Greater Hartford Coordinated
Access Network Meeting
March 5, 2014, 1:00-3:00 PM
Hispanic Health Council, 175 Main St,
Hartford, CT
1.
Introductions/ Attendees
·
Barbara Shaw – Hands on Hartford
·
Sandy Barry – Salvation Army
·
Bryan Flint- Cornerstone Shelter
·
Lionel Rigler - City of Hartford (ESG)
·
Iris Ruiz- Interval House
·
Dave Kelly- Tabor House
·
Kristen Granetek- CT Coalition to End
Homelessness
·
Jose Vega- McKinney Shelter / CRT
·
Brenda Earle – Dept of Housing
·
John Merz – AIDS CT / Balance of State
·
Steve Dilella – Dept of Mental Health and
Addiction Services – Balance of State
·
Crance Cesario- Capital Region Mental Health
Center / DMHAS / S+C
·
Andrea Hakian- CHR
·
Marilyn Rossetti – Open Hearth
·
Roy Mainelli – Journey Home
·
Heather Pilarcik – South Park Inn
·
Brian Baker- South Park Inn
·
Steve Bigler- CRT
·
Sarah Pavone – CRT / East Hartford Community
Shelter
·
Louis Gilbert – Immaculate Conception Shelter
and Housing Corporation
·
Roger Clark - Immaculate Conception Shelter and
Housing Corporation
·
Dave Shumway - Immaculate Conception Shelter and
Housing Corporation
·
Kathy Shaw – My Sisters’ Place
·
Joan Gallagher- Mercy Housing and Shelter
Corporation
·
Kat Hannah- Open Hearth
·
Matt Morgan – Journey Home,
·
Amanda Girardin- Journey Home
·
Logan Singerman – Face of Homelessness Speaker’s
Bureau
·
Sarah Simonelli- Journey Home
·
Chris Daly – Charter Oak Health Center,
·
Aleja Rosario- CT Association of Human Services
·
Wendy Caruso- 2-1-1
·
Sarah Melquist – Manchester Area Conference of
Churches
·
Kitty Dudley – Dept of Corrections
·
Patricia Kupec,- Dept of Corrections
·
Linda Kendrick – Dept of Corrections
·
Mary Davenport- The Network
·
Sophie Starchman- West Hartford Housing
Authority
·
Roger Senserich- CT Association of Human
Services
·
Dave Martineau- Mercy Housing & Shelter Corp
·
Jay Rodriguez – Charter Oak Health Center
·
Levanya Ghani – Trinity College
2.
What is Coordinated Access? – (Matt Morgan)
a.
An accessible standardized, assessment and
referral process to community resources in a geographic region, from the point
that someone experiences a housing crisis to the point that they are re-stabilized
in permanent housing.
i.
Resources for special populations may be
included, housing resources (such as: affordable housing, permanent supportive
housing, transitional housing, rapid re-housing), employment resources, benefits
b.
Why are we doing this?
i.
Improve collaboration, communication, efficiency
and transparency,
ii.
Increase knowledge of resources
iii.
Streamline the system
iv.
Improve targeting of limited resources
v.
It works: top performing communities
vi.
Serve consumers better: client focused, what do
they need? What do they want?
vii.
Meet funder requirements: HEARTH Act, HUD
1.
Continuums of Care (CoC) are the entities responsible
for implementing Coordinated Access but the practicalities of experiencing
homelessness make it more realistic to have a regional approach to coordinated
access
c.
What does it entail?
i.
It is well publicized
ii.
It is standardized
iii.
It has a front door that can be centralized,, no
wrong door, virtual, or physically located
iv.
Needs to make referrals
v.
Needs to have data collection and proper client
releases
d.
What’s been done:
i.
Planning,
ii.
Documenting
iii.
Reaching consensus
iv.
Implementing
v.
Adapting.
3.
Statewide Coordinated Access Plan
a.
The Statewide approach - (Brenda Earle)
i.
Central Point of access will be 2-1-1, wants
everyone in need of services to go through 2-1-1 initially and then ask each
region how they will then link to 2-1-1
ii.
Dept of Housing is funding 2-1-1 to do this.
iii.
Providers located in the Balance of State CoC area
will all be required to use the 2-1-1 system and coordinate with the other
agencies in the geographic region identified in the map as the regional CAN.
iv.
