GH CAN Operations Meeting 3/22/17

Greater Hartford Coordinated Access Network

Operations Agenda

Wednesday March 22^nd, 2017

In Attendance: 

Alicia Akers - CRT

Crane Cesario - DMHAS

Roger Clark - ImmaCare

Tylon Crump - CRT SSVF

Cat Damato - CRT

Kyren McCrorey - The Open Hearth

Angel Fernandez - The Open Hearth

Kelly Gonzalez - CRT

Nicole Milton - CHR Enfield

Matt Morgan - Journey Home

Malika Nelson - CHR PATH

Maureen Perez - CRT / McKinney

Heather Pilarcik - South Park Inn

Chris Robinson - Chrysalis Center

Amy Robinson - US Department of Veterans Affairs

Rob Soderberg - CHR

Wendy Walker - CRT/ McKinney

Julie Bernstein - CHR Enfield

Sarah DiMaio - Salvation Army Marshall House

Kelanda Santos - My Sisters' Place

Christie Corrigan - No Freeze Project

1.      Welcome and Introductions

2.      Coordinated Entry:

a.      End of Cold Weather Protocol

-        Christie says they are making announcements of closing No Freeze and Welcome Center on March 31.

-        Christie says on Friday that anyone at the Welcome Center to see if they are on the Shelter Waitlist.

-        Christie will announce today at No Freeze to check their status on the shelter waitlist and to go to the Welcome Center to do that.

-        Christie says Navigators and case managers are welcome to come to the Welcome Center and if they want to go through the No Freeze rosters. If people would like to look at the rosters to contact Christie before going over.

-        Christie says tonight is the last night they will have availability of 75 beds at the No Freeze and the rest of the nights it is open they will have 50 beds.

-        Sarah says that there is available funds for hoteling families until the next of the month.

-        Steve says that clients who appear at their CAN appointments and need to be added to the shelter waitlist will place the Mercy Friendship Center number to contact the client.

3.      Releases of Information

a.      CCT Release of Information

-        Mollie says if any client needs to be discussed at the CCT meeting to contact Amanda Girardin at Journey Home.

-        Sarah says the last CCT meeting that she went to was not productive since there was no resolution for their clients.

-        Gerry says that having the release is important in order to have easy access to get a client’s diagnosis and information.

-        Luz asks how can case managers get an expedited record of their clients due to it takes 30 days for it get by mail.

-        Angel says if you can go to the medical records office to get that information for the client.

4.      Coordinated Exit:

a.      Third party verification of homelessness requirements - In addition to the Homeless Verification Form itself that must be completed, all housing programs are required by their funders (HUD, or Department of Housing) to collect third party evidence of any time participants are literally homeless.  This means that in addition to creating a timeline on the Homeless Verification form, all housing programs are required to have evidence that supports that timeline.  This can include shelter records (either letters, or printouts from HMIS), letters from outreach workers, or letters from other providers to verify unsheltered time.  

i.                 HMIS Enrollments - Journey Home distributed a guide to accessing client "Face Sheets" in CT HMIS.  The Face Sheet function pulls together all shelter enrollments associated with a particular client ID and organizes the information chronologically.  Face sheets will only pull data for the information in one client ID at a time, so if a household has multiple IDs, all relevent HMIS enrollments will need to be printed, and multiple face sheets may be required if a household has multiple HMIS IDs.

ii.                Letters from outreach workers - If households have spent time unsheltered, any household can self-verify up to 3 months of unsheltered time.  But ideally, households who have been working with outreach workers should be able to obtain letters from outreach workers.  Sometimes outreach workers may be asked to update a letter they had written previously.  This is because there is sometimes a delay between when folks are added to the priority list and when they are matched to a housing program.  Because housing programs are required to prove any time that a household is homeless, the housing programs may request updated information from outreach workers to ensure the household's whole timeline is covered.

-        Mollie says the housing programs are required to update that the client is still currently homeless. It is the responsibility of the housing program to make sure this information is updated to prove the client is still homeless when accepting them into their housing program.

iii.               Who is responsible for updating homeless verification information - It is ultimately the responsibility of housing programs to update any homeless verification required between the time households were added to the Priority List to the point at which they came in for intake.  

