Greater Hartford - Coordinated
Access Network
Meeting Notes
September 3, 2014
In Attendance:
Ashley Blanchard- DMHAS
Crane Cesario- DMHAS
Roger Clark- Immaculate Conception
Brenda Earle- Department of Housing
Bryan Flint- Cornerstone Shelter
Kristen Granatek- CCEH
Tenesha Grant- Mercy Housing
Mollie Greenwood- Journey Home
Andrea Hakian- CHR
Mark Jenkins- Blue Hills Civic Association
Dave Martineau- Mercy Housing
Steve McHattie- Immaculate Conception
Sarah Melquist- MACC
Matt Morgan- Journey Home
Theresa Nicholson- Chrysalis Center
Pieter Nijssen- Tri-Town Shelter
Roxan Noble- Chrysalis Center
Heather Pilarcik- South Park Inn
Sara Salomons- CRT
Barbara Shaw- Hands on Hartford
Kathy Shaw- My Sisters’ Place
Dave Shumway- Immaculate Conception
Sandra Terry- CRT – CoC Planning
Sarah Trench- Journey Home
Jose Vega- CRT McKinney Shelter
Josephine Wilson- Salvation Army
Tamara Womack- My Sisters’ Place
Shannon Baldassario- MACC
Leah Opito- Tri-Town Shelter
1. Introductions
&GH-CAN Meeting Notes for last week, 8/27/2014.
2. Updates:
a.
CAN Implementation Schedule: GH CAN Tentative
Start Date 10/27/2014
b.
Shelter Bed Availability Report
i.
Most everyone has continued to update the Google
doc regularly. In cases where shelters
have not updated on a weekly basis, Mollie will be checking in to determine how
frequently we can expect updates.
c.
Reminder: Purge existing waiting lists by September 15, 2014.
i.
For everyone with an existing waiting list, we
are asking that by September 15th you can bring a list of how many
people are still on your wait list to the CAN.
d.
Hartford Community Care Team Kick Off, Thursday,
September 11, 1PM at St. Francis. All
shelter and housing providers in Hartford have been invited to join this
meeting. It will be to discuss the
concept of the CCT, make introductions to other prospective team members, and
discuss next steps. Please call Amanda
Girardin at 860-080-0336 if you have any questions.
i.
This group is like us- they’ve been meeting
together for months to plan.
e.
Universal
Housing Application Training- Schedule: sign up via email to Amanda
Girardin at Amanda.girardin@journeyhomect.org.
i.
UHA Trainings: Referral Role Trainings +
Waitlist Manager (as an add on for those who want it) will be at CRT, 555
Windsor St, Hartford
1.
September 16th from 9:00-3:00
2.
September 17th from 9:00-3:00
f.
VI-SPDAT Diversion Tool Training & Schedule:
Sign up via Mollie Greenwood at mollie.greenwood@journeyhomect.org.
1.
Universal Housing Application Training-
Schedule: sign up via email to Amanda Girardin at
Amanda.girardin@journeyhomect.org.
UHA Trainings: Referral Role Trainings + Waitlist Manager
(as an add on for those who want it) will be at CRT, 555 Windsor St, Hartford
September 16th from 9:00-3:00
September 17th from 9:00-3:00
2.
VI-SPDAT Diversion Tool Training & Schedule:
Sign up via Mollie Greenwood at mollie.greenwood@journeyhomect.org.
September 17th from 9:00-12:00 at CHR, 487 Center St,
Manchester
September 23rd, from 1:00-4:00 at Sue Ann Shay Place, 76
Pliny St, Hartford
As Brenda Earle of DOH was present at the
meeting, we paused to discuss a few upcoming events on the statewide level.
1.
The Rapid Rehousing grant that’s available right
now is something we discussed at last week’s meeting, but some sections remained
unclear.
2.
We had discussed potentially having one provider
in the city sign the MOU, and another provider in the suburbs, but it sounds
like the MOU is not intended for subcontracting in any way- we wondered what
role the agency would have to take on if the signed the MOU.
a.
The MOU is not contracting out any money. So if your agency is able to do one component
of this process, we are asking you to collaborate. Only one agency needs to sign the MOU, and
then can work with other agencies.
b.
The agency that signs the MOU will be the agency
responsible for cutting a check to the client.
c.
The intention of the MOU was that agencies would
work collaboratively to provide these services to clients. Perhaps one agency already has the staffing
in place to help with client housing search, and another has the resources in
place to provide an inspection- the goal is for multiple agencies to work
together.
d.
