December 4, 2019 GH Leadership Meeting Notes

December 4, 2019 GH CAN Leadership Meeting

Jane Banks - SPI

Yoshi Bird - SPI

Sonia Brown – CRT

Letticia Brown-Gambino – Chrysalis Center

Crane Cesario – DMHAS
David Dyment – Mercy Housing

Lauren Fair – SAMH

Heather Flannery – Interval House

John Lawlor – The Connection

Rebekah Lyas – ImmaCare

Elijah McFolley – The Open Hearth

Matt Morgan – Journey Home

Lisa Quach – Journey Home

Lionel Rigler – City of Hartford

Tyeisha Saffold – CRT EH Shelter

Barbara Shaw – Hands on Hartford

Kathy Shaw – MSP

November 20, 2019 GH CAN Leadership Meeting

November 20, 2019 GH Coordinated Access Leadership Meeting Notes

1.      Welcome and Introductions

• Sofina Begum - Journey Home
• Sonia Brown - CRT
• Kara Capobianco - Department of Housing
• Crane Cesario - DHMAS
• Sarah DiMiao - SAMH
• David Dyment - Mercy
• Heather Flannery - Interval Housing
• Rosemary Flowers - My Sisters’ Place
• Andrea Hakian - CHR
• Steve Hurley - CHR
• John Lawlor - The Connection
• Rebekah Lyas - ImmaCare
• Elijah McFolley III - The Open Hearth
• Matt Morgan - Journey Home
• Barbara Shaw - Hands on Hartford
• Kathy Shaw - My Sisters’ Place
• Cathy Zeiner - YWCA
• Teresa Nieves - Chrysalis Center

2.      Cold Planning Update – Sarah Dimaio

• Salvation Army Marshall House (SAMH) has capacity for 23 beds for families, children and individual women.
• It is still unknown if we will have a new location for the Warming Center or if it will be a Willie Ware. 
• There has been confirmation from 5 churches to host one night per week. SAMH is still working on confirming churches to host on Friday and Saturday night. 
• Once we have a finalized location and date there will be a press release to notify residents. 

3.      Fair Housing training – Matt Morgan

• A fair housing training will take place during the Operations meeting on December 4th from 2:30 to 3:30 with Shaznene Hussain, the new Community Education and Outreach Coordinator at the Connecticut Fair Housing Center. 
• The training will cover how to resolve matters before having to “turn” someone away. 
• Leadership agrees that this training is important and needs to be covered for leadership and frontline staff at shelters.

4.      Balance of State Continuum of Care – Matt Morgan and Crane Cesario

a.      UFA - Unified Funded Agency

• This is for Continuum of Care (COC) funded agencies. At this moment underspent COC funds cannot be reallocated to another agency easily.  A decision needs to be made on if and/or when Balance of State COC would adopt this plan of having a UFA. If the method is adopted money received will all be administered through the UFA, instead of having direct contracts with HUD or subcontracts through DOH or DMHAS. If agencies do not use full funds the UFA can reallocate to an agency that is able to spend funds before the end of the year.  More than 1 million is usually returned to HUD each year in BOS COC funds, so this would prevent these funds from necessarily being returned.

b.      System Performance Measures

   i.Data Quality Webpage at CCEH

c.      Disability Verification Form –DMHAS change

• New form on Journey Home website

d.      Monitoring Guide

e.      Race Equity

• Document shared with group from last meeting. The second cohort will continue the work from the first cohort. 

5.      PIT/Census – Crane Cesario

• Shelters are expected to give a bed count to Lisa Quach at Journey Home
• We are still accepting volunteers, anyone interested should contact, Alison Sjoberg (Scharr) at Journey Home.
• Trainings for staff volunteers and new/returning volunteers will be in January.  Staff training will be on January 15 at YWCA in Hartford at 2:30pm, and volunteer training will be on January 14 at CRT from 5pm-7pm.

6.      Updates and Next Steps on Local Strategies on Long Stayers in Shelter –Dave Dyment, Sarah Dimaio, Rebekah Lyas, Barbara Shaw, Crane Cesario

7.      New Agenda Items

• Request to have a BNL on chronic long stayers who are matched

8.      Announcements

Shelter Priority list               Shelter Priority list                        Family Stabilization List      

Individual Men: 178	Individual Women: 154	Families: 40	Youth: 3
Unsheltered/Car: 108	Unsheltered/Car:  97	Unsheltered/Car: 13	Unsheltered/Car: 2

  

Strategies for Reducing Long Stayers in Shelter – Identified 4/3/19, updated 8/13/19