5.      Announcements

a.      CCEH is offering a training called Housing Plans for All Clients on the morning of April 3^rd. Register on www.cceh.org

b.      CCEH is offering full SPIDAT training and full SPDAT Train The Trainer training April 3^rd and 4^th. Contact your agency leadership to request training.

c.      Advocacy day for the GH CAN will be taking place on Wednesday, April 12th

GH CAN Leadership - Shelter and RRH Meeting with DOH 3/22/17

Shelters in attendance:  McKinney, East Hartford, The Open Hearth, South Park Inn, Marshall House, YWCA (Chrysalis for case management), Immacare and Interval House

Other programs in attendance:  Journey Home, Community Health Resources for RRH and Mercy Housing for the Diversion Center

Meeting facilitated by the Department of Housing

Summary of meeting:

1)      There was discussion by all on the subject of shelter discharges to homelessness.  The community is responsible for the homeless clients.  Each shelter must look at the big picture before discharging for nonviolent reasons.

a.       Shelter discharge due to the client’s reluctance to engage in case management or missing appointments

                              i.      Ensure case managers are using person centered planning so the client is deciding on their action plan goals

                             ii.     There needs to be trust in the case managers for clients to engage

                           iii.      Case managers need to try many different ways to engage the clients, not just a case management appointment sheet hanging on their office door.  They should go and find the clients and engage

                           iv.      There should be evidence in the case notes of the different ways the case management attempted to engage with the client, including building rapport, recognizing stages of change, and meeting the client in the shelter/community

                             v.     Bring the client’s situation to the CAN meeting and case conference for some feedback and ideas on how to get the client to engage

                           vi.      More trainings on engaging clients in case management

b.      Shelter discharge due to violence, harmful behavior, illegal behavior in the shelter

                              i.      The safety of the clients and staff in the shelter is very important. 

                             ii.     Handle the situation as needed with law enforcement

                           iii.      Immediate removal from the shelter

                           iv.      Bring the client information to the CAN meeting so that they can be connected to outreach or at least stay on the list so the community can continue to reach out and connect the client to services

c.       Shelter discharge due to meeting the length of stay policy

                              i.      This should no longer be a reason for discharge.  DOH understands that LOS will be longer.  Shelter case managers should be referring to rapid re-housing programs to move clients along in the system. 

d.      DOH read the proposed contract language around case conferencing for discharges.  This is a proposed contract language change for 7/1/17.  All were in agreement that the policy is fine.  There are concerns about when case conferencing will happen and that staff are already pushed to the limit with so many meetings.  There is still time to work this process out

                              i.      Journey Home will work with providers to review all existing meetings, review what the goal/purpose of each meeting is and opportunities to merge meetings or terminate some meetings.

2)      Length of stay policies – DOH read the proposed contract language for 7/1/17 and it states that LOS must be flexible with the goal of permanent housing

3)      Chronically Homeless individuals cycling through the system because the Smartsheet prioritizes them to the top of the list.  Journey Home will look at this process and work with DOH to make changes.  This should address the ongoing issue of individuals getting a shelter bed, receiving a social security check and not coming back to the shelter for a couple weeks than going back to 2-1-1 and getting a diversion appointment and another shelter bed because they will be prioritized to the top of the list.  There should be talking points for this population so they know the homeless system is in place to end homelessness and permanently place homeless clients.  Once they give up a shelter bed, it will be harder to get the bed back.  These individuals should be connected to a Navigator to help build rapport and help them remain connected to staff, despite cycling through the shelter.

4)      Consistent communication in all shelters when clients ask to stay long enough to “become chronic”.  Ensure clients understand that chronic also entails having a “severe and persistent” disability.  Not all people who have disability verifications completed are meeting this threshold.  Work with clients who can work to pursue rapid rehousing first.  The CAN will discuss this further to set up procedures to check disability verifications.

5)      Rapid Re-housing in a resource to quickly move people out of shelter.  GH CAN has multiple RRH programs to refer shelter clients to.  RRH case managers and shelter case managers need to work very closely in order to successfully house clients.

6)      Furniture is a huge need in GH CAN.  Shelter providers should approach Goodwill as one group and request prioritization for homeless clients.  A Flex fund for furniture may be a good idea.  DOH is happy to work with any DOH funded shelter to reallocate existing funds.  

