GH CAN Operations 10/16/17

Greater Hartford Coordinated Access Network

Operations Agenda

Wednesday, October 18^th, 2017

Attended: Janet Bermudez (Hands on Hartford), Manuel Cadena (Catholic Charities), Roger Clark (ImmaCare), Stephanie Corbin (Mercy), Anita Corderro (ImmaCare), Tylon Crump (CRT SSVF), Rochelle Currie (The Connection), Angel Fernandez (The Open Hearth), Tina Gaines (CHR), Mollie Greenwood (Journey Home), Amber Higgins (CHR), Steve Hurley (Journey Home), Je’Neya King (CHR), Klaudia Lobeska (East Hartford Shelter), Gerilyn Maciel (Salvation Army Marshall House), Andre McGuire (McKinney), Maureen Perez (McKinney), Heather Pilarcik (South Park Inn), Lisa Quach (Journey Home), Rikka Racelis (Chrysalis Center), Natalie Ramos (ImmaCare), Kelanda Santos (My Sisters’ Place), Wendy Walker (McKinney), Ymonne Wilson (CRT), Ayanna Walcott (CRT), Lordes Ward (CRT)

1.      Welcome and Introductions

2.      Case Conferences

a.      ID 86061-CHR

3.      Coordinated Entry

a.      Mercy Homeless Prevention and Rapid Rehousing

1.      Stephanie says the language of their program has changed after reviewing the contract with the city of Hartford’s ESG funders. Moving forward, this program will not include Rapid Rehousing, and they will be operating like the other local shelter diversion programs. This program can only work with Hartford resident’s families. Program participants are not eligible if they have stayed in a shelter in the past six months. This program will only be available to families, and for the purpose of this program families are defined as households with minor children and households with adult disabled children. The program will not be taking people who are literally homeless, only people who are at risk and can be diverted. Client must have income in a month after enrolled in program. Families are people with children who are under the age of 18 or children over 18 who have a disability. This program is for people who have nowhere to go.

b.      Doubled Up Safe on Shelter Priority List

1.      Steve proposes to remove “double up safe” as an option for the question “where did you stay last night” for clients on the shelter waitlist. Currently any households who answer ‘where did you sleep last night” with “doubled up-safe” are the lowest priority in our community and are at the bottom of the list.

i.                 Stephanie says she agrees with removing the doubled up safe option on the shelter wait list because diversion staff are already trying to divert these clients who are doubled up safe.

ii.                Heather asks will this cause people to cycle through the diversion center more often?

iii.               Stephanie says they are already experiencing clients cycling through the diversion center, and by removing this as an option they would reduce the overall length of the shelter priority list.

2.      Steve says when client’s status is doubled up safe on the waitlist the client’s will never get a phone call for shelter due to the high volume of clients who are reporting being unsheltered or other unsafe living conditions. Therefore, clients get upset when diversion staff are cleaning up the waiting list and are being notified the diversion staff are not offering a shelter bed.

3.      Stephanie says she is still seeing a lot of people who are reporting staying outside for a long period of time and it is important they have the opportunity to get a bed.

4.      CAN Committee agrees to remove doubled up safe from the shelter prioritization.

c.      Safety Screening Questions for Coordinated Access Network

1.      CCEH and other statewide partners are working to establish consistent questions that Diversion Specialists can ask families to determine whether their current living situation is safe for them to return. This committee reviewed and discussed the proposed questions.

2.      Heather says there needs to be a question of finding out the number of people who are living in the that sleeping arrangement.

3.      Lourdes says DCF is not going to get honest answers from clients.

4.      Stephanie says they should ask if they are endangering another person’s housing and how many people are living there.

4.      Coordinated Exit

a.      Recently Housed

1.      Mollie says there are 4 verified chronic not yet matched to housing.

b.      Housing Data

1.      Mollie says there are 4 verified chronic not yet matched to housing.

5.      Leadership Updates

a.      CAN Updates

1.  Mollie says leadership is trying to figure out the next prioritization when all chronically homeless are matched to housing.

2.      Mollie says there will be a committee going to BOS and DOH about who should get these housing services besides chronically homeless.

b.      Puerto Rico Crisis

1. Mollie says there estimates as many as 22,000 people are flying into Bradley Airport beginning on November 1^st and 8^th. Some people will be qualified for FEMA resources, but not everyone will be.

