GH CAN Leadership 9/21/16

Greater Hartford Coordinated Access Network Leadership Committee Agenda

9/21/16

Attended: Brian Baker, Steve Bigler, Crane Cesario, Cat Damato, John Ferrucci, Nate Fox, Tenesha Grant, Tomiko Grant, Mollie Greenwood, Steve Hurley, Steve MacHattie, Dave Martineau, Matt Morgan, Diane Paige-Blondet, Heather Pilarcik, Deborah Ullman, Amy Robinson, Christie Corrigan, Cordelia Brady

Welcome and Introductions

1.      Zero: 2016 Updates

-        Crane asks what is happening statewide since Hartford will not reach 90/90 by next week.

-        Matt says GH CAN is at 72 percent.

-        Matt says only 5 percent of people who are already housed in permanent housing want to stay at the current apartment instead of moving in the Housing Voucher Program.

-        Mollie says pre matching could help improve the process so case managers can already know if client plans on moving due to the Housing Voucher Program

-        Sonyia Brown says hopefully by October 1^st there will be more openings for CRT’s family program that is transitioning from Transitional Living Program to Rapid Re Housing

-        Matt says there will be 50 openings from CHFA.

-        Dave says there will be 14 openings for Mercy’s ESG rapid re housing program.

2.      Funding Discussion Recap

-        Crane says that Leadership Committee agreed from 180,000 to $120,000 for staffing. The proposal is continuing the three navigators until January and hire two navigators after January and they will have a more included role at the Diversion Center.

3.      Cold Weather Protocol Update

-        Crane says there are no state buildings available to use for cold weather protocol.

-        Nate says he was been working with Dr.Ruhl  and says he is committed to work with the CAN and hopefully plans will be in place in October.

-        Nate says the plan is to attend the next city meeting in October

-        Nate says Asylum Hill Church is willing to be a pop up when cold weather protocol is in place.

-        Nate says by next Center Church will be the fiduciary for No Freeze for only this year.

-        Nate says that the plan is to have Christie oversee the No Freeze shelter and provide continue services when No Freeze is not in place, which would be connected to street outreach.

-        Nate says he would like to change the protocol of instead of putting people up in hotels there should be a location or two for a space in the city to put down a couple of beds and sleeping bags for people to stay.

4.      GH CAN Housing Process and Timing of Referrals

a.      GH CAN Housing Data Metrics

-        Crane requested that in addition to average length of time, we look at median length of time for housing programs as well in these Housing Metrics

5.      HIC Chart

-        Matt says to mark any changes on the chart and to give to Mollie, or email Mollie with any changes that need to be made.

6.      Return to shelter policies

-        

-    Nate asks if this includes people and leave on their own

-        Heather says we should focus on the CANs philosophy for clients returning to shelter.

-        Dave says he wonders how the CAN can focus on the clients who continually move around to different shelters and find out what their barriers are in order to end their cycle of continually living in shelters.

7.      Subcommittee Updates

a.      Outreach Updated

-        Steve proposes to provide outreach cards to public work employees, so they can give them to people who they see in the bridge and other areas where public works employees work.

b.      Coordinated Exit

c.      Rapid Rehousing Matching

8.      Announcements

-        Sonyia Brown asks whether or not to use the HMIS number that is for the VI SPDAT or do to use the other HMIS that is connected to the client.

-        Mollie says to use the HMIS that is connected with the VI SPDAT

GH CAN Operations 9/7/16

GH CAN OPERATIONS MEETING 9/7/16

Attended: Alicia Akers, Janet Bermudez, Cordelia Brady, Manuel Cadena, Crane Cesario, Roger Clark, Tylon Crump, Rochelle Currie, Catherine Damato, Brenda Earle, Valerie Gaines, Ruby Givens-Hewitt, Kelly Gonzalez, Tenesha Grant, Amber Higgins, Mark Jenkins, Je’Neya King, Nicole Milton, Margarita Morales, Matt Morgan, Roxan Noble, Heather Pilarcik, Miiosotys Santiago, Sandra Terry, Jose Vega, Wendy Walker, Ymonne Wilson, Tamara Womack, Leslie Wilper, Julie Bernstein, Sarah Dimato, and Kara Capabianco

1.     Welcome and Introductions

2.      Zero: 2016 Campaign Progress:

1. - Document-Ready Households - Lisa Quach.      

