Balance of State Continuum of Care
Information and resources for the Balance of State Continuum of Care (BoSCoC), a funding source which serves those at risk of or experiencing homelessness in New Hampshire.
2024 CoC Program Competition Application
2024 CoC Program Competition Application
Are you looking for resources related to the 2024 CoC Program Application? Visit the Balance of State CoC FY 2024 Notice of Funding Opportunity page for more information and to view recorded trainings.
The New Hampshire Continuum of Care Program
The Continuum of Care Program is designed to assist individuals, youth, and families experiencing homelessness and to provide such services needed to help them move into permanent housing, with the goal of long term-stability. The Continuum of Care promotes community wide planning and strategic use of resources to address homelessness, improves coordination and integration with mainstream resources and other program targeted to people experiencing homelessness, and allows each community to tailor it program to the particular strengths and challenges within that community.
New Hampshire has three Continuums of Care (CoC): Greater Nashua (GNCoC), Manchester (MCoC) and Balance of State (BoSCoC). The Balance of State Continuum of Care covers 223 municipalities in NH.
BoSCoC Overview
The mission of the Balance of State Continuum of Care (BoSCoC) is to provide a coordinated and sustainable system of care to individuals, youth, and families who are experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness within the BoSCoC geographical area, with the goals of preventing and ending homelessness.
The vision of success for the BoSCoC is of a community where homelessness no longer exists. In this community there would be an ample supply of safe, affordable, permanent housing and the supportive services that each individual and family may need to prevent homelessness and achieve greater self- sufficiency.
The Bureau of Homeless Services (BHS) is the Collaborative Applicant, which submits the CoC Consolidated Application to HUD on behalf of the BOSCOC. When HUD planning funding is available, the Collaborative Applicant will submit an application to HUD for CoC planning resources and if awarded will administer these for the BOSCOC. It will also assist with advising and carrying out other HUD CoC requirements.
BoSCoC Video Resources
May 14, 2024
Balance of State Continuum of Care Meeting, May 14, 2024
Balance of State Continuum of Care Meeting, May 14, 2024
Balance of State Continuum of Care Meeting, May 14, 2024
Transcript of video:
oh and it's doing a transcript that's fun okay so if everybody could go ahead
and introduce yours I can't watch the transcript I'm sorry I have to close this like making me a little bit um
anxious so if you could go ahead and introduce yourself in the chat tell us your name in the agency um that you work
for or your um role within the balance of State even if you're just a visitor that would be great um as I said when we
started I don't know about everybody else I do know about some of you it has been a month like things have been kind
of strange they've been chaotic there have been uh seems like fire after fire
to be put out in our space so I'm hoping everybody can kind of take a break
listen to our presentation um and get some some helpful information so with that I'm going to turn it over to
Christina doson who was on my screen and now I don't see her oh there are um
Christina you should be able to share your screen for your presentation I think so yep perfect so Christina is
going to give us sort of a rapid fire mckin vinto 101 um everything that you
need to know about how to work with your homeless Liaisons in your local school district so Christina the floor is yours
awesome okay thank you thanks for inviting me today I am going to work on pulling up my little presentation here
uh I'll introduce myself so I am Christina doson um go by christe so it's fine to call me chrisy um and I work up
at the New Hampshire Department of Education um one of my main roles is as the mckenny vento state
coordinator um and so one of those roles helps me introduce mckenny vento across
the state and I was so happy to be introduced or asked to do this presentation I am going to go into
slideshow mode I won't I won't be able to see chat questions
so as as they go along um if anybody could um you know let me know if
questions come up in the chat we can we can ask questions as it goes see I can uh monitor the chat for
you and and we can let you know questions come up perfect thank you and you guys can see the um first slide okay
okay perfect um so mckenny vento this is my introduction I just wanted to kind of
go through it very quickly um and touch on the definition what students rights
are um transportation is a big issue right now uh what our homeless liaison
in the state are required to do by the law give you some data and then questions and and resources at the
end so mcken vento mcken vento homeless assistant act um um helps provide rights
and services to Children and Youth experiencing homelessness um and just if everybody
could mute as they come in I'm getting a little distracted by some of the noises that are coming through
um so basically we try to remove barriers for students accessing their
education and provide stable space for education for students who are experiencing so much other change and
Trauma in their life and like I said before to provide these Services all schools are required
to designate a homeless liaison and every single School in our state does have one of those um who help students
get what they need transition into school if they need to um and help
facilitate a smooth
education the mcken evento definition of homelessness um is much broader than
Hud's definition we look at students who are living doubled up doubled up is what
we call when they're living with a family or relative um Family relative or
friend due to loss of housing economic hardship or similar problems and this can be a broad rrange of things but
basically if they have no other place to go and they have to live in somebody else's house that can be considered
mckenny vento living in motels hotels trailer parks or campgrounds due to lack of
alternative or in adequate housing um so this is important if they're living in
the hotel because they have no other place to go that is mckenny vento um we
do have campgrounds in New Hampshire and sometimes it is a choice of a family to
live in a campground and then bounce into like maybe an Airbnb for the winter um so it does matter if there's a there
is a choice um so it's lack of alternate adequate housing is the big part there
and then we go into um living in space is not meant for human nighttime
residents so cars parking garages um outside spaces and then um
shelters um and then the big one too that we have to think about is substandard housing which can be you
know they have a house or they rent an apartment but it is inadequate for human habitation so there's um a mold
infestation but they don't have any other choices and they have to stay there or there's um a rodent
infestation same thing um there's not adequate bathroom or kitchen space those
can be considered mckenny vento um and receive
Services the words fixed regular and adequate are really what we use as a filter for for when we look at whether
the situation is mckin vental or eligible or not is is it fixed not
subject to change the student is going to be going there regularly every single night consistently and then
adequate which is basically what I just said about substandard it meets um
physical and psychological needs um so if a student's space is not adequate it
can be affecting their education and mckenny vento can step in to help so can the student go to the same
place every night to sleep in a safe and Su sufficient
space I like to talk about doubled up a little bit too because that can get a little tricky sometimes people say well
they moved in with grandma and Grandma has four bedrooms and you know they have plenty of space um but really it's the
reason why they're moving in sharing of housing due to loss of their housing for
economic hardship or similar reason so questions that we think about to determine eligibility are why did the
parties move in together was it some sort of Crisis um or a plan for a mutual
benefit if it's a plan for a mutual benefit they are deciding you know hey we're we're we're really good friends we
want to share a house together um and you know share that rent burden that's
not necessarily mckenny vento so we look at every situation on a case-by casee
basis um think about how permanent is it intended to be and the big question is
where would that student live if they were not doubled up if they did not have that particular space to go where would
they be so I'm going to pause are there any
questions on that definition of mckenny vento homelessness doesn't look like it
so once a student is determined mckenny vento eligible um then they have certain
rights under mckenny vento um the first is you know fape the free and appropriate public
education a big one is they can enroll in in school immediately even if they don't have documents that are normally
required for school enrollment this can be um birth certificates school records
it can be um vaccination um proof that type of thing
we really just want to get the school the student into school immediately and then we work on getting the paperwork
after um after the students in school on the other hand some students continue to
attend their school of origin um and that educational stability is a is a big
factor in determining educational success for students so we tend to look
at the school of origin as their best interest um and we we try to keep them
in the school of origin if possible some sometimes that means um transporting the
student back and forth and so they are required to receive that Transportation um through District
cost one of the other things that they are eligible for free and reduced lunch I don't have that on this slide um they
are eligible to receive um any educational services this can include
extracurricular activities so we help with sports and music programs and um um
any school type of activity that a student might not be able to participate in due to their living situation um and
Status we as mcken vento Liaisons help remove that barrier for
them I just talked about this a little bit so maintaining School of origin maintaining stability is a big um part
of mckenny vento we want them to remain in the school of origin to the extent feasible
that is what they know they have friends um but sometimes that's not possible and they do have a choice to attend the
school in which they are the enrollment area of where they are
living sometimes when that happens they can have a best interest determination meeting with all districts and um
parties involved to make sure that that is the best interest for the for the student
um age length of time it takes to get to the school um time remaining if it's a
senior usually um even if it's a long distance you know we we work to keep the
student in that particular school to finish out their their
career just you know dialing in on this parents do have the right to choose and
if they choose um the school of origin but the the the districts have a meeting
and say maybe this isn't the best interest for the student the parents can dispute that and so there is a dispute
policy that goes through um for the state to make sure that everybody um understands what is best and we are
following mckenny vento as best
possible I'm running through this pretty quickly so I want to make sure I'm just going to pause again to make sure
there's no more questions okay um unaccompanied youth
uh we get some students who are without a parent or Guardian so they're residing
somewhere where they don't have a parent or Guardian around then they would qualify for an unaccompanied youth
status if they are unaccompanied Youth and also living in a situation that has
is under that mckenny vento definition then they would qualify as an unaccompanied youth under mckenny vento
um District liaison step in to help these unaccompanied youth navigate um and
identify them if they're not necessarily reaching out on their
own um again caseby case basis we enroll the student if someone's if a student
shows up at a school and doesn't have their parent or Guardian with them and and has a situation that is qualifying
for M vento enroll the students and then figure out um paperwork situations all
that kind of thing if a student is qualifies for K through 12 education in
New Hampshire they can be considered mcken vento unaccompanied Youth and that's up through actually this slide says 21 it's actually 22 in New
Hampshire now and I just I like to throw the
flowchart for when you think a student is unaccompanied um just thinking
about what happens if a if if there's it really comes down to if there is some
sort of plan or a choice they're not considered mckenny vento um if there is
a certain emergent situation and they have to leave their home for you know
families evicted um they can't find a house that's all together so they have to send you know the student off to live
with an aunt something like that that student would be considered mckenny vento but if say the family's
transferred for work and they want the student to stay in the school district for a sport and they find a friend to
have that student live with that's not mckenny vento so we do think about what's happening and what the situation
is transportation's really big in mcken vento right now mostly because we are finding ourselves transporting um a lot
of students there's a supply and demand situation happening where we are having a shortage of drivers and um the price
for this Transportation has has gone up exponentially we are looking at you know
I'm getting quotes of $600 a day to transport one student which is financially really tricky for
districts what is in the law we have to transport students if it is needed um
between their school of origin and the school district in which they are living
so if they're if they've moved to a temporary house um they're doubled up you know Hotel whatever in a in a city
or town that's outside the district for their School of origin those two districts work together to provide
transportation and split the
costs if the student is still living in their District of origin that uh um District just you know pays for the cost
provides Transportation it's all set when they're living in another District that's when we're running into these um
cost situations just a little bit more it's
regarding you know we we provide transportation um for any student who
needs it provided for extracurricular activities if that's needed for after school care if that's needed um and
collaboration between all parties involved is really the biggest biggest part of this
piece I wanted to talk a little bit about funds we use for mckenny vento um
and what available to districts to help help provide students what they need the first one is the biggest the biggest one
Title One Part a um every single district is required to have a homeless
set aside every single year in their Grant um they must have consultation with their
homeless liaison and take into account the needs of the district when setting aside this fun this money and it can be
used to pro to remove barriers for students experiencing homelessness common uses are um supplies maybe extra
instruction for students um we can pay for homeless liaison time through this
this this funding source um the second one the mckenny vento grant grant so
