SPDAT scores in one place.
Some scores are in the UHA, some are in CA HMIS, some are hard-copies,
stored at shelters. What we need is a
master excel sheet. We are asking for
all sites with hard-copy VI-SPDATs that have not been entered into CA HMIS to
either make copies, or let a Journey Home staff person make copies. This master list will help us determine who
still needs to be VI-SPDATed on PIT count night, to avoid re-traumatizing
clients. The list will also help us
during our 100 Day Rapid results Campaign.
i.
PIT Update and PIT maps – Review maps to determine locations
for unsheltered count
i.
We
hung maps on the wall, and asked that people use post-it notes to indicate if
there was an area on the map where they knew unsheltered people were likely to
stay.
ii.
If
you are interested in volunteering for the PIT count, please contact Willem.Donahue@JourneyHomeCT.org.
iii.
Additionally,
as part of registry, we are hoping to have clients fill out a
document-readiness checklist, to help us figure out what documentation they
need. Incentives will be provided to any
client who is willing to complete this checklist during registry (which will
happen immediately following the PIT count).
j.
PIT Training - at CRT, 555 Windsor St.,
Hartford. Training will be on January
21st from 10-12 am or 1-3 pm.
i.
Since
just about everyone who attends these GH CAN meetings will need to attend the
PIT training, we will not be having a GH CAN meeting on 1/21.
k. Housing Inventory Chart- A chart that identifies all the types of programs who
assist people that are homeless, including shelter, Rapid ReHousing,
Transitional Housing, and Permanent Supportive Housing. It identifies how many units there are,
funding, HMIS information, target populations, and target subpopulations.
i.
Sara
Salomons of the Hartford COC is working to complete the HIC for Hartford, but
needs to know today if there are any changes in your program that need to be reflected.
3. Working Groups:
a. Duty Services Coordinators:
i.
Shelter
eligibility policies- Before referring a client to a shelter, make sure they
are eligible and will be accepted when they arrive.
1.
Ultimately,
the best way to avoid client ineligibility is to have a conversation with the
accepting shelter before a client is sent over.
ii.
Homeless
definitions- Please remember we can only make Rapid ReHousing referrals for
clients who are literally homeless at the time of their appointment (see p.
7-8).
1.
As
a reminder, homeless status is based on where the client slept last night.
iii.
Rapid
ReHousing Referrals- Moving forward, please make all referrals for Rapid
ReHousing through the survey here: http://goo.gl/forms/HPa3W0vkca
1.
All
DSCs received an email on Wednesday, 1/7/15 with the link to this RRH Referral.
iv.
Duty
Services Coordinator Manual – Available online- link will be sent around to all
DSCs.
v.
We
discussed changing numbers on the Google Document, and decided that triage
centers should not be updating shelter numbers- it is the responsibility of the
accepting shelter to update their numbers upon a new client arrival.
vi.
We
discussed how to serve undocumented clients- the consensus of the group was to
provide them with shelter, but to be transparent that many of our housing
programs are only able to serve US citizens.
vii.
We
then discussed how to handle clients who have hit their end of stay at shelters.
1.
Decision: When clients have reached the end of
their shelter stay, they should call 211 from the shelter phone on the day of
their discharge and indicate that they are looking for shelter. If they have already scheduled or completed a
GH CAN assessment appointment, they should tell 211 that they have already
scheduled an appointment and just need to locate shelter.
b. Housing Referral Group:
i.
This
group did not meet, we deferred to next meeting.
4. ANNOUNCEMENTS
GH CAN Coordinators:
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