-        Form and e mail was sent out to all shelter case managers of clients in their shelter who have been identified as chronically homeless

2. Recently Housed - Tenesha Grant
3. Update on Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program

-        71 clients have been referred for the Housing Voucher Program

3.      SOAR Referral Process - Matt Morgan

-        Matt announces that there is a SOAR Meeting once a month to help clients apply for SSI and SSDI and if anyone is interested in going to contact Matt

-        SOAR Programs in Greater Hartford is attached to this week’s Diversion Meeting

-        Wendy asks when can clients re apply for SOAR

-        Matt says if client is appealed you can start a new application or go to Hartford Legal to re apply

-        Brenda from DOH asks if client has already applied for SSI and SDI already could be an additional column on the shelter waitlist

2. 4.      Shelter Waitlist - 24 Hour Wait Time - Sarah Dimaio

-        Heather says that when a staff person at Mercy is doing a CAN appointment with an unsheltered family they call South Park Inn to see if they have beds available for a family.

-        Sarah says that a lot of families on the shelter waitlist have refused the shelter bed due to only wanting to seek shelter in East Hartford.

3.     5.      GH CAN Meeting Schedule - See Attachment

-        Mark asks when do clients are staying outside can complete a VI-SPDAT if they are not in a shelter?

-        Crane says when seeing a client outside a Navigator can do a VI-SPDAT for a person right away. For other housing services later on the Navigator can sign off stating that person was unsheltered at the time when they did their VI SPDAT.

-        Tylon asks do clients need to have a VI-SPDAT completed in order to get funding from Diversion?

-        Amber says in order to get Diversion a client does not need to do a VI SPDAT and only need to do a VI SPDAT when applying for housing.

-        Tylon asks do clients need income to be eligible for long term rapid re housing?

-        Amber says that a client does not income for long term rapid re housing, but they need to have income for short term rapid rehousing

4. 6.      Announcements
1. a.      There will be a training for the Security Deposit Guarantee Program on Friday, 9/9 from 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM at the Lumsden Center at CRT, 555 Windsor St., Hartford.  Please email Mollie.Greenwood@journeyhomect.org if you or your staff plan to attend so we can make sufficient copies!

b.      There are openings in the next GH CAN Training on Friday, 9/16^th.   Please email mollie.greenwood@journeyhomect.org if you're interested

GH CAN Leadership 9/7/16

GH CAN Leadership Meeting

Wednesday, September 7^th, 2016

In Attendance:

Brian Baker – South Park Inn

Kara Capobianco – Department of Housing

Crane Cesario – DMHAS

Cat Damato – CRT

Brenda Earle – Department of Housing

Fred Faulkner – The Open Hearth

Nate Fox – Center Church

Tomiko Grant – Salvation Army Marshall House

Andrea Hakian – CHR

Steve MacHattie – ImmaCare

Dave Martineau – Mercy Housing

Matt Morgan – Journey Home

Theresa Nicholson – Chrysalis Center

Tina Ortiz- CRT

Heather Pilarcik – South Park Inn

Iris Ruiz – Interval House

Kathy Shaw – My Sisters’ Place

Barbara Shaw – Hands On Hartford

Deborah Ullman – YWCA

Daphne McCoy – House of Bread

Tamara Womack – My Sisters’ Place

Sarah Fox – CCEH

1.      Zero: 2016 Updates

·        Recently housed- big successes this month CRT had about 6 at the beginning of this month

o   Our regional housing connection rate is increasing because we have been identifying new individuals who meet the definition of chronically homeless individuals.

o   The navigators have been connected to potentially chronic households and almost all of them end up being verifiably chronic

o   Chrysalis has 20 slots with the Hartford Housing Authority- have identified potentially 7 who are chronic that might be housed through the Hartford Housing Authority

o   Section 8 HCV Preference- have had 71 applications so far for PSH

§  Some folks in scattered site are indicating they want to move, there are barriers to this so it is suggested that they stay where they are and work towards moving in a year

o    Crane- what can we do to hit our housing connection rate

§  Chrysalis is willing to fill open slots that are being vacated by the HCV preference

o   Dave- need to ask front line staff how many people they think they can get placed into housing each month.

o   Take another look at their current PSH clients to see if anyone is “ready” to move on.