GH CAN Operations 3/8/17

GH CAN Operations Committee

Wednesday, March 8, 2018

In Attendance:

Janet Bermudez - Hands On Hartford

Crane Cesario - DMHAS

Tylon Crump - CRT

Rochelle Currie - The Connection

Fred Faulkner - The Open Hearth

Angel Fernandez - The Open Hearth

Ruby Givens-Hewitt - My Sisters' Place

Kelly Gonzalez - CRT

Tenesha Grant - Mercy Housing

Gerilyn Maciel - Salvation Army

Marueen Perez - CRT

Heather Pilarcik - South Park Inn

Chris Robinson - Chrysalis Center

Amy Robinson - VA

Kyren McCrorey - The Open Hearth

Jose Vega - McKinney

Wendy Walker - CRT

Klaudia Lobeska - CRT 

Julie Bernstein - CHR

Kelanda Santos - MSP

Sarah DiMaio - Salvation Army

1. Cold Weather Protocol Updates – Nate Fox
2. No Freeze overflow shelter for men will be closing on 3/31/17. As of 4/1/17 – no more no freeze. Welcome center is closing 3/31/17. Hoping for another welcome center. MANNA/Community Meals is not ending, still happening Monday & Tuesday night. Center Church won’t be open Wed-Sunday. SAMH exhausted all journey home funds for motel placement so Salvation Army kicked in. About $5,000 through, halfway through. We except to have funds for 2 more weeks with the cold weather coming up. After that, no funds for motels for families on the streets. Folks staying in no freeze who is chronic or potential – get them connected to someone to get them document ready. May be looking for other folks to step up. 
1. Interested in end of the month to connect folks at no freeze center, reach out to Mollie. Want to make sure folks we see during the winter time do not get dropped off. Next meeting 3/22/17 will have presentation by Nate/Christie to see what message the guys are getting. Jose asked has it been full every day? Not full every day. Most days are 50 but the recent cold weather activation had about 70. Sarah said they cannot case manage the families in motels, currently referring to diversion center. Only 2 families in hotels right now. Need someone to help absorb the work that needs to be done. Shelters have been pretty full. Jose suggested transitioning them to shelters. He had 7 beds last night. Maybe 2 weeks before discharge. 
2. Heather made a suggestion to consider what’s worked and what hasn’t. Specifically, the lack of beds for single women. Would be something to consider for next year. Cold weather planning will start in may this year instead of Sept/October. Anyone who is involved in cold weather discussions, let Mollie know. Jose asked if City of Hartford will be attending the meetings. Roger suggested planning the location for No Freeze early as oppose to next year waiting until last minute.
3. Veteran Services – Tylon
4. CT referrals for veterans experiencing homelessness – what to do if you identify a veteran. Tylon just recently became Sr. Case Manager at SSVF. Get an intake, anyone who has veteran status should be immediately referred to CRT SSVF and Amy Robinson at VA at the same time. Have to do it immediately because they have a 90-day window to get things ready. Maureen Hearn is outreach person so they will meet with someone for an intake. Dishonorable discharge is not eligible but anything underneath is eligible. Can request for dishonorable discharge can possibly be changed to Bad Conduct discharge. If you encounter a veteran, call Tylon or Maureen. SSVF provide the housing – that’s why they don’t go through CAN or RRH. National Guard – never activated, wouldn’t qualify. Navigator who sees someone is homeless should call, help with arrears as long as they meet certain criteria and can sustain their rent.
5. Coordinated Exit –
1. Getting on BNL – In order to be on BNL, client has to have VI-SPDAT completed in HMIS. If you don’t see someone on the by-name-list, please let us know. They might be active in another CAN or it may be a duplicate ID.
2. Next Steps Tool – Please use this tool for individuals 18-24yo. If pregnant or parenting, continue to use family VI-SPDAT. The next steps tool will also get someone the by-name-list and the scores are same as regular VI. We will be asking folks to complete full SPDATs on HMIS. That reduces room for error and not remembering to input converted scores. Full SPDAT feature is currently now in HMIS but the scores are not converting yet.
3. Accessing the BNL – Tool developed by CCEH/DOH distributed. Able to pull by name lists of all who is enrolled, matched or housed. Should do this before rapid rehousing meeting to see who may or may not be discussed at your shelter.
4. Getting on priority list – In order to get on priority list, we have to have evidence of chronic length of homeless history. We get that either by obtaining a letter for 3^rd party verification from outreach providers or churches or community member to prove the time. Journey Home also does a quarterly review and continue to review timelines when clients go in and out of shelter. In the past we were able to match folks who were chronic verified within the week that they were matched so the homeless verification stayed current. Now that the resources have slowed down and there is a lag between someone being verified and matched, the homeless verification may need to be updated when they get matched. Example = if someone is verified in January but they aren’t matched until March, we will need to update homeless verification to reflect where they’ve been since January. This is because the homeless verification has to be current at intake to prove literal homelessness status at intake. If client is at a shelter, we can just update enrollments. If client is unsheltered or in an institution, we will need an updated letter once matched. Not trying to give extra work to you guys but all documents need to be aligned. Also getting a lot of pushback for 3^rd party verifications so we have been stricter with the letters coming in. We have the HUD FAQ’s that discusses what is acceptable in terms of 3^rd party verifications. If someone did not physically observe the client sleeping in places not meant for human habitation, other information may be accepted in lieu of the physical observation.
6. New agencies to release of information: Clause in the ROI that states that the agencies can change at any time so it’s okay to continue using current ROI even though we are adding new agencies.
1.    HBID – staff or volunteers? Paid staff. Do agencies get information on confidentiality prior to getting added? Don’t want them to have access to HMIS. Do they need a vote to see who would have access to HMIS? No voting process. Has to go through HMIS right now. Concern with client’s sensitive information. Only voting for Outreach Committee. HBID will be added to CAN page of ROI.
2.    The Village for Children & Families – Much more involved in youth process. Trying to make sure active part of youth committee we’re getting started. Hoping they get more involved with family matching meeting down the road. Voted yes.
3. Job Corps – interested in youth steering committee. Expressed interested in joining RRH committees or coordinated exit committee. Enough homeless youth coming in and out that it would be worth it. Voted yes.
4. First Choice Health Centers – have assisted with homeless verifications and disability verifications in the past. Voted yes.
5. Atlas Behavioral Health – Interested in assisting with disability verifications and services for programs where case management isn’t attached. Voted yes to be added to CAN release.