there is funding for mckenny vento itself um New Hampshire's allocation is very small it's not a big Grant um and
so we we run a competitive Grant with that runs on a three-year cycle we're currently in year two and have five
District grantees across the state new applications for that will come out in Spring
2025 um and you know who knows what we'll get next year this year we actually got less than 350 for the the
upcoming Grant cycle so I'm crossing my fingers that we get a little bit more because the next piece the ARP education
of homeless children and youth is coming to a close and this was our pandemic fund funding so part of the American
Rescue plan um students experiencing homelessness receive their own pot of money New Hampshire actually received
just over $2 million um as a piece of that and so we were able to um give that
out to districts in two parts one was a competitive Grant which again a very small amount of districts applied for I
only have I think it's the same number five um for that and then the other was
a formula grant and that was a bigger piece of the pot and we were able to get that out to a lot of districts who don't
normally have that mckin funding and it's very flexible funding um for students experiencing homelessness
Transportation supplies um wraparound support we've had districts um come
together with Community um Outreach identification of students was big for
this this pot of funding um and part of it the state was allowed a a set aside
and so we set up contracts with Community organizations um already placed for
wraparound Ser services for these students so Waypoint Grant at YMCA um families in transition and then
we've been working with the U success project very closely with this funding
and I'm sad to see it ending and I really do hope that you know in the future we see something like this come
through because once it ends we just go back to our very small Mento
Grant um I'm not going to read these I just wanted to put them in so people are aware the list of the um job
responsibilities for the local liaison so those District Liaisons is quite large biggest one is identifying um
students in need and students who would fall under the mechan mental
eligibility so providing um parents or Guardians support making sure that
students are receiving the services they need working with Early Education programs um like I said I'm just going
to go through these really quickly um making public notice um part of what
we're doing we post um information about mckenny vento out in the community so districts do
have um posters and information in shelters and food banks and churches and
any any Community organization libraries um where where families might see it and be able to understand what what could be
available to them if they are in the mcken vento situation
um and then the unaccompanied youth just making sure that the um they have a
voice in their academics giving them an opportunity to reive their services and
making sure that they are able to fill out the FAFSA receive that support if they choose um to move on with their
education and they can help them file their status as independent students um through that document
okay so I just I threw in some State data state level data um so one of the
things if you look at 2018 2019 we had about 4,000 students experiencing
homelessness and then through covid it dropped about a thousand students um
this was because students went home we weren't able to communicate with them through their guidance counselors social
workers um and find them as as easily and also people moved around quite a bit
during covid 2022 2023 is my um most recent
data the numbers are starting to climb again and I expect and I hope 23
24 um is higher because we know that there are
definitely students experiencing homelessness in New Hampshire at higher numbers than what is being counted in
the schools and the goal of mckenny vento and the goal of our Liaisons is to find the students so that they can
receive the services they need to actually have success in their educational
career um if you look at the pie chart at the bottom that is where we find most of the
students um what their housing looks like our huge percentage is doubled up
that is where we find most of our students um hotel motel unsheltered and shelter
or traditional transitional housing in there the unsheltered um concerns me quite a
bit um that number is fairly high for what um we've seen and then the hotel
motel is actually also a growing piece um for New
Hampshire then I kind of put in our special special education overlaps with mckenny vento quite a bit um so those
numbers are almost half um of what we see and then unaccompanied Youth and
English language learners have have a good po piece of our population as
well so that's all the information I have kind of a quick overview nice little here's mckenny
vento here's the definition here's some of the things we're doing um my next
slide and I'll share this Melissa I haven't sent you this yet but I will share it with you um a lot of resources
out there if you want to learn more about about mckenny
vento Christine I think what stood out to me was the number of unaccompanied youth that you showed because um
our we're not capturing that number so there's a disconnect somehow and that
just kind of putting it out there for the whole group to consider um that's an opportunity for us to work better with
our school districts to make sure um all of those families who are you
know who have the youth in school experiencing unsheltered homelessness or even the youth themselves have
information about our projects um and we're not going to solve that today but
I think that's something worth uh pursuing in the very near future especially as we're we're coming up on
summer so we're going to lose touch with a lot of these youth very very soon um but perhaps we can get a plan in place
for next year years that we have some better connections across our schools um will I saw you had your hand
up good morning um just a question about the
numbers uh for homeless Youth and um you
know when we hear about homeless numbers we always hear about the point and time count numbers but rarely do we hear here
about um uh homeless youth in k12 and it almost seems that the numbers
are treated differently is there a reason why that that is so why the numbers are
treated differently and why we only talk about point in time count most of the
time um because i' I've always been making the argument that our homeless
numbers are way larger than just point and time count and rarely do we talk about
homeless youth in in K12 just
curiosity so Christina maybe we can both take a shot at this I think from my perspective I it the conversation is
happening perhaps just in different settings than you're in will um because
I'm part of quite a few meetings where we do talk about these numbers pretty regularly um and so maybe we just need
to do a better job of presenting that information to this larger group um but
also Christine I have one last thought and then if you I I will stop talking um I think connecting to your local mckin
vento liaison in the school district in in Portsmouth and surrounding communities will help you get your more
local numbers yeah um yeah I think it's spaces where we're talking about this um is not
overlapping right now and so this is why this is really important that I'm here at this meeting we're getting this
information out here um and I'm on other things with Melissa too um and I also
think it's that doubled up number that HUD doesn't recognize that is our L the large part you know those are families
that are displaced they don't have another place to go they are you know through mckenny vento eyes homeless um
but we don't see it at HUD we're not allowed to count that in that point in time count um and those are the numbers
that get publicized um because they're at that that National level so we are I mean we are definitely trying to bring
it further in the conversation and I appreciate um everyone listening
today say like when we did our Council on housing stability data we had multiple sources of data that we use
including um these mckin vento numbers so we we have the many years worth of
numbers to show the trend and then we put in some narratives to help explain the ups and downs and and wise why
things might change um several hands are up operations
manager I'm not sure who that is I am Jeff from hundred nights hey Jeff so the
question I have is individuals that are homeschooled do they still qualify for
any mckin vento services so that gets a little tricky um
mckenny vento is tied to public schooling um so schools do not have um the
requirement to reach out to students who are homeschooled to offer services some
homeschool students do come into the building right for you know special or something like that and then when at
that touch point we can we can kind of step in and help a little bit um but other than that if they are homeschooled
and have removed themselves from the district um they're not counted in the mckenny vento piece
thanks Christina and Megan you have your hand up I'm I'm just gonna Echo basically
what you just said there is a definition difference like HUD dictates the
definition for the coc's and it is quite different than what the mckin vento
schools have it's that um doubled up number where uh that is not in the point
in time it is not considered literally home unless um it is considered housed
so just going that um that's that's a big um and the point in time is very
important for HUD cooc funding and that's probably why you hear that more in the COC than the other
um and talking about some other things um and I wanted to actually go
back to what Melissa just said about um contacting your local liaison I do have
a list of current liais on on the nhed website that's specifically my web page
um so if you scroll down at the bottom of it there's contacts for the current year if you want to reach out um it is
kind of a everchanging position there's a lot of turnover there but most of
those are are current and available and if you can't get a hold of them let me know and we'll we'll get you the name um
but I would encourage you to reach out to that person and just say who you are and kind of what you do and how you know
maybe there's a connection that can be made
and Mandy I just saw your comment in the chat about in your um in your Grant
reporting and applications you supplement pit data with your own data doe numbers um in the youth count that
the youth Su youth success project does talking is hard um so I think
that's that's a really important point about you know each piece of data is a
tongue tester each piece of data is one part of the story so we we have to put it all together to show what we
can any other questions for Christina or comments
thoughts no so I will um share Christina's slides in the link to the
website when I send it out um Susan I see you waving at the camera do you have a question
yes I do actually um if we have a family here at the shelter whose child is going
already going to doora schools already being provided um transportation to that
school because it's not our school um and she was homeless before
she came here and we move her into our transitional housing which would put her
yet again in a different School District can that child still attend the school
in the same district but outside of that neighborhood so that's part of yeah
that's part of what mckin vento does is offer that stability so especially for students who are moving around like that
um Dober will you know just let them know communication is key um and they
will they will work to help help provide transportation all right yeah perfect
perfect you I don't see any other questions in
the chat any other comments or questions for
Christina no okay um so your presentation actually kind of
flows nicely into our next part which is um I wasn't planning on diving
into these numbers too intensely because I don't have all of the breakdowns um
but we do have our preliminary point and time count breakdown by by County um and
I'm going to show you 23 and 24 just because that's what I have open and kind of neatly totaled let me just share that
screen um just as a sort of a checkpoint for where we're at and I think once
we're um at the point where I can work with Megan a little bit because I just
thought of this this morning Megan so I haven't even asked you to help me do this yet um going at some point in a
near future or maybe at a future meeting we can kind of do the breakdown showing the different populations that are represented in the pit um I'm not sure
that we can do that part by County but um I don't know stay tuned we'll see what we can figure out but we do have
our numbers um I think the biggest thing and actually I should have shown 22 as well
but I didn't so I don't have it broken down with the total the biggest thing I wanted to highlight is um
first of all the dramatic increase in unsheltered this year I call it dramatic it seems pretty significant to me it's
over 200 it's 20 I'm doing math real quick on the spot 241 I think somebody
check that um I think it's 241 newly identified unsheltered individuals um
and speaking to what Christina had said these are just the ones who have been identified we know that our point and
time count is not perfect we know know that we don't capture everyone for a variety of reasons um but I will say the
community is really rallied this year and came together for a much more robust
point in time count um and it's reflected in the numbers and some of the most dramatic
differences um I'd say bellnap County had a pretty significant difference
Carol County they uh Hillsboro and marrat those were
the ones I really wanted to H Rockingham is oh Rockingham and straford so many counties
did a much more robust count this uh this year
um and it's um I'm trying to carefully say
it because politics are very strange right now um there is a lot of attention
on unsheltered homelessness right now um and I I don't know how we're going to
necessarily navigate the next coming months with with a lot of focus on encampments and our numbers so much
higher than before and Freeman I see your hand give me half a second and then I will pause so you can um jump in here
the one other point I just wanted to note was our sheltered numbers look like they've gone down
significantly um the big difference and I I have it noted here is our 2023
numbers included um it was like 600 and I forget I'll have to find the exact
number it was a really large number of individuals of households that were staying in a hotel paid for by the New
Hampshire emergency rental assistance program so in a hotel paid for with
government funds um that counted as sheltered homelessness and we did have
those programs entering into hmis um and getting connected with coordinated entry
so our 2023 numbers while it was accurate that those folks were there it
was a bit of an anomaly so we're we're closer to our Baseline for sheltered than we have been before um I think it's
slightly higher but we also had our cold weather shelters this year again um
Freeman do you want me to keep sharing my screen while you ask your question or comment or do you want me to stop so we can see each
other uh it was just more sharing sentiment than anything I mean the
numbers the numbers right um and uh the pit count shows one thing but like
Christine and I were talking about uh the disheartening news that like the balance of State coordinated entry like
prioritization list went up by like 300 bodies you know like and and we're talking like month over month right um
so I think some of this is due to our to your point more robust efforts to
