GH- CAN Meeting
July 23, 2014 Meeting Notes
In Attendance:
Ashley
Blanchard- DHMAS
Wendy
Caruso- 211
Roger Clark-
Immaculate
Joel Cox –
Town of Enfield Social Services
Mary
Davenport- The Network
Bryan Dixon
– InterCommunity
Brenda
Earle- Department of Housing
Fred
Faulkner- The Open Hearth
Bryan Flint
– Cornerstone
Tenesha
Grant – Mercy Housing
Mark Jenkins
– BHCA
Mollie
Greenwood- Journey Home
Andrea
Hakian – CHR
Patrice
Moulton – CRT / East Hartford Shelter
Roxan Noble-
Chrysalis Center
Tina Ortiz-
CRT
Heather
Pilarcik – South Park Inn
Sara
Salomons – CRT
Barbara
Shaw- Hands On Hartford
Dave Shumway
– Immaculate
Jose Vega-
McKinney
Tamara
Womack – My Sister’s Place
Introductions:
·
Crane Cesario was not able to be present this week,
and Matt Morgan will not be present next week.
·
Wendy Caruso from 211 was here, and had some
updates to share about the state of affairs with 211 since New
Britain/Bristol’s CAN went live a few weeks ago.
o
Average wait time for people on the phone is 2
minutes- this has alleviated people in a housing crisis having to wait for a
callback from 211.
o
Individuals who walk into shelters still need to
go with 211, so 211 has added an option for shelters. If a client walks into a shelter and needs to
go through 211, there is a prompt for shelters to press so that clients will
not be waiting on the shelter’s phone.
o
After New Britain’s CAN expressed how
troublesome waiting on the phone with 211 could be for our clients, the issues
were resolved the next day. 211 is willing to be very flexible as CANs go live.
o
So far, the CAN assessment appointments have
been numerous- New Britain’s appointments are already being scheduled 2 weeks
out due to the high volume of callers.
o
Most callers are being diverted rather than going
into shelters, but there is a very high volume of callers, and the actual
number of people dealing with housing crises is becoming much more evident.
§
211 does have access to a language line, so
speakers of other languages are receiving assistance through 211, and 211 will
make a comment of their language barriers in their file.
Updates:
·
Shelter Availability Protocol:
o
Bryan woud like everyone’s contact information
so that the group can try to start emailing instead of using google docs. Google docs has been challenging for some to
log into, and may not be user friendly for all the shelters, so Bryan has
volunteered to collect shelter information from everyone on a daily basis.
o
He hopes that over the next few days, people
will start emailing him their shelter availability.
o
As he receives emails from other shelters, he
will input that information into the google document
o
The group decided to start immediately with
testing a process for reporting shelter bed availability through google
documents and email on a daily basis, even if there is no availability. Matt and Bryan will send out instructions
this week for how to begin this process.
o
Crane sent out an email stating that waitlists
can be created in ECM right now- it will be in the tools of the system. The CAN can either create a centralized
waiting list, different waitlists for different clients, different waitlists
for different types of housing, etc.
This will be discussed further at a future meeting.
·
Updated GH-CAN Housing List/ Universal Housing
Application
o
Journey Home has updated our GH-CAN Housing list
(part of the meeting materials)
o
JH added a column for which programs are already
entered into the UHA
o
There are some blanks in this list in reference
to why some programs aren’t participating in the UHA, if anyone has information
to fill in these blanks, please send it to Journey Home.
o
If anyone has programs that exist at their
agency, but aren’t listed on this form, please send that information to Journey
Home as well.
Workflow
Question
·
For a person who goes to a GH-CAN assessment and
cannot be diverted and needs shelter for the first time that night, what is
protocol?
o
If the appointment assessor can’t contact anyone
at a shelter, should we have the client call 211?
§
Maybe the assessor could have access to the
google document to see where there is availability and contact that shelter
directly?
o
When we go live it will be very important for
all shelters to be uniform, and on the same page about what this protocol
is. Shelters won’t take walk ins if
there is no availability, people will be triaged back through
o
If someone shows up without a phone at a
shelter, shelters can call 211 directly through their landlines
§
It is important to teach the day shelters this
protocol as we move closer to going live.
§
Wendy from 211 noted that even though New
Britain/ Bristol started with one as needed.
o
At McKinney, if someone arrives at the shelter,
the shelter staff usually enters them into ECM immediately.
