Greater Hartford CAN Pre-Implementation 11/5/14

Greater Hartford - Coordinated Access Network

 Meeting Notes

November 5, 2014

In Attendance: Rubi Alegria – Mercy Housing Brian Baker – South Park Inn Shannon Baldassario – MACC Sandy Barry – Salvation Army Marshall House Matt Beard – House of Bread Steve Bigler – CRT Crane Cesario – DMHAS Roger Clark – Immaculate Conception Bryan Dixon – InterCommunity Fred Faulkner – The Open Hearth Rosemyn Falu-Rodriguez – Salvation Army Marshall House Bryan Flint – Cornerstone Rosemary Flowers – My Sisters’ Place Chelsea Fortson – CHR 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 Steve MacHattie – Immaculate Conception / ImmaCare

Dalila May – Interval House Sarah Melquist – MACC Asra Mir – CHR Matt Morgan – Journey Home Patrice Moulton – CRT/ East Hartford Shelter Pieter Nijssen – Tri Town Shelter Veronica Nixon – My Sisters’ Place Roxan Noble – Chrysalis Center Heather Pilarcik – South Park Inn Lisa Portal – Columbus House Lionel Rigler – City of Hartford Iris Ruiz – Interval House Sara Salomons – CRT Barbara Shaw – Hands On Hartford Rob Soderberg – CHR Sandra Terry – CRT Sarah Trench – Journey Home Jose Vega – CRT / McKinney Shelter Joy Vouthounes – Department of Correction Shanika Wallace - CHR Tamara Womack – My Sisters’ Place

1.      Introductions & GH-CAN Meeting Notes for last week, 10/29/2014 (emailed)

a.      This morning there was a big meeting of the leadership team for the upcoming Rapid Results campaign.  The Rapid Results model pushes a community to make change over the course of 100 days.  In Hartford, we will be working for 100 days to change the system of housing and homeless services.  New Haven has done a Rapid Results campaign and seen huge success in terms of number of people housed.  Hartford is hoping to make just as significant change.  We are hoping to work with housing authorities, hospitals, and social service providers to innovate and make progress.  Please contact Journey Home if you are interested in working on this campaign. 

2.      Updates:

a.      CAN Implementation Schedule: GH CAN Tentative Start Date 11/17/14.

                                                              i.      Since there were a number of new people at this meeting, we introduced Greater Hartford’s plans for Coordinated Access. 

1.      Coordinated Access is a federal mandate, and any shelter or housing agency that receives HUD or DOH funding is required to participate.  It’s also just a best practice for all of our agencies to work in collaboration.  We as a community are working to figure out priorities for serving our population, as well as determining our common assessment tools.  We have chosen to use the VI-SPDAT tool and length of time homeless as indicators for peoples’ needs.  Referrals will be based on client vulnerability.

                                                            ii.      There will be HMIS training next week.  Anyone who will be holding assessment appointments needs to attend this training, even if they have already been trained in HMIS.  Trainings are 3 hours long, and Journey Home has sent around a training sign-up. 

b.      Shelter Bed Availability Report:  Please note that this is an Internal CAN

Document only, and should only be distributed to CAN agency staff.

c.       New Workflow Process- Webinar yesterday with CCEH

                                                              i.      In order to access any CAN resources, all clients will be directed to call 211.  211 will try to divert the clients, and assess if they are eligible for DV or veteran servies.  If someone needs to be in shelter, or needs more assistance than 211 can provide, they will schedule an assessment appointment.  If, at an assessment appointment, a client can be diverted from entering shelter, they will pursue their other options.  But in many live CAN communities, the assessment appointments have been having people complete the full shelter intake.  This has been problematic because in many communities, people cannot actually get into shelter until long after their appointment, and so it was frustrating for clients to spend so much time on an intake that didn’t ultimately lead to accessing shelter.  CCEH held a webinar to propose shortening the shelter intake that folks will complete at their assessment appointment.  The proposed intake for appointments is now only 4 pages long, and the rest of the intake will be completed when clients are at a shelter.

3.      GH CAN Policies and Procedures – Review Part II

a.      We will continue to review our Policies and Procedures by walking through a series of specific scenarios later on in the meeting. 

b.      If anyone has questions or concerns about the CAN process, please make sure to email Matt Morgan and Crane Cesario, the GH-CAN Coordinators. 

4.      CAN Process Questions:

a.      UHA Data Sharing- Need to eliminate sharing restrictions for universal list.

