Greater Hartford Coordinated Access
Network
Leadership Agenda
Wednesday,
June 28th, 2017
In Attendance:
Brian Baker – South Park Inn
Steve Bigler – Community Renewal Team
Crane Cesario – DMHAS
Cat Damato - CRT
Sarah DiMaio – Salvation Army Marshall House
Fred Faulkner – The Open Hearth
Rosemary Flowers – My Sisters’ Place
Lou Gilbert – ImmaCare
Mollie Greenwood – Journey Home
Andrea Hakian – CHR
Dave Martineau – Mercy Housing
Barbara Shaw – Hands On Hartford
Cathy Zeiner – YWCA
Lauren Fair – Salvation Army
John Lawlor – The Connection
Justine Couvares – The Chrysalis Center
1.
Self-Discharge from Shelter vs.
Provider Discharge – Lou Gilbert
a. Following
up on DOH’s presentation a few months ago about encouraging shelters only to
discharge households who are violent or engaging in illegal behavior, Lou
reached out to DOH seeking guidance around timeframes for when a client can be
considered to have self-discharged. The
Department encouraged Lou to bring it up as a question for the CAN to discuss.
i. Lou
reported that ImmaCare will soon be eliminating their curfew, and as a result
are doing a review of all their policies related to discharges.
ii. At
Columbus House, in New Haven, a client is considered to have self-discharged if
they do not show up for a shelter bed two nights in a row.
1. Salvation
Army Marshall House uses two nights of no-call, no-show to determine a
self-discharge as well.
iii. Crane’s
suggestion was to agree that setting a threshold of two nights with no word
from the client as a reasonable time-frame for a client’s absence to be
considered and recorded as a self-discharge.
The committee agreed that a two day timeframe seemed reasonable if shelters
chose to adopt it.
1. This
is not a CAN-wide policy, and other shelter providers can use their own
discretion to identify how many nights a bed will be held before a shelter
determines that a client has self-discharged.
2. Some
shelters may continue to operate with a policy that one night of no-call,
no-show will be determined as a self-discharge.
There was agreement that ultimately the goal is to make sure that beds
are being made available to those who need them the most with as few delays as
possible.
2.
Chair Position Opening – Crane
Cesario
a. No
individuals have volunteered to take on the new role of serving as a chair for
the GH CAN Leadership committee yet.
i. In
general, the meeting notes and materials are prepared by Journey Home staff,
but it’s important to have someone who can help move the meeting forward, and
ensure that we’re making decisions in this group.
b. Crane
proposed the idea of merging the existing Hartford sub-COC meetings with CAN
Leadership meetings starting in July. We
have seen the evolution of meetings in the last few years, with a lot of items
that overlap with the work of the CAN.
c. The
group voted to begin holding the Hartford sub-COC meetings as a part of the
second GH CAN Leadership meeting each month.
3.
Shelter Acceptance of Households
with Disabilities (service animals, oxygen tanks) – Mollie Greenwood
a. In
some areas of the state there have been issues with households who have service
animals or oxygen tanks or other accommodations for disabling conditions not
being admitted to emergency shelters. If
folks are being denied access to shelter because of disabilities, it can turn
into a discrimination issue. HUD has
guidance on when service animals and other therapeutic support animals should
be accommodated by shelter and housing programs.
i. We
will revisit this issue at the next meeting.
4.
Subcommittee Updates and
Assistance Needed
a. Crane
suggested that we reconsider the formatting of these subcommittee reports to
more succinctly demonstrate issues and requests for assistance or guidance from
different subcommittees
b. Diversion
Specialists p.1
i. Diversion
Specialists requested that Leadership visit the Diversion Center to get a feel
for the daily activities.
c. Outreach
p.2
i. The
Outreach Committee is trying to create a comprehensive list of outreach
services provided to help clarify when and how to refer to certain outreach
workers. There has been a lot of confusion
around appropriate referrals.
d. RRH
Matching p.3
i. The
RRH committee is still facing trouble housing households with utility bills,
and is continuing to struggle with availability of furnishing for apartments.
e. Coordinated
Exit: Families p.4
i. Utility
arrears and availability of larger bedroom sizes continues to pose challenges.
f. Coordinated
Exit: Individuals p.5
i. Nobody
has stepped up to chair this committee in the absence of Tenesha.
5.
Cold Weather Updates – Lou
Gilbert
a. The
City has met with representatives and still has not provided an update on the
ordinance that requires cold weather accommodations at a certain threshold. A location for a winter No Freeze has not
been identified by the city.
6.
GH CAN Housing Data – see p.2
a. Verification
of Chronic Homelessness - Mollie Greenwood
i. Journey
Home distributed a list of households who are currently in shelter who appear
to have the chronic length of homeless history, but who do not yet have
disabling condition verification forms and/or homeless verification forms
completed. In Greater Hartford, the vast
majority of potentially chronic households turn out to meet the chronically
homeless criteria, so if one of these households is residing in your shelter,
please connect with Lisa Quach to discuss where they are in terms of document
readiness.
7.
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. 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 Thursday, 9/28 from
1-4 PM
GH CAN Housing Data
|
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
|
106
|
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
|
419
|
|
|
Verified Chronic Matched
|
44
|
|
|
Verified Chronic Not Yet Matched
|
7
|
We currently have 7 chronic verified clients who have not
yet been matched to housing.
|
|
Potentially Chronic Matched
|
6
|
These households did not disclose a disabling condition,
and are matched to RRH programs.
|
|
Potentially Chronic Not Yet Matched
|
42
|
Right now we believe 42 households have the chronic length
of homeless history, but none of these individuals have their homeless and
disability verifications completed.
|