·        Journey Home to come up with a list of PSH client referred, by program by case manager

·        Shelter Plus Care is struggling to get the challenge 15 matched because of delays in case management.

·        Amanda of Journey Home will email Tina about matching the CRT units to back fill the HCV Preference units.

·        Supportive Housing Programs should go through all of their tenant rosters and make sure that programs have done everything in their power to encourage those that want or should “move on” to do so.

2.      GH CAN Funding

·        Handouts were provided with a number of potential funding scenarios based on possible cuts, depending on which funding streams get renewed. 

o   We have heard that the Diversion Center at Mercy has a need for more staffing

§  Mercy was awarded $100K through the City of Hartford for family diversion

·        Journey Home is optimistic that both the HFPG renewal and CoC funding will come through and we don’t have to look at scenarios 1 & 2 but those would be worst case scenarios

·        The more likely scenarios are 3-6 and the decision we make should depend on what we feel our priorities are for moving forward with the CAN.

·        Brenda- DOH would like CANs to prioritize direct service staff – as opposed to administrative/ coordinating staff.

o   The need for diversion staff is high they are far over capacity at the Diversion Center

·        Theresa- the information we have about navigator performance is anecdotal at this point. We need to focus on the positions and what we want the positions to do as opposed to the current staff filling the roles

o   Theresa works very closely with the CAN manager and can’t see this working without that position

·        Kara- navigators have been helping connect people that have been bouncing from shelter to shelter- these positions should phase themselves out as the shelters & outreach staff are better able to keep up with those who are moving around

·        Crane- a lot of direct service staff is being leveraged by the agencies around the table

·        Kara- Should be looking at our CAN’s gap and making sure that we are using our resources to help fill those gaps.

o   Hartford has a large inflow to the system so it is always going to be important to look at diversion.

·        Tomiko- what do you mean by “support” for the diversion center?  Staffing support or funding for more staff

o   She had to pull her staff from Mercy so that her HPP and ESG program did not fall under

·        Kara- the diversion center and prevention should be working hand in hand, centrally located

·        Matt- once the ESG person is in place- do you think this will change the dynamic?

o   Brenda- it is families only- and the waiting room for singles is the one that is overflowing

·        Dave- looking at people’s cases very in depth and creatively is what the Diversion staff are doing for each household who comes in. 

o   Kara reminded us that Iain DeJong, creator of the VI-SPDAT, has said that it’s essential to fill Diversion positions with folks who have a Diversion skill set in order to be effective. 

·        Barbara Shaw and Dave Martineau requested information about the current roles Journey Home is filling administratively

·        Matt indicated that if Journey Home needed to reduce staffing it would impact how many projects Journey Home could take on in working with the CAN.

·        The group decided to make a final decision with more information at the upcoming Sub-Continuum of Care meeting next Tuesday.

·        Interval House is doing renovations aiming to close down mid sept and move to temp location in East Hartford in the meantime.  Have 20 beds.

3.      CAN Housing Metrics Data – tabled due to time constraints

4.      Disability Verification Attachment – tabled due to time constraints

5.      GH CAN Housing Process: Timing of referrals – tabled due to time constraints

The Leadership Committee elected to move this meeting to 1Pm – 2:15 Pm so that the meeting doesn’t roll over into Operations meeting time.