GH CAN Leadership 3/8/17

Greater Hartford Access Network

Leadership Agenda

Wednesday, March 8^th, 2017

               Attended: Brian Baker, Steve Bigler, Sonia Brown, Crane Cesario, Cat Damato, Sarah Dimiao, Fred Faulkner, John Ferrucci, Rosemary Flowers, Nate Fox, Louis Gilbert, Tenesha Grant, Mollie Greenwood, Dave Martineau, Amy Robinson, Kathy Shaw, Barbara Shaw, Cathy Zeiner, and John Lawlor

1.      Welcome and Introductions

2.      Housing Updates

-Theresa says Housing authority have 20 open units and will be reopening their waitlist for clients who are verified chronically homeless.

-Mollie says application process is still not determined yet.

3.      Cold Weather Protocol Updates

a.      No-Freeze Closure Updates

-Nate says that No Freeze and Welcome Center will be closing at the end of the month. Hopes to re-open the Welcome Center in the summer.

-Sarah says she is concerned about the capacity of being able to offer case management for individuals and families for those that are temporarily placed in hotels.

-Crane suggests to get a list of clients who are staying at the NO Freeze who may be potentially chronic.

b.      Hotel Placement Updates

-Sarah says that Salvation Army is half way through their funding money to hotel families.

-Sarah says the problem is two families in the hotel that are the size of 6 and 5 and it is hard to find a shelter to take those larger size families.

-Sarah asks if Salvation Army should go through the rest of their funding to put families in hotels and CAN Leadership supports to continue to use the funding.

-Sara asks if she can have the families get into DSS shelters, but they do not have a residency.

-Crane says to use the shelter’s address for them to use to apply for DSS and contact Brenda Earle for further questions.

4.      Youth Engagement Team (YETI Committee)

-        John says the next YETI meeting will be coming up in a couple of weeks.

5.      Full SPDAT Training

a.      12 Opening for staff

-Mollie announces that the training will be on April 3^rd at the Lumsden Center

b.      5 openings for Train The Trainer

-        Mollie says this training should only be available for those who already have experience in how to do the VI-SPDAT and fully SPDAT.