Goal Area	Action Step Identified	Responsible Entity	Due Date	Previous Update	Update 11/20/19
Change the Narrative to be more Strength Based	Distribute DOH "Shelter Questions" to individual shelters	Shelters	Shelters report on progress at CAN Leadership on Oct. 16th and Dec. 4th	All shelters have reported out on this at CAN Leadership.	N/A
Change the Narrative to be more Strength Based	Encourage other systems of care to work on conversations about housing.	Amy Robinson will reach out to the VA and the CCT Barbara Shaw to discuss with HOPWA group	TBD	HOPWA training will be on 11/20.  CAN training to Ryan White will be on 11/19 at Housing Solutions	N/A
Engaging People with Lived Experience/ Peers	Identify existing peer/client groups in shelters/meal programs Identify housed clients who may be good speakers about their experiences Identify funding for stipends for peer-to-peer mentoring	Audrey will ask Dave DuVerger to pull a group together. Mark will follow up. Barbara will be keeping the Melville / Reaching Home process at the forefront of her mind.	1/1/20	Barbara reported Concept paper being developed Abbie K. reported 3 co-design sessions held; 1/1/20 “Let’s Lead”; seeking multi-year funding from Melville; use peers to encourage people who are homeless now	N/A
Shared Housing	Bring in New Haven for a Ready to Roommate Training	Journey Home, Mercy, Salvation Army	?Check in at the 1st CAN meeting in January.	David Dyment will connect with Claude Gonclaves from City of Hartford Housing dept. on shared housing program Matt connected Mary to GHBI Chrysalis program  The group has not met in the past few weeks due to training.  Mary reached out to reconvene the group.	Meetings are happening once a month at Mercy.
Data	Get income information on BNL via a request to Nutmeg Identify mechanism for adding a "during" assessment for income for shelter/outreach programs	Lisa Q./Crane C. have submitted to Release Bin.	11/16/19	In process, sorting out technical challenges.  Lisa/Crane will report in November.
More fully utilizing other systems of care	Identify MH/SA/ Residential/Medical Treatment programs to provide training to Housing Solutions meeting	Rebekah Lyas, Andrea Hakian	TBD	for a higher level of care, eligibility, paperwork, including ICARE, DSS, MFP, IOL, CVH, CRMHC.  Journey Home agreed to reach out to ICARE and IOL.  Crane agreed to reach out to CRMHC.  Board and Care?  Amanda Gordon reached out to ICARE and IOL, and they agreed to come and do a training.  Amanda is scheduling the training.	Training to be done.  Andrea will share board and care contact with Journey Home to schedule a training.
Increasing Income	Identify interns who can assist with employment	Sarah DiMaio/Matt Morgan	10/2/19	Sarah met with Capital, Goodwin, & UCONN; Matt invited UCONN to GHCAN, UCONN presented at GHCAN on 10/2/19.  Matt sent out UCONN contacts to CAN Leadership for agencies to apply for interns.	R        remove

Additional CAN Efforts Currently

Race/Equity	Need training on race/equity/bias/myth of color blindness	Crane Cesario	?	Crane will ask DOH/DMHAS to use training $ for training Find national trainings/organizations; Crane/Lisa presented on 11/6 to CAN on CSH Recommendations.	Funds open based on project
60 Day Pilot on Shelter Prioritization	Add hotel motel to be equal with unsheltered in prioritization	Shelter/Diversion/Outreach staff	December	Check in with group in December to see how it is going	N/A

GH CAN Operations Agenda 11/20/19

November 20, 2019 Greater Hartford Coordinated Access Network

Operations Meeting Notes

1. Welcome and Introductions

• Kassandra Agosto - CHR
• Sofina Begum - Journey Home
• Manuel Cadena - Catholic Charities
• Crane Cesario - DHMAS
• Janievette Correa - ImmaCare
• Carmen Crespovalle - CRT McKinney
• Kelly Daisey - Chrysalis Center
• David DuVerga - South Park Inn
• David Dyment - Mercy Housing and Shelter
• Heather Flannery - Interval House
• Ruby Givens-Hewitt - My Sisters’ Place
• Abigail Kelly - Hands on Hartford
• Patricia Lopez-Cruz - CHN
• Rebekah Lyas - ImmaCare
• Patricia Lopez - Cruz - CHN
• Geri Maciel - SAMH
• Elijah McFolley III - The Open Hearth
• Andre McGuire - CRT/McKinney Shelter
• Denise Mitchell - ImmaCare
• Matt Morgan - Journey Home
• Malika Nelson - CHR
• Teresa Nieves - Chrysalis Center
• Allyce Pace - CRT
• Zanetah Sasser - CHR
• Monique Shand - YWCA
• Wanda Wesley - Community Partners In Action
• Steve Hurley - CHR
• Yoldalis Gutierrez - CRT

2. Fund Available (21k +) for GH CAN - Matt Morgan
1. Discussion for GH CAN Ops to determine/brainstorm what the funds should be used for

• Teams of 6 paired up to discuss what the funds can be used for. Here are some of the ideas:
• Flexible diversion: using the funds for insentives
• Flexible funding for application fees, IDs, birth certificates and other identification 
• Extended rental assistance (ST RRH)
• Shared room deposits
• Emergency utility assistance (gas)
• Transportation for obtaining documents and housing search
• Mattress and furniture funds 

3. Cold-weather updates- Sarah Dimaio/Kelly Gonzalez
1. Warming Center
1. It is still unknown if we will have a new location for the Warming Center or if it will be a Willie Ware. 
2. There has been confirmation from 5 churches to host one night per week. SAMH is still working on confirming churches to host on Friday and Saturday night. 
3. Once we have a finalized location and date there will be a press release to notify residents.

4. Leadership Updates –Crane Cesario or Rebekah Lyas
1. Fair Housing Training to take place during Operations Meeting on December 4th
2. The training will cover how to resolve matters before having to “turn” someone away. 
3. Leadership agrees that this training is important and needs to be covered for leadership and frontline staff at shelters. 

5. PIT Update

a.      Database will be open until 11/21/19 for data entry

b.      Shelters are expected to give a bed count to Lisa Quach at Journey Home

• We are still accepting volunteers, anyone interested should contact, Alison Sjoberg (Scharr) at Journey Home.
• Trainings for staff volunteers and new/returning volunteers will be in January.  Staff training will be on January 15 at YWCA in Hartford at 2:30pm, and volunteer training will be on January 14 at CRT from 5pm-7pm.

7. Journey Home Updates
1. Please allow up to 48 hours for response when submitting homeless verification forms.
2. Security Deposit Guarantee & Rapid Exit – at least 7-10 days for Mary to process applications
3. Still funding available for rapid exits!

8. Announcements
1. iCare and IOL training to come soon

If any clients are interested in moving to Bristol – new lottery opening for 2 bedrooms at Zbiwoski Park, applications must be mailed with a post mark date no later than November 22, 2019.