§
Now, the new protocol is for walk-ins to call
211 immediately to make an appointment before they are discharged from the
shelter
*The agenda
had stated that we would now break into two groups to discuss teams for
challenging persons and housing case conferences (housing referral committee)
but because representatives from the DOH and 211 were present at the meeting,
instead the group discussed this CAN’s consensus points to date with them*
Consensus
Points:
1. Customized the Statewide Coordinated Access
Workflow for the Greater Hartford Coordinated Access Network (GH-CAN)
a. All those facing a housing crisis should
call 211 (211 screens for emergency issues, domestic violence, and diversion)
If not divertible, refers to GH-CAN for assessment
b. Multiple Assessment Sites (Region and City
Sites) (see assessment schedule for locations)
c. GH-CAN Assessment Schedule has been set (see
attached)
d. At assessment appt: ROI’s, assessments, referrals to GH-CAN
resources
*still need to figure out what the
assessments themselves look like- when will we use VISPIDAT? What Releases of Information are needed?
e. Special Cases:
i.
Immediate
Shelter Need (before a GH-CAN Assessment is available)
1. Call 2-1-1, Two referral points from 211 –
Individual Men – Call Immaculate for shelter triage, Individual Women and
Families – Call SAMH for shelter triage
2. Presents directly at shelter/no phone –
shelter will call 211 with client that night or following morning before
discharge from shelter to schedule GH-CAN assessment. If space is available at the shelter, the
person can stay, but if no space is available, the shelter will contact ICSHC
or SAMH for shelter triage
3. People coming from shelter to GH-CAN appt. –
default is people can return to that shelter unless otherwise notified
4. If possible, move the GH-CAN appt.
assessment to shelter where staying if staff has available time
*Brenda
Earle from the Dept of Housing noted that this situation, one in which clients
are eligible for an earlier appointment time if it is convenient for the
shelter workers, doesn’t seem right- it might be considered cutting the line
for someone to receive an earlier appointment than they were initially
scheduled for. This appointment has the
potential to place them on waiting lists ahead of other people whose
appointments should have come first.
CAN
response was that this was a provisional circumstance that had been imagined in
cases where
1. Clients would need to
transport themselves to a location that was difficult to reach
2. Someone at the shelter
happened to have extra time and the ability to complete an assessment.
The goal of this provision was
to alleviate stress on the clients by making appointments more accessible to
them, when possible.
5. If necessary, shelter will communicate to
assessment appt that person cannot return to the shelter
ii.
Person
presents at GH-CAN Assessment and does not need shelter tonight, but needs it
tomorrow night/future night:
1. Shelters will not make reservations for
future nights or guarantee that a bed will be available on a future night. However, if shelter is available that night,
the person can stay that night.
iii.
All
shelter in GH-CAN is full – CAN will notify Outreach team
iv.
Churning
- People who have already been assessed, referred to housing options, referred
to shelter, and now have to leave shelter (length of stay, not following case
plan, banned) – Call Immaculate for shelter triage or SAMH for shelter triage
and flag to Challenging Person Team.
State
of Connecticut simply says that you need to have some sort of length of stay
policy, but they don’t dictate what the length should be. It is worth noting that the Greater Hartford
CAN has the most varied lengths of stay compared to any other CAN in the state.
v.
Two no
shows to assessment appt – refer to Challenging Person Team
If
someone doesn’t show up twice, do we schedule a new assessment?
The
Challenging Person team will meet to determine next steps for any homeless client
who misses two appointments. If they
call back for a third appointment, 211 could potentially put them into a
separate bucket of people who repeatedly miss appointments
vi.
Need
to have backup location for if people cannot go to certain CAN appts due to
assessment location restrictions
We
discussed potentially having virtual interviews, possibly via webcam. This might be addressed at the state meeting,
and could be possible, but it would require a lot of technology working
cohesively.
vii.
