GH CAN Leadership 7/26/17

Greater Hartford Coordinated Access Network

Leadership Agenda

Wednesday, July 26^th, 2017

1.      In Attendance

Mollie Greenwood – Journey Home

Kara Capobianco – Department of Housing

Dave Martineau – Mercy Housing and Shelter Corp

Matt Morgan – Journey Home

Kathy Shaw – My Sisters’ Place

Justine Couvares – The Chrysalis Center

Cathy Zeiner – YWCA

Fred Faulkner – The Open Hearth

Rosemary Flowers – My Sisters’ Place

Barbara Shaw – Hands On Hartford

Brian Baker – South Park Inn

Cat Damato – CRT

Crane Cesario – CRMHC, DMHAS

Tina Ortiz – CRT

Lou Gilbert – ImmaCare

John Lawlor – The Connection

Andrea Hakian – CHR

Lauren Fair – Salvation Army

Sarah DiMaio – Salvation Army Marshall House

2.      Rapid ReHousing Fund Exception Requests – Sonia Brown

a.      For any COC-funded RRH programs, Balance of State has put some guidelines in place for allowable amounts of rental assistance for all participants.  If a COC-funded RRH program wants to extend the length of time in which they provide a higher level of rental assistance, they must complete this exemption form to keep in the client file.

                                                    i.     Sonia Brown of CRT drafted a form to assist our CAN in keeping track of these exemptions.

                                                   ii.     Kara of Department of Housing told us that at this time there are 3 different kinds of exemption forms for RRH, one for VI-SPDAT score ranges, this form, and one for households who require more than 12 months of financial assistance.

b.      Rental Assistance Exception Request Form

                                                    i.     CT RRP does not have a form like this at this time, and has different standards for providing financial assistance. 

                                                   ii.     A couple of changes to the form were proposed.  The first change was to indicate that the sub recipient of COC funding, rather than the CAN committee, must re-evaluate participants every 90 days.  The second change was to indicate that the housing matching committee would be the committee to review and determine approvals for this process.  The third change was to eliminate repetitive language at the bottom of the form indicating that the households would be re-evaluated in 90 days. 

1.      With these changes in place, we adopted this form for our community.

2.      This form would be signed off on by the Coordinated Exit Coordinator, CAN Manager, or Sarah DiMaio, as a representative from the Leadership Committee at the RRH meetings.

3.      Potentially Chronically Homeless Households in GH CAN – Mollie Greenwood

a.      In our community we have been tracking data differently than in other parts of the state.  One thing we try to do to ensure that no long-term homeless individuals are falling through the cracks is we track households who are potentially chronic.  In order to be designated as potentially chronic, a household needs to have the chronic homeless history of either 12 continuous months of homelessness or 4 occasions of homelessness within the last 3 years that total to 12 months. 

                                                    i.     In our community, we still have about 30 individuals who appear to meet this homeless history criteria, but who are not yet matched to a housing resource because there is no homeless verification form and/or disabling condition verification form completed.

                                                   ii.     Each time someone is marked as “potentially chronic” on our By-Name List, Journey Home staff is reaching out to whatever case manager or navigator is currently engaging with this household to let them know what homeless history is available.

b.      CT BNL Weekly Status Report – Matt Morgan

                                                    i.     Matt shared the CT BNL Weekly Status Report that Beau of the Department of Housing prepares on a weekly basis.  In this chart you can see in the GH CAN, we have an average length of time of 289 days where households have an unverified chronic status. 

1.      Part of this is because folks are sometimes marked as potentially chronic for long periods of time with no updates regarding their chronic status.

2.      Crane reminded us that in other parts of the state, nobody is doing the data exploration that Journey Home is doing, so it’s not feasible for them to keep track of who may be chronically homeless.  There are capacity gaps to devote this much time and resources in most other parts of CT.  Although this 289 figure seems high, she pointed out that in other places since they don’t have capacity to do any of this tracking, folks just go immediately from being marked as “not chronic” to “chronic verified” without any period of time having been designated as “potentially chronic”

3.      Andrea from CHR said it was still concerning, though, if after someone’s 12^th month of homelessness it was still taking an average of 289 days to verify chronic status.  An average indicates that there are a large number of people taking a very long time to obtain this verification, not that there are one or two outliers.