2. Mollie says we do expect a lot of clients coming into our system, and so Matt and other in the community have been working to identify other options to assist folks. There will be a welcome center set up at the airport to assist folds coming from Puerto Rico, and there will be other sites throughout the City of Hartford, including a location at CREC.

3. Heather suggests that is most important to make sure for people who are getting off of the plane to be able to get access to get new ID’s and other identification forms that will be important.

6.      Announcements

a.      Rapid ReHousing and Family Matching Meetings will have a minor adjustment of times moving forward. RRH will meet from 1:15 – 2:30 and Family Matching will meet from 2:45 – 4:00.

b.      If you are working with someone who reports being a veteran, please call CRT’s Supportive Services for Veteran Families (for both families and individuals)

c.      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. The event will take place on 11/2/17.

d.      Security Deposit Guarantee Program is only available for chronically homeless clients at this time.

e.      The next Cold Weather Planning meeting will take place on Mondays at 3:00 PM at Journey Home.

f.       The Outreach Cards that the Hartford Business Improvement District were sent around in draft for printing in the next 2 weeks. If you have any feedback please see Mollies after today’s meeting.

GH CAN Operations 10/4/2017

Greater Hartford Coordinated Access Network

Operations Agenda

Wednesday, October 4^th, 2017

1.      Welcome and Introductions

                                                    i.     Crane Cesario - DMHAS

                                                   ii.     Roger Clark - ImmaCare

                                                  iii.     Stephanie Corbin – Mercy Housing and Shelter

                                                  iv.     Anita Cordero - ImmaCare

                                                   v.     Sarah DiMaio- Salvation Army Marshall House

                                                  vi.     Fred Faulkner – The Open Hearth

                                                vii.     Angel Fernandez – The Open Hearth

                                               viii.     Gerilyn Maciel – Salvation Army Marshall House

                                                  ix.     Andre McGuire – McKinney Shelter

                                                   x.     Heather Pilarcik – South Park Inn

                                                  xi.     Natalie Ramos - ImmaCare

                                                xii.     Kyren McCorey – The Open Hearth

                                               xiii.     Luz Serrano - ImmaCare

                                               xiv.     Jose Vega – McKinney

                                                xv.     Wendy Walker – McKinney

                                               xvi.     William St. Denis – Veterans Inc

                                              xvii.     Ronald Stokes  - McKinney

2.      Next Steps from Iain DeJong’s Training

                                                    i.     Case managers should reassess their role and that the main focus should be housing.

                                                   ii.     Crane brought up matching through automation but one of the barriers is HMIS data being incorrect. Geri said we are not dealing with cookie cutter people and that we have been doing a good job keeping our biases separate from matching. Case conference becomes deficit based focus instead of strength based because we couldn’t always trust the data in CT HMIS. Bringing clients into case conference can change the dialogue a lot.

3.      Case Conferences – Fred Faulkner

a.      178552 – South Park Inn

b.      188402 – The Open Hearth

c.      110251 – CHR Manchester

4.       Coordinated Exit:

a.      Returns to Homelessness from CAN Housing Programs – Lisa Quach

                                                    i.     Journey Home is tracking clients who are failing out of housing. Every two weeks, an inactive report is pulled from HMIS to see who has new enrollments.

                                                   ii.     Lisa asked providers to let us know of anyone else who has failed out of housing but is not on the list.

b.      Recently Housed – Lisa Quach

                                                    i.     AP #164421

                                                   ii.     HW #89409

                                                  iii.     BD #91792

c.      Housing Data – see p.2 and attached Trends Document –Lisa Quach

                                                    i.     There has been a 70% decrease in chronic homelessness since March 2015. A “Trends” report is completed on a quarterly basis to track clients aging into chronic homelessness.

5.      Coordinated Entry

a.      Shelter Entry Process Meeting tomorrow at 10:30 AM at Journey Home – Steve Hurley

                                                    i.     For those who were involved with the initial meeting about shelter entry process, there will be a meeting to discuss current process at JH.

6.      Leadership Updates – Mollie Greenwood

a.      Changes to SIF program. Present cases at CCT.

b.      Discussed cold weather. Put an ask out for a van from one of the CAN agencies or faith-based group who could assist with transportation to warming center.

c.      Appointments for CAN assessments are being scheduled out beyond the 24-48-hour window due to shortage of staff. Please do not have clients call Stephanie Corbin directly at the MDC.