Develop
plans for accommodating special populations:
Transgendered people based on identity, disabled, unaccompanied youth, teenage
boys in families, infants under one, domestic violence victims
2. Developed a GH-CAN Housing Inventory Chart
that includes all permanent supportive, transitional living, and rapid
rehousing programs
3. Access Benefits – implement this system for
shelters to help assess and apply for mainstream benefits
4. Local Marketing Plan
a. Need plan for communicating changes to
consumers/clients of shelter system
b. Developed list of stakeholders that need to
be involved in planning and divided up list and reached out to them.
c. Inviting healthcare institutions, police,
other community stakeholders to planning
d. Presented to Directors of Town Social
Services statewide group
5. Need to develop teams: CAN Oversight Group (problem solving,
implementation, evaluation of coordinated access), Housing Referral Team
(Availability, Prioritization, Eligibility, Assessments) , Challenging Person
Team (Problem-solving for difficult cases), Coordinated Care Team
(hospitals/healthcare led case conferences)
6. Developed a shelter bed availability protocol
– update google document/email when there are available beds (on a nightly
basis)
7. Identified process to move from individual
waiting lists to unified referral list for Rapid Rehousing, Transitional Living
Program, and Permanent Supportive Housing based on priority and eligibility
a. Need to set GH-CAN prioritization for PSH,
TLP, RR (vulnerability, length of time homeless, chronic, etc.)
b. Need to purge existing waitlists and
scheduled date to stop accepting new paper applications separate from Universal
Housing Application. Need to assess
shelter residents, TLP residents, and people on housing waiting lists for
VI-SPDAT priority, length of time homeless, and UHA eligibility
We
decided that the date when we would stop accepting new paper applications will
be September 15th.
Coordinated
Access List of Needs for Statewide Input
a. CAN Release of Information – HMIS Release of
Information
This Is a question for the HMIS steering committee- can we
use the HMIS ROI as our own?
b. CAN Grievance Policies, General Policies and
Procedures
Will be discussed at the statewide CAN meeting on 7/24
c. Training on VI-SPDAT and assessment process
Will be discussed at the statewide CAN meeting on 7/24
d. Statewide Marketing tools
e. Statewide guidance for shelters to modify
their length of stay and return to shelter policies
The
Greater Hartford CAN has the most varied length of stay between our shelters
f.
Some
state funded programs require homeless verification, which negatively
incentivizes people to go to shelter, sometimes unnecessarily. Can this be modified?
There
is no way to access federal money (or city money that comes from the federal
government) unless a client is literally homeless.
It’s
worth noting that people who are living in cars or other places unfit for human
habitation do not need to live in a shelter to get verification of homeless
status- they need only provide a personal statement to an outreach worker to
gain literally homeless status.
g. We need assistance on including PSH with
waitlists managed by property managers other than housing provider
h. Guidance on fair housing issues related to
adding priorities (VI-SPDAT, etc.) to existing waitlists for PSH or TLP that
have been managed by first come-first serve in the past.
i.
How
can a shelter communicate to bucket as needed (move a CAN appt.)
j.
Guidance
for how to include transitional housing in unified referral list
Where is transitional housing in the Universal Housing
Application? Transitional housing is
very tricky, because it is sometimes considered long-term shelter, and other
times considered that it could be converted to rapid rehousing or supportive
housing.
k. Insights to how cold weather protocol will
impact CAN process
*This should become an eventual agenda item
l.
Where
will CAN assessment data be stored (VI-SPDAT, diversion tool)?
m. Are any other regions planning to use
teleconferencing for CAN assessment to health care institutions or other
institutions?
n. Can DMHAS release PSH case management
requirements to allow for CAN Assessment time, and not negatively impact performance
o. What is recommended CAN Assessment process?
(ROI’s, Assessments, Referrals)
p. In order to project the number of GH-CAN
assessment appointments we will need per month, it would be helpful to have a
report from CT-HMIS GH-CAN with data for the number of de-duplicated new
entries to shelter per month
Matt
Morgan said he would put in a request through CCEH to get that data report, but
then later learned that Crane Cesario has already done so.
Annoucements:
·
The Department of Housing is going to have a lottery
system for the state on August 4th.
They are adding 8,000 slots to a waiting list, and it is the first time
in 7 years they have opened the list this way.
This is not a lottery for
vouchers, the Department of Housing will not be giving away 8,000 more
vouchers, just opening up the waiting list to receive candidates for the
waitlist.
Future Agenda
Items:
·
What happens when a client refuses to sign
consent forms?
·
What is our CAN’s cold weather protocol?
·
What is the report from the statewide meeting
July 24th?
·
What will happen at the assessment meetings?
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