                                                              i.      Right now, within the UHA, people are able to restrict their information from showing up to certain agencies.  Although few clients opt to hide their information from any agencies, right now it is still an option in the UHA.  However, since we are hoping to have a group of people from different housing programs all reviewing a unified referral list in the Housing Referral Group, it will no longer be feasible for clients to hide their information.  Because so many different programs and agencies will be represented in our Housing Referral Group, clients will need to allow all agencies to see their information in order to complete a Universal Housing Application.  We need to modify the UHA Release of Information to include every CAN agency that will sit on the Housing Referral Group.

b.      If no available beds- How do we handle holding beds for clients that have been referred?

                                                              i.      We discussed how we would handle a situation in which someone had talked to a triage center, been referred to a bed, and then did not present at curfew.  Would this bed still be held for some period of time?

                                                            ii.      We determined that for the time being, shelters could determine this on a case-by-case basis.  If the client called and said they would arrive at 7, but had some transportation barriers, a shelter would not necessarily give their bed away at 7:01.  Shelters decided to handle this issue on a case-by-case basis.

                                                          iii.      We discussed the issue presented by DOC discharges trying to fit into the new CAN process.  We are still waiting for statewide guidance on how to work with discharged inmates.

6.      CAN Process Practice Scenarios: 

a.      Immediate Need Protocol – walk through

                                                                       i.      If a client needs shelter tonight, they must call 211, and set up an appointment.  After calling 211, they will be directed to call a triage center (Immaculate Conception/ImmaCare for individual men, Salvation Army Marshall House for individual women and families).  The triage center will do their best to locate an available bed in the CAN and direct the client appropriately.

1.      There was a question from Salvation Army Marshall House and Immaculate Conception as to how they would know whether a client had called 211 before calling a triage center, and how they will know that a client isn’t just trying to bypass 211 and gain immediate entry to shelter.    We will follow up with 211 to determine how the triage centers can get confirmation about clients calling 211.

                                                                     ii.      If a client needs shelter, and they present at shelter at curfew, and you have an open bed, you do not necessarily need to send the client away.  However, in a case like this, all shelters must call 211 and make sure the client schedules an appointment.  Once an appointment has been made, the shelter must call the triage center, and indicate that someone has presented, has called 211, and there is an available bed.  As long as the triage center had not filled that spot, the client may stay at the shelter where they presented.

                                                                   iii.      Interim Assessments- The GH-CAN has talked about potentially hosting interim/provisional assessments earlier than the client’s 211-scheduled assessments in cases where: a. assessment locations had free time and the capacity to hold an assessment; b. clients were present at the location.  Our goals in hosting these kinds of appointments are to provide extra capacity to the CAN, as well as to limit transportation barriers whenever possible.  There have been critiques of this policy that say it would be seen as jumping the line of scheduled assessments.   The GH-CAN has decided that in case the of two people having exact length of homelessness and VI-SPDAT score, the date of the GH CAN appointment would be the third tie-breaker. The CAN would use the 211-scheduled date, regardless of the date on which the interim assessment occurred. 

b.      CAN Assessment Appointment- Client Needs Shelter – walk through

                                                                       i.      If an individual woman comes into the last assessment appointment on Friday, the process will be as follows:

1.      Duty Service Coordinator will complete the Diversion Tool, VI-SPDAT, and HMIS CAN Intake with the client.  If the client needs shelter, the DSC will consult the Google Document to try and find an available bed.  If there is a space at Salvation Army on the Google Doc, the DSC will call to confirm, and then send the client over.  When the client presents at Salvation Army, staff at Salvation Army should indicate on the Google Doc that this client’s bed is no longer available.

2.      In case there are no beds available, the DSC will have to inform the client that there is no availability in our CAN.  They will then ask what the client’s plans are for the night, and tell them that they will be notifying the Homeless Outreach Team.  If the client has a child and is planning to stay somewhere unfit for habitation, the DSC must notify DCF.

3.      Hands On Hartford suggested compiling a list of safer alternatives to staying outside.  We will need to ask other communities what they’re doing in these situations.

4.      The GH-CAN does not operate a shelter waitlist at this time, so if there are no beds available for a client that night, nobody will be connecting with them when a bed becomes available.  It is the responsibility of the client to check in with the triage centers to try and determine when a bed becomes available.  We are asking that all shelters update the Google Doc with any new bed availability at 10:00 am.