collect data during the point in time count um you know Asen was in charge of
the bellnap county team I I I coordinated overall and helped with the marrat county team I definitely think we
had a more robust pick count this year than we have in previous years we had uh even a QR code that participants could
scan and they could do self-reporting um so I think that increasing people's
access through technology is one of the reasons we saw numbers Spike but it's
no uh secret that uh last year in June
all the people that were in hotels due to Erp hit the streets and some of them managed to cultivate enough sympathy uh
to to to get a couch for a number of months but after Christmas and people
start getting those credit card bills it's like all right Christmas is over get out and we saw a real
increase um in in that uh February to
now time period of this year and I think we're really just starting to see what happens to you when you yank all that
federal assistance for those uh hoteling abilities or temporary housing whatever
we want to call it um so you know and
and there is indeed no one to go and the encampment sweeps have been really picking up pace I
mean just in conquered alone it's literally every week there are
two of them that we are being asked to address and in Laconia to your point about it being political it got real
political real fast and is getting real ugly real fast um and there is just
nowhere for a Shena and I to put these people nowhere um so you know we either need to
provide shelter or we're going to see tents on Main Street like there's there's no ifs ANS
or butts about it
um and hearing that same sort of sentiment across the entire State
um I'm seeing Matt Bushi nod um I know he and I have had many conversations
about Manchester um I've been down doing Outreach in Manchester with DHHS
leadership um and I think
I don't know I'm I don't want to get myself in trouble and say things but I am nervous about how it's going to play
out um because you're right there's just not enough beds for people um kind of
connected to this just want to put it on the radar that I know many of you were involved with Senate Bill 406 that was
trying to add additional funding to the shelters um in order to help support
them and and keep doors open and provide you know
the um all of the case management and housing navigation Services um a few
weeks ago it was um voted down in the house it goes I'm getting updates like
left and right today it goes back to the house finance today where it's expected to be voted down again um but I did just
get notice of a late item that was added to the fiscal committee agenda for Friday trying to do the exact same thing
um I will include that link when I send out all of the information showing what we're asking for um this is this is not
a promise that the funding is coming it's another sort of like last ditch attempt to get the funding that we were
hoping for um I don't know how it's going to go but that's happening on
Friday so hopefully we'll know by the end of the week if there are additional dollars coming through to
support our shelter so I will make sure to send that out as well um any other
comments or thoughts on the point in time
numbers none um our next agenda item is
noo is coming soon in quotes because we don't know what that means in HUD world
but it does seem um Mandy I'm not going to comment on your your comment but um
yes I see it um and I've been distracted let me go back to my agenda the
uh Christy shot and I have been sort of anticipating that the noo the the HUD
annual competition for folks who are unfamiliar with the term noo um we anticipate that it's coming soon
everything sort of happening in the same pattern that has happened in the last few years so we expect that it will be
released sometime around Fourth of July that typically is when it has been coming out um I'm usually camping and
chrisy will text me and say no fo dropped and I get to read it on the beach um and then it's usually due at
the end of September so I wanted to give Christy a chance to just share some ideas share some reminders so you can
start thinking about possible projects so that you're not scrambling once it is released so Chrissy I'll give you a
couple minutes to talk through some noo ideas um so first of all for all of you
who have um grants with us through the Continuum of Care or why
HTP and your renewal Grant um we will be looking at pulling down your annual
performance reports very very soon for scoring purposes um so we will be sending out
those a annual performance reports having you take a look at them and correct any data in hmis prior to us
using any of that information we typically give you a couple of weeks to clean up that data um we do anticipate
the 2024 noo coming out soon I think we shared last time maybe not but the noo
is moving to every two years which is phenomenal we don't know what next year
will look like as of yet HUD has shared that they're still working out
this process but there will be an opportunity for agencies to potentially if they need to reallocate or do
something new with a project there might be that opportunity so we will look forward to that next year um balance a
seat does have we are I'm hosting a bids Conference next Wednesday the
22nd um for anyone who is interested in applying for any potential new or bonus
funding um through the 2024 noo this is open to Renewal projects as well who may
want to expand their projects um or any
new projects that you can think of that you might want to apply for so I highly encourage you to come to our meeting
next Wednesday I will put my email in the chat I did send it out to everybody but just in case I can forward that off
to you and that's all I got Chrissy I got
distracted by somebody telling me that their child keeps calling me mama when they see me on the screen so I apologize
but did you mention the focus on housing and healthc care leverages
can you touch base on that real quick yes so in the last I believe two noos um
HUD has really focused on leveraging health care resources and leveraging
housing resources um with Healthcare they are looking for Partnerships between continu
of care projects and healthcare agencies in your area a lot of your agencies
already do this and already have those Partnerships with Healthcare um they're also looking at Partnerships
with housing authorities and other housing resources um to kind
of have some other funding that's available to the cooc projects for
people to be able to continue to reside in permanent housing um so one of the big things is looking at can you do a
partnership with your local housing provider or hire Housing Finance Authority well they'll assist with the
rental assistance portion and your agency would assist with the Supportive Services sides of things um typically
HUD is looking for us to with any new project to see if they are able to leverage either Healthcare or housing
resources um Freeman they are not acknowledging renewal grants at this
time even though most of you already work with healthc care providers across the board um they're really looking at
those new projects to have those Partnerships with either Healthcare or housing authorities or other housing
options thank you trying Freeman the only other thing I want to
mention is that um chrisy and I have been tossing around some ideas that we'll bring to the executive committee
next month and then bring to this group when the noo does open um about ways to
use our data a little bit more to provide um either like bonus points or incentives for projects to apply um
looking at a couple of things we've tossed around is like areas um with the
highest amount of homelessness so again like maybe using our point and time numbers just to show like this County
had the highest this one had the next highest and none of this is like set in stone it's just ideas that we've been
tossing around um because HUD has also indicated that um we should be using our
data to do needs assessments and things so that was one part we were looking at and the other part we wanted to look at
was uh by County how many permanent Supportive Housing beds how many rapid
rehousing beds do we have currently and where where are the gaps between like
the numbers of homelessness and the numbers of beds available and finding a way to prioritize those um if people
have ideas or thoughts that might work send us an email and let us know because we want to find a way to really get the
projects in the areas that they're needed how how to also ask us every single year if we're doing Gap analysis
of our Continuum of Care and our service coverage areas um and just like for one
example we only have one permanent support of housing project in eastern Rockingham and it serves about 14 people
um so really we're looking at to have some data driven decisions about where
we have those gaps in our system and what we can do about them any thoughts or questions on that
and again I know we just sort of threw all this sort of information at you so feel free to think about it send us
ideas um you can attend Chrissy's session I think you said it's next week
um to hear more about what we're expecting um last year we did get all
six bonus projects that the COC applied for fre minut I see you hold on half a second um our COC did get all six bonus
projects um and some of those bonus projects are actually helping us at BHS
build up our collaborative applicant staff to help continue doing the work that HUD has been asking us to do um so
one of those positions will really be doing project focused um like system performance work
and tracking their aprs and tracking um their outcomes and helping strategize
how to improve different um different items that HUD actually scores us on um
and then we'll be adding a position that will be dedicated to COC Grant
Management so some of the more um concrete tasks like the monitoring and
the contract stuff will go to a different person so Christy can really spend all of her time doing some of the
COC system workk that continues to improve our score that helps us get these new projects so um I think a COC
we're in a really good position um as far as new projects go so
um our annual renewal demand is around 7.7 million this year um and typically
the bonus projects are what 5% Christie I think it's about 5% of our annual renewal demand so uh there is the
potential um I'm doing math while we talk um of bonus funding of a
about 385,000 we won't have the exact number until the noo actually comes out
but it's a decent amount of money for a decent Siz project if you'd like to start thinking about what you might want
to do with that um so we just wanted to give everybody a chance to start
brainstorming before that like 90day window of the noo hits and we don't want it to be
frantic and Freeman I saw your hand I did I almost forgot to it was just
um when we talk about gaps um you know an unsheltered homeless being such a an
issue of Optics right you know cu the folks that
um that we're always talking about the you know let's let's call them the 1centers right you know the people that
are maybe associated with some of the uh symptoms of poverty and these undesirable behaviors that are a result
um you know that top percentage of the unsheltered population that maybe there's a lot of uh publicly visible
behaviors associated with would really benefit from something that was low barrier to no barrier um like pallet
shelter.com and I'm just wondering um if there are and if not why
there are not uh efforts to uh like like noos specifically for things like the
pallet shelter initiative because it's a FEMA solution that was deployed during Hurricane Katrina and we have nearby
examples in New England that are touting great success uh people stay for an average of 6 to 12 months and then move
on to permanent housing and it gives them their dignity back and it gives us our main streets back so from an optic
standpoint this is good for everybody this satisfies business owners which let's face it money talks and even if
you want to REM remove all the humanity from this issue and and appeal to people's selfish Natures this is a good
way to do that um because the people that maybe I'll come out and say it hate
poor people hate homeless people hate people that maybe use substances um if you can give them a
meaningful way to sweep the streets so to speak um rather than the really
expensive thing we're doing right now which is playing whack-a-mole with human beings um I just wonder why when we've
got such a Deployable solution when you can have 26 people off the street or 30
people off the street in a matter of 3 days provided the mone's there because that's how long it takes a pallet
shelter Village to set up is three days um I just wonder why um we're we're not
we're not going full steam ahead at at Solutions like this that are scalable so I have a couple thoughts and
then um I'll pause and let others time in I would say HUD
made an attempt with sowo that supplemental noo to to focus on unsheltered we got two projects which
was better than nothing um but it wasn't for that purpose um HUD has also said
they're focusing on unsheltered homelessness coming up I don't know what that's going to mean um but one thing
I'll say is um last budget cycle so state budget I don't know what my state
fiscal years are so last time we went and did the budget um our Bureau put in a request for $10 million per state
fiscal year for shelter purposes and the Hope was to better support the existing
shelters and then have opportunities for um adding some non- congregate Solutions
because that is also part of the noo is what are you doing about non-congregate Sheltering which is exactly what these pallet shelters would be considered um
so we did request 10 million per state fiscal year and we got four um so
so I would say in the next budget cycle which we're starting to prepare for if
you see requests from the state for increased shelter funding call and write
whoever you can to support that request um because the
only way we're going to get the resources we need is if people show up and and advocate for and I can't do the
advocate I can do the requesting and the justifying with the data but if everybody else shows
up banging down those doors um maybe we can make some
progress any other questions or thoughts on
that hey Melissa it's Gary hey Gary um with regards to the statement that you
just made for for myself long standing and a lot of folks have heard I don't know what don't know and for the the um
the funding that you're talking about not the the HUD funding but the the state run funding is there the
possibility to create perhaps a central distribution that notifies the COC that
X Y andz bill is coming if you want to support it here's who you reach out to
it exists um go to the housing acttion New Hampshire website and get signed up for their
alerts thank you welcome that's a great point because I don't know that everybody knows about that um Housing
Act in New Hampshire ATT tracks they're the advocacy body in New Hampshire and they track all of the legislation um and
they are generally the ones who will do sort of like call to action um you know letters needed or testifying you know
people are needed to testify um if you can't find it I can connect you with the right person to get you on that list
thank you so much I appreciate it you're welcome right anyone
else this is a quick meeting this week or week month I don't know what we're doing anymore um the only other item I
have is that the um every seat on our
executive committee is up for Renewal this year so we I have a survey already
created I'm going to drop it in the chat we will be seeking nominations for every