The MOU is not only available to one agency-
multiple agencies could certainly sign the MOU and access the funding, but the
goal of the RRH MOU’s structure was to encourage agencies that don’t
necessarily have the resources to provide housing search and inspection to
collaborate with other local organizations and leverage each other’s
resources.
i.
Another reason the RRH is going through CAN is
that in some cases, determinations about Rapid Rehousing eligibility can be
made at assessment appointments. Once the
GH-CAN determines what range we will be using to determine that someone is
eligible for RRH, the decisions about using these funds to help a client could
be made at the GH-CAN assessment appointments.
e.
It is important to note that all client information
for the RRH MOU must be entered into HMIS, so participating agencies must have
HMIS capabilities.
i.
With that in mind, this MOU isn’t specific to
just shelters, or just PSH providers- anyone who can enter data into HMIS and
provide the services required can sign the MOU.
f.
We need to determine what our range of VI-SPDAT
scores will be for this Rapid Rehousing money.
The VI-SPDAT states that clients who score between 5-9 (individuals) or
6-11 (families) are recommended for Rapid Rehousing. The Department of Housing and Connecticut
Coalition to End Homelessness have both been working on whether or not there
will be a statewide range set. The
GH-CAN does not want to go ahead and set a range that will pre-qualify people
to access these RRH funds if there is a statewide guideline set.
g.
Right now, the funding is available. The structure of this RRH MOU was intended to
allow for collaboration, so no one agency would feel like they were too
understaffed to possibly apply for it.
Now, it’s time for the representatives at the GH-CAN to talk to their
executive directors and decide if signing the MOU is the right choice for their
agency, or if they have services they can offer to another agency who would
sign the MOU.
h.
It’s important to note that the inspections
required are not as stringent as a federal HQS inspection.
3.
Updated List of Internal Action Steps and External Requests for CAN Information and
Assistance (attached). What topics do you want us to address next
week?
a.
What exactly needs to happen at assessments? The Diversion Tool and the VI-SPDAT are part
of it, but we need a full picture to present to all of our staff who will be
holding assessments, to make sure there is uniformity across the GH CAN.
i.
Creating a checklist for people giving
assessments could be very helpful.
ii.
Mollie will be shadowing an assessment in New
Britain/Bristol CAN on September 11th- on September 15th
we will need to talk about what happened in those assessments.
iii.
Members of the CAN requested the Spanish
translation of the VI-SPDAT, those materials will be sent out soon.
b.
We need to talk about what’s going to happen
with undocumented clients.
i.
We determined that we will hold assessment
appointments with clients who are undocumented.
ii.
However, many programs that receive federal
funding do not provide services to undocumented persons.
iii.
The UHA has a required question that asks about
citizenship status.
c.
We discussed that it’s tough, based on this list
to know what we haven’t talked about yet.
i.
From now on, at the end of each meeting, we can
make a quick note of what we accomplished at that meeting, and then say what
our next steps will be moving forward.
1.
Before breaking into working groups, we reviewed
the data that Crane just received from CCEH.
The document, HMIS Clients In Emergency Shelter In FFY 2013 Who Were
New To Homelessness, provided us with some introductory data about the
numbers of people we may anticipate for the CAN’s go live date.
a.
The three charts provided showed the following
information:
i.
The first chart showed all of the CAN regions
and their number of new homeless clients over the year, as well as the
percentages of clients that were new to homelessness vs existing clients.
ii.
The second chart showed the information for how
many homeless clients there were in Hartford, monthly, and how many of them
were new to homelessness.
iii.
The third chart showed the information for how
many homeless clients presented in the GH CAN area in families with children,
or individuals only, or unaccompanied minors,
monthly, how many of them were
new to homelessness and how many not new.
iv.
The first charts charts did not show the
breakdown for how many clients were individuals versus families with children.
v.
This information may not be unduplicated, but it
does show new arrivals to the homeless system as people listed as new were not
in HMIS.
vi.
We need to determine if the assessment
appointments we have on our schedule will be enough to handle this volume of
clients. It looks promising.
vii.
This data reminds us that as a CAN, we are going
to have a lot of traffic when we go live.
Therefore, it’s important that we start or continue working with those
currently in our shelters now. Rapid
Rehousing money is also available now, so shelters can start VI-SPDATing
current clients to see who qualifies for RRH, and potentially open up some beds
before we go live.
We then movedto agenda items 7 & 8 so that Brenda could provide a
little more statewide insight.
7. Cold Weather Protocol:
A CAN representative is needed:
“The Department of Housing is actively exploring alternatives to the existing
cold weather protocol to enable our system to effectively provide shelter for
all those in need during extremem cold weather.
To help communities develop their thinking with regard to extreme cold
weather in the context of Coordinated Access, CCEH has sent a survey to the
points of contact for each Coordinated Access Network (CAN) with the request
that each CAN provide a response by October 1.
