Greater Hartford CAN Meeting 3/23/2016

Greater Hartford Coordinated Access Network

Operations Committee Meeting Agenda

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

In Attendance:

Alicia Akers- CRT CAN Navigator

Rubi Alegria- Mercy Housing

Cordelia Brady-The Open Hearth

Manuel Burnias-CRT

Crane Cesario-DMHAS

Marcel Cicero-CRT East Hartford Shelter

Kara Copabianco-Department of Housing

Anna Ebora-Journey Home

Jaqueline Farmer-Veteran’s Inc.

Kelly Gonzalez- CRT CAN Navigator

Tenesha Grant-Mercy Housing

Nathalie Guzman-Salvation Army Marshall House

Steven Hurley-Journey Home

Brittany King-The Open Hearth

Jenaya King-CHR

Cynthia Lazore-Chrysalis Center

Matt Morgan-Journey Home

Roxan Noble-Chrysalis Center

Margarita Morales

Heather Pilarcik-South Park Inn

Patricia Policina-Chrysalis Center

Lisa Quach-Journey Home

Ymonne Wilson-CRT

Tamara Womack-My Sister’s Place

1.      Welcome and Introductions

2.      Zero: 2016 Updates-Tamara Womack

a.      The document fair will be on the last Friday in May or closer to first Friday in June and will be at My Sister’s Place. We are looking for volunteers and people to donate water, care packages, and printers to the fair. Mercy donated one van, one driver, one printer. Iris donated purses to give out. If any agencies can donate any resources to the document fair, please reach out to Rubi Alegria of Mercy Housing.

3.      By Name Lists in CT HMIS – Tenesha Grant

a.      Five people have been housed since the last CAN meeting from four different agencies: one from CRT, one from CHR, two from Chrysalis, one from Greater Hartford Shelter+Care.

b.      There is an issue with inaccuracies with reporting numbers. Two people were housed before Feb 15^th but were not counted in the February count.  We need to figure out a review process and what is being reported for the purposes of consistency.

c.       There is going to be a push for a by-name list of everyone who has been assessed in HMIS. This will ensure we know who is active in system and who only made one contact with providers and who is chronic and who might be chronic but needs documentation.
              i. CAN managers from Department of Housing will be helping with by name list. 

d.      An important distinction between likely chronic and confirmed chronic is that likely chronic people present as chronic but do not have documentation completed while confirmed chronic households have competed all documentation.

                                                              i.      We have 5 confirmed chronic housed and one housed who is likely chronic.

e.      At the outreach meeting on Monday, many clients were believed to be chronic but still need documentation.

f.        There are 124 confirmed chronic people who still need to be housed as of today.

g.       Individuals and families can only make it to registry list with a fully completed VI SPDAT.

h.      We are working with Lynda Kaufman on how to get an individual on the registry without a full assessment because we need to close out CAN appointments.

4.      TAY-SPDAT Tool for Youth –Matt Morgan

a.      A new screening tool for youth up to age 24 has been developed. Copies have been distributed and everyone should take a copy and look it over and bring any feedback to next meeting or email Matt or Mollie at Journey Home with comments.

b.      There are slight differences in the youth assessment. For example, couch surfing an option on the youth survey. This assessment will be used instead of the VI-SPDAT for youths up to age 24. It is for single youths and is not a family assessment.

5.      Changes to the COC Homeless Verification Form - Lisa Quach

a.      The statewide Homeless Verification form has been updated.  Case managers will be collecting the same information as they were using the prevous version of the form, but the formatting of the information is different. Copies of a sample homeless verification form were distributed.

b.      Clients now have to verify any breaks in homelessness (7 or more days sleeping somewhere other than shelter, or a place not fit for human habitation). This information about breaks can be self-verified and does not need to be notarized. They still need to document breaks and where they were staying during that break.

c.       If you think someone may be chronic, send Journey Home their name and they can assist in putting together a homeless history.  

6.      Case Conferencing – Alicia Akers, Kelly Gonzalez

a.      Kelly located and engaged with six of ten people on her caseload. One may be in jail.

b.      Alicia located and engaged with six out of twelve people on her caseload. Trish knows some individuals from the Middlesex CAN but has not seen them.

c.       Clients become inactive in the system after 3 months of no contact. This is following multiple attempts to contact including looking over shelter lists for missing individuals.

d.      Navigators are looking to connect with Marshall House soup kitchen on Washington Street as they are one of the few kitchens open on Sunday. Alicia arrived on Sunday only to find the soup kitchen packed and the workers did not know anyone’s names. Nathalie will provide the contact.

e.      There is a soup kitchen on Broad Street that serves dinner on Sunday. Navigators and case managers should contact Celestino for more information.

f.        Marcel encountered someone at the East Hartford Shelter who was headed to New Haven afterwards. She wanted to know if he was on the priority list but after a brief description of the person, it was confirmed that he was not on the list.

7.      Announcements

a.      VI-SPDAT 2.0 Posted on www.journeyhomect.org/provider-resources. Providers administering VI-SPDATS can have the assessment in hard copy and all the pieces should be included. As of right now, there is no Spanish version of the VI-SPDAT 2. It has been noted that this makes it difficult for providers who need to translate for clients.

                                                              i.      There may be a need for a Spanish point in time count as well.

b.       VI-SPDAT version 1 is available on HMIS for a limited time only so that staff can enter any paper VI-SPDAT (v1) they have available.

c.       The Partnership for Strong Communities is seeking nominations for Housing Heroes- submit your nominations here: http://pshousing.org/news/nominate-your-housing-hero

d.      Leadership is working on coordinating assessment times for drop-in CAN appointments. They will be reaching out to agencies to schedule full coverage for drop-in CAN assessments. The hope is to implement family assessments and catch up with backlog in the system.

                                                              i.      Potential locations for assessments for single men are ImmaCare, Open Hearth, and McKinney shelter.

                                                            ii.      Potential locations for family assessments are Center Church, the Washington location of Salvation Army Marshall House, Hands on Hartford. We are trying to get out of shelters for family assessments and focus on diversion for that population.

                                                          iii.      Heather noted that people on the duty service coordinator level need to be involved in the planning process.

e.      Sara and Alison of Making a House a Home have a lot of kids stuff in their donations including several board games and a playhouse. Please contact Sara Salomons if you have any clients who may be interested in such items.

                                                              i.      Crane mentioned a client who may be moving in with six children.