Greater Hartford CAN Pre-Implementation 6/25/14

Greater Hartford - Coordinated Access Network

 Meeting Notes

June 25, 2014

In attendance:

Sandy Barry- Salvation Army

Crane Cesario- DMHAS/ Hartford CoC

Roger Clark- Immaculate Conception

Mary Davenport- The Network

Bryan Flint- Cornerstone

Lou Gilbert- Immaculate Conception

Mary Gillette- Mercy Housing

Matt Morgan- Journey Home

Amina Musa- Journey Home

Patrice Moulton- CRT/East Hartford Shelter

Lynn Naughton- Salvation Army

Roxan Noble- Chrysalis/YWCA

Diane Paige-Blondet- My Sisters’ Place

Lionel Rigler- City of Hartford

Dave Shumway- Immaculate Conception

Josephine Wilson- Salvation Army

Excused:

Brenda Earle- Dept of Housing

Dave Martineau- Mercy Housing

1.      Journey Home received funding through the City of Hartford for the “Coordinated Homeless Response System”. This funding is for 18 months and the group reviewed funding priorities and possible budget lines.  Discussion:

·         Maybe we can approach other institutions to be involved such as DCF and school homeless liaisons to increase our capacity. We could set aside some funds to be used as leverage so that we are not asking them to help without any resources.

·         In the technology category, having tablets for homeless outreach workers to use would be an excellent addition.

·         Safe Link is a potential data/referral resource, already used by  soup kitchens to gain access to information can we get them to help us with our CAN.

·         We need to have smaller group meetings to discuss the data quality management plan (among other issues). It is currently being discussed on a statewide level but we need to start thinking about that locally.

·         People in the medical field have teleconferences where a client presents in person and there are multiple doctors that discuss the client’s case via webcam.  As Immaculate has offered the use of an intake room to be used Monday to Friday, perhaps we could have the client show up there and have their assessment done via webcam?

                                                              i.      Response: That is something to think about, would have to be approved through statewide HMIS?

·         Do we think it is valuable to have live bed availability updates in ECM (HMIS)? It would replace the Google document… Should we put more energy into that or diversion?

                                                              i.      It would be valuable and important. Resources should be used towards building and updating systems instead of using them to meet the immediate need.

                                                            ii.      What if we tried a diversion pilot? We should try this out so by next July when we reapply for DOH funding we can show the beneficial work we have done.

                                                          iii.      We don’t need many resources dedicated to diversion, even if we set aside $10,000 of discretionary spending we could see how that would benefit the community. We don’t know the data of how many people need diversion resources so this pilot would also allow us to know what the need is.

                                                           iv.      Are there other resources we could utilize for diversion funding such as Melville Trust?

                                                             v.      What if we bring in other advocacy groups to help us create relationships in the community, leverage money and also be a source for staffing

                                                           vi.      We need to realize that administration is important for this; we need to designate staff hours into this budget. People can find people and/or agencies that will pay for someone’s dresser but we need someone to do the coordination and behind the scenes work.

2.      Intake Procedure

·         Permanent Supportive Housing programs have to be involved in the CAN

·         Cornerstone has been in contact with staff at ECHN and they are willing to be involved

·         Is it still the responsibility of the CAN if the person does not need shelter that night? If they are going to be homeless a week from now how do we follow up with them?

                                                              i.      We have been discussing if it is for immediate shelter, notify the homeless outreach team. For those who are 14 days or less from homelessness we have to figure out if they can stay in their current situation. This oversight process we will need to figure out as we keep discussing our CAN. Discussing a client specific case could be figured out during the weekly case conferencing phone calls that we know other communities do. We have to keep in mind though that we do not own the person, Connecticut is not a right to shelter state.

·         Regarding the idea of piloting a centralized bed list: Using the Google Document that was previously created for the individual men’s shelters, Bryan from Cornerstone will oversee it. Starting immediately, it would greatly help Cornerstone refer clients to Hartford shelters easily. Even if the staff at each of the shelters emailed him their client availability he will update the Google document that way.

                                                              i.      The problem with bed availability is for Immaculate depending on the season they accept a different amount of people. So while there might not be any “beds” open they are willing to take in more men that show up at their shelter during the no freeze months. Having to designate a number of people to come to that shelter would make things complicated.

·         While the VI-SPDAT is suggested to be done at assessment, some people might not qualify or need any services. So should the Greater Hartford Universal Housing Application (UHA) be required as well?

                                                              i.      The UHA and the VI SPDAT should be done later on after initial assessment.

·         There should be a specialist team for those “challenging cases” to help a person.  (We need a better name for this). Vernon started a taskforce on homelessness as a pilot. Everyone is working together in the community to help those in Vernon that are homeless.

                                                              i.      This is a community care team kind of model to overcome system glitches to ensure that the client can gain access to resources and be in a stable housing situation. We are trying to have something similar happen within the GH CAN.

·         We need a local communications team so that consumers know what Coordinated Access is going to be.

3.      2-1-1 Coordinated Access Decision Points

·         What will be the protocol for families when there is no shelter or motels available?

                                                              i.      We need to contact all the social services of each town in our CAN and ask them what resources they have for their residents. Vernon is able to place residents in a hotel for a couple days after they experience an emergency. If we communicate what our GH CAN plan is to the different towns we might gain additional resources that way. We should start communicating our CAN to executive directors of all the town social services now.

                                                            ii.      As 90% of the families in Salvation Army Marshall are DCF clients, we need to involve their resources. DCF will probably be able to cover transportation costs to shelter and motels.

Next Steps:

·         Bryan and Lynn will be a part of a team focusing on triage

·         We need to think of a backup plan for families when shelter is unavailable

·         We need to communicate changes to DCF

·         Brainstorm as to how our Community Care Team  will function

·         Will have to talk to towns to learn what services they have for their residents