GH CAN Leadership 8/23/16

Greater Hartford Coordinated Access Network

Leadership Committee

Wednesday, August 24^th, 2016

Attended: Brian Baker (South Park Inn), Steve Bigler (CRT), Sonia Brown (CRT), Kara Capobianco (DOH), Crane Cesario (DMHA), Cat Damato (CRT), Cordelia Brady (The Open Hearth), Rosemary Flowers (My Sister’s Place), Amanda Girardin (Journey Home), Judy Gough (Mercy Housing), Tenesha Grant (Mercy Housing), Mollie Greenwood (Journey Home), Steve Hurley (Journey Home), Steve MacHattie (ImmaCare), Dave Martineau (Mercy Housing), Theresa Nicholson (Chrysalis Center), Tina Ortiz (CRT), Kathy Shaw (My Sister’s Place), Barbara Shaw (Hands on Hartford), Clasine Jones (YWCA), Gary Rhule (Hartford Health Dept.)

1.      Welcome and Introductions

2.      Zero: 2016 Housing Data Updates See pg.2

-        Theresa says there are 168 chronically homeless remain not matched for housing.

3.      GH CAN Process and Timing for Housing Referrals

a.      TLP Conversion to RRH

-        Sonyia says she is concerned about the amount of time it is taking to find housing for her clients and wants to speed up the process for housing.

-        Crane says she is concerned about clients being housing ready since landlords need more documents to be approved for housing.

-        Theresa says she is concerned about the APRs to make sure that agencies can continue to get more funding for next year.

-        Amanda says what could help this process is better hand offs of clients with housing case managers to housing services.

-        Sonya says she wants clearer guidelines of how many attempts of contact with clients in order to move on from that client.

-        Kara proposes for housing matching meetings to look at other options if scattered housing site will not work a client.

-        Sonya says she is concerned about 3 particular clients who are in TLP who do not meet the qualifications for RRH

-        Theresa proposes a subcommittee to find a solution for clients in TLP who do not meet qualifications for RRH

b.      Performance Metrics for Housing Programs

-        Theresa says the reason for not being housed should be a data component.

-        Crane says to separate families and individuals and do a first draft and give to agencies to figure out the issues.

-        Crane says she wants to know the barriers for people with documents and proposes to give the agencies the data points and have the agencies to determine the components they need.

c.      Subcommittee Reports

a.      Coordinated Entry Dashboard from CCEH

-        Kara says CAN staff can possibly be a solution to help reduce the amount of CAN appointments being timed out.

b.      Duty Service Coordinators

c.      Coordinated Outreach

d.      Coordinated Exit

e.      Coordinated Exit- Tenesha

-        Tenesha says she plans on attaching the bi name list to the agenda and have people look at it ahead of time before the meeting.

-        Crane suggests a separate time to case conference clients for RRH individual clients

f.       Veteran Subcommittee

d.      Statewide Request for Leveraged Funding for Review

-        E mail Mollie for any questions or concerns. Need update by end of next Friday to send budget.

e.      Security Deposit Guarantee Program Updates

f.       Announcements

-        Theresa says that October from June the GH CAN will be receiving $120,000 for CAN and includes cold weather protocol

GH CAN Operations 8/23/16

Greater Hartford Coordinated Access Network

Operations Committee Agenda

Wednesday, August 23^rd, 2016

1.      Welcome and Introductions

Alicia Akers, CRT

Rubi Alegria, Mercy Housing

Janet Bermudez – Hands on Hartford

Cordelia Brady – The Open Hearth

Roger Clark – ImmaCare

Stephanie Corbin – CHN

Tylon Crump – CRT McKinney

Rochelle Currie – The Connection

Jacqueline Farmer – Veteran’s Inc

Ruby Givens-Hewitt – My Sister’s Place

Kelly Gonzalez, CRT

Audrey Kennedy, SPI

Je’Naya King – CHR

Cynthia Lazore – Chrysalis Center

Nicole Milton – CHR Enfield

Malika Nelson – CHR Enfield

Roxan Noble – Chrysalis

John Oliver – Chrysalis Center

Maureen Perez – CRT McKinney Shelter

Cathy Shanley – Columbus House

Sandra Terry – CRT

Wendy Walker – CRT McKinney

Tamara Womack – My Sister’s Place

Leslie Wilper – Cornerstone

Bryan Destin – My Sister’s Place

Angel Fernandez – The Open Hearth

2.      Zero: 2016 Updates

a.      Recently Housed – Tenesha Grant – 6 clients

b.     Housing Data (see p. 2) – 200 chronic clients housed!