The community discussions will allow providers an opportunity to voice
thoughts around this process as well”
·
The Cold Weather Protocol surveys have gone out-
CCEH sent them to the points of contact from the CANs. The Department of Housing will be holding 3
meetings in coming weeks to discuss cold weather protocol, as well as RFPs (see
below).
·
Matt and Crane need to follow up and send around
that Cold Weather Protocol survey- we need one response from the whole CAN.
·
The DOH is aware that most No-Freeze shelters
are funded by a city or town.
8. Department of Housing SHELTER RFP MEETINGS.
a. CCEH is coordinating three community
discussions to allow for in-person exchange between providers and the
Department of Housing on these important topics. Executive Directors and/or Shelter Program
Managers from across the state are welcome to attend any one o these events
(attendance is not restricted according to provider location)
Dates, times, and locations are as
follows:
·
Thursday, 9/4, 3:00-4:30 in New Haven, United
Way, 370 James St
·
Friday, 9/5 1:00-2:30 in Wesport at Christ and Holy
Trinity Church, 75 Church Lane
·
Monday, 9/8
in Hartford, at South Congregation Church, 277 Main St
·
Starting
in 2015, all ESS contracts will be going out to bid.
·
This means that if you have any contracts that
are ESS, they will not be renewed next year- you will have to bid for them.
·
At the upcoming RFP meetings, the Deputy Director
of the Department of Housing will be talking about what’s in the RFP, and
explain the direction that the DOH is heading towards. The DOH is looking for feedback, they’re
looking to hear the questions and concerns of the communities at these
meetings.
A.
Shelter:
Grassroots Marketing: How will we inform referring groups, community
stakeholders, and people who use shelters?
Identify plan, including contact information, materials to be developed,
and timelines.
a.
Plan to inform referring groups of new 211 protocol:
i.
Referring groups include: police departments,
hospitals, clinics, recovery programs, rehab centers, cities and towns
(municipalities)
1.
These are the referring groups that we need to
connect with.
2.
Although there will be some statewide
communication (between the commissioner of DOH and chiefs of police
departments, for example), if you have a relationship with a local provider,
start touching base with them. Start
planting the idea with all your local referring groups.
3.
There will not be one big statewide press
release about CAN- it is our responsibility to reach out locally and connect to
our partnerships.
4.
It could be as simple as making a phone call-
everyone should be thinking about which people at which agencies they talk to
on a regular basis and planning to start having these conversations.
ii.
A material we want to have is a concise,
bulleted informational page, with only the most important points about the
system changes.
1.
We would like to send that around to as many of
our contacts as possible.
2.
We would like to send this information prior to
a community wide Q&A, so that if any service providers had questions about
the CAN system, they could come with their questions, and receive answers.
a.
We need to develop this one-page bulleted list.
b.
We need to determine a date for this community
Q&A session.
iii.
The third step we discussed was, the week of
October 27th, all CAN shelter provider staff could change their
voicemail recording to say, “Hello, you have reached _____, if you are calling
in regards to a shelter bed, please call 211”.
1.
The whole group agreed that voicemails would be
an efficient and effective way to help re-route consumers of the shelter system
into the new unified entry into the system.
B.
Housing Referral Team: Timing expectations for
response to referrals (both household and program); Setting threshold levels
and communication to households for types of referral program (RRH, TH, PSH).
a.
Time expectations for response to household
referrals:
i.
This
length of time is up to each agency and what they deem appropriate.
ii.
With that in mind, the expectation is set at a
minimum of 5 business days, with the opportunity to extend to a week/week and ½
max.
b.
Time expectations for response to program
referrals:
i.
2
business days to confirm referred families/individuals into their program. The
respective program will be notified before the household.
c.
How are you going to communicate types of
available referral programs to households?
i.
Will notify via three points of contact –
1.
using the households’ information on the UHA
such as email or phone number provided;
2.
contacting the referring person/agency; or
3.
HMIS data.
9.
Newly formed statewide Chronic
Homelessness Working Group, initial meeting on Thursday, September 4, from
12:30-2:00 PM at the Lyceum, 227 Lawrence St., Hartford. If you are interested in participating in
this group, please notify Matt or Crane.
10. Announcements:
A.
Crane has S+C Certificates for chronic individuals and
chronic families that can fit in a two-bedroom rent. They are scattered site
certificates. Families can’t currently
be doubled up, they need to meet chronic
definition of a year or more of homelessness or four or more episodes over the
last three years, currently reside in a shelter or out of doors; and provide
third party documentation of homelessness and of disability.
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