Eventually all agencies that receive funding
from the Department of Housing, will be required through contract language to
participate in Coordinated Access (through 2-1-1 and to coordinate with the
other agencies in the geographic region identified in the map as the regional
CAN)
v.
Based on the amount of funding, the 2-1-1
process will be standardized (the same) throughout the WHOLE state, it can’t be
implemented differently in Hartford, (Unless additional funding is secured
separately)
vi.
Slated to start July 1, 2014.
vii.
All people must come through 2-1-1, agencies
will no longer be able to accept walk-ins
b.
What is Balance of State? – (John Merz and Steve Dilella)
i.
Think of it like swiss cheese, CoC’s are the
holes and the rest of the cheese uncovered by those CoCs are the Balance of
State.
ii.
They apply for an receive the money available through
the Federal Dept of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) NOFA (Notice of Funding
Availability) and disperse it to areas throughout the state that are not
covered by a city’s Continuum of Care
iii.
As such, the Balance of State has been
developing a Coordinated Access Plan
c.
Why are we having this meeting?
i.
HUD has required all homeless programs receiving
their funding to come up with a Coordinated Access System
ii.
Everyone has been working on this but it is now
time for us to come together to collaborate since the statewide framework has
been designed.
iii.
We don’t want to simultaneously develop any
policies and procedures that are drastically different or in contradiction to
one another.
iv.
Our Goal: to get the right people, into the
right programs that ensure their success in stable housing
d.
8 Coordinated Access Networks (CAN): (Brenda Earle & Kristen Granatek)
i.
These regional networks were designed by: CT
Coalition to End Homelessness, 211, Balance of State CoC Co-Chairs, and Dept of
Housing
1.
Researched HMIS (Homeless Management Information
System) data to see the churning of people and movement of clients through the
homeless services system to define the network boundaries.
2.
These regions are flexible in terms that
Hartford COC can opt not to do Coordinated Access regionally, however
eventually providers funded by Dept of Housing (DOH) will have to use the
Coordinated Access Networks defined by DOH
3.
(Crane
Cesario) Hartford CoC has been talking about this for some time and in
support of developing a regional, instead of city-wide, coordinated access
system.
e.
2-1-1 (Brenda
Earle)
i.
See Handout and screening tool
ii.
DOH will contract with 2-1-1 to:
1.
Attend all of the coordinate access meetings –
Wendy
2.
Have people trained specifically for housing
crises that are available 24/7 and will have the capacity to do light diversion
3.
Enter front line data into HMIS when speaking
with a client
4.
Once the data is sent to the CAN, it is up to CAN to place a client in the
correct intervention, 2-1-1 is NOT screening for program eligibility
5.
The CAN is responsible for HMIS data entry once
someone engages with our CAN point of access, those that are “No Shows” will be
the responsibility of 2-1-1, however CAN provider needs to let 2-1-1 know they
didn’t show up so their case can be closed out in HMIS
6.
Moving away from provider - focused à client - focused
7.
2-1-1 will be client centered and make referrals
to the coordinated network systems that the client requests
iii.
Call Flow (Wendy
Caruso):
1.
2-1-1 will complete a high level assessment for
all crises for imminent risk of being in Danger
2.
Self-Identifying Domestic Violence Victims will be
referred to domestic violence providers directly
3.
If no imminent risk of danger, and the need is
housing related, 2-1-1 will refer to
non-housing resources if possible, and but if not, then 2-1-1 will send the
call to the specialized housing crisis phone operator for the high level initial
screening/ triage / diversion
a.
2-1-1 has been able to divert about 50-60% of
the cases for New London’s Coordinated Access so far and many just don’t show
up.
4.
It is the CANs responsibility to let 2-1-1 know
where that screening information hand-off should go.
5.
On the Call Flow Handout: After the “Send to
CAHN” box is up to local CANs to figure out the protocol
a.
(Brenda
Earle) It’s really about how our community wants this to look
b.
(Brenda
Earle) We should consider bringing local representatives to the table for
these conversations to help fight for possible state resources or financial
resources where necessary
6.
Wendy is happy to come to any meetings to figure
out what this hand-off will look like
a.
Once we design the system and have a plan there
will be no exceptions to the Protocol, this protocol can be altered however, the
protocol needs to be the same for all similar cases.