single position um I wrote it like I the survey that's
coming out tells you what the positions are and it talks about the specific responsibilities for the executive
committee um over the past two years we did a lot of work cleaning up our governance Charter so it was clear what
the executive committee role was um prior to that I think it was really vague and
unclear um really kind of frustrating and hard to understand so we bulleted
out and I will send all of this to you to look at um the specific responsibilities how frequently we meet
um how we vote um and I I'll just send it all to you
instead of trying to read it to you but um in general it's it's six times a year we meet every other month opposite the
COC meetings um we may have to adjust the time because uh my director changed
our management team meetings to directly conflict with everything um COC schedule
so um we will once we have a a new group we will set that recurring meeting um
but the the responsibilities really fall within um how to plan and use the COC
funds um I want to see how I wrote it so the decisions and recommendations
for COC funding purposes have to be made within the HUD Continuum of Care rules and regulations so we're voting on
priorities for the noo we can't say well our priori is going to be something that HUD doesn't fund we have to make sure
we're prioritizing it um in the way that HUD will actually approve um so we
provide Direction and recommendations uh for the planning process so those things we were bouncing
around about do we want to score based on the pit do we want to score based on gaps that was one of the things that the
executive committee will make a formal recommendation on um the second one is
to make all formal recommendations requiring a vote to the COC make recommendations for goals and strategies
to prevent an end homelessness within the balance of State service area and approve all corrective action plans that
result from the COC annual performance monitoring which Christy had mentioned earlier in this meeting so those are the
four responsibilities of the executive committee um sometimes our meetings
really are just getting together to chat about what's going on and see if there are topics we want to learn more about
um and then a couple of times a year we have specific things that we must act on
um and we have I lost the list one four five six
there are eight positions that we will be seeking nominations for um the committee or the term runs for
two years you are able to serve consecutive years you are also able to
nominate yourself I do ask that if you nominate another person that they know
that you're nominating them and it's not a surprise U please make sure that they're aware they're being nominated um
and that they are okay with being on the ballot um I I would hate to have
somebody nominated on a ballot who's really either unwilling or unable to um
serve in that position um I will set the dates I didn't get that far before our
meeting of like how long the ballot will be open but I will send it out today um and generally we give about a
week for nominations and then the vote will happen in June I'll send out a
survey an electronic survey with all of the um the nominees in each position I'm
trying to find the chat again so I can send it's not a pretty link but the link
will bring you to the page with the nominations I will also send it in an email to all of you so you don't have to
try and save it today and and make it decision today um but it is in there and Freeman thank you very much with um for
putting in the housing acttion New Hampshire link and um Lynn I see was it lincom and Leonia
moving forward with the p Village okay so there's more pallet
information there's a lot happening in the chat that I missed so cool you guys are making connections and that's great
no that's good the the context is is that the mayor's task for course which I'm on with my director Beth is pushing
forward they've applied for some leftover arpa funding and we're waiting for the official answer back but being
the opportunist that I am um this is a scalable solution and grow or die and all those sentiments so why not scale up
um you know I would love to see more than just one pallet shelter because we've got quite an issue in my hometown
which I'm not a service provider there but it's gross to watch it go down uh having lived there most of my life and
conquered isn't getting any better it's getting worse um and we're just like I said playing whack-a-mole with people
and they're dying not excellent that that's
happening but excellent point um we have time if anybody would like to
share any updates about what's happening in your community or your
agency I'll give it a moment to see if anyone has anything they'd like to
share hey Melissa this is Gary again hey Gary um I'm unable to access the link
you shared okay I am having technology challenges
fair enough not even a worry I will um
have to figure that out when we're not in this meeting and I will just resend by email I'm sorry fair enough thank you
no that's all right there are worst things in the world oh goodness all right any other
oh Christy is waving at me of course I have something um the coordinated entry
subcommittee will be sending out hopefully very soon a survey for participants who are either currently in
coordinated entry or who have gone through the coordinate entry process um
and I will send out more information in that email but we're looking to get our annual feedback from participants so
that we can continue to improve that system we are also working on developing
a survey for housing providers so you'll see that in the next coming weeks as
well right oh Heidi's got her hand up go
ahead idy um just the you subcommittee we met met yesterday and many of the
work groups are doing all kinds of work um the rural youth homeless Outreach work group is meeting with uh several
providers that are working on a um training series around rural youth homelessness they'd like to spread
across the state um they're working on that uh the training standards work group is meeting to put together uh
documents following the great work that was done with the Outreach uh curriculum
and adding a a layer of um uh trainings that might be pertinent to youth on top
of that um and then the driver's ed and Licensing work group is working with the
Department of Motor Vehicle vehicles and lots of other community um and state
organizations around uh looking at scholarships for um driver's ed for
folks um looking at where a car is available for people to take their
driver's test um paying for any of the fees for these things there is a rolling
uh they're rolling out a mobile van through the de Department of Motor Vehicles which they're still ramping up
being able to travel to help people get their documents uh they have a list of folks they're going to be starting with
um but they're trying to get the van teched out I'm not sure how to say that right but um so that that can go to
other places um they are also looking at Big Brothers Big Sisters to develop a
mentorship program around working with youth to help them get their driving hours in um and triaa as a p possible partner
and the um Automobile Association as well um and there is a single point of
contact work group that is continuing to meet uh they are working with the colleges and universities around similar
to what a mcken vento does in the K through2 schools um something also to happen in the colleges and universities
and I did just get an email about um some potential National legislation on that as well so stay tuned for that um
and then the youth count work group um is being um morphed into a group that
might be able to do um the youth lens for our point in time count for um
January and there's a bunch of work going on with that where they are also putting together the data from the 2022
youth count that was done and a research project with Plymouth State University so stay tuned for the information from
that as well so that's a ton of work and they're continuing to meet and um yeah
that's what's happening with the youth subcommittee thank you just real quick
um I'm participating in over theedge this year um anybody that wants to see me jump off a building uh feel free to
contribute to that all the proceeds are going to our mobile food pantry um our
mobile food pantry is entirely funded by donations um so Jameson um who is part
of our team drives around the cap mobile food pantry van through both
counties um he serves elderly Shu inss um as well
as our unsheltered friends and neighbors um so it's not just people experiencing homelessness it is many who are
experiencing food insecurity and we are currently uh we have a second van but we
don't have the money to fund it and that will be another uh van for food in
security uh and uh mobile Outreach is our goal um so anybody that can help
contribute to that uh giv smart United Way link uh anybody that's not familiar
with what over theedge really is uh you can repel off of The Brady Sullivan Tower which is the tallest building uh
in this part of the country before you hit Canada um so North of Boston it's
the largest building um uh I've raised money for it for a couple of years I've
actually never hit my goal to be able to repel but my director was able to do it the year before last she hit her goal
but again all the money goes to our mobile food pantry really important cause um so thanks um yeah I think
that's all of it thanks
frean all right last chance for any updates and then uh you all get almost
an hour
back none I did go ahead I just saw your hand
go up right thank you last minute I just wanted to share with this community of
providers that way point is now providing youth navigation supports to young people throughout um the entire
State of New Hampshire and we have a very targeted and specific focus on the
North Country so Marram County North and
um if you'd like a mailer or any marketing um pamphlets that we have feel
free to send an email to me and we'll get those mailed out but the idea is for
us to connect with young adults um throughout this day um were able to
provide brief hoteling in order to bridge their um Bridge them into safety
um we have Uber health so we're able to transport young people um toward safety
and I um and I hope that we're able to meaningfully connect with young
people particularly in points north of Marat County that need low barrier
support and it's available 24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year so um
happy to connect with anyone um north of marrat County um particularly to begin
building bridges and start those really important relationships thank you
uh thank you Mandy I was going to say that as well um I'm going to have Melissa share with all of you the
updated Regional access point listing which includes all the contact information for Waypoint and all of our
other Regional access points with the
notes and one last thing that I will share in the email is um I have been
getting a lot of emails about our um the 1959 Supportive Housing benefit the
Medicaid benefit um I'm going to try and put some easier to follow information in the
email for everyone um because there there seem to be a lot of questions and
confusions or confusion about what the benefit can actually cover um it really
is truly tied to permanent Supportive Housing it's the services side of permanent Supportive Housing um this
isn't something that can supplement the shelter work um it doesn't supplement Outreach work it really is connected
to the housing part of it um and I know that we have needs in all of the other
areas as well please know I know that every area is underresourced um there are a lot of things coming through DHHS
that are Medicaid benefits that will cover some of those other gaps as well um not for shelter necessarily but for a
lot of the different Services um so I'm going to send some information out about
that um if you are a permanent Supportive
Housing provider who would like to be able to build Medicaid for the services side you do need to enroll as a Medicaid
provider even if you already build Medicaid for other things um you must
enroll specifically to provide this benefit um and we are frantically
working here to put together documents that show the flow of the work um CMS
which is you know the the Medicaid Federal agency I can't remember the
acronym um Center for Medicaid and Medicare I think Services um has
continued to throw us kind of little um just little hurdles we have to clear and
we are still on track to be able to start billing for this July 1st I do not
expect this to roll out like a freight train on July 1st I think it will be slower um because we are still trying to
figure out exactly how it will work um but if if you are not a permanent
Supportive Housing provider you don't have to pay attention to this part so um I just I know a lot
of people have so much on their plate they're trying to interpret every single thing we send if you are not a permanent
Supportive Housing provider please feel free to just delete this information um
and then once I send out the the more simplified information if you still
have questions let me know and we can work together on setting up a session um
for the folks who intend to enroll as Medicaid providers to provide this service um we didn't want to do a
full-blown training for everyone um because I didn't want to waste people's
time if this was something that you weren't going to be able to provide or needed to know um I just I know how
tight everyone's time is so um just stay tuned for more information about that and Gary I see your hand oh and Mandy
Mandy was first or was that your old I'm sorry that was my old hand I'll take it down
you got it all right Gary so my question is being the regional access point for
Eastern Rockingham um I think and please correct me if I'm wrong sy's um organization at
Crossroads offers permanent Supportive Housing so with me being the regional
access point there was talk about like referrals and information being funneled am I still a part of that or can I be
excused from the table please that was a good question um no you can't be excused
I'm sorry so there are two parts to it so most of it um is open to anyone providing permanent Supportive Housing
one of the one of the components of this whole process is that Regional access point work um um if your agency does not
want to build Medicaid you don't have to you do still have to do your Regional access point work you just can't build
Medicaid to be reimbursed for it so that's the it's um it really is covering
what you're already doing it's just giving you another funding stream to pull from to build up the
work got you so and and I apologize because it's it's something that only just learned about recently so I'm still
trying to wrap my head around it if if Crossroads elects to Bill
Medicaid then how would I be involved in that or it seems to be a separate
offline conversation because I'm I'm out lost in the woods I'm happy to do that as well that's okay um so I'll give sort
of a high level answer for everyone because I'm sure other people have this question too um the flow of the work is
not going to change whatsoever so um I guess I shouldn't say that because there is um care coordination coming but stay
tuned for that we'll have a specific presentation about that um DHHS is really trying to streamline efforts so
that we aren't having to make referrals in uh 10,000 different places we have
more of a centralized case conferencing kind of platform we can use um but don't worry about that part e there because
that's not here yet um for 1915i purposes the coordinated entry flow
