Greater Hartford
Coordinated Access Network
Meeting Notes
May 28, 2014
(Notes typed by
Amanda Girardin from discussion with Andrea Hakian on 6/2/14 and discussion
from Combined Hartford CoC and Greater Hartford – Opening Doors meeting 6/3/14)
In attendance (per
sign in sheet):
Brian Baker- South Park Inn
Sandy Barry- Salvation Army (Marshall House)
Wendy Caruso- 211, United Way
Justine Couvares – Chrysalis Center
Mary Davenport- The Network Against Domestic Violence
Fred Faulkner- Open Hearth Assoc.
Rosemary Flowers- My Sisters’ Place
Louis Gilbert - Immaculate Conception Shelter and Housing Corp.
Mary Gillette- Mercy Shelter and Housing Corp
Andrea Hakian- CHR
Amber Higgins- CHR
Pieter Nijssen- TriTown Shelter
Sarah Pavone- CRT
Heather Pilarcik- South Park Inn
Lionel Rigler – City of Hartford
Dave Shumway- Immaculate Conceptions Shelter and Housing Corp.
Jose Vega – CRT
Dan Walsh – Veterans Inc,
Tamara Womack – My Sisters’ Place
1.
Andrea has been in communication with Cory
Bernard, who is head of the social work discharge planning at Manchester
Memorial Hospital. Cory’s concerns are
that for hospitals, who are required by DPH regulations to discharge clients to
a known address, if they are unable to send someone to a shelter without going through
211 and the GH-CAN intake process, they will be breaking regulations as and
intake appointment will not count as a known address.
2.
Concerns about the lack of resources for
diversion for those who might not quite be literally homeless yet
3.
Talked about the necessity to begin working on a
“Resource Guide”** of GH-CAN points of entry. Even with intense training it will be
necessary to have a physical document that can be edited so that they know to
the best of their ability any and all resources that can assist the clients
they will be assessing.
4.
Concern around people needing ID? Do people have to bring an ID to their GH-CAN
assessment? Brenda will look into that.
Some funded programs require IDs but the GH-CAN system shouldn’t
discriminate against people without ID we need to be able to serve undocumented
immigrants and others who have just lost their documents.
5.
There is some frustration with the idea that all
assessments would have to be face to face.
It is felt that for some people, over the phone would work fine. **
6.
*It would be helpful to know about how many
truly “new” people enter the homeless system each night
o
Is CCEH looking into how many new clients are
coming into the “HMIS system” every night? This would help us know who was
moving from shelter to shelter versus who is becoming newly homeless.
7.
It is felt that there will definitely be a need
for shelter beds “after hours” on weekends, and above and beyond the capacity
of the GH-CAN intake workers can do each day.
For people who just show up at shelter because they need shelter
immediately it is proposed that they stay at the shelter they present at if
there are beds available
o
If the shelter has a bed they will take that
person as a “provisional bed” and will do the intake/ assessment the following
day.
o
Discussed calling 211 before giving them the
provisional bed, as that is what Wendy suggested.
§
Unsure of why calling 211 is necessary if they
are willing to provide them a shelter bed and do the assessment
·
Is it because 211 has to start the ECM (HMIS)
record?
·
Can 211 refer a client to the GH-CAN Bucket
without assigning them a specific GH-CAN slot?
8.
It is felt that there are two distinct
populations that are being dealt with: 1) the newly homeless (particularly
families) for whom an in-person, intensive diversion process could be very
beneficial, and 2) the chronically homeless moving between shelters, or from
the streets to shelters for whom diversion is unlikely.
o
For the chronically homeless, particularly the
medically vulnerable, and or intoxicated, asking them to wait for an in person
intake/assessment could do more harm than good, they are unlikely to show up
(for many reasons) and might end up back on the streets and the opportunity to
engage with them will be lost.
9.
Slots that have been committed:
Families:
Network Against Domestic Violence (Enfield) - ½ day
South Park Inn (Hartford) - ½ day
SAMH (Hartford) ½ day
East Hartford Community Shelter (East Hartford) - ½ day
CHR (Manchester) - ½ day
Individuals:
CHR (Manchester) - ½ day
Open Hearth (Hartford) – All Monday (8hrs)
Immaculate Conception (Hartford) – All Tuesday and Thursday
(8 hrs)
Cornerstone (Vernon) – ½ day
Unknown/ Other possibilities:
Mercy St. Elizabeth’s (Hartford) – ½ day (Individuals
or Families?)
House of Bread (Hartford)
Hands On Hartford (Hartford)
Tri-Town Shelter (Vernon)
McKinney Shelter (Hartford)
YWCA Shelter (Hartford)
MACC Shelter (Manchester)
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