7.      Announcements

a.      Rapid ReHousing and Family Matching Meetings will have a minor adjustment of times moving forward.  RRH will meet from 1:15-2:30 and Family Matching will meet from 2:45-4:00.

b.      If you are working with someone who reports being a veteran, please call CRT’s Supportive Services for Veteran Families (for both families and individuals

c.      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.  The event will take place on 11/2/17.

d.      Security Deposit Guarantee Program is only available for chronically homeless clients at this time. 

e.      The next Cold Weather Planning meeting will take place on Monday, September 25^th at 3:00 PM at Journey Home.

f.        

GH CAN Leadership 10/4/17

Greater Hartford Coordinated Access Network

Leadership Agenda

Wednesday, October 4^th, 2017

Attended: Crane Cesario (DMHAS), Frank Faulkner (The Open Hearth), Sarah DiMaio (Salvation Army Marshall House), Stephanie Corbin (Mercy), Lou Gilbert (ImmaCare), Brian Baker (South Park Inn), John Ferrurci (South Park Inn), Catherine Zeiner (YWCA), Barbara Shaw (Hands on Hartford), Jose Vega (CRT McKinney), John Lawlor (The Connection), Matthew Morgan (Journey Home), Mollie Greenwood (Journey Home), Justine Couvares (Chrysalis Center) and Sonia Brown (CRT)

1.      Welcome and Introductions

2.      Review of Iain DeJong training

a)      Lessons Learned from yesterday’s Training

1)     Justine says her staff is going to do a train the trainer session from material that was learned from Ian DeJong meeting.

2)     Sarah says that we need to start auto prioritization for matching clients to housing programs.

3)     Crane says she learned about how to use our resources more successfully, especially with Permanent Supportive Housing.

4)     Sarah says she learned about different roles of front line staff to shelter to have more responsibility to help clients get housed.

3.      Shelter Intakes and Immediate Shelter Need

a)      Fred asks if a person shows up to a shelter after hours are they allowed to accept them into shelter?

1)     Mollie says due to the CAN Operations Policies and Procedures about if households designate in Smartsheet as unsheltered, staying in a car, or double up unsafe shelters can take clients into their shelter at their own discretion.

b)     Fred says he requests to still be able to take clients into shelter before attending a CAN appointment, but as soon as they enter the shelter they would call 211.

1) Sarah says she is concerned about people getting side door access to shelters if clients are not on Smartsheet and get access to shelter.

2) Stephanie says she is concerned that clients are already calling her to get a shelter bed.

3) Stephanie says she is getting phone calls from agencies, clients, and case managers to get clients into shelter.

4) Stephanie says she is concerned that about the multiple side doors being opened.

c)      Fred suggests to be able to take clients into shelter for a couple of days until their CAN appointment and then at their CAN appointment diversion staff can determine if clients should be appropriate for shelter.

d)     Stephanie says she is currently not making direct referrals to all clients who appear to be unsheltered at the Diversion Center due the difficulty to distinguish if the client is currently sleeping outside.

e)     Stephanie says outreach staff are making direct referrals to shelters.

f)       Stephanie says she is concerned about the number of people on the waiting list and the number of empty beds that shelters are reporting.

g)      Stephanie asks how many men and women who are on the waiting list who have the status as being unsheltered.

1) Steve says there about 70 men and about 130 women who have a status as unsheltered on the waiting list.

2) Stephanie says that she is concerned about making direct referrals due to the high number of clients on the waiting list who are stating they are unsheltered.

3) Stephanie says she wants to make sure the clients on the wait list get an opportunity to get a phone call from shelters.

h)     Stephanie says she is making a lot of referrals to family shelters for family clients at the Diversion Center.

i)       Stephanie says another issue is Department of Corrections dropping off clients at the Diversion Center or shelters and has seen this issue become more frequently over the past couple of weeks.

j)       Stephanie says she is concerned about CAN appointments are being scheduled a week out due to the diversion center does not have a full staff.

k)      Stephanie says when diversion staff was fully staffed clients were getting scheduled for CAN appointments within 24 hours and scheduled for 40 appointments. Right now the CAN appointments are now a week out and only have scheduled for 25 appointments for each day due to only having two staff members being able to do CAN appointments.