4.      Sarah DiMaio mentioned that one way they try to proactively identify households who may meet the chronic criteria is by handing out a resident document checklist to all households who are staying in the shelter.  Households who are actively engaged with services for a disabling condition are encouraged to provide evidence of this disabling condition to the shelter case manager so that she can add it to their client file.  Sarah offered to share this checklist with CAN Leadership.

5.      Dave Martineau reminded us that at one point we had a handful of LCSWs identified in the GH CAN who could help with the completion of Disabling Condition verification forms. 

6.      Kara cautioned us to make sure we are really trying to hone in on not just which clients are able to get the form completed, but to also make sure that folks who are getting verified as chronically homeless are the ones who really need the most serious, ongoing supportive services. 

a.      Andrea expressed that when CHR is doing the disabling condition verification form, they aren’t just doing a quick sign-off, they are first doing a mental health status assessment.  Andrea offered to share that form with others in the CAN.

b.       

4.      Coordinated Entry Data – see handout

a.      Our rates of successful shelter diversion have increased for both individuals and families since the Diversion Center got the infusion of committed staff in January of last year. 

b.      Additionally, while we continue to have a few outstanding Data Quality cases, we now have about a dozen cases on our plate, the smallest amount we have ever had in GH CAN.

5.      GH CAN Housing Data – see p.2

6.      Announcements

a.      Hands On Hartford is working on planning the Day of Sharing and Caring and needs lots of help planning and pulling off the event.  The event is currently scheduled for 11/2 from 11:00AM – 2:00PM If you’re interested, please contact swalker@handsonhartford.org

b.      Salvation Army is offering an Anti Human Trafficking Training at Capitol Region Mental Health Center Tuesday, 9/26 from 1-4 PM

c.      Matt Morgan announced that he and Amanda Girardin of Journey Home recently met with Liz Issacs of Housing Innovations.  Following some recent housing program audits, Housing Innovations has advised that only programs that are included on the Housing Inventory Chart as emergency shelter be designated as emergency shelter for the purposes of verifying chronic homelessness.  In recent months, we in the GH CAN have been treating some short-term programs, like respite programs, as emergency shelter.  Housing Innovations guidance is that if they are not included in the HIC, they should either be added to the HIC (and must indicate a preference for serving homeless households) or they need to be treated as institutions.

                                                    i.     One concern that Crane raised is that our HIC is really intended only to list programs that are limited to serving folks experiencing homelessness.  Although folks who are homeless often utilize other settings, like respite, to have a safe place to stay, these programs don’t use HMIS and are not dedicated specifically to the homeless. 

                                                   ii.     Dave Martineau indicated that it will be important for us to look at the length of time folks are being served in these programs.  Longer term programs really aren’t similar to emergency shelters, they are more like transitional living programs. 

                                                  iii.     Kara updated us on some things going on with Department of Housing, shelter contract revisions have been written.  As Brenda Earle announced via email, she will be leaving the department soon for a new position. 

GH CAN Housing Data

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	120	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	433
Verified Chronic Matched	36
Verified Chronic Not Yet Matched	17	We currently have 17 chronic verified clients who have not yet been matched to housing.
Potentially Chronic Matched	5	These households did not disclose a disabling condition, and are matched to various programs.
Potentially Chronic Not Yet Matched	38	Right now we believe 38 households have the chronic length of homeless history, but none of these individuals have their homeless and disability verifications completed.

GH CAN Leadership 7/12/17

Greater Hartford Coordinated Access Network

Leadership Agenda

Wednesday, July 12^th, 2017

Attended:

