Greater Hartford CAN Meeting 11/4/15

Greater Hartford Coordinated Access Network

Meeting Agenda

Wednesday November 4^th, 2015

Next Meeting: Wednesday November 18^th, 2015

In Attendance: Rubi Alegria – Mercy Housing Brian Baker – South Park Inn Natasha Baldwin – Salvation Army Marshall House Janet Bermudez – Hands On Hartford / MANNA Latisha Birchett – CHR Enfield Cordelia Brady – The Open Hearth Aisha Brown – CHR Enfield Gail Budrejko – Tabor House Traci Burdick – Community Health Network Crane Cesario – DMHAS / Hartford COC Marcel Cicero – CRT / East Hartford Shelter Roger Clark – ImmaCare Rebecca Copeland – CHR Manchester Stephanie Corbin – Community Health Network Joel Cox – Town of Enfield Social Services Tylon Crump – CRT / McKinney Shelter Rosa DeJesus – Mercy Housing Jaccqueline Farmer – Veteran’s Inc Nate Fox – Center Church Valorie Gaines – CHR / PATH Lynette Gibson – My Sisters’ Place Lou Gilbert – ImmaCare Amanda Girardin – Journey Home Mollie Greenwood – Journey Home Nathalie Guzman – Salvation Army Marshall House

Amber Higgins – CHR Manchester / Rapid ReHousing Peter Jenkins - ImmaCare Aaron Jones – VA Brittany King – The Open Hearth Ivonne Lopez – Chrysalis Center Kimberly May-Bailey – Catholic Charities Gerilyn Maciel – Salvation Army Marshall House Matt Morgan – Journey Home Malika Nelson – CHR Manchester / PATH Roxan Noble – Chrysalis Center Shannon Oliver – Salvation Army Marshall House Yolanda Ortiz – CRT / SSVF Maureen Perez – CRT / McKinney Shelter Heather Pilarcik – South Park Inn Patricia Pollicina – Chrysalis Center Chris Robinson – Chrysalis Center Emmett Ruff – Journey Home Jessica Russell – Town of Enfield Kathy Shaw – My Sisters’ Place Sarah Simonelli – Chrysalis Center Stacy Smith – CRT / McKinney Shelter Rob Soderberg – CHR Manchester Sandra Terry – CRT / Supportive Housing Jose Vega – CRT/ McKinney shelter Ymonne Wilson – CRT / Supportive Housing Tamara Womack – My Sisters’ Place

1.      Introductions

2.      GH CAN Housing Referrals – Amanda Girardin

a.      Since last meeting, at least 4 chronically homeless individuals have been housed.  3 have been housed through Project Teach TLP, and 1 has been housed in permanent supportive housing.

b.      At this time we have not identified any chronically homeless families in the Greater Hartford CAN, and so any PSH family openings will be getting referrals of families with a disability, who are highly vulnerable, and who appear to meet program eligibility. 

c.       New Referrals were made to Chrysalis- Family Matters, My Sisters’ Place – Mary Seymour Place, and My Sisters’ Place – Sue Ann Shay (Young Adult),

d.      The group reviewed the list of clients who have been identified as chronically homeless, but who have not been seen for at least 3 months, to see if staff had any updates. 

3.      Cold Weather Protocol for Greater Hartford – Matt Morgan

a.      Last year there were 50 No Freeze beds that were funded by the City of Hartford at ImmaCare.  In addition to that, we received funding for 25 beds from the Department of Housing.  There were a few days where it was totally full, but last year we were also dealing with the fact that a lot of people were resistant to the 211 process, and were struggling with it.  In addition, we had the challenge of households figuring out how to get from a shelter bed into a hotel for a night.  Historically the City of Hartford has said that if 20 individuals were in need of shelter they would open some type of emergency shelter.

b.      This year, we have preliminary plans, and Hartford COC Leadership and Opening Doors: Greater Hartford has discussed this.  The plan for this year is similar, and we will have 75 overflow beds for individual men, and there will be a small amount of funding available for hotel/motel funding.

c.       In Enfield, there has been a group meeting to try and establish a warming center for the winter.  There is no location identified at this point, but they have a couple of interested churches.

d.      Next year the No Freeze shelter will not be operated by ImmaCare.  ImmaCare is in the process of selling their current building and the new location will not be able to accommodate this additional space.

e.      Nate Fox of Center Church expressed that last year there was a challenge where beds were not filled, and individuals did not have a warm place to go while they waited for shelter curfew to figure out if beds were opening.

f.        Some suggestions on how to figure out warm locations this winter were to involve the local hospitals, library, or different church groups.  So far attempts at engaging these groups have not led to any concrete warming center locations.

g.      Triage Protocols right now – Shannon Oliver and Roger Clark

                                                              i.      For the past couple of weeks, the triage centers have been maintaining waiting lists.  The lists are first-come, first served, and households are expected to take any shelter option that is provided to them as long as they are not barred or banned from that location.  The waitlist was instituted because for many months, households had to call 211 many times a day, and whether they got a bed often depended on who called right as something opened up.  

                                                            ii.      There has been a lot of continuous communication between the shelters and triage sites, but shelters are still continuing to struggle with no-shows from households off of the waiting lists. 