6.      GH CAN Suburbs Sub-COC Meetings

-Crane suggests down the road that the city of Hartford to be its own CAN and the rest of the GH Region would be its own CAN.

-Crane says that we need to have a quarterly report for the GH Sub COC and the next Sub COC meeting will be in May.

-Crane asks if the COC meeting can be relocated to My Sisters Place on 76 Pliny Street.

7.      By Name List Maintenance

-Mollie says in the Operations Meeting they will be going over of how to find the By Name List on HMIS.

8.      Announcements

a.      Two weeks from now we will be having a Shelter Executive and RRH Meeting with Department of Housing, rather than the standard CAN Leadership Meeting. The meeting will take place from 12:00 – 2:15 PM at Sue Ann Shay Place, 76 Pliny St, Hartford. Please contact Brenda Earle with any questions.

b.      There is an upcoming training on Monday, April 3^rd organized by CCEH by Iain DeJong, focused on how to generate housing plans for challenging clients. See cceh.org to register.

c.      Advocacy day will take place on Wednesday, April 12^th, 2017 for the GH CAN.

d.      There is a new SAHMSA grant posted, Grants for the Benefit of Homeless Individuals. Applications are due 4/25/17.

GH CAN Leadership 2/22/17

Greater Hartford Coordinated Access Network

Leadership Meeting

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Notes

1.      Welcome and Introductions

a.      Matthew Morgan, Crane Cesario, Tenesha Grant, Dave Martineau, Cat Damato, Tina Ortiz, Andrea Hakian, Christy Corrigan, Diane Paige-Blondet, Steve Bigler, Steve MacHattie, Brenda Earle, Amy Robinson, Barbara Shaw, Cathy Zeiner, Leianna McIntire, Sara Dimiao, Angel Fernandez, Kyren McCrorey

2.      Housing Data Updates (see p. 2)

a.      Eighty-seven (87) people are verified chronic and have been matched to housing, and 7 people are verified chronic but not yet matched. This is the first time in two months that everyone who has been verified chronic is not matched to housing. Matt would like everyone to monitor this number. There are 61 people who are potentially chronic and are in the process of being verified.

3.      Disabling Condition Verification Form (see p. 3-4) – Crane Cesario

a.      The form was brought up at CT BOS where they changed the title from “Disability Verification” to “Disabling Condition Verification” because a lot of clinicians thought patients are being verified for disability which is not the case and BOS also thought the new title was a bit friendlier. Crane has the following issues with the form:

                                                    i.     The general information section does not ask for the name & contact information of the person completing the form;

                                                   ii.     The diagnosis should be written on the form because HUD wants to know the diagnosis; and

                                                  iii.     There is no effective date on the form.

                                                  iv.     Please let Crane know if any additional information should be added and she will have them change it.

                                                   v.     Matt believes that this form will be helpful for SOAR.

4.      Housing Resource Update from Zero: 2016 Housing Resource Summary (see handout) – Matt Morgan

a.      This form was being used statewide during the Zero: 2016 Campaign and is still being used to try to get to functional zero.

                                                    i.     According to Crane, Beau is in the process of updating this form.

b.      Which programs anticipate openings?

                                                    i.     Matt asked everyone to take a look at the form and let him know if there are any new openings that will become available soon. He briefly went down the list of openings:

1.      Remaining BOS 193 was rewarded to the CoC a few years ago. The form says there are 5 left but Crane does not believe that there are any left.

2.      Hartford Housing Authority is listed at 20. These were the site based units for seniors/disabled that were set aside by the city. Chrysalis has been working with the housing authority to go through their existing waitlist to make sure there is no one who was eligible in that program. They finished that process and we are now waiting on the housing authority to take the next steps (to lease up); however, chrysalis is fully utilizing their service capacity. According to Crane they are maxed out on their services. They need to finish housing people in Hartford and then they will focus on Waterbury, which is at 40%, so it is unknown where the housing authority piece will fit in. The 20 units are still available and there is still commitment from the housing authority to move forward with them.

3.      CHFA units are now all matched to clients; there were 50 statewide and Hartford received 22. According to Crane they are 5 year certificates so we have to be prepared to move/transition folks. She is unsure if the people in those units are still maintaining chronic status.