really is going to stay pretty much the same the part that people need to worry
about is who's and you don't have to worry about how Crossroads is paying for but each agency really is more about is
this funding coming from HUD or am I billing Medicaid for this um it really is more about who's paying for that
particular service the flow of the work really won't change so your role in the
regional access point you'll still take those calls you'll do the initial um cordate entry assessment follow the
policies and procedures we have make your referrals um and then the receiving
agency if they are billing Medicaid then they'll build Medicaid for their services if they're not they'll pay for
it some other way okay okay and oh and did I see your hand come
up yes hello um you for presenting the uh data earlier broken down by the
counties on homelessness for 2023 to 2024 204 numbers have actually been
looking for very interesting do we have those numbers broken down by COC currently yes I can um Megan you can
probably help me get that yeah I sent the I sent each COC their point in time
data okay I don't seem to have it if I could have that sent over to me that would be
fantastic oh and it's it's me sh we're we're presenting on it tomorrow um in
our meeting on Thursday okay got you all right I'll touch base then
thank you guys okay and I hold on I don't know if this
chat is from this meeting or something
else um so Sand's question Sandy I will
respond I saw your email there have been fires left and right here this week and I just haven't had a chance I'm sorry um
the immediate crisis is almost resolved and I can get back to this hopefully
this afternoon so I will respond to your email um and I will put some information
in uh my email as well okay all
right with that I think we can wrap it up for the day you get 45 43 minutes
back sorry um and I really appreciate everyone I will send um all the notes
that I have when Christina sends me her presentation I'll make sure to add that to my email um and then I will send the
link to where all of our meeting recordings go so you can keep a reference to it um we add our trainings
there we add our COC meetings there um and it gets updated every time we add
one of these so all right well thank you everyone I appreciate you all have a great day take care y'all
bye thank you bye bye
everyone
January 10, 2023
Balance of State Continuum of Care Meeting, January 10, 2023
Balance of State Continuum of Care Meeting, January 10, 2023
Balance of State Continuum of Care Meeting, January 10, 2023
Transcript of video:
let me do there it goes excellent all right well a
lot of you have already started but if um you haven't yet please introduce yourself in the chat with your name and
your agency um you can add your pronouns if you'd like or any other identifying uh factors
um we do use the attendance in the chat for um
the HUD nofo so the notice of funding opportunity application scoring process
so well that means nothing today um down the road when HUD releases their
annual competition we do check the attendance and there are points given for attendance so please make sure that
you get credit for being here by putting your name in the chat um
I had shared that I don't think our first presenter can be here today she
had emailed me that she had I'm just trying to scroll through names while saying things um I think she has a conflict is there
anyone here from 2-1-1 that's able to do a quick presentation or should we skip
ahead I'll pause for just a moment to see if anyone here
okay so I think that we should just move forward in our agenda and if somebody
from two on one is able to join us um we will backtrack and if they're not able
to join us today we could certainly add um add them to an agenda on a different
day so moving on to the next item
um Mandy Reagan we'll talk about the point in time count good morning everyone Amanda Reagan uh
pronoun she her I am involved in some of the street Outreach projects at BHS so
traditionally I've been involved in the unsheltered count um so it is January it is point in time
season for us so just as a reminder although we talk about this all the time I know you all are experts in it but uh
worth reminding what is the point in time or the pit count as we call it so it is a HUD mandated count of all
individuals who are sheltered and unsheltered who are experiencing homelessness Across the Nation
um it takes place within the last 10 days of January for the Mandate from HUD
and for us it's typically the last Wednesday of the month and we are keeping consistent with that this year
the three cocs have voted that we will be conducting the point in time on
January 25th which is a Wednesday the hours of which be being six o'clock that
night all the way overnight into 6 a.m the next morning which technically is
Thursday the 26th so for the unsheltered portion uh we are
looking at those that meet that definition of unfit for human habitation and again
because it's an overnight count traditionally here in New Hampshire we don't have robust Outreach teams that
are out overnight for the point in time so remember for all of you that are participating in the pit count if you're
going out and doing Outreach on Thursday the 26th you're going to be asking where
people stayed the night before and if you're looking at your caseloads you're going to remember that you're tracking
those that are in the homelessness experience between the hours of 6 pm and
6 a.m so there's been some confusion in the past about that so just wanted to clarify that
um in terms of the unsheltered count we have been meeting with you all regionally just to check in and see how
things are going and what your current pit plans are for your unsheltered response um there's some ample and robust
planning going on so I'm hoping that I'm just looking down the list here
um some of you that have been planning these within your regions you could just give some examples about the efforts
that you're undergoing here as we're leading up to the weeks of the Pips
and if I don't hear from anybody that I'll just call on a couple people so be warned
it's fine Mandy um
all right um so yeah right now like you said we're all trying to plan make sure that
everybody's on the same page so like you know as soon as the we get the link training in the next few
days talking about the actual Google form that we will all use yeah and then once we have the link in our hands uh we
can start making sure that all the Community Partners that are going to participate in the actual accounting
have that thing saved on their phones and are comfortable with how to use it so um you know we'll be reaching out and
making sure that all our volunteers are ready to go and that their questions are answered but
um it's you know for us traditionally what the cap team has done is from about
6 a.m in the morning we count until we leave work and make sure that anybody
um that calls in or visits the SSP or you know visits the shelter it's better
to have duplicates than it is to have someone not counted at all so
um I don't know anything I'm missing that you want me to talk about Mandy I'm so glad you mentioned the Forum training
because it will happen today at one o'clock at
the link in their newsletter uh we can send it out again just as a reminder but that will go over unsheltered as well as
anybody who does not enter into hmis so welfare or any of you other providers
out there yeah and anybody that wants to volunteer on that day please just reach out to
myself or um probably Conor spurn or Owen we'd all be happy to coordinate with you and and
get you feeling comfortable to participate in the account if you're interested foreign
count for those that are in Emergency Shelters or other locations I will tag
in ICA here because they really spearhead that side of things and actually Susan just asked a question
that I think Megan would be great for you to answer as well I don't know if you saw that in the chat about shelters
who do you enter so thank you yeah um so Susan uh this year we will again
be using your your hmis data like we like you did last year and the year before
um and we are having a live training on the 24th I believe
um specifically to show you what that report is going to look like because it
is going to look different this year um than the couple the past few years because we are in a different database
um but yeah you do not have to use the Google forms um for your data that you enter into
hmis if you though are um doing any Outreach or come to contact
that someone with someone that is unsheltered you are able to use the
Google forms to um to do that foreign
we are pulling the hmis reports um this year because it's a new system
and um there are not a lot of folks that have looker licenses uh right now in New
Hampshire which we do recommend that at least one person do um so you're not able to take
even pull that report um ica's pointless reports
um and Mandy sorry um got distracted with the hmis questions
um so yeah we'll we will be going over the Google forms and the paper survey uh
this afternoon um uh we will we will be recording that so
um anyone who isn't able to join the live session um will be able to at least take
um and watch the recorded uh we will have uh we do have demo links for
um so you can practice and see what it looks like the Google form so if you've never done a Google The Google form
before you'd be able to see um have some idea of what it might look
like and what the process is Megan are there links to those
um the demos that you could put in the chat for people yes let me find them and I
can do that very cool um oh look somebody else had the same suggestion in the chat
um perfect and we will when we send out the minutes um
we will include those as well um and I just want to thank Freeman for
the comment about the it's better to have duplicates than not absolutely
please I would rather have you enter even if you think somebody else already did um I I don't need you to call and double
check with somebody just if you have that person in front of you um do it do the the survey with them get
it entered I do some of the deduplication with ICA after the fact so we take care of that part you don't have
to worry about it just get as many people counted as you can because the better our count is the better we can
address the gaps in our system any other Mandy any other
pit comments or um any other questions from anyone in the group
that was all I had uh if anybody has any unsheltered questions you can feel free to email me or send me a link I will put
my email in the chat uh that was all I had awesome thank you all right
um I still do not see anyone from uh two on one here so we will move on to
subcommittee updates for the day um Heidi and Heidi are you here and your
co-chair is Maddie I believe for the Youth subcommittee
I'm not sure if Maddie's here Maddie are you on this call
she is um I'm not sure if she is prepared to do an update so Heidi could
you start and if Maddie's able to jump in she can totally fine so we are working together to plan for our March
coming up meeting um that will be a regroup of this uh subcommittee because we've been planning
for the Youth homelessness demonstration program Grant I think for like a year and a half now
um in terms of uh setting up projects doing implementation conversations and
really just planning for this group to come back together so we're going to be sort of re-grounding ourselves and
setting the stage for how we want to move forward in the coordinated community plan we actually have physical
copies of it now so hopefully those will go out soon um and if folks would like the um
coordinated community plan electronically um Melissa we can include it in the notes I can give that to you as well
um so there are lots of projects coming up going to be starting uh with four agencies and I think we share this in
the past but the upper room has one Waypoint has two projects
um The Claremont learning partnership has one project project and Tri-County cap has two projects so they will be
hopefully starting in the next few months
all right anything else with the youth subcommittee looking good okay thank you
um our next subcommittee update is coordinated entry and that is Christy and Freeman
I guess I'll go because I know Freeman's out during Outreach I know he's here um good morning everyone it's Christy
from BHS um we have some exciting new things that are happening in the month of January in
regards to the coordinated entry system um we are working on finalizing
coordinate entry materials for all of the regional access points within the balance of State Continuum of Care
um I'd like to give a big thank you to Owen and Connor from VM cap and the whole BM cap team who helped assist us
finalize those materials we're hoping to get them printed and distributed out to the regional access points within the
next month um they will have a flyer and also hopefully um waterproof business cards
as well so that people have the information of who to call if they're experiencing housing instability or
experiencing homelessness um we have our subcommittee
meeting tomorrow at two o'clock if you're interested please send me or Freeman an email we are also working on
getting case conferencing up and running in both Merrimack and Belknap counties we have a training for Merrimack County
this afternoon and Western Rockingham has their third case conferencing
meeting this month and Belknap has their first case conferencing meeting on Wednesday
don't think I forgot anything but Freeman feel free to chime in no you got it you got it yeah I know Owen made the
flyer uh beautiful and Conor was an amazing help so big thanks to cceh for
the collaboration and uh yeah it's a really nice flyer I think we'll represent all of our
communities well it's I think and those waterproof business cards I'm very very
stoked about because everything of our clients kind of gets washed away um and our training for Belknap County
case conferencing I thought went really really well yesterday so we're stoked to have our first actual case conferencing
uh next week um so super duper thanks for bearing with us guys we're doing the
thing uh the only last thing is we did there's a revised strapped in the Courtney entry
manual that has been sent out to the subcommittee um once we finalize a draft
um we'll send it out to the entire balance of state to take a look at so
all right anything else on coordinated entry no all right
um our next subcommittee update is the veteran subcommittee I don't know if Sean is here
don't see Sean here Mandy do you I always go to you do you have any updates on the veteran subcommittee
and Emily Racine actually from the VA is now the chair of it but I don't see her either right now so I can give an update
so the veteran subcommittees um they have combined uh across the
state so we used to do it that way and we got away from that and now we're back to that
um just to solidify across COC lines and kind of standardize the approach that
we're taking so we had the Statewide veterans Summit last June and from that steering committee was formed we've been
working on gaps that were identified in that Summit ever since um as kind of goals to meet for the next
year so part of that was case conferencing so we have been doing bi-weekly case conferencing that
happened every Monday sorry the second uh and fourth to Monday afternoon so if
anybody is interested in joining um you can send me an email and I will get you to the right person uh but
basically we go through Veterans that have our newly identified in our system as well as those outstanding uh for
getting into housing and talk through as a multi-disciplinary stakeholder group of how we can help them get into housing
and stay there um beyond that for the veteran subcommittee
I don't think I'm missing anything uh Katie who's the chair of the Manchester
committee is also here so if I have missed anything Katie feel free to jump in but
I think that's a summary for now I think you got it all Mandy
thank you all right and then Mandy we will actually stay with you for the Outreach
subcommittee update the every subcommittee we met uh I think was last month gosh running together uh
we reviewed kind of the structure of the Outreach subcommittee and where folks
um thought that it could be helpful in the day-to-day knowing that there's already Regional responses happening so
we talked about having it be a training platform as well as maybe some networking and peer connection so
um potentially having a one or two in-person larger Summits
um so more to come we are meeting bi-monthly for now
um and I think more strategy and more structure will come from it as we work together but big shout out to everybody
who came definitely excited feel the passion and feel the combination that we
all have especially in light of um some really difficult circumstances so I appreciate your willingness to come
together and have hard conversations to get through and serve those most vulnerable
excellent thank you um all right so those are our subcommittee updates
this month we thought we would try something new um and I didn't prep everyone so if
we're not if people from the different regions are not prepared for this I completely understand and nobody is
going to be um nobody's gonna be yelled at by me anyway so I'm just hoping we can try and
start getting more Regional updates at this meeting because the purpose of the balance of State really is to hear about
all of the great work that's happening across our entire geography and since our geography is almost the entire State
of New Hampshire um I thought it would be great to hear from folks other than just me every time
so I have the list that was created for the housing Summit back in
October November um I can't remember exactly when that happened but it was created for that purpose I'm just going to go through an
order and call out the different groups and if there's somebody here who attends
that meeting or leads that meeting that is able to give some kind of update that would be great and then I promise over
the next couple months to actually reach out to all of you to be better prepared for next time this is just a trial to
see how it goes so we will start with the Belknap County lsda group is there
anyone here who can give a brief update
I'm hearing crickets okay we will move on to Berlin Gorham
Homeless Solutions Network sounds like a job for me all right so uh
we over the last two months have been focused primarily on the pit count um we
right now have four pit stop locations uh one in Colebrook with the TCAP
Connect trailer which I just got permission for and then FRC in Berlin and Gorham as well as Saint Barnabas are
going to put some soup on um and then we've been doing that same thing across across the different
counties but uh we're gearing up for that uh and
we're excited excellent thanks Eric
okay the Concord provider network is there anyone who could give an update for that one
no okay uh Northern Carroll County provider
Network
and I think I got an update by email saying this meeting had switched back to zoom so I will update this to make sure
it reflects that and we can share this document again out with our minutes
nobody for that group okay uh next is the greater Keen Homeless
Coalition hey how's everyone doing
we're good Craig so uh good so we have uh Kevin from MFS uh
we're down one Outreach workers so MFS the path worker for MFS is taking on the the pit work in Cheshire county and we
have Jim Doherty which is our ESG Outreach worker kind of taking the lead in Sullivan County
um what's nice is that we had a Community Partners meeting last week and I really told everyone I said you know
even if you think in your wildest dreams you may come in contact with somebody and this is more than 30 or 40 agencies
that is is Street Homeless or literally homeless have somebody in your agency be the contact person and reach out to Jim
right because as you said Melissa we don't want to worry about duplication Mandy thank you so much Mandy has a list
of the pit counts for the last 10 years and it's very interesting for folks to take a look at that you can really see
the trends in our community now whether it's because of our how much we participated in it or if it's really
truly the way the economy is going or Graphics are going but it's really
something to look at and so Sullivan County is where I've been kind of focusing because we've had big zeros for
the last few years and I know that we can do better than nothing so uh you
know we're really focusing on that area the welfare departments are are helpful
we're reaching out to the social workers in the hospitals and also the sau's as
well so other than that SCS has had a whole bunch of weatherization work done
and upgrades to our shelters we're frantically trying to hire like
everybody else is for another Outreach worker and for a emergency housing coordinator in our shelters
and uh you know I don't think it's a shock to anybody but in 2020 in Keene we
served 101 people and we served 193 in Keen in 2022. that's a 90 increase of
the homeless population that we're serving so I think everybody is really stretched very thin
no I just wanted to say I really appreciate you acknowledging that because it can it's really easy for
everyone to kind of get caught up in their own day-to-day um you know just the busyness of our work
and acknowledging that we're all facing that I think is really important so thank you for saying that
all right um next on our list is home for all
is there anyone from the home for all group that could give an update
sorry I'm a muting yeah this is this is Damien Santana and I work with
Carl rottenheiser and um support the home for all project through
um Grant United Way's work so an update on a couple of things that
home for all are working on right now is we have a coalition meeting coming up on the 12th
to regroup with area Partners around um a strategy for the next year to
address homelessness on the Seacoast we also have the affordable housing incentive program uh out on the Seacoast
which looks to incentivize housing for low-income tenants and families by
providing case management through local area uh first-tier shelter partners
and providing resources to landlords to help to avoid things like tenancy issues
or eviction processes or if those things are inevitable how to sort of facilitate
those to make them less burdensome on the landlords as well as the tenants
and other than that I don't have any other updates at the moment
excellent thank you um let's see sorry working Better Together North Country
[Music] okay housing first for the Lebanon group
I thought I saw Lynn Lynn are you still here I'm here hi perfect so we have a
new program operating this winter in the absence of a seasonal shelter in
our area the city of Lebanon authorized up to a hundred thousand
dollars to provide seasonal Sheltering for up to 10 households in January and
February and we have partnered with the Upper Valley Haven which is a shelter and homeless service provider in Vermont and
Terry Sullivan is on the call from the Haven The Haven is working with Lebanon Human
Services to refer Lebanon residents experiencing homelessness to this program the plan is to shelter them in
motel rooms and have weekly Supportive Services
provided by The Haven and it's a very expensive way to provide seasonal
shelter there's enough money set aside by the city to book 10 hotel rooms
whether they're used or not to make sure we have access to motel rooms but right now we've been fortunate that there are
still vacancies so we are not having to do that at the moment and hoping that this is continuing to
build awareness in our community about the need for shelter as well as demonstrate that there are more cost
effective options than motel rooms
that's it thanks Lynn and the last one on our list for the
balance of state is Western Rockingham Rockingham um Continuum of Care sorry Angie I can't
say words today are you still so good it's a long long uh name um yeah so things are going well down
here in West Rockingham County as everybody knows we do not have any shelters so um a lot of our homeless individuals or
families um they're either doubling up couch surfing or uh in their vehicles or
trying to get into shelters uh within Nashua Manchester or even Fort Smith
um most families do not want to do that so they're trying to see if other family members can take them in in the interim
um our meetings are going great monthly the case conferencing is going amazing we've come up with a couple resolutions
for some people one is going to be joining the uh Job Corps he's actually going to be going out to I believe it's
Montana or wine opening soon uh so we're helping get him prepared for that
um excuse me and I did have a meeting with the upper room here in town yesterday with Brenda and Cara so they
will be joining our once a month meeting as well to tackle uh homelessness within
our County as well as as ideas for them with use youth homelessness as well
because they've joined Heidi uh on that front as well awesome
those are excellent updates thank you you're welcome uh so that is the end of our list
um I know that I didn't prep everyone that we were going to do this in advance so I appreciate everyone that was
willing to be put on the spot to give us a brief update um I will try to reach out to everyone that's listed as a chairperson to see if
we could have people ready to do this next time um
we did not add to the agenda a couple of things that I'm going to share and then
we'll go to an open floor um I believe most people know that the
balance of State Continuum of Care was monitored by Hud some number of months ago I think it was in July it might have
been August um we did have four findings from that monitoring
two of them were completely outside of our control one was about the single audit for the State of New Hampshire
which is managed by I believe the legislative Bureau um
and we we were able to get that one resolved by having our legislative team
write the response and explanation about why BHS cannot choose the auditor for
the State of New Hampshire single audit so that was resolved quite easily we had a second finding about who signs
the invoices because there was um confusion at the HUD level about the
structure of DHHS and the finance teams so once we were able to send a flowchart over that one was actually resolved
quite easily as well um we have two that are outstanding and
we have submitted um further documentation to HUD for that
HUD has informed us that they have to go to headquarters to ask about
those findings uh we were able to with the support of our sub recipient agency
uh Stratford cap that was the project chosen this time we were able to provide
the actual Federal Regulation that shows we're able to use the funding the way
that it was used but our HUD rep uh is would prefer to go to headquarters
for confirmation first so we are just waiting for headquarters to respond to them and then
them to respond back to us so we we feel pretty confident that those last two
findings will be resolved quite easily it's just a matter of um waiting for this chain of
communication to make its way back to us Chrissy anything I missed about the monitoring
I'm not the only thing that I would say is there there could be a slight impact
to sub-recipient agencies depending on one of the responses from HUD um
I also submitted two aaqs which is ask a question to hide about
um eligible expenses so we're waiting on those responses as well
we don't think it'll be a big impact we just think that our HUD rep didn't understand the regulation we were
looking at and so once we get that resolved we think we'll be perfectly fine but we will update all of
our sub recipients if there is a change um I think that is it we still have not
heard from HUD about the 2022 nofo or
supplemental nofo for the rural and unsheltered homelessness we're waiting patiently but I expect it
to be spring before we hear anything so as soon as we we get our funding announcements we will certainly let everyone know
um and with that uh that was the fastest agenda we've ever worked through so we have plenty of time for open floor so if
anyone has any updates agency level or program level that you'd like to share
now is a good time
Melissa I put in the in the chat the link to Rockingham County the emergency
rental program has ceased on the cap level but Rockingham County if you are
dealing with people who are residents of Rockingham they still are taking applications
thanks Patty thanks Patty yes uh they're still taking applications my understanding is there's starting to be
quite a long wait list before they're getting through applications because of the influx with Southern New Hampshire
no longer having that those debt funding anymore so um I have had a couple of clients who
have applied and they're still waiting to hear thank you both and I do see Connor your
hand is raised yeah I'm on mobile so I can't see um is
Karen Jansen still on here yes she is I just wanted to say we have a new executive director and I don't
know if he's been on this meeting since you started but just wanted to shout her out so conquer Coalition and homelessness our new Ed is Karen Jansen
um and so she's on this call I don't know if she's right in front of her computer but just wanted her to say hi
Karen are you here to say hello I am thank you Connor I was on the I think I
was on the last meeting with Alan we were sharing a camera but excellent welcome
everybody all right any other um
program updates I just have a brief um Continuum of Care
sub-recipient Agency update I know most of you know we I'm working on scheduling all of your site visits for 2023
um so look for those calendar invites I will also be setting up several different trainings
um throughout the year and at least two sub-recipient meetings as well
um and just a reminder and I'll be sending an email but we still have open vouchers for the moving on program
um we have about 18 vouchers still remaining open
um so please send me those applications for moving on um and I'll be sending an email out with
the application and information about it as well
excellent thank you all right last call any updates
hello Melissa this is Donna Harbison with the New Hampshire harm reduction coalition
hey there hey there I'm not sure where it's appropriate um to mention Something That We're
recognizing in our region related to housing instability
um would it be here or is there another section after this we are at the end of our agenda this is just the open floor
so this is a good time oh perfect well thank you all I'm I serve as the Director of care
coordination for the New Hampshire harm reduction Coalition and we facilitate uh
the Community Care team meetings that happen in Stratford County and Eastern
Rockingham County region so we have uh CCT
um groups that me and um like the Rochester Dover area and then Portsmouth
and Exeter and one thing it's been suggested by many folks that we bring this forward we are seeing a tremendous
increase in older adults or folks who are experiencing disabilities who are
living in perhaps subsidized housing or independently and who are
um facing eviction due to their inability to care for themselves
um in in Portsmouth specifically there's a lot of talk about um the public health aspects of what's
happening and condemning Apartments um folks have been evicted just to kind
of without a plan and it as traumatic as that is for that individual and
um you know their neighbors to see and you know the staff if it's in a Housing Authority
um what we are seeing is many times this is related to
um Medical components um the inability to care for themselves
it seems to get extremely tricky when there is substance use involved so if
someone if a lot of that is due to their you know dependence on alcohol there
does not seed for other drugs they're just not seen to be a next step in uh
folks in that region are really crying out for some help and um looking to see
like what we can do throughout the state next steps because this is only increasing um I think once the pandemic kind of
um kind of receded a little bit there was a window into what had been going on uh for those those few years and now
folks are at the point where we're having you know elderly individuals evicted
um without a plan without a place for them to go so I'm curious are we seeing
this in other regions throughout the state is this more centralized and um I
can put my contact info in the chat because if anyone else has any kind of
thoughts around this or if maybe we should be talking about this more
um it seems like that group particularly is pretty much at a loss so thanks for giving me the opportunity to bring it
here to you all and um see what we can do to support you know these most vulnerable individuals so thank you
this has definitely been something we've been hearing from our partners across
the state so um I actually wonder if it might be a good thing to bring to the Council on housing
stability as an identified um challenge because it's I think it
probably includes I know it includes more systems than just housing
um but I'm seeing a lot of comments in the chat saying agree this has been going on for a few years a lot of
Statewide challenges um Mandy shared Mindy Lancaster shared that
this was the topic of a training yesterday on braiding resources housing and support with ILS I Mandy can
you tell me what that acronym means dependent living skills thank you got it
um I did not attend that training but it sounds like it's definitely worth um looking at but Donna it was shared
from someone here I think Christy or Heidi may have shared the training they forwarded it out
um and it came from um one of our national kind of partners
with DHHS and there are some fruit there's like Technical and training support around it
um I'm sorry that's as specific as I can get right now that's okay no that's awesome
so Donna I can um we actually have a council work group meeting this
afternoon I could bring this to that group um and add it to our agenda as something to
continue discussing thank you welcome
hey anyway yeah I just Donna thank you for for raising that um we're definitely
seeing that with so I'm we're uh we're basically a landlord affordable housing developer non-profit organization and
and yes as um we've been able to do more regular inspections we've definitely been
encountering some pretty horrible situations um and it there really isn't
uh we're finding some people that are signed up with services but are not able
to have as much support as they're supposed to have due to the workforce challenges so we like we have one person
who's supposed to get 40 hours a week of care and he maybe gets six um and he's just destroyed his apartment
and keeps destroying his apartment you know for reasons that are really Beyond his control but I I think this would be
a great thing for the council to look at because in some situations
the only option that the landlord has is eviction because there isn't like I can't make him go anywhere else I can't
make him go to a nursing home I can't make him get any other kind of hell so the only tool that I have
um when faced with this kind of situation is often eviction because some of these situations are impacting the
other tenants that live around the individual like there's a lot of health and safety
issues um oftentimes and so yeah it's it's it is difficult on the
staff that have to try and figure out what to do especially if the person's not responding to efforts to engage
um so it is heartbreaking and if it we'd be happy to be part of any conversation around this because this is something
that we're dealing with a lot right now and it's it's been really difficult on on everybody
thank you Carmen uh can I add to that as well um I I agree with everything that's
being said I currently am working with a 76 year old man that we've housed and we
have put uh these reports in we've tried to get him extra help as far as keeping
his his house cleanly um and you know we're seeing a lot of cognitive
um issues with looks like early onset Alzheimer's although I am not a medical doctor but I did work on a dementia unit
in a nursing home for five years so um I'm seeing all the signs but even
though bees went out and you know inspected his unit they deemed him able
to care for himself when clearly we're seeing otherwise so
um it's kind of like all these resources we have our hands are tied even though we're trying to get them the help that
they need um I don't have a ton to add but we've had very similar experiences with bees
okay I'm adding it as something to bring to the council because as you're all talking it does sound like it's a
multi-system situation um and the the purpose of the council is
to bring together all of those systems so I think um let me get it to the leadership of
the council and then um I can certainly send an email to this group to let let you all know
if it ends up on an agenda in the near future
hey any other updates from anyone
you're right well hearing none you have all just gotten an hour and 15 minutes back in
your day so that was a very quick meeting um like Chrissy said we will plan some
trainings for future meetings so um that'll take up a little bit more time but in the meantime I hope everyone
had a quick question sorry I just took a phone late um I'm Dave with Easter Seals veterans
count I cover the whole state and I'm seeing a lot of people on this meeting
I've never even met before is there any chance there's like an overall directory
for everyone that's in this that I can get so I can reach out and try to connect with the various people in the
different parts of the state I have a rather large email list
um that I could probably share I don't have it in a great format for sharing yet
um that is something that I would love to do like it I would love to have it set up so it had like agency the name your
contact information and I just haven't done that yet so um
let me figure out a way to get that to you because I I do think that it would be worth having contact information for
our Network thank you so much I'd be very helpful
because I'm just basically winging it when I go to different parts of the state and going who do I talk to out
here um so that would be definitely be very helpful to have a contact in each region and yeah I wonder
maybe you could start with the regional leads of those meetings and then they could maybe introduce you to some of the
folks in those areas and you have that meeting set up already Mila so that you maybe you can put with the notes again
yes yep I can put that in the notes and if you put your email in the chat as well that will help so we can get
everything um so I can send it to you because I don't
know if I have your email address saved somewhere that I know I'm sure it's in a
list but if you put it separately I'll be able to access it easier so um I'll put it in the chat no problem
perfect thank you all right
anybody else
all right well on that note um we can end for today and I want to
thank Emily Whitaker I don't know if she's still on here but she's helping me with minutes today so you will actually
get minutes from me in a reasonable time um so thank you Emily for joining us
today and and taking our notes I really appreciate your help and with that thank you everyone I'm
going to stop recording and we will see you all next time
March 14, 2023
Balance of State Continuum of Care Meeting, March 14, 2023
Balance of State Continuum of Care Meeting, March 14, 2023
Balance of State Continuum of Care Meeting, March 14, 2023
Transcript of video:
all right um and as I shared with just a with the few folks who were on a couple minutes ago
um I'm getting unstable internet notices so I turned my camera off and I'm
um keeping all my fingers crossed that we make it through this two hour meeting without
um the the entire Zoom call getting through that um no if you could mute yourself if you
are not presenting that would be great thank you sorry um and if everybody could go ahead and
um introduce yourself in the chat please include your name in the agency you are representing and um just a friendly
reminder we use this to take attendance for um our annual HUD competition so
um if you don't receive Continuum of Care funding then you're just letting us know you're here and we appreciate your
attendance if you do get HUD COC funding um we do use it as a scoring item every
year um and we track the the attendants that are by my deadly
balance of State meetings um I am looking to see if our first
presenter is here so I can let her share her screen uh I am not seeing her yet
Jenny O Higgins are you here and I just don't see you
not seeing Jenny yet um so I did speak with Jenny this morning she is also home with kids
um having a snow day and she was worried that it would um she would have a couple of
interruptions we'll give her a second um
her presentation really leads into our second presentation so while we wait for
um to see if Jenny's able to join us can we shift some of our order and maybe do
some subcommittee updates while we wait I'm looking I see Heidi in my top left
corner Heidi how do you feel about jumping in and doing a youth subcommittee update
sure thing just once I'm doing the same problem here the internet is not
stable in time so um is Arielle here too she's gonna help me do that I haven't seen her yet either
laughs um if she jumps in she can jump into
that one piece um so all but one of our youth homelessness demonstration program
grants uh have been approved by governor and Council so Connor going and setting
up invoicing templates for our uh for the Claremont learning partnership Tri-County cap with two projects and
Waypoint has two projects as well so though all five contracts are going through on those and we have one to go
so I'm excited about that uh all in the process varying degrees of hiring do the
works excited and welcome and so uh have a board
um we do have a balance of State youth subcommittee meeting uh that's planned for March 15th from two to this week uh
please let me know uh shoot me an email if you have not like to attend
um
uh that we have uh going forward our higher education work group our coordinate entry for youth uh youth
count work group and our use uh yhdp outcomes our data work group
um and Delta hedden uh just in time perfect um Arielle if you wouldn't mind giving
the uh last oh okay I didn't realize that we were starting sorry sorry that's okay we had to switch a little bit in
the schedule um so hello everyone my name is
and I'm um part of the success project um so I'm
a chair uh subcommittee but um we have a higher education Summit coming up on
Friday is a summit to really call in colleges
to work on address saying needs disparities among their
student body specifically around housing um and that's happening on Friday March
24th High registration closes on the 20th is that correct
okay um and part of this came from goal seven in the balance of State
coordinated community plan to end youth home assist so it is us taking a step forward in
um executing some of those things on the coordinated community plan and we'll have a panel of younger
we will have a presentation on some of the youth that we ran the youth count
survey in October so yeah lots of good info
information soon
so I'm not sure how the sound was for everyone else it's very choppy on my end was anybody else able to hear it or are
we going to struggle all day Heidi's saying it's okay all right
it was good it was good okay so it's and it's better if I'm the one who can't hear it because Heidi can give me the
updates again later and Arielle can update me when we have our our youth meeting this afternoon
um okay Jenny I think is working on getting on but we'll keep moving through
um our updates do we have a coordinated entry subcommittee update and again for people who are just joining our
presenter is home with her kids on a snow day as well so we're we're sort of doing the um the juggling Act of
balancing work and life and kids in snow and all the fun things so I appreciate your
flexibility as we shift our schedule around just a little bit here coordinated entry Christy is that you
it's me um I was looking to see if Freeman's here but so I don't think he is I'm
Christy shot I'm the continuation administrator and the co-chair of the balance of State
Courtney um I believe my co-chair Freeman talked from Belknap Merrimack cap is
out a storm um so please excuse his absence
um a couple of things that have been happening in the world of coordinated entry um are bridges rapid rehousing project
which specifically serves those fleeing or attempting to flee human traffic
violence took their first referral week um so that project has begun to accept
referrals they do tenant-based rental assistance and Supportive Services
and to piggyback off of the youth update um wage um youth homelessness
demonstration project also took their first referral in the last week and a half so they bring into youth accounting
in regards to ordinary entry subcommittee group we met last month
um we are having three different subcommittees we have a data committee
which will be reviewing the data that comes out of hmis and from our
prioritizing looking at the trends in the data comparing those Trends against
and really evaluating what we're seeing
system we also will have an evaluation subcommittee which will be
would require evaluation of the coordinated entry system they will be working look at surveys or
having meetings with consumers around how the coordinatory system is working
both from provider perspective Community perspectives and from people who have gone through the coordinated entry
system and the last subcommittee that we have is the training subcommittee which is
the Conor ever Coalition um they are working on finalizing the entry environments including quizzes and
trainings to make sure that those are in place for both assessment partners
foreign entry awesome thank you and I lost the agenda
uh veteran and Outreach subcommittee updates I think Emily were you Emily
raising were you here today for the veteran update
I am can you hear me okay I can't but others seem to be able to so okay you
can go ahead I'm trying to put my camera on and it's not working I don't know why I'm not pie
yeah oh good okay it's not all right um so I just wanted to introduce myself
um I recently have taken over as the chair for the balance of State veterans
South community meeting I'm again my name is Emily Racine I'm the homeless Program Coordinator at the Manchester VA
so um I just kissed the last meeting happened but I wasn't able to attend the last
meet um so um I apologize if I'm giving updates that were already in as last time I think was there so she was
probably able to or maybe Mandy was able to step in but um so the balance of
State um veteran Subway meeting has merged with the Manchester
um meeting because we realized that we're all kind of having the same conversations and it was pretty much