-        CCEH Data Dump increasing numbers. 57 PSH referrals into HCV so hopefully 57 unit turnovers.

-        Barriers to ending homelessness –

·        Difficulty verifying unsheltered time

·        High utility bills

·        Money management issues – active addiction, not having up-front costs

·        Security Deposit              

·        Application fees

·        Fees to secure unit, usually a one-month hold

·        Credit scores, past evictions

·        Lack of landlord history

·        Lack of Handicap accessible units

·        Landlord relationships (suggested contacting realtor for notice of change of ownerships for buildings)

·        Landlord complaints regarding delay of payment – 6 weeks for S+C

·        Challenging clients          

c.      Coordination between shelters and navigators. The Open Hearth being flexible and bending rules for chronic clients. It’s easier to get clients housed when you’re able to find them so if you have them at the shelter, please hold onto them. Let navigators know if a chronic client has left shelter.

3.      Agencies on the Release of Information – Mollie Greenwood – The Connection to be voted to add to the GH CAN HMIS ROI. All voted in. Update the current release to add The Connection and add to website – The Connection Youth Shelter program – Outreach & 2-year program – Case management is daily in Outreach, up to 30 days.

4.      Changes to Shelter Waitlist – Steve Hurley – Smartsheet training last week. Shelter waitlist is now separated into men, single women, and families. No longer need to call Steve to make sure someone gets moved up. Once you submit the questionnaire, it will automatically prioritize. No longer box to add notes, now a Chat Box. The first row on far left looks like a chat window. All timestamped and no need to write who from what agency is writing. Remember to “Save and refresh.” This is an easier process for everyone. For families, make sure you put age and family composition when completing questionnaire so that shelters don’t have to reach out to families.

5.      Next Steps Tool – Rochelle Curry – Vi-SPDAT for young adults. This feature will go live on 9/1/16. Should be use for any single adult 18-24 years old. If they have children, continue to use VI-SPDAT for families. The Next Steps tool has questions more specific to youth population. Only for single adults with no children. For young adults who have completed a VI, can still use VI or can complete Next Steps tool. Training on Friday coming up. Live training in Middletown from 11-12. Programmed into HMIS. Are the Next Steps tool scores aligned with VI-SPDAT scores? Yes. Outreach workers being trained now. 860-878-4042 is the referral line for outreach. Phone is 24/7. Can also use Youth-help.org hosted through CCEH and Reaching Home.

6.      Changes to the By-Name-List in CT HMIS – Lisa Quach – Using for RRH – FACE Sheet that lists all enrollments. The By-Name-List feature is fixed on HMIS. Anyone can run the By-Name-List. If you need assistance, please contact Lisa Quach. This list will be uploaded into HMIS ID for Greater Hartford CAN under ID #140129 under Files and Documents. We are trying to transition everyone into using the By-Name-List as the priority tool to refer literally homeless clients to housing programs such as rapid rehousing. The By-Name-List can be exported into excel and sorted by whatever you want but the list uploaded into the Greater Hartford HMIS will be sorted by VI-SPDAT scores. Also a feature known as FACE sheet that is now available. FACE sheets displays all of a client’s enrollment on that ID. Go to client’s CAN enrollment on HMIS and click on gear and then select option for FACE sheet. This should assist in completing homeless verifications. 

7.      Coordinated Exit Group – Rapid ReHousing Referrals- 8/31/16 @ 2pm. In an attempt to get more rapid rehousing referrals, we will be having an in-person meeting for long term rapid rehousing referrals. Please review the By-Name-List on HMIS and compare it with your shelter roster to see who is eligible and would succeed in rapid rehousing. We will be case conferencing clients so we will need shelter case managers in attendance or a representative who knows the clients currently in shelter.

GH CAN Operations 8/10/2016

Greater Hartford Coordinated Access Network

Operations Meeting Agenda

Wednesday, August 10^th, 2016

1.     Welcome and Introductions

Alicia Akers, CRT

Samantha Antunes, CHR

Cordelia Brady, TOH

Crane Cesario, DMHAS

Roger Clark, ImmaCare

Stephanie Corbin, CHN

Catherine Damato, CRT

Jacqueline Farmer, Veteran’s Inc.