Sonia Brown - CRT,

Kara Capobianco- DOH,

Crane Cesario – CRMHC, DMHAS

Cat Damato - CRT,

Fred Faulkner – The Open Hearth,

Louis Gilbert - ImmaCare,

Mollie Greenwood – Journey Home,

Andrea Hakian- CHR,

Matt Morgan – Journey Home,

Amy Robinson- US Department of Veterans Affairs,

Iris Ruiz – Interval House,

Kathy Shaw – My Sisters’ Place,

Cathy Zeiner - YWCA,

John Lawlor – The Connection,

Ymonne Wilson - CRT,

Justine Couvares[MG1]  – Chrysalis Center

1.      HUD Standards for Housing and Shelter Accessibility-Kara

a)      Following up on the article that we distributed last week, Kara wants to make sure shelters are following the American Disabilities Act (ADA) and Fair Housing Act (FHA) laws regarding clients in shelter and housing accommodation requirements for clients with disabilities such as clients with oxygen tanks and emotional support and therapy pets.  In some parts of the state there have been issues with accommodating different kinds of disabilities lately, so Kara wants to remind everyone to let their staff know that if they are not sure what to do they should elevate the issue to their shelter manager.

b)     If a shelter or housing program is unable to accommodate an individual because of their disabilities, Kara says that programs should bring these clients up to CAN meetings to figure out a solution to the client.

c)      Sonia says that happens in housing programs as well with landlords and the agency speaks on behalf for the client to make that accommodation.

d)     Kara says if any shelter has any questions or concerns about these issues is to contact the shelter director.

a.      Coordinated Entry requirements for accessibility and language line- Matt

a)      Matt says a gap that needs to be covered at CAN appointments is accommodating clients who have language barriers such as English not being a client’s primary language, clients who are deaf, and clients who are blind.

b)     Sonia asked if the problem is the fee for the language line?

a.      Kara suggests to add the language line to the Diversion Center budget.

b.      Andrea says the Diversion Center can use the language line when CHR staff is there at the Diversion Center[MG2] .

c)      Andrea asks if 211 is able to flag these clients on the CAN appointment schedule for clients that need these other resources.

d)     Mollie says right now there is no way to flag these clients in HMIS for the CAN appointments.

e)     Andrea asks if 211 can add another question to their script of whether or not the client needs special accommodations at their CAN appointment.

f)       Matt proposes to contact 211 and CCEH to get this new option in HMIS.  Mollie will work with Laura of 211 to figure out how to flag households who need special accommodations and will submit a request to Nutmeg’s Release Bin to have some sort of identifier added statewide.

2.      Balance of Stated COC Representation

a)      Cat says Manchester is still its own Sub COC and is meeting regularly.  Andrea Hakian regularly attends those meetings.

b)     Cat says Manchester Sub COC can stay separate from the CAN.

c)      Cat says the next Hartford sub-COC meeting is next August.

d)     Crane suggests if Andrea can’t attend a BOS COC meeting on behalf of Manchester Crane or Matt can represent the CAN at that meeting.

e)     Crane says the Hartford Sub COC Chair position needs to be filled and this position will be discussed at next month’s meeting.

f)       Sonia asks about the maximum pay that agencies can pay for the CT BOS RRH and whether exceptions to the maximum this need to go through the CAN.

g)      Crane suggests the authorizations should come to the CAN Leadership meetings.

h)     Kara says she thinks the purpose is to keep the CAN informed when difficult cases come up.

i)       Kara says DOH is trying to balance the budgets for RRH since more RRH programs will be growing.

j)       Sonia suggests to bring this issue at the Operations or RRH meetings.

k)      Matt suggests that this may be better resolved at the housing matching meetings and that leadership may benefit from hearing if this is an issue with RRH programs.

l)       Andrea suggests to bring that information back to the Leadership Meeting to look at the information.

m)    Crane suggests to create a form and send it CT BOS to approve it and send it back to the CAN.

3.      The Open Hearth Program Changes

a)      Fred says as of July 1^st Open Hearth no longer has a TLP program and has expanded its shelter beds from 25 to 55 beds.  When clients walk into the shelter the case managers will assess the level of need for the client to determine what tier of the shelter seems like a good fit for case management.

b)     Fred says

c)      Fred says that in addition to these changes to their shelter,  they have a new SRO-style Extended Program.  This program is designed for clients have income and who are focused on sober lifestyles.  Residents will pay to stay at The Open Hearth and stay as long as they would like, get to vote on new individuals joining the program, and will live in a sober environment, similar to Oxford House.  Anyone can make a referral to this program.

a.      Matt says if a client is being matched during a housing matching meeting would you want a referral if client seems appropriate.

i.       Fred says yes they would take those referrals and they have 10 to 15 beds.

