GH CAN Leadership Meeting Notes 3/23/2016

Greater Hartford CAN

Leadership Committee Meeting Notes

In Attendance: Brian Baker- South Park Inn, Suzan Bibisi- Tabor House, Sonia Brown - CRT, Kara Capobianco - Department of Housing, Crane Cesario- DMHAS, Brenda Earle- Department of Housing, Louis Gilbert -ImmaCare, Mollie Greenwood-Journey Home, Andrea Hakian-Community Health Center, Steve Hurley- Journey Home, Dave Martineau- Mercy Housing, Theresa Nicholson- Chrysalis Center, Marilyn Rossetti- The Open Hearth, Iris Ruiz -Interval House, Kathy Shaw- My Sister's Place, Barbara Shaw - Hands on Hartford, Mike Fournier-  YWCA, Rosemary Flowers- My Sister's Place, Cordelia Brady- Open Hearth.

1.      Welcome and Introductions

2.      Coordinated Entry Next Steps-Kara Capobianco

a.       Assessment Block Schedule

·         Kara Capobianco expressed that a major goal of what we are trying to do in reorganizing our entry process is to break the stigma that CAN appointments guarantee access for shelter.  The Department of Housing has been reaching out to providers in the community who have space to try and determine a way for assessment staff to meet with people outside of shelters for their appointments.  Locations currently being considered include Salvation Army’s Washington Street address, Center Church’s Warburton Room, My Sisters’ Place’s Pliny Street location, Hands On Hartford, and Mercy’s Friendship Center.

·         Theresa said that YWCA can be mobile, and can host appointments outside of the shelter.

·         Lou indicated that assessment staff at ImmaCare could not work off-site, but they currently don’t hold CAN assessments in shelter, they take place in the Casa De Francisco Supportive Housing building.

·         CHR’s staff are able to complete assessments at community locations.

·         Open Hearth and McKinney were not sure if staff would be able to complete assessments away from the shelters.

·         We discussed possibly having staff who were unable to leave the shelter being responsible for data entry from CAN appointments, so that some staff could complete the appointment and do any data collection on paper, and staff who are unable to leave their shelter sites could still be involved in this process. 

·         Center Church expressed that they had technology available (laptops, wifi) and could assist with creating a pop-up assessment location if capacity ever required that.

b.      Assessment Locations and Staffing

-          This is the proposed schedule for the assessment locations and staffing and there will be another meeting next week at 1:30 at Pliny Street to confirm this schedule.

-          For the time being, we are not changing the assessment schedule for single men, but we do need additional capacity on Friday.  We discussed having South Park Inn switch from hosting family appointments to hosting appointments for individuals. 

-          Below is the schedule we determined for family and individual women’s assessments moving forward.

	AM Staff	PM Staff	Location
Monday	My Sisters' Place	Center Church	Possibly Pliny St Possibly Center Church
Tuesday	SAMH	CHR	Salvation Army, Washington St
Wednesday	YWCA	SAMH	Center Church
Thursday	SAMH	CHR	Salvation Army, Washington St
Friday	Mercy		Hands On Hartford

-          There is a proposed vote to determine if navigators could also do CAN assessments- a formal vote was not taken at this time.

o   The group informally agreed that if additional capacity could not be found within the existing staff doing assessments, it would be possible to explore making changes to the navigators’ roles.