7.
Brenda is also happy and willing to come to
local CAN meetings when possible.
iv.
(Kristen
Granatek) passed out 2-1-1 Coordinated Access Decision Points- See Handout,
but did not review the document with the group.
v.
(Brenda
Earle) HUD would prefer for Connecticut to have just one network because we
are so small
4.
Greater Hartford Coordinated Access Network
a.
(Matt
Morgan) The vision our community has had so far, is that ideally the entire
coordinated access process will be within CT-HMIS, while recognizing that
agencies have their own protocols and processes in place right now
b.
(Matt
Morgan) Important to remember that Coordinated Access will NOT increase the
number of shelter beds or housing units, but may help improve access to these
programs, espcecially for people who do not know all the resources in the
community
c.
(Matt
Morgan) 6 standardized process elements are part of Coordinated Access as
our community has designed it, and while all should be available to those who
need them, not all of these would necessarily be needed by everyone:
i.
Shelter diversion, homeless prevention and rapid
re-housing (list of existing programs are in the packet)
ii.
Shelter screening (Shelter eligibility is in
your packet)
iii.
Shelter intake/ CT-HMIS / Releases
1.
Already happening at agencies
iv.
Universal Housing Application/ Vulnerability
Index / Assessment
v.
Access Benefits Online
vi.
Case Management/ Employment Specialists/
Referrals: as they exist now and supplemented or streamlined where possible.
d.
(Matt
Morgan) The only agencies that have said they would have the capacity to
accept all the referrals from 2-1-1 are Salvation Army Marshall House (Women
& Families) and Immaculate Conception Shelter and Housing Corp (individual
men)
i.
They are agreeing to accept calls from clients
who are referred by 2-1-1
ii.
They will conduct shelter screening and make
referrals to appropriate shelters
iii.
(Brenda
Earle / Kristen Granatek): People who are referred from 2-1-1 do not necessarily
need shelter and a more intense assessment should be done (for diversion or
prevention) at the local CAN point of access
e.
Women and Children – (Sandy Barry)
i.
Prevention and diversion is the first thing
Salvation Army Marshall House does with all of our callers to see what other
options there are for clients
ii.
If it is deemed they need a shelter bed and they
are full, they work closely with other shelters in the region to find a bed
iii.
If there are absolutely no beds, they work with
other regions or put them in motels
f.
For Men’s shelters -
i.
(Matt
Morgan) The local CAN plan put forward is that there would be a “no-wrong
door approach”, individual men can call or show up at one of the shelters,
there are many reasons why this was decided
ii.
What did Dave Say?
1.
Immaculate will be
available to accept calls referred to them from 2-1-1, 24/7
2.
If the client presents
physically at a shelter that is full, that shelter will take responsibility for
finding that person a bed at another shelter
3.
(Brenda Earle): If you have people in
front of you, and people on the phone from 2-1-1, at the same time, who would get the free beds
first?
a.
Matt: we have talked about a certain time limit
for holding beds for people that would be the window for that person getting
priority for that bed
4.
Our local CAN may have to consider a deeper
diversion assessment piece of the puzzle when it comes to individual men
g.
UHA (Crane
Cesario)
i.
It was built in the same database system as HMIS
in the hopes of being as consistent as possible with HMIS
ii.
This can be completed after someone has been in
shelter for a brief period of time, it can also be completed with someone who
is at risk of homelessness who sits down with a trained end user at a soup
kitchen or other common points of access.
iii.
The system has the capacity to screen based on
eligibility, Vulnerability Index Score or Chronically Homeless status, as well
as other criteria if needed.
iv.
The list of programs being screened for through
the system are in the packet that was handed out
h.
Access Benefits Online (Aleja Rosario)
i.
It is an online screening system operated by CT
Association of Human Services
ii.
Screens client for 12 different benefits programs
through one assessment
iii.
It prints the correct applications with the
information already populated
iv.
Must complete any additional information required
and send it to the correct Department for processing
v.
Every month the provider will get a report from
the benefit administrators to know where the applications stand
vi.
It can give providers a report that will spit
out who has what benefits and who has applied to what benefits through the
system.
vii.
CAHS applied to Melville for a grant to be able
to provide this free of service and just heard they were awarded it!
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