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
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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
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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 14th. 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 16th
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 19th from 10:00 AM-12:00 PM in Meriden. The census of homeless will be January 28th. This year the PIT count will include indoors,
out of doors, and a youth count.
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