4.      All the Shelter Plus Care units have been matched.

5.      The 6 Moving On were for the Section 8/HCVP. Matt just estimated 6 thinking that at least 6 people who were moving out of PSH would be leased up by the end of the year.  Over 100 people were awarded a voucher.

                                                   ii.     Any other resources for our CAN that will be opening soon

a.      According to Crane 9 Shelter Plus Care will be coming online. She also believes that it is a little deceptive to look at ourselves as 60% of the way there because no one else has the volume of potential chronic that we do.  

5.      Permanent Supportive Housing Resource Prioritization – Crane Cesario

a.      Yesterday at the Coordinated Exit meeting they talked about whether or not they should be matching in order of highest score or by the date that the clients were verified since they are supposed to be housed within 90 days of being verified? The 90 day rule came from the United States Interagency Council on Housing (USICH). The CAN is striving for the 90 day goal in order to show that the system is working, but there are no repercussions if it is not reached. In the end the Coordinated Exit team made the decision to match by the date of verification. They also decided that anyone who is in the threshold of PSH (scored an 8 or above) they will take them by their score. This conversation will be continued at future Statewide CAN and CAN Leadership meetings.

b.      Crane raised the issue of incomplete paperwork for clients who are matched. There are times when a person is matched and their verification is not complete. For instance, a family was matched on February 1^st but the verification form was not received until yesterday. This was an unusual situation because the client would become chronic in October but was matched early so her paperwork was not done. Crane would like providers to be vigilant and make sure that all documents are completed and that the client is verified prior to being matched.

6.      Single Women Seeking Shelter – Dave Martineau, Rosemary Flowers (Rosemary was not present

a.      Mercy has a respite program with Capitol Region, and a DOH program for people with HIV/Aids and addictions.  Tenesha sent Mollie a list of qualifications for Catherine’s Place and TWP. In order to qualify for the VA program clients have to be a veteran and to get into the respite program clients have to go through Capital Region. Clients must also have a diagnosis of HIV/Aids in order to get into the Mercy Housing program.

b.      Crane brought up the issue of there being too few single women beds. Cathy Zeiner mentioned that the YWCA would be adding 4 more beds. Dave Martineau also has a 10 bed facility that is still empty and St. Patrick St. Anthony’s has 14 beds but there is no staff. If the committee can figure out a way to staff these facilities then Dave would work with the church.  

c.      There will be a meeting next week to decide how to use diversion funds.

d.      Matt met with someone at Intercommunity who said that they could potentially take referrals to their recovery programs.

e.      Crane mentioned that the RRH program for the City of Hartford was changed to provide only 1 month’s rental assistance and security deposit.

f.       Legion Courts units are still open according to Tenesha.

7.      Management of By-Name-List: Follow up from RRH meeting – Matt Morgan, Sarah DiMaio, Heather Pilarcik

a.      Matt was informed that there was a report from one of the CAN subcommittees and a discussion around the By Name List management. According to Sarah, most of the meetings, with the exception of the most recent one, were a mess because the BNL was so long but Journey Home cleaned up the list and Brenda was also present at the last meeting which helped. The BNL is now down from over 1000 to 700 people. However there are still some issues:

                                                    i.     The list is still very large and many of the folks are unknown to those who attend the meetings especially since not everyone who is supposed to be at the meeting actually attends.

                                                   ii.     The other issue is how to clean the BNL, keep it clean and how to follow up with the people who are still on it to make sure they are not skipping people who are still in shelters? Sarah said that Mollie recommended some type of procedure that would help identify people once they enter or leave a shelter or housing program. Some people are being housed and it is not making it to the BNL. Crane suggested having all the referring entities review the list once per week in lieu of going to a meeting. Crane will meet with Beau to discuss if there is some way to keep the list clean automatically through HMIS.

                                                  iii.     Another issue is that even when case managers at the meeting know the client they don’t really know enough about them to make a referral at the meeting. Dave Martineau suggested using the people who are taking the names of folks who are entering shelters & soup kitchens because they know who are coming and going. Crane is concerned that this might not be a reasonable use of people’s time if only 1 out of 30-40 people will he matched to housing; it’s a lot of effort for not much results but she does want to keep the list as small and viable as possible. She suggested sending the list out to have people review it prior to the meetings.