Nate Fox, Center Church

Valorie Gaines, CHR

Kelly Gonzalez, CRT

Amber Higgins, CHR

Mark Jenkins, Blue Hills Civic Association

Aaron Jones, VA

Je’Naya King, CHR

Malika Nelson, CHR

John Oliver, Chrysalis Center

Heather Pilarcik, SPI

Jamie Randolph, CHR

Chris Robinson, Chrysalis

Amy Robinson, VA

Rob Soderberg, CHR

Jose Vega, McKinney

Ymonne Wilson, CRT

Tamara Womack, MSP

Melinda Knebel, Center Church

Eric Angeles, Center Church

2.     Zero: 2016 Updates

a.     Recently Housed Households – Tenesha Grant

            b. 13 clients housed since last CAN meeting

3.     PATH Referral Form – Malika Nelson – checkmarks added to the PATH referral form to differentiate between if you need PATH team to assist with a homeless verification or if it’s a referral for PATH Outreach Services.

4.     Smart Sheets Shelter Waiting List – Steve Hurley

a.     Automatic Prioritization: Be on the lookout for upcoming training times!

-        Functionality to auto sort is coming! When new person enters, it automatically puts them in correct order. Email for next Wednesday at 1 to have meeting at CRT about Smart Sheets to show everyone new formatting. Another change: having men, women and families split on separate sheets. Benefit of having separate sheets is to reduce the lists.

b.     Procedural Issues – Nate Fox

-        Center Church has a lot of clients who come in/call asking for help to facilitate and mediate between folks who are often times outside or calling last night at the hotel wanting to be added to the waitlist. We’ve seen folks in the general section be pulled before folks in the priority queue. Many reasons why folks get skipped over, timed out, banned or can’t get a hold of. Really tricky for us to do the job to make sure folks are getting into shelter but it’s hard when we don’t know why they’re being skipped over. There’s been a guy #1 on the list for 2 weeks. He’s been at every shelter so he may have timed out everywhere. Maybe contacting the Rapid Response team for these challenging folks who have been banned or timed out everywhere. Other soup kitchens and DSCs have voiced concerns too. Hard to explain to clients their status when we don’t know the reason why they’re being skipped over. Roger brought up BM who has been banned from every shelter. Marcel stated EHFS will be adding “Unable to Accommodate” since they’re skipping over families because of children’s ages and family composition.

5.     Due Diligence Process in CT HMIS – Lisa Quach – Transitioning from the priority list to By-Name-List and utilizing HMIS for as much as we can. New process for due diligence data entry in HMIS. Go to CAN Assessments on the left hand side, select “Due diligence/follow-ups” – Need to enter every contact attempt individually. Try to complete due diligence on ID that has VI-SPDAT on it.

6.     Updates from Leadership Meeting – Mollie Greenwood – trying to better the communication from one meeting to the next. Provided minutes from Leadership meeting… increasing motivation because we are housing the most challenging folks now.

7.     Announcements

1. You can view the HMIS No Show Policy by clicking this link:  CT HMIS Training No Show/Cancellation Policy
2. The new cthmis.com and new training registration websites http://training.nutmegit.com/ have been launched last month.  Please take some time to review both sites as they have very useful information for all HMIS users.
3. Effective 8/1/16, no more than 2 people per agency can be registered for the same class.  If an agency needs to send 3/4 people to the same class, they need to choose a different date for the extra person(s).
4. Flexible Funding Update: Journey Home has secured additional flexible funding for removing barriers to housing and housing stability for chronically homeless households.
5. Rapid ReHousing will now only be accepting referrals through the Coordinated Exit Matching Meetings, at the in-person meetings.  The next Coordinated Exit meeting for individuals is Tuesday, August 16^th at 11:30 AM at 237 Hamilton St.  The next Coordinated Exit meeting for families is Wednesday, August 17^th at 10:00 AM at 76 Pliny St.