-          We also discussed potentially reallocating some of the funding from the triage contracts to be used towards staffing for CAN assessments.  

o   ImmaCare does not have enough funding left from the triage budget to allocate staff time.

o   Kara and Matt will meet with Tomiko Grant of Marshall House to discuss whether reallocating triage funding would be an option for Salvation Army Marshall House.

c.       Assessment Backlog and Blitz

-          It is proposed that 4 or 5 staff members between Chrysalis Center, Immacare, Journey Home, and the Department of Housing can make phone calls to the clients that are on the back log for upcoming assessments to let them know about the 1-2 days that we are holding a blitz.

o   There is a proposal that a script should be made for callers to use to confirm everyone is telling each client the same information.

d.      Diversion and Assessment Training

-          Prior to implementing any changes to the schedule, Kara of the Department of Housing requested that we hold a diversion training for all staff who were unable to attend the original diversion training.

e.       Be Homeful Diversion Funding: MOU with CCEH

-          Mollie announced there is $10,000 available for family diversion in the Greater Hartford area, in order to access these funds assessment agencies would need to sign an MOU with CCEH.

3.      Zero: 2016

a.       Communications Liaison- Matt Morgan

a.       We did not discuss this agenda item at this meeting.

b.      Housing Placement Report- Tenesha Grant

a.       Mollie sent around the Housing Placement Report that Tenesha Grant (Zero:2016 Housing Captain) is responsible for sharing with partners around the state each month.

b.      Mollie shared that Tenesha has requested that agencies report to Tenesha by the 10^th of each month to ensure that the data that she was sharing for Zero:2016 on behalf of our region was accurate.  Last month we did not receive accurate information regarding all housing placements. 

c.       Crane expressed concern that having information come from such a variety of locations and staff may lead to even more concerns with the quality of information being collected.

c.       C. By Name Lists in HMIS- Mollie Greenwood

a.       We did not discuss this agenda item at this meeting.

4.      Timeframes for Re-Offering Housing-Mollie Greenwood

-          Need a strategy for the five people who are on the high priority list for housing, but are refusing housing

-          After 3 months it is time to move on from that individual who is refusing housing.

-          There was general consensus that it is important to be regularly offering housing opportunities to these highest scoring, hard to engage individuals.  Mollie will report this back to the Coordinated Exit Committee.

5.      Announcements

-          There were no announcements.

Greater Hartford CAN Meeting 3/23/2016

Greater Hartford Coordinated Access Network

Operations Committee Meeting Agenda

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

In Attendance:

Alicia Akers- CRT CAN Navigator

Rubi Alegria- Mercy Housing

Cordelia Brady-The Open Hearth

Manuel Burnias-CRT

Crane Cesario-DMHAS

Marcel Cicero-CRT East Hartford Shelter

Kara Copabianco-Department of Housing

Anna Ebora-Journey Home

Jaqueline Farmer-Veteran’s Inc.

Kelly Gonzalez- CRT CAN Navigator

Tenesha Grant-Mercy Housing

Nathalie Guzman-Salvation Army Marshall House

Steven Hurley-Journey Home

Brittany King-The Open Hearth

Jenaya King-CHR

Cynthia Lazore-Chrysalis Center

Matt Morgan-Journey Home

Roxan Noble-Chrysalis Center

Margarita Morales

Heather Pilarcik-South Park Inn

Patricia Policina-Chrysalis Center

Lisa Quach-Journey Home

Ymonne Wilson-CRT

Tamara Womack-My Sister’s Place

1.      Welcome and Introductions

2.      Zero: 2016 Updates-Tamara Womack

a.      The document fair will be on the last Friday in May or closer to first Friday in June and will be at My Sister’s Place. We are looking for volunteers and people to donate water, care packages, and printers to the fair. Mercy donated one van, one driver, one printer. Iris donated purses to give out. If any agencies can donate any resources to the document fair, please reach out to Rubi Alegria of Mercy Housing.

3.      By Name Lists in CT HMIS – Tenesha Grant

a.      Five people have been housed since the last CAN meeting from four different agencies: one from CRT, one from CHR, two from Chrysalis, one from Greater Hartford Shelter+Care.

b.      There is an issue with inaccuracies with reporting numbers. Two people were housed before Feb 15^th but were not counted in the February count.  We need to figure out a review process and what is being reported for the purposes of consistency.

c.       There is going to be a push for a by-name list of everyone who has been assessed in HMIS. This will ensure we know who is active in system and who only made one contact with providers and who is chronic and who might be chronic but needs documentation.
              i. CAN managers from Department of Housing will be helping with by name list. 

d.      An important distinction between likely chronic and confirmed chronic is that likely chronic people present as chronic but do not have documentation completed while confirmed chronic households have competed all documentation.