8.      Announcements

a.      Brenda mentioned that there has been some conversations across the state about who should be attending meetings. This meeting is specifically for executive level staff so please do not send case managers in place of executive staff. Someone who can make decisions for the agency should be at the meeting and if that staff person cannot attend they should send an email to the chairs. Dave Martineau (responding to Crane’s suggestion to exempt larger agencies) does not believe that the larger agencies such as CRT should be exempt because every other Executive Director makes the effort to attend.

b.      There will be no GH CAN Operations Committee Meeting after today’s meeting.

c.      The Next Steps Tool is available in CT HMIS.  Paper copies can be found on www.journeyhomect.org/provider-resources

The Meeting ended at 2:06 PM

GH CAN Housing Data Updates

Data Element	Number	Notes
Chronically homeless households housed in 2015	102	This includes clients housed through GH CAN programs as well as through other subsidies or independent housing
Chronically homeless households housed in 2016	211	This includes clients housed through GH CAN programs as well as through other subsidies or independent housing
Chronically homeless households housed in 2017	18	This includes clients housed through GH CAN programs as well as through other subsidies or independent housing
Total Chronically homeless households housed in GH CAN	331
Verified Chronic Matched	87
Verified Chronic Not Yet Matched	7	We currently have 7 chronic verified clients who have not yet been matched to housing.
Potentially Chronic Matched	0
Potentially Chronic Not Yet Matched	61	Right now we believe 61 households have the chronic length of homeless history, but none of these individuals have their homeless and disability verifications completed.

PART 1:  INSTRUCTIONS
·       To be eligible for all CoC funded PSH, evidence that one or more members of the household is diagnosed with a disabling condition must be documented in the participant file.  ·       To be eligible for a PSH unit that is dedicated to serve chronically homeless people, the disabling condition must be documented for an adult head of household, or, if there is no adult in the family, a minor head of household. ·       This form can also be used for CoC-funded TH or other programs that have committed to serving disabled people. ·       Complete all fields in Part 2. ·       Complete all fields under the relevant option in Part 3 ·       Attach all supporting documents to this form.   ·       Maintain this form and all supporting documents in the participant’s file.
PART 2:  GENERAL INFORMATION
Admitting CoC Agency Name:	CoC Project Name:
Participant Name:	HMIS #	Date of Birth	CoC Project Entry Date
Part 3:  DISABLING CONDITION CERTIFICATION
Option #1:  Social Security (SSI/DI) or Veteran’s Disability
Evidence must include one of the following (Check One): c   A) Written verification from the Social Security Administration; OR c   B)  Copies of a disability check (e.g., SSI, SSDI or Veterans Disability Compensation)
ATTACH EVIDENCE OF EITHER A OR B TO THIS FORM          c   Check here to indicate that evidence                                                                                  has been attached.

Option #2:  Verification by a Qualified Licensed Professional (Certifying professional must be licensed by the State to diagnose and treat the qualifying condition.)
I, hereby, certify that _________________________________________________(Insert Participant Name) has been diagnosed with at least one of the following: ·       A physical, mental, or emotional impairment, including an impairment caused by alcohol or drug abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder, or brain injury that: Is expected to be long-continuing or of indefinite duration; and substantially impedes the individual's ability to live independently; and could be improved by the provision of more suitable housing conditions; OR ·       A developmental disability, as defined in section 102 of the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act of 2000 (42 U.S.C. 15002);  OR ·        The disease of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) or any condition arising from the etiologic agency for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV). I also, hereby, certify that I am licensed by the State of Connecticut to diagnose and treat the condition that I am certifying above.
c   Check here to indicate that additional information regarding diagnosis has been attached (optional).
Notes (optional):
Information About the Certifying Licensed Professional
Signature of Licensed Professional:	Credentials:		Date:
Printed Name:	Organization:
License #:	Phone #:
Option #3:  Intake or referral staff observation Must be confirmed within 45 days of the application for assistance by evidence from Option #1 or #2 above.
I hereby certify that ________________________________________________(Insert Participant Name) meets the HUD definition of disability. (NOTE:  This form does not require specifying disability.)
Signature of Staff:	Title:	Date:
Printed Name:	Organization: