Greater Hartford CAN Meeting 12/2/15

Greater Hartford Coordinated Access Network

Meeting Agenda

Wednesday, December 2^nd, 2015

Next Meeting: Wednesday December 16^th, 2015

Our next meeting will be held at CRT’s Lumsden Center

In Attendance:

Janet Bermudez - Hands On Hartford

Aisha Brown - CHR Enfield

Traci Burdick - Community Health Network

Manuel Burnias - CRT Security Deposit Guarantee

Crane Cesario - DMHAS

Marcel Cicero - CRT / East Hartford Shelter

Roger Clark - ImmaCare

Catherine Damato - CRT
Anna Ebora - Journey Home
Jaqueline Farmer - Veterans Inc.
Bryan Flint - Cornerstone Shelter
Amanda Girardin - Journey Home
Tenesha Grant - Mercy Housing
Andrea Hakian - CHR Manchester
Amber Higgins - CHR Manchester
Mark Jenkins - Greater Hartford Harm Reduction Coalition
Aaron Jones - VA
Steve MacHattie - ImmaCare
Gerilyn Maciel - Salvation Army Marshall House
Malika Nelson - CHR Manchester
Theresa Nicholson - Chrysalis Center
Roxan Noble - Chrysalis Center/ YWCA Shelter
Yolanda Ortiz- CRT SSVF
Heather Pilarcik - South Park Inn
Jamie Randolph - CHR
Chris Robinson - Chrysalis Center
Amy Robinson - VA
Michelle Simon - Catholic Chairties
Rob Soderberg- CHR Manchester
Ymonne Wilson - CRT
Tamara Womack - My Sisters' Place
Gail Budrejko - Tabor House
Shannon Oliver- Salvation Army Marshall House
Marcia DuFore - North Central Regional Mental Health Board
Troya Scruse - Salvation Army Marshall House

1.  Welcome and Introductions

a.      There is a known issue with Data Quality for CAN appointments at this time.  Duty Services Coordinators should be continuing to close out all completed appointments and mark their no-shows.  As soon as we have an update from Nutmeg on the data quality situation, we will let you know.

2.     Housing Referral Group  – Amanda Girardin

a.      See attached packet

b.      5 additional people have been housed bringing the number of chronically homeless individuals housed in November to 10, which is good progress for the region. 

c.       Pending referral updates

                                                              i.      Theresa Nicholson of Chrysalis expressed that they had been having a lot of difficulty using Balance of State certificates to house individuals out in the suburbs.  This was a problem echoed by other housing programs outside the City of Hartford.

                                                            ii.      One idea was to try and switch out certificates from outside the city and inside of the city, so that individuals who are challenging to find housing for outside of the city have the option of locating a unit inside of Hartford.

d.      We discussed the ongoing challenge of not having clients at the top of the priority list who were document-ready for housing.  The funding for CANs from the Department of Housing is expected to be disseminated to CANs soon.  Some of this funding has been designated to hire a couple of navigators for the region.

                                                              i.      In addition to the DOH funding, a number of GH CAN agencies submitted a collaborative grant application to Hartford Foundation for Public Giving which included additional funding for navigation staff.  We hope to have an  update on those funds by mid-December.

e.      We discussed a few different families for possible referral to a number of PSH programs in the City of Hartford.   At the time of this meeting, no chronically homeless families had been identified and so prioritization for family PSH units started with highest vulnerability families as determined by the VI-SPDAT.

f.        Referrals for all individual PSH openings were taken from the Priority List. 

g.      Finally, we discussed a number of individuals who had completed the VI-SPDAT multiple times, and whose disparate scores put them in different priority levels for housing.  Staff who worked with these households volunteered to complete full SPDAT assessments with them.

3.     Grievance and Appeals Process – Crane Cesario

a.      The GH CAN has received its first grievance, so Crane shared her experience working with Shelter Plus Care grievances, and provided advice on a process for the GH CAN.

                                                              i.      First, if the grievance is with a local agency, it should be handled by that agency’s existing grievance procedures.  If the grievance is with the CAN, we need to determine which Continuum of Care covers the area in which the grievance occurred. 

                                                            ii.      An informal hearing will be made on two levels.  Once there has been a hearing for the grievance, a decision letter needs to be sent through certified mail. 

                                                          iii.      A grievance related to prioritization can be appealed within 15 days of receiving a decision from the GH CAN.  The appeals process needs to be very specific, and all steps need to be written and provided to the client.

                                                          iv.      If the household chooses to appeal the decision, an appeals committee will be assembled from the Continuum of Care which covers the area in which the grievance occurred.

4.     Moving On Process – Theresa Nicholson

a.      In order to meet our Zero: 2016 Goals, we need more supportive housing available in our region.  Many programs have households currently living in Permanent Supportive Housing who no longer need intensive support services, but who still need a housing subsidy.   Many PSH programs use an acuity index to determine what someone’s level of service need is over time while they are enrolled in a PSH program.  Over time, as households stabilize, they need less and less intensive support.

                                                              i.      Something we need to explore in our region is how we can start moving households out of these intensive supportive housing programs and into a subsidy program so that we will have more of the PSH that we need to house our chronically homeless population.

                                                            ii.      One way to do this is by partnering with Housing Authorities to create a preference for households exiting from Permanent Supportive Housing.  This requires that the Housing Authorities make some changes to their administrative plan. 

5.     Announcements:

a.      There are openings at the Greater Hartford CAN/ Universal Housing Application training December 17^th and 18^th.  Please email mollie.greenwood@journeyhomect.org to register.

b.      CCEH will be offering a training called "Best Practices of Emergency Shelters and Crisis Services in an Effective Crisis Response System" available on December 8^th and December 9^th from 9:00-4:00 in two locations.  Register online at www.cceh.org

c.       HMIS will be making a systemic upgrade in December, and all HMIS users must attend a training webinar to learn about what changes are coming to the system.  The new interface for HMIS will go live the week of December 8th 2015.  Register on www.cthmis.com/events 

d.      Unsheltered individuals seeking navigation and/or assessments who have serious mental illness should be referred to the PATH team.  Contact Malika at mnelson@chrhealth.org

e.      CHR is hiring full time PATH outreach worker

f.        Veteran’s Inc. ribbon cutting

g.      CRT security deposit guarantee program-full time staff secialist

h.      Annual Homeless person memorial service- planning process- get in touch with Nate

Greater Hartford CAN Data Update 11/18
GH CAN Master Registry	Total # of active* clients	973
	Total # in our master registry	2,625
	Total # of people identified with a length of homelessness that qualifies as chronically homeless who aren’t housed	234
Coordinated Assessment	Total clients with a VI-SPDAT	1,491
	Total active* households with a VI-SPDAT	705
	# of upcoming GH CAN appointments	494
Coordinated Exit	Chronically homeless housed through CAN 3/11 – present	90 This may not include all clients housed by existing wait lists.
	TLP Enrollments for all adults 11/17- 11/18/15	297
	RRH Enrollments for all adults 11/17- 11/18/15	176
Zero: 2016	Average # of new people who are becoming chronically homeless each month	22
	GH Monthly Housing Connection Rate:	31