                                                              i.      We have 5 confirmed chronic housed and one housed who is likely chronic.

e.      At the outreach meeting on Monday, many clients were believed to be chronic but still need documentation.

f.        There are 124 confirmed chronic people who still need to be housed as of today.

g.       Individuals and families can only make it to registry list with a fully completed VI SPDAT.

h.      We are working with Lynda Kaufman on how to get an individual on the registry without a full assessment because we need to close out CAN appointments.

4.      TAY-SPDAT Tool for Youth –Matt Morgan

a.      A new screening tool for youth up to age 24 has been developed. Copies have been distributed and everyone should take a copy and look it over and bring any feedback to next meeting or email Matt or Mollie at Journey Home with comments.

b.      There are slight differences in the youth assessment. For example, couch surfing an option on the youth survey. This assessment will be used instead of the VI-SPDAT for youths up to age 24. It is for single youths and is not a family assessment.

5.      Changes to the COC Homeless Verification Form - Lisa Quach

a.      The statewide Homeless Verification form has been updated.  Case managers will be collecting the same information as they were using the prevous version of the form, but the formatting of the information is different. Copies of a sample homeless verification form were distributed.

b.      Clients now have to verify any breaks in homelessness (7 or more days sleeping somewhere other than shelter, or a place not fit for human habitation). This information about breaks can be self-verified and does not need to be notarized. They still need to document breaks and where they were staying during that break.

c.       If you think someone may be chronic, send Journey Home their name and they can assist in putting together a homeless history.  

6.      Case Conferencing – Alicia Akers, Kelly Gonzalez

a.      Kelly located and engaged with six of ten people on her caseload. One may be in jail.

b.      Alicia located and engaged with six out of twelve people on her caseload. Trish knows some individuals from the Middlesex CAN but has not seen them.

c.       Clients become inactive in the system after 3 months of no contact. This is following multiple attempts to contact including looking over shelter lists for missing individuals.

d.      Navigators are looking to connect with Marshall House soup kitchen on Washington Street as they are one of the few kitchens open on Sunday. Alicia arrived on Sunday only to find the soup kitchen packed and the workers did not know anyone’s names. Nathalie will provide the contact.

e.      There is a soup kitchen on Broad Street that serves dinner on Sunday. Navigators and case managers should contact Celestino for more information.

f.        Marcel encountered someone at the East Hartford Shelter who was headed to New Haven afterwards. She wanted to know if he was on the priority list but after a brief description of the person, it was confirmed that he was not on the list.

7.      Announcements

a.      VI-SPDAT 2.0 Posted on www.journeyhomect.org/provider-resources. Providers administering VI-SPDATS can have the assessment in hard copy and all the pieces should be included. As of right now, there is no Spanish version of the VI-SPDAT 2. It has been noted that this makes it difficult for providers who need to translate for clients.

                                                              i.      There may be a need for a Spanish point in time count as well.

b.       VI-SPDAT version 1 is available on HMIS for a limited time only so that staff can enter any paper VI-SPDAT (v1) they have available.

c.       The Partnership for Strong Communities is seeking nominations for Housing Heroes- submit your nominations here: http://pshousing.org/news/nominate-your-housing-hero

d.      Leadership is working on coordinating assessment times for drop-in CAN appointments. They will be reaching out to agencies to schedule full coverage for drop-in CAN assessments. The hope is to implement family assessments and catch up with backlog in the system.

                                                              i.      Potential locations for assessments for single men are ImmaCare, Open Hearth, and McKinney shelter.