1)     Sarah says Salvation Army Marshall House can help with making CAN call back appointments until Diversion Staff is fully staffed again.

l)       Fred says he would like to temporarily take clients into shelter until they have a CAN appointment.

1) Sarah suggests to keep the policies and procedures the same until we clean up Smartsheet and the staffing at the Diversion Center is filled.

m)    Crane suggests to contact Department of Corrections to figure out the reason for the high influx of people getting dropped off at the Diversion Center and have nowhere to go.

4.      SIF Program-Barbara

a) Barbara says Hands On Hartford has four months left for the SIF Program.

b) Barbara says they have five clients that need more case management.

1) Sarah says they have a supportive housing case manager beginning on 10/30 that could do case management for these clients.

5.      Cold Weather Needs

a) Mollie says the location of the Willie Ware Rec Center is a challenge, because it is far from local shelters.  Center Church has also offered to do triage during cold weather so that there would be a triage point closer to many of the local shelters.

b) Sarah says she is also concerned about the small amount of space that is available to do triage at the Willie Ware Rec Center.

c) Mollie says another gap is transportation for clients to get to the triage centers to the shelters.

d) Jose says he doesn’t think the rec center is a good location since it is far away from the shelters and clients will want to stay at the rec center for the night.

e) Jose says that you need transportation clients due to the cold weather and if providing clients bus passes they will not use them and instead sell them.

6.      GH CAN Housing Data – see p. 2

1. Chronic Homelessness Trends – Matt Morgan (see attachment)

2. Households Who Have Returned to Homelessness from CAN Programs – Mollie Greenwood

7.      Future Agenda Items

a)      No future agenda items were discussed.

8.      Announcements

a.      There will be a Service Summit (on volunteer involvement and creating meaningful service projects) that HOH and Prudential are sponsoring on Wednesday 11/8 from 8:30 am – 1:30 pm at the Lyceum.

b.      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

c.      CT Department of Housing has an RFP out for HOPWA funding for the following locations: Litchfield County, Middlesex County, New London County, and Tolland County.  The RFP is available in electronic format on the State Contracting Portal at http://www.biznet.ct.gov/SCP_Search/Default.aspx?AccLast=2 or from the Department’s Official Contact, Steve DiLella.

Greater Hartford Sub-COC/ GH CAN Leadership 9/20/17

Hartford sub-CoC Advisory Board

Agenda

September 20, 2017 at 1:00 pm

Next Meeting: October 18, 2017 at 1:00 pm

1.    CT HMIS – Steering Committee Report – Crane Cesario

o   Due to low attendance expectancy, the August HMIS Steering Committee meeting was cancelled.

o   The next meeting is scheduled for 10/13/2017.

2.    Dynamic Prioritization and Progressive Engagement – Crane Cesario

o   CAN’s will need to begin to look at how to best implement this framework to ensure we maintain progress on chronic homelessness and serve our target population as effectively as we can.

3.    CT BOS Steering Committee Items and Discussion

o   FY 2017 CoC Program Competition Project Final Ranking Report 

o   An email was sent to grantees on 9/8/2017 to inform them that their CT BOS project had been accepted and ranked on the Priority Listing for submission to FY 2017 HUD CoC Program Competition.  

o   The Final Ranking Report was released via email on 9/15/2017

o   No Greater Hartford projects were scored in the bottom 10%

o   Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program Update

o   At the last CT BOS meeting, Katie Durand of DOH presented a draft plan to the Steering Committee

o   DOH has been working with HUD to understand what needs to be included in the community plan.

o   Draft Community Plan will be sent to HUD in October and HUD will send feedback. 

o   The draft Allocation breaks down funds as follows:

·        63% on RRH for Youth

·        14% on Rapid Exit and Diversion

·        23% on Youth Navigators to have in each CAN

o   BOS representatives for the Coordinating Committee

o   At the September CT BOS meeting, Cathy Zall volunteered as one representative

o   Cathy Zeiner has offered to be a second volunteer, if needed

o   Another volunteer needed (does not need to be a CT BOS SC member)

o   DOH Update – HOME

o   Currently, RRH HOME Funding is not available as HUD has not executed the contract

     4.   Changes to the Planning Grant – Crane Cesario and Cat Damato

o   Beginning on 9/26, Cat will be part time (12.5 hrs per week.)

o   She will still serve as the Greater Hartford Community Liaison.