4.      Young Adult Shelter Beds

a)      John ask if any shelter provider would be interested to set aside a bed or two for young adult youth.

b)     Brian from South Park and Lauren from Salvation Army Marshall House said they would be interested in prioritizing some beds for young adults if there was funding available to support this.

c)      Kara says to also think about the logistics for shelters if that is possible, and to consider if your shelter is a place where youth may feel more comfortable.  Some shelters have had success with prioritizing shelter beds for youth if those beds are able to be separated from other beds and have a little more privacy.  This is not feasible for all shelters, so it’s something to keep in mind.

d)     Cathy from YWCA says they may be interested as well.

5.      GH CAN Housing Data

a)      Mollie says it is the first time that potentially chronic not yet matched is under 40.

a)      Mollie says the issue is that some of these clients are not in a shelter and are unaware of where these clients are staying right now.

b)     Matt says in an estimated trend we could reach zero chronically homeless in 12 to 18 months.

6.      Announcements

a.      Hands On Hartford is working on planning the Day of Sharing and Caring and needs lots of help planning and pulling off the event. If you’re interested, please contact swalker@handsonhartford.org

b.      Salvation Army is offering an Anti Human Trafficking Training at Capitol Region Mental Health Center Tuesday, 9/26 from 1-4PM

GH CAN Operations 7/12/17

Greater Hartford Coordinated Access Network

Operations Agenda

Wednesday, July 12^th, 2017

In Attendance:

Alicia Akers, CRT

Sam Antunes, CHR

Janet Bermudez, Hands On Hartford,

Roger Clark, ImmaCare

Rochelle Currie, The Connection

Cat Damato, CRT

Angel Fernandez, The Open Hearth

Amber Higgins, CHR

Klaudia Lobeska, EHFS, CRT

Geri Harrison, Salvation Army Marshall House,

Malika Nelson, CHR

Heather Pilarcik, South Park Inn

Fred Faulkner, The Open Hearth

Natalie Ramos, ImmaCare

Iris Ruiz, Interval House

Luz Serrano, ImmaCare

Anita Cordero-Doers, ImmaCare

Jose Vega, McKinney, CRT

1.      Welcome and Introductions

a.      Leadership Updates – Mollie Greenwood

                                                    i.     CCEH will be having training on legal do’s & don’ts. Bring challenging clients to CAN operations to see who can serve them.

                                                   ii.     BOS is trying to figure out how different communities want to be represented. Trying to figure out what makes sense for GH CAN and who needs to be in the meetings.

2.      Case Conferences – Fred Faulkner

a.      145802

b.      Some of the previous clients discussed have been long term clients but they don’t have to be. If you’re having consistent challenges while working with the client, bring them up here, don’t wait until clients have been in your shelter for many months.

c.      190848

d.      38031

e.      35018

3.      The Open Hearth Presentation – Kyren McCrorey

a.       Effective 7/1/17 – Shelter beds increased from 25 to 55. TLP no longer exists.

b.      Shelter program will be 3-tiered.

                                                    i.     Tier 1 – men who are there for intensive assessments for short period of time. (2 weeks-1 month) During this period of assessment, case managers will be obtaining state ID, assisting with medical insurance, etc.

                                                   ii.     Tier 2 - Once assessed and ready to move on, clients will move to another part of building in tier 2. Here, they really focus on what was assessed during tier 1. Clients have access to full employment training program.

                                                  iii.     Tier 3 is when you’re ready to move on, actively housing search.

c.      The Extended Program is a new program at The Open Hearth dedicated towards recovery. There are men who do well in structured environment and opt to stay at The Open Hearth to stay sober and not return to jail system. Time span for resident is unlimited. This program is totally detached from state/federal funding.

                                                    i.     Clients pay to live there and control their environment. Program is very similar to Oxford House.

                                                   ii.     Referrals don’t need to come from 211. Program is currently full now. Current residents are from combination of Open Hearth and the community.

                                                  iii.     If a client is interested, contact Brittany King or Fred Faulkner. Program has advisers, not case manager, so they really make their own decisions.

                                                  iv.     Clients will not be considered literally homeless once they enter TEP so they will not be eligible for any housing programs through the CAN. The cost of participating in the program is about $750/month including food. Most participants have employment income and end up with a good amount of savings. Do they need income at entry?  No, they do not necessarily.  What about employment searching?

