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.