                                                            ii.      Potential locations for family assessments are Center Church, the Washington location of Salvation Army Marshall House, Hands on Hartford. We are trying to get out of shelters for family assessments and focus on diversion for that population.

                                                          iii.      Heather noted that people on the duty service coordinator level need to be involved in the planning process.

e.      Sara and Alison of Making a House a Home have a lot of kids stuff in their donations including several board games and a playhouse. Please contact Sara Salomons if you have any clients who may be interested in such items.

                                                              i.      Crane mentioned a client who may be moving in with six children.

Greater Hartford CAN Meeting 3/9/2016

1.       Welcome and Introductions

a.       Our final two navigators have officially started at CRT. Welcome Kelly Gonzalez and Alicia Akers!

2.       Advocacy Days- Matt Morgan

a.       60 people and 17 legislators and/or their aides came and to have so many people in the small room in the Legislative Office Building was amazing.

b.      Thank you to those who came and who shared their stories and those who brought clients to the event.

c.       Towns represented included Enfield, Hartford, Bloomfield, West Hartford, Manchester and many more.

d.      Reaching Home campaign all lobbying together is the best seen from any social service sector.

3.       HMIS Questions and Concerns

a.       The switch to VI SPDAT 2.0 has been major change in the system.

b.      Since new version went live some problem areas that Nutmeg is working to solve.

c.       Mollie, Crane, and Amanda are on the coordinated exit committee.

d.      How quickly do people need new staff people to have access to HMIS- 2 weeks or less

e.       Crane is the chair of the HMIS steering committee.

                                                               i.      HMIS has grown 500 percent in number of users and trainings limited because of physical space.

                                                             ii.      Last training there were 5 no shows so make sure if you are registering people for training they are going to training. As of now we have no data on where the no shows are happening. Having someone not show up means the organization gets fined.

                                                           iii.      There is a pattern of high enrollment and high no shows, which looks very unprofessional.

f.        Some tricky things with the new version of VI SPDAT such as requiring men to answer pregnancy question before moving on in the assessment.

g.       Mollie has provided a form to submit with questions regarding HMIS but everyone is encouraged to keep submitting helpdesk tickets when they run in to issues.  Please do not yell at the Nutmeg staff. We are all adults here.

h.      There are reports of existing VI SPDATS going missing since the conversion.

i.         There will be an HMIS training on April 4 at New Haven but there is some confusion on what time the training will be held.

j.         Navigators are using paper VI SPDATs when they are working with clients.

4.       Zero: 2016 Housing Updates

a.       6 people have been housed since our last CAN meeting.

b.      Stephanie Corbin of CHN has stickers for the board and representatives from the organizations who housed these individuals can come up and add stickers to the board.

c.       The estimated number of chronically homeless individuals who need to be housed is 120 individuals. 53 are currently referred to a housing program and 67 are not currently matched.

d.      We are working on document fair on the heels of the success of the landlord breakfast. It may be held at My Sister’s Place if holding it at Pope Park is not possible. Any volunteers would be welcomed as we are still trying to figure out food and printers. The tentative date for the fair is May 20^th.

                                                               i.      Last year the document fair served 125 individuals. This year we are aiming for 150 individuals.

5.       Housing Updates

a.       Navigator cases assigned- Mollie Greenwood, Kelly Gonzalez, Alicia Akers, Mark Jenkins

                                                               i.      Mark has been assigned 20 individuals.

                                                             ii.      Alicia and Kelly have been assigned 10 people and have been working together on them since starting as navigators on Monday. The individuals are mostly people at ImmaCare. Alicia is in contact with three of them and Kelly is in contact with 2.

b.      Changes to the Priority List- Lisa Quach

                                                               i.      8 new tabs were added to the priority list to provide more information. These tabs include navigator, document ready, chronic LHH verification, disability, identity, citizenship, CAN release, and UHA release. A notation of “true” indicates that those documents have been uploaded and accounted for.

