GH CAN Operations Committee 04/18/2018

                                         Greater Hartford Coordinated Access Network

Operations Agenda

Wednesday, April 18^th, 2018

1.      Welcome and Introductions

a.      Janet Bermudez- Hands on Hartford

b.      Manuel Cadena- Catholic Charities

c.      Crane Cesario- DMHAS

d.      Roger Clark- ImmaCare

e.      Stephanie Corbin- Mercy Housing and Shelter

f.       Anita Cordero- ImmaCare

g.      Rochelle Currie- The Connection

h.      Sarah DiMaio- Salvation Army Marshall House

i.       Marie Jackie Florez- Mercy Housing and Shelter

j.       Kelly Gonzalez- Journey Home

k.      Janette Hernandez- Catholic Charities

l.       Klaudia Lobeska- East Hartford Shelter

m.    Geri Maciel-  Salvation Army Marshall House

n.      Kyren McCrorey- The Open Hearth

o.      Malika Nelson-  CHR

p.      Lisa Quach- Journey Home

q.      Natalie Ramos- ImmaCare

r.       Jamie Randolph- Salvation Army Marshall House

s.      Chris Robinson- Salvation Army Marshall House

t.       Amy Robinson- VA

u.      Iris Ruiz- Interval House

v.      Luz Serrano- ImmaCare

w.    Monique Shand- YWCA

x.      Rob Soderburg- CHR

y.      Niya Solomon- Journey Home

z.      Zoe Schwartz- CRT

2.      Case Conferences – Fred Faulkner

a.      MaAb #206452

                                                    i.     The client is currently residing in the YWCA.  She has Greenland issues and has refused JLLAS Corp services.  The client has observable mental health issues, but refuses to see a clinician and declined to sign a CCT Release.  The client receives about $200 quarterly from New Zealand.  We are currently unaware of what type of income this is and the duration of it.  The client has not been offered housing as of yet due to her VI-SPDAT being very low.  As a committee we agreed that her low score does not reflect her vulnerabilities and a Full SPDAT should be completed.  Amy Robinson from the VA will complete the Full SPDAT since she has the best relationship with the client at this time. 

b.      CaZe #195590

                                                    i.     The client is stating she doesn’t feel safe at Salvation Army Marshall House.  SAMH has tried to accommodate her due to her safety concerns.  The client is currently tracking all her information in her email about housing, staff, shelter, etc.  The client is very intelligent and resourceful in regards to CAN processes.  Due to the client having safety concerns SAMH proposes that they switch her to another shelter.  East Hartford Shelter currently has space and will take the client in.  SAMH and EH Shelter will connect after the meeting to complete the transfer.

c.      SiAy #133043

                                                    i.     The client is currently at the YWCA and has made multiple complaints of smelling smoke in the vicinity.  The shelter was able to move the client to another room and did room checks in the entire shelter to ensure that no one was using drugs or smoking on the premises.  The staff at the YWCA was not able to find any suspicious activity and the client continues to complain about smelling smoke.  The committee agreed that the next step for this client is to refer her to Charter Oak or ATLAS for a mental health evaluation.

3.      Coordinated Entry

a.      Youth Diversion Appointments – Rochelle Currie, Stephanie Corbin

                                                    i.     There has been an issue with young adults going to Mercy’s Diversion Center instead of The Connection, largely because there are limited appointment days at The Connection.  This has caused high no show rates for The Connection.  To minimalize this issue, The Connection will open up on Wednesday for two hours.  The Connection will now be conducting diversion appointments on Mondays from 10-3 pm (12 slots) and Wednesdays from 1-3 pm (5 slots).  This will begin on May 2, 2018.

                                                   ii.     If Mercy’s Diversion Center encounters any young adults, they will take the appointment and provide the client with a bus pass to go to The Connection for the Next Steps Tool assessment.

4.      Coordinated Exit:

a.      Offering Housing Vacancies Across CANs – Lisa Quach

                                                    i.     Issues with housing vacancies was brought to Statewide CAN Leadership and they allowed us to determine the best action for this concern.  The best solution was to do interCAN transfers.  Greater Hartford CAN will work with the following CANs: Central, MMW and Greater New Haven.  Housing openings will be offered to Greater Hartford first during our matching meetings.  If we are unable to match any clients from Greater Hartford to the housing vacancy, then we will offer the opening(s) to the other CANs listed above.  Once offered to the other CANS, they have until Friday to send documents for their chronic verified clients.  The clients sent to Greater Hartford from other CANs will be prioritize to ensure the most vulnerable client is obtaining the housing opportunity. 

                                                   ii.     Each CAN has to be responsible for reviewing documents of the clients they are referring to Greater Hartford’s housing opening(s).

                                                  iii.     This will be implemented first with our Homeless Families. 

b.      Recently Housed – Lisa Quach

c.      Housing Data – see p.2

5.      Leadership Updates – Crane Cesario

a.      System performance measures data have to be entered in HMIS in a timely manner.  Data has to be back tracked if the client is still active in your program.

b.      PIT Data will be completed soon.  The Warming Center will count as unsheltered because they only had chairs and not beds.

c.      CT BOS has a new email: CTBOS.org.  Due to the new email exchange you might not receive emails from this entity like you had previously.  Sign up again for email notifications on their new platform. 

d.      94% of funding has to be spent in order for programs not to lose points on grants or have funds taken away.

e.      Salvation Army will be changing their shelter to accommodate adult couples and pets.

f.       Moving forward any family stating they are unsheltered with their children will be sheltered immediately.  They will not be put on our Shelter Waitlist.  Any families that are present on our Shelter Waitlist do not have their children with them during their unsheltered time.  For example, the parent(s) are unsheltered but their child(ren) are with friends or family.  We will need to figure out a process to implement these changes with SmartSheet.

6.      Cold Weather Planning –Sarah DiMaio

a.      RFP for cold weather will be out this summer from the City of Hartford.  We want to get started on this as soon as possible and would like to gather a few providers who are willing to brainstorm ideas and provide feedback about the Warming Center. 

b.      In order to have a different location this winter the City of Hartford would have to offer another location.  The Warming Center this winter worked as diversion because it was not comfortable. 

c.      There was an unintended consequence of our model having folks stay in chairs, which is that HUD considers these folks unsheltered during the PIT count if they are not able to lie down.  This meant that it looked like we had more unsheltered folks in our community than we have in past years, where cots were provided.  This spike in unsheltered households may impact our federal funding application, so it’s important to take it into consideration when planning for next year.