                                                   v.     TEP is for folks interested in recovery but not there yet. In order to get into TEP, need approval from other residents.

4.      Coordinated Exit:

a.      Recently Housed – Lisa Quach

                                                    i.     Housing Data – 12 chronic verified folks not yet matched

1.      PSH/housing resources have slowed down. Many of the unmatched households have barriers with documents and immigration issues. We have been matching folks with chronic length of homeless history with no disability to rapid rehousing meeting.

2.      We have 38 potentially chronic clients who are believed to have the chronic length of time but who are missing verifications. This is the lowest our potentially chronic number has ever been in GH CAN.

                                                   ii.     Trends Chart – We have seen a significant reduction in the number of folks who are chronically homeless in GH CAN.

                                                  iii.     MIA chart – As a CAN we are doing a much better job of tracking of clients when they leave the system. We are also seeing better communication from case managers and a relationship with DOC for when folks become incarcerated.

5.      Coordinated Entry:

a.      Shelter Priority List: Prioritization of Young Adults – Steve Hurley

                                                    i.     Request from YETI – Add Youth as a tiebreaker on shelter priority list.

                                                   ii.     The Operations committee voted to add it as a tiebreaker after Elderly 62+.

6.      Donated Goods: Resources – Alison Scharr

                                                    i.     Vouchers distributed for “New to You” thrift shop where clients are able to go and receive clothing.

7.      Announcements

a.      Hands On Hartford and a number of community partners are working on planning the Day of Sharing and Caring, and needs lots of help planning and pulling off the event.  If you’re interested in assisting, please contact swalker@handsonhartford.org

b.      Salvation Army is offering an Anti Human Trafficking Training at Capitol Region Mental Health Center Thursday, 9/26 from 1-4 PM

c.      The time for the Rapid ReHousing Matching Meetings has changed- Rapid ReHousing matching will now begin at 1:15 PM and go until 2:45 PM.

d.      CCEH is hosting full SPDAT training - sign up for training at www.cceh.org 

GH CAN Housing Data

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	115	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	428
Verified Chronic Matched	35
Verified Chronic Not Yet Matched	12	We currently have 12 chronic verified clients who have not yet been matched to housing.
Potentially Chronic Matched	4	These households did not disclose a disabling condition, and are matched to RRH programs.
Potentially Chronic Not Yet Matched	38	Right now we believe 38 households have the chronic length of homeless history, but none of these individuals have their homeless and disability verifications completed.

              

GH CAN SHELTER BED WAITLIST PRIORITIZATION CRITERIA

As of 5/19/16, all access to emergency shelter beds will be prioritized based on the criteria below in a shelter waitlist.  In order to be added to the shelter waitlist, households must attend a GH CAN assessment appointment.  Shelters will make 3 attempts to contact households before moving onto the next person on the list. 

Proposed Shelter Waitlist Prioritization Criteria
Top Priority Individuals:	Top Priority Families:
1.      Unsheltered 2.      Staying in a car 3.      Doubled Up – Unsafe 4.      Coming from DV shelter 5.      In a hospital 6.      Eviction/Foreclosure 7.      In a hotel – paid for by third party 8.      In a hotel – paid for by self/family 9.      Doubled Up- Safe	1.      Unsheltered 2.      Staying in a car 3.      Doubled Up – Unsafe 4.      Coming from DV shelter 5.      In a hospital 6.      Eviction/Foreclosure 7.      In a hotel – paid for by third party 8.      In a hotel – paid for by self/family 9.      Doubled Up- Safe
Tiebreakers:	Tiebreakers:
1.      Chronically Homeless 2.      Pregnant 3.      Elderly (62+) 4.      Physical Disability 5.      Needs access to medicine 6.      Mental Health Disability 7.      Elderly (55+)	1.      Chronically Homeless 2.      Pregnant 2-3rd trimester 3.      Elderly (62+) 4.      DCF Involvement 5.      Children younger than school age 6.      Children: school age 7.      Physical Disability 8.      Needs access to medicine 9.      Mental Health Disability 10.   Elderly (55+)