5.      Shelters have had a meeting with Dr. Pino and Daryl Hill, the city’s Chief Operating Officer.  In Cold Weather Emergencies, the City of Hartford has plans to open warming centers or possibly emergency beds.  We will need to follow up on these plans.  GH-CAN will also follow up regarding statewide Cold Weather Protocol.

6.      We discussed how often to VI-SPDAT a client- the GH-CAN says that clients can be re-VI-SPDATed every 6 months, or every time their housing status changes significantly.  If they fail out of a program, they should be re-assessed.  If people are being re-assessed often, more than every six months, this should be a flag for us to look at that client’s case as a community.

c.       Housing Referral Group – PSH and TH

                                                                       i.      Our Housing Referral Group for PSH and TH will meet once weekly, on Wednesdays at 1:30 (same time as the Duty Service Coordinator group). 

                                                                     ii.      We will need to work together to get documentation- document readiness needs to be a component of the prioritized list that Journey Home creates for the HRG. 

                                                                   iii.      We discussed possibly having some programs shift some of their case management staff hours into document navigation hours.

                                                                    iv.      For all programs, we need everyone to clear their existing waitlists.  As waitlists are cleared, all programs should be joining the CAN unified referral list process.

d.      Housing Referral Group – Rapid Rehousing

                                                                       i.      For Rapid Rehousing Housing Referral Group, there was a conversation about making sure RR programs get people document ready quickly.

                                                                     ii.      A data element that we would like to see on the prioritized lists is which program performed the VI-SPDAT with the client, as a point of reference.

                                                                   iii.      We also discussed the difficulties associated with having multiple RR programs within our CAN, and having a regional RR program that serves multiple CANs.

1.      Because of the way our multiple RR programs are structured, we need to be very mindful as a community that we are not creating side doors to the programs without people going through the coordinated process.  We also need to make sure that clients get access to as many programs as they are eligible for.

e.      Core Review Group- walk through

                                                                       i.      Anyone who is selected for conferencing by the Core Review Group needs to sign the CT-HMIS Release of Information.  Any clients that come before the CRG have struggled with the systems we have in place, so any CRG conference is an opportunity to speak openly about what has been tried with the client, what has failed, and what options are left. It’s an opportunity to think creatively and look at the kinds of gaps we have in our systems.

7.      Marketing Plan:

a.      HMIS training is scheduled for next week.  Training is 2.5 hours long, and anyone who will be entering data for assessment appointments must attend.  All Duty Service Coordinators must attend.  Journey Home sent out an email on 11/3 with information on how to register for training.  Additionally, attached to the agenda there was an informational sheet that we asked you to distribute to any staff who would be attending the training as an introduction to Coordinated Access.  We do not want to send people to training without explaining some of the big systems changes- please bring this information back to your agency!

b.      Informational materials – sample from Fairfield’s email blast; GH CAN info sheet

                                                                       i.      Journey Home created a list of bullet points that programs can use to explain the new CAN process to providers. They were included in the agenda.

c.       Posters are now available in English and Spanish.  Other languages needed – suggestions? We’ve been offered assistance and need to decide.  Planned for statewide meeting.

d.      Press Release- If anyone’s agency has someone who is great at press releases, let Matt or Crane know ASAP.

e.      Representatives from the Hartford Police Department attended the most recent Hartford COC meeting, and got an introduction to the new CAN process.

8.      ANNOUNCEMENTS

a.      Journey Home is holding a Cardboard City Sleep Out event on November 14^th.  The event is focused on educating young people about issues of housing, hunger, and homelessness in the Greater Hartford region.  We are anticipating 80-100 students attending this event, and there will be a volunteer station, where we are hoping to distribute information on how students can get involved and help work on issues of housing and homelessness in the area.  If you have any information on how to volunteer with your program, please contact mollie.greenwood@journeyhomect.org or sarah.simonelli@jouneyhomect.org

b.      Additionally, on Sunday November 16^th at 7:00 PM, the Heartbeat Ensemble Theater in Hartford will be debuting “Storied Streets,” a full length documentary about homelessness.  After the film, there will be a live-stream Q&A session with the filmmakers.  The address of the theater is 360 Farmington Ave, Hartford CT.

c.       The PIT Count planning process kicks off on November 19^th from 10:00 AM-12:00 PM in Meriden.  The census of homeless will be January 28^th.  This year the PIT count will include indoors, out of doors, and a youth count.