                                                             ii.      A client is assigned a navigator if they do not have a case manage. It was suggested to change the navigator tab to indicate case manager or navigator

                                                           iii.      If you see something that should be marked as true, let Journey Home know so the priority list can be updated.

                                                           iv.      Yolanda suggested the addition of a veteran tab. We are hoping to pull together resources for veterans as some may not eligible for SSVF services.

c.       VI-SPDAT rages for Rapid Rehousing have changed for VI SPDAT 2.0

                                                               i.      The score range for rapid rehousing has changed because there are fewer total points. Short-term rapid rehousing range for a single individual and for families is 3-5. The score range for long-term rapid rehousing is 5-7 for single individuals and 6-8 for families.

                                                             ii.      Case managers can still submit exception forms as long as they are appropriate. Submitting an exception form typically means someone is referred to permanent supportive housing but does not need it and would be successful in rapid rehousing.

                                                           iii.      Family referrals are needed for the secure jobs initiative.

                                                           iv.      Do not do VI SPDAT version 2 if the person already has a VI SPDAT version 1. Call Lisa, Mollie, and Steve at Journey Home to figure out the conversion.

                                                             v.      CHR can still go by old score and old score range for rapid rehousing.

6.       Case Conferences

a.       One case involves an individual who is a one-nighter at most shelters and was seen a couple weeks ago at Open Hearth. He is chronically homeless with serious mental health issues and has been seen at Capitol Region recently. He was found in Middletown CAN and given to BOS. He was going to sign a certificate with but then was taken off. It was suggested to call Mobile Crisis at Capitol Region and he has a referral to Intercommunity. This client qualifies for FUSE and anyone who sees him should call Journey Home.

                                                               i.      Willem says this client had an apartment but wants to get out of the apartment and has been living in shelters. The client has a conservator but is now MIA.

b.      Rubi brought to the CAN’s attention a 24-year-old client who had been staying in a domestic violence shelter in Norwalk. She is now staying in her car and with friends but is reluctant to disclose where she was before. She has four kids, all under four, which has been a barrier for her getting into shelter. She comes to the Friendship Center to eat. She has domestic violence reports, and psychiatric reports from hospitalization and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. She does not have a good relationship with mother due to previous trauma and the father of two of her kids took those two kids away. She now only has two of her four kids with her. Two client families might be able to get housing, need families with high scores

7.       Making a House a Home – Sara Salomons and Alison Scharr

a.       If clients need furniture, we have 2 large storage units in South Windsor full of donated items to be given away.  Sara can meet clients and case managers at the storage unit. There are beds, couches, coffee tables, utensils, chairs, loveseats, dressers, and anything else to help a client looking to get started in their new apartment. Clients can request items. It is easier to meet at the storage unit if you want to pick up items.  Clients do not need to sleep on floors. This is to be a barrier free experience and we can arrange for volunteers to help move furniture.

b.      Alison created a case manager form for clients who need furniture. If there are any issues with the form please let Alison know by emailing her at Alison.scharr@journeyhomect.org.  

c.       Sara also has boxes of brand new women’s jeans. Anybody looking to donate items can contact her at sara.salomons@journeyhomect.org.

8.       Announcements

a.       People who are scheduling CAN appointments are encouraged to write case notes to report what you are doing, who else is in the family, if the person was diverted, and if a referral was made. This helps with keeping track of data regarding these clients.

b.      Mollie is talking to CCEH about fundraising in regards to the Be Homeful Paddington Bear campaign.

c.       There are beds available at My Sister’s Place for single females who have Husky D insurance and have no cash income.

d.      Yesterday HUD announced award, got 4.5 million dollars out of the 7 million asked for. All renewals got funded and the planning grant got funded.  Shelter+Care grant did not get funded yet.

e.       There will be a ribbon cutting at the new Hands on Hartford location at 55 Bartholomew Avenue on March 22nd at 10am.