Greater Hartford Coordinated Access Network

Leadership Agenda

Wednesday, September 20th, 2017

1.      GH CAN Committee Updates

a.      Cold Weather Planning Committee – Matt Morgan

b.      Diversion Center Committee – Stephanie Corbin

c.      Coordinated Exit for Families – Sarah DiMaio and Lisa Quach

d.      Youth Engagement Team Initiative – John Lawlor

e.      Coordinated Outreach Committee – Janet Bermudez / Mollie Greenwood

f.       GH CAN Housing Data – see p.3

2.      Future Agenda Items

3.      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.  Register with Cat Damato.

c.      CT Department of Housing has an RFP out for HOPWA funding for the following locations: Litchfield County, Middlesex County, New London County, and Tolland County.  The RFP is available in electronic format on the State Contracting Portal at http://www.biznet.ct.gov/SCP_Search/Default.aspx?AccLast=2 or from the Department’s Official Contact, Steve DiLella.

Cold Weather Planning Committee

·        The City has not yet released an RFP

·        Salvation Army Marshall House will be operating a No-Freeze for individual women beginning November 1^st.

·        This committee recommends having Diversion Center stop direct shelter referrals when cold weather season starts, and instead direct people to the warming centers if they are in need of shelter.  At the warming center, staff will triage to year-round shelters.

Diversion Center Committee

·        Are there any gaps in services or financial assistance that is harming our clients?  If so, what are the gaps?

o   Staffing levels are significantly reduced at the Diversion Center right now- appointments have been reduced as a result.

Family Matching Meeting:

·        Are there any gaps in services or financial assistance that is harming our clients?  If so, what are the gaps?

o   Past utility issues. Most of the families in East Hartford Shelter that have not been able to be referred are due to utility arrears. The lowest scoring 4 clients on the by-name-list all have arrears over $1,000.

o   Larger size bedrooms. Many 2 bedrooms become available but would it be possible to have 2 bedrooms grow into bigger size bedrooms to accommodate our larger families?

o   Families failing out of Mercy’s ESG program cannot be bridged to PSH since it is not a rapid rehousing program.

·        Committee is carefully case conferencing families to assess proper housing intervention. There may be delays in filling in PSH openings due to eligibility. This is in effort to reduce the discussion amongst clients to refuse rapid rehousing with hopes of getting PSH. The committee matched 2 PSH openings at last week’s opening and have 1, possibly 2 PSH openings at Sue Ann Shay as well as openings in the congregate building on Wethersfield Ave. through My Sister’s Place. 2 families will be moving into the congregate setting this Friday 9/15/17.

Youth Engagement Team Initiative:

·        Are there any gaps in services or financial assistance that is harming our clients?  If so, what are the gaps?

o   The gaps in services for the clients is employment services and a drop in center for youth if they are in need of services.

·        Are there issues with any staff’s ability to prepare for or participate in this committee?

o   The committee is in the process of engaging with McKinney Vento Liaisons in the large school districts that are in the GH CAN region to participate in the YETI Committee.  Does anyone have a relationship with any McKinney Vento Liaisons?

Outreach Committee:

·        Are there any gaps in services or financial assistance that is harming our clients? 

o   Diversion Center Referrals to the PATH team who aren’t PATH eligible.

o   No outreach outside of the City of Hartford if folks aren’t PATH eligible.

o   Bus passes/ transportation is a large issue

o   Drop-offs from DOC continue to be an issue.

·        Are there any issues with any staff’s ability to prepare for or participate?

o   Our Unsheltered List is not always a good representation of who is currently working with outreach.  Because it’s challenging to capture information on who is currently engaging with outreach, we don’t know if we’re discussing everyone we need to at the outreach meeting. 

o   We discuss many people but staff aren’t coming with a plan for housing matching. 

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	143	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	456
Verified Chronic Matched	36
Verified Chronic Not Yet Matched	5	We currently have 5 chronic verified clients who have not yet been matched to housing.
Potentially Chronic Refusers	2
Verified Chronic Refusers	3
Potentially Chronic Matched	1	These households did not disclose a disabling condition, and are matched to various programs.
Potentially Chronic Not Yet Matched	34	Right now we believe 34 households have the chronic length of homeless history, but none of these individuals have their homeless and disability verifications completed.