Greater Hartford CAN Leadership 6/1/2016

Greater Hartford CAN Leadership Committee

Wednesday, June 1^st, 2016

In Attendance: Crane Cesario - Capitol Region Mental Health Center / DMHAS, Lou Gilbert - ImmaCare, Matt Morgan - Journey Home, Kara Capobianco - Department of Housing, Brenda Earle - Department of Housing, Mark Jenkins - House of Bread, Dave Martineau - Mercy Housing and Shelter Corp, Steve Bigler - CRT, Tina Ortiz - CRT, Mollie Greenwood - Journey Home, Fred Faulkner - The Open Hearth, Tomiko Grant - Salvation Army Marshall House, Iris Ruiz - Interval House, Rosemary Flowers - My Sisters' Place, Kathy Shaw - My Sisters' Place, Barbara Shaw - Hands On Hartford, Brian Baker - South Park Inn, Heather Pilarcik - South Park Inn, Nate Fox - Center Church, Bryan Flint - Cornerstone Shelter, Cat Damato - CRT

1.       Welcome and Introductions

2.       Meeting Times: Opening Doors: Greater Hartford/CAN Leadership/Hartford Suburbs-COC

-          Theresa has proposed every two weeks have meeting be focused on Opening Doors and the following two weeks to focus on CAN Leadership agenda. Still meeting twice a month

-          Leadership agreed that for the time being, we can alternate GH CAN Leadership Committee Meetings with Opening Doors: Greater Hartford meetings. 

-          We discussed whether or not the Hartford Sub COC and GH Suburbs Sub COCs could share a meeting time, but determined that both sub COCs needed separate times to discuss their individual needs, at least initially.  We decided that representatives from the GH Suburbs Sub COCs would set up a time to meet at Chrysalis Center in the near future to determine how frequently they would need to meet. 

-          Matt announced that the Universal Housing Application will be discontinued effective June 30, 2016.

-          Leadership has approved to have people meet from Hartford COC and Suburb COC to determine how often each meeting should meet

3.       CAN Participation Agreement Draft

-          Matt shared a participation agreement draft that has been put together at the statewide level based on feedback received from the first draft of participation agreements.

-          The draft Participation Agreement was well received by the leadership in the room.  Because this draft will be discussed at a statewide meeting on Friday 6/3, the leadership determined that if anyone has any feedback, they should send it to Matt before 6/3. 

4.       Smartsheets Shelter Waitlist

-          Clients without contact information is a continued challenge.  Many of the households on the waiting list do not have phones, and so it’s impossible to reach them.  A lot of the households without contact information were inherited from the triage information that we input when the waitlist was just getting started, which pointed to some of the challenges that were faced by triage. 

-          We also heard concerns that 211 staff were still confused about the change in procedures.  Kara and Mollie will set up a time to talk with them next week to ensure that we all get on the same page. 

-          Kara proposes to give outreach, path team, and soup/food pantry access to Smartsheet.  Some of the soup kitchens are already trained in how to access the waitlist, but more will be getting trained in the coming weeks. 

-          Kara proposed that a script be in placed in the Shelter Waitlist Questionnaire so all clients are aware of the rules and regulations of the shelter waitlist while they are filling out the Shelter Waitlist Questionnaire with the Duty Service Coordinators.

-          Crane proposes to have a meeting with all the Duty Service Coordinators, outreach providers, and navigators to look at the shelter wait list on Smarthsheet.  Steve and Mollie will work to set up a meeting time for next week.

-          Leadership agrees there should be a shelter entry meeting.

5.       Immigration Issues

-          The Commissioner of DMHAS recently sent around an update that for HUD funded supportive housing programs US citizenship is not a requirement, and clients with immigration issues can be served by HUD funded programs.

6.       Shelter Plus Care Challenge: 15 Available Certificates

-          Shelter Plus Care has 15 available certificates, and Crane has posed a challenge to our Coordinated Exit group to get these units leased up by July 1, 2016.  As of this meeting, 9 households had been matched to these Shelter Plus Care certificates.

7.       Referrals that are no longer available

-          Crane says we need to pay attention to those who are high priority who are no longer able to be matched with a program.  One example was the RAP certificates that are being taken away because of funding constraints in the Department of Housing as a result of the current budget crisis.  As the Coordinated Exit Group moves forward, we need to ensure these households don’t fall through the cracks.

8.       Transitional Living Program Updates

-          No updates.

9.       Announcements:

a.       The Document Fair will be taking place Friday, June 17^th from 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM. We are still seeking volunteers and donated items. A list of donations needed can be found on the back.

b.      Kara proposes that we contact people in the community agencies and Steve Karp at NASW about getting licensed professionals looking at medical records to determine if client has a disability.

c.       Zero: 2016 Housing Data can be found on the back of this agenda.

d.      Shelter Diversion Training is being offered by CCEH, check out www.cceh.org for more information, or to register

e.      A schedule for all GH CAN Meetings is now available online at www.journeyhomect.org/provider-resources

f.        If you have not yet submitted your agency’s completed Be Homeful Diversion MOU to CCEH please do so ASAP!