                                                          iii.      A challenge for triage centers is when shelters allow walk-ins, rather than pulling directly from the waitlist, because this sends the message that folks should just show up at a shelter, making the waitlist less effective.

h.      Cold Weather Last Year

4.      Backlog of Assessment Appointments – Mollie Greenwood

a.      Following registry week, we were able to cancel nearly 200 upcoming CAN appointments, which was a big success, but we are still dealing with the reality of far book out times, particularly for households who call seeking assistance in the city of Hartford.  We’re still seeing a lot of no-shows at many assessment sites as well.

b.      Lino Cruz of CHR announced that he would soon be partnering with the Warburton Room at Center Church to provide flexible walk-in assessment slots for individuals in the city.

c.       Heather Pilarcik of South Park Inn wondered how valuable these appointments were any more.  Shelters are now doing many VI-SPDATs on households currently in the shelters, and most of the people attending the appointments do not seem to be appropriate.  Shelter sites are now doing many interim assessments, but it seems like 211 isn’t able to see this.

                                                              i.      As a reminder to all staff- if you complete a VI-SPDAT with a client who has an upcoming appointment, you should email 211coordinatedintake@ctunitedway.org immediately to cancel the upcoming assessment appointment.

                                                            ii.      Journey Home has a training coming up in November for assessment appointments if additional staff are interested.  Please contact mollie.greenwood@journeyhomect.org to register.

5.      Zero: 2016 Summit

a.      Housing Connection Rate – Matt Morgan

b.      AIM, Drivers, Goals – Z:16 Team

a.       AIM Statement:

                                                              i.      We the leaders of Greater Hartford CAN commit to ending homelessness for 362 chronic individuals and families by 12/31/2016, ending all veteran homelessness by 12/31/15 and sustaining functional zero for veterans.

1.       Driver 1: Improving outreach and navigation

a.       By November 28^th, 2015, form a CAN Outreach Group, led by Janet Bermudez

2.       Driver 2: Increase community resources

a.       Daniel will work with 211 to identify and contact local resource providers (town social services, churches, etc) by November 30^th

b.      The Z:16 Team will hold an introduction-to-homeless-services event on January 14^th, 2016.

3.       Driver 3: Increase housing access and landlord partnerships

a.       By December 31^st, Jamie will facilitate a team to network with landlord education agencies

4.       Driver 4: Improve Data Management

a.       Mollie will upload priority lists to HMIS Greater Hartford CAN client file by November 6^th, 2015

6.      Announcements

a.      The PATH Outreach Team through CHR is now up and running, led by Malika Nelson.  The PATH staff are excited to team up with current shelter, soup kitchen, and outreach staff, and is able to help with navigation for some clients.  If you identify a client who is staying unsheltered with serious mental illness, please refer to the PATH team by contacting mnelson@chrhealth.org.

b.      Zero: 2016 Funding Meeting will happen next week, date/time TBD.

c.       CCEH Training November 11^th

d.      Day of Sharing and Caring will be happening November 20^th at the St. Patrick’s - St. Anthony’s at the Franciscan Center for Urban Ministry.  For details, contact Nate Fox at nfox@cchartford.org

e.      The Connection’s elderly housing program has openings in Southington CT and will be having an open house this Thursday from 3-5 PM.  Please contact Helen Lavin at hlavin@theconnectioninc.org

Greater Hartford CAN Data Update 11/3
GH CAN Master Registry	Total # of active* clients	1016
	Total # in our master registry	2,568
	Total # of people identified with a length of homelessness that qualifies as chronically homeless who aren’t housed	284
Coordinated Assessment	Total clients with a VI-SPDAT	1423
	Total active* households with a VI-SPDAT	678
	Total 211 Appointments Cancelled Since Registry Week	221
	# of upcoming GH CAN appointments	494 Booking into early January for City of Hartford
Coordinated Exit	Chronically homeless housed through CAN 3/11 – present	82 This may not include all clients housed by existing wait lists.
	TLP Enrollments for all adults 11/17- Present	279
	RRH Enrollments for all adults 11/17- Present	169
Zero: 2016	Average # of new people who are becoming chronically homeless each month	22
	GH Monthly Housing Connection Rate:	31

Greater Hartford CAN Items for Continuing Discussion
#	Category	Challenge
A	UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF CAN PROCESS
1	Shelter search through 211	Clients churning, high shelter turnover
2	Shelter search through 211	People staying out of doors to avoid the 211 process
3	Shelter search through 211	Clients calling to get a hotel instead of shelter
4	Shelter search through 211	Empty beds in shelters
5	Client choice	Clients declining housing options – refusing to pay a portion
B	ACCESS AND DELAYS
1	Documentation	Challenges gathering documentation of homeless history
2	Client choice	Clients referred for a shelter bed who no show (Time frame established)
3	Case Conferencing	Clients who no-show for multiple appointments
4	Identifying appropriate clients for CAN	Backlog of CAN appointments
5	Navigation	Identifying clients who are not attached to navigation / need help gathering documentation
C	DATA AND PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT
1	Data Quality	Multiple client records in HMIS
2	Data Quality	Misrepresentation of homeless status due to HMIS assessments not checking current status.
3	Data Collection	Identifying/validating progress matching clients housed through CAN to Zero 2016
4	Assessment	Apparently inaccurate VI-SPDAT Scores: Concern Form / Full SPDAT
D	FUNDING
1	Funding	Need staff allocated for CAN Functions (navigation, management, etc.)