just seeing people at the meetings so it made sense for us to all kind of meet just to streamline the process
um so we've been meeting every other month um and we've made a lot of progress in
the last few months we've developed um the New Hampshire partnership agreement so that we're able to case conference
now so those providers that signed on to that are able to meet during those
meetings and having case conferences and meetings so we can look at the list and um you know assign providers to work on
those veterans so the case conferencing process has begun which has been great our committees can be meeting
um next Tuesday again on Tuesday afternoon I think that's the 14th from one to two
another exciting thing that's kind of developed on pretty recently is that Outreach
um the veteran Outreach social workers um or case managers that have been working on doing Outreach
Partnerships Harbor care and meeting we had our first meeting yesterday to
develop a very sort of formalized Outreach schedule throughout the state of New Hampshire hitting all the different areas whether
it be the Seacoast North Country Manchester area the Nashville really
Conway or I'm sorry Comfort area I definitely specific shelters specific Outreach posts to really
know where those will rely on going and meeting with us so um that's it works so
about getting that schedule going um see anything else
um I think that's it for now um unless there's any
one else that would like to chime in with anything else
okay thank you thanks Emily all right and our last uh or last
subcommittee update for today is the Outreach subcommittee gosh I have to follow all those amazing
uh so Outreach subcommittee uh we are every other month we met we're
looking at training specific an Outreach best practices as well as
implementing some um Mr COC wide standards for uh what
Outreach is this is the balance of state so more to come on that
once that will go to the executive committee and then we'll be shared later date with the entire membership stay
tuned Mandy have we shared with this larger
group um the updates on the snow foe I think we did through email but have we had a
chance to tell everyone can you
yes so well we've been we were told that
we project congratulations to cap of Merrimack County as well as Concord
Coalition and homelessness uh who were awarded projects
um beyond that though we are still anxiously awaiting word about the next steps so as soon as we have more
information we will be in contact I'm very excited though for one of very few
communities Across the Nation that were chosen for that snowfo so we want to
give kudos to everybody that was involved so in conjunction with the regular notebook
so thank you for your patience and your participation in that it really matters
and as a sort of mini follow-up to that we have still not gotten the update or
the award announcements on the regular Continuum of Care competition from 2022
um our fingers are crossed that it will be any day now so um as soon as we have those updates we will let you know uh we
did put in a couple of new project applications this year and we are crossing our fingers that we get those
approved um Jenny has told me she is trying to get in I don't see her yet
um so I think in the interest of our time in not wasting
or just not getting behind on our agenda I will switch to some Regional updates and then
we will bounce back to Jenny as soon as she's able to log in um I do have Emily Whitaker taking notes
so Emily I just want to thank you for your um your flexibility as you're taking our minutes for today
um I don't think you'll have to take minutes on Jenny's presentation so hopefully this doesn't cause too much
chaos for you I am going to just kind of call out local community groups in order
as they're listed on my spreadsheet and if somebody's here from that group that could give us a local update that would
be great so I will start with the Belknap County lsda do we have anyone here who could give an update
hi this is Freeman stove um mobile at the moment um but the Belknap lsda meeting is alive
and well and um yeah nothing really new to report
um I will say that anybody in need of shelter The Doobie [Music]
operational last night and we'll be operational this evening as well they'll be picking people up at the uh City Hall
parking lot across from like the Lakes Region mental health van at around eight
excellent thank you Freeman all right oh I see Jenny
all right so we will pause the other local updates and um Jenny if you're
ready to go uh we'll do a brief introduction of who you are and um and then we can kind of jump into the
presentation but I wanted to share why we asked Jenny to do this little presentation on um it's called words
matter um where as a Continuum of Care we are looking at our
um our anti-discrimination policies and our our best practices as it relates to
those policies and um my team got to see this presentation I think it was just last week and it
really really sort of integrated nicely into this larger conversation so we asked
Jenny if she could jump on in um Jenny we all understand if uh kids interrupt or if snow takes you out I
don't have my camera on because my internet is unstable today so um would you like me to give you screen
sharing so you can pop the presentation up sounds awesome
and if you could introduce yourself so people know um who you are and our connection that
would be awesome absolutely so hello everyone now Higgins
so I'm a policy analyst in the division for Behavioral Health so I look across our Sim uh our different systems
um and try to you know work on the integration of mental health with substance use disorder and obviously
working closing housing has recently um joined our division as well which is
really exciting since we've had so much collaboration over the years um and we just all understand sort of
the housing first model and the need for all the folks moving with through mental health and through with substance use
disorder um over time and you know how critical that is for the State of New Hampshire to have that uh that connection
generation so that's been very exciting I've um our with our different systems and
working on legislation and all of these different changes one of the things that has happened and come up again and again
is that we the way that we talk about folks actually influences stigma and so
when we're working with our legislators um we often do a lot of Education we
often just sit with folks and answer questions and get to a place where we're not
coming from you know any place of judgment that stigma in its worst form is discrimination right which is why
Melissa started there with hey we're looking at these policies and we're thinking about that and um and so
throughout you know over the last couple years uh my team and I have created this presentation and it's really just its
Basics and so for all of you who are in the field it may feel like it's just second nature it's the way that you
already think and speak but I kind of think of it like CPR or something where we just need to
continue to be retrained and have good reminders and I think about it as like
learning together so the whole presentation I'm not coming from a place of like I have it figured out and now
I'm here to teach you I'm just walking through some of this information and saying what are what are the things that
you're thinking you know ask me questions reflect on it tell me I said something wrong which actually happened
happened in the presentation last week I was presenting and somebody called me out for using the wrong language during
a language presentation um I love that because I do really think that it's about continued continued
learning right and so if it feels basic that's okay think of it as a review right and um and if it feels interesting
and you want to engage and ask questions even better because then you won't be falling asleep during the presentation
right so feel free to jump in to ask questions to challenge assumptions that
I am putting out there um or to add to the presentation so every time I present this I also end up
changing it afterwards because somebody asks something that helps me think about it in a different way
so that's you know who I am and sort of where I'm coming from also to give you just a little bit of background on me my
um my expertise is really in prevention and my career prior to coming to the state of New Hampshire was with youth
services and so sometimes I'll frame some of these thoughts about working with uh adolescents in particular
um and then happy to learn from other people's expertise as well
all right I'm going to share screen and get us started
and the other thing is it just I think that while I'm sharing I can really only
see like three people at a time so if you want to unmute and jump in with a
question or um you know Melissa uh Heidi and Megan
and people that are on from from DHHS if you tell me if people do like the raised
hand feature or if it seems like somebody needs a question I'll just need that help because I can't really see you all
I'll keep an eye on the chat and the Hand raising to see what we have all right great
um and the more you interact the better right it makes it less boring so please do please do stop me or ask questions
um all right so we're basically just going to talk basics of how we can create a safe space and just we also
wanted whenever I start this presentation we're always respecting People's Choice so sometimes when I'm
doing this presentation people will say to me but I have a friend who actually likes well
you know you can't call yourself that how in the field safe
plated and not you know open with this quote that words
are important have Grace
carry a sense of hope and actually create you know a sense of
pessimism and set us up for low expectations so they really you know start with this
sometimes people think like when we're talking about how we talk and our language matters that they'll think it's
just fluff or it's just like to be politically correct and while it may be some of those things it also goes deeper
than that where there's significant research that shows that you know folks that engage in an emergency room
um do or do not go on to engage in treatment based on the way they hear that ER staff talking about them there
are some significant research around the retention in treatment based on
um how we talk about how we talk about folks and then how they also their their outcomes based on how they feel about
themselves so the way that we talk as a society also sets us out up to
understand our self-worth based on how Society views us right um and so at Earth end being you know
politically correct and it does create a sense of feeling worthy of going on to get well so that's really the most
critical piece reason that we do you know that we want
is just around to better connect with others to break down negative sites any
six of it is that turn people into things so the
basics of this whole training is good language right which you've probably heard of before and person
first language means that we're just talking about the person diagnosis or disease or a thing
that they're experiencing and the reason that we do that is that none of us are defined by anything right of us are
um are simply our diagnosis or simply the what like one part of ourselves our
identity is made up from a whole bunch of different pieces we may call ourselves a mother we may say I have
children we may be um as we may have a professional career but the point is
that our identity is so if we start identifying all as the thing that they
are um them as a whole person and that impacts
how he treats excess services and care foreign
people who experience stigma are less likely to seek Treatment Services they're more like sooner so it reduces
retention Services leading outcomes um some of our language is really is
in a professional setting and some of it is informal and it's how we talks when we can't hear us or um how we might talk
at home and you know second grade birthday party when we're
off with our kids and our friends and things like that I would I would challenge not only to make these changes
in our professional lives but also to carry them through in those informal settings because
I believe of our society so that we all um can get those attitudes around around
people that can help that'll ultimately help all of our different uh changes in
policy and legislation and all the barriers that we have as a field
to a place where we want to treat our friends and neighbors with dignity and respect instead of judging them as they
somehow had um control over the skin in which they're in
so the basics again are that person first language we've already talked about that it's about creating non-judgmental spaces expressing concern
and showing compassion and empathy so here's some examples let me guess
afterwards we don't have to read through all of them but some examples of just when someone's sharing their experience
right the idea around how do we make a space that feels non-judgmental or how
do we show that like empathy words in you know and so one of the ways we can
do that is oh that'll pass or there's worse off
than you are or oh I know how you feel because I went through XYZ
um instead validating and opening things up that we are really ask so that's why you
know when I said earlier that I actually Converse's background I always would be
kind of asking myself how do I be an askable adult like that's kind of how I thought of it how do I set myself up to
be somebody that a lot are sort of willing to and willing
to and how am I willing to like sit in that and part of that was just being one
not and I'm not making those the feelings their experiences so
um you know one of the big things that happens though there are is a breakup Adult Day
fish in the sea it's not like you were going to marry the person you
know how that person's feeling when we say things like that I think give you know our similar sort
of examples where the sort of don't say this say this side um the say this side being like sounds
like you're having a hard time you know that that sounds really hard and I I just want to you to know that you don't
get out together that's sort of the basic of all of this work
any questions at this point or thoughts
of a sip of coffee while you all read this quote
read so much so I feel like it's nice to hear it and have it sit with people so this is
familiar with she says I Define connection as the energy that is between people when they
feel seen heard and read without judgment and when they
derive sustenance and strength from the relationship so we
keeping with and that we want them to go on to get well and that we're here to
sit with them in this work because we want to improve quality so
we can do that is helpful feel
s right so we're going to go through a few
specifically about suicide prevention and the language around suicide and
we're going to go a little almost as well places where we can use person first
language and these are all places where again happy to have you all engaging
things we're talking about or um let me know what you hear your word
so a lot of the language changes started to
grow out of the communities so experiencing grief and loss
um through you know the side actually said denial reefs so much hard
to the stigma and so new language to this so that we could
feel comfortable to talk our losses the same thing that happened with our family
um our community and so that's how some of this started um and so some of the things you know
that that create stigma oftentimes there's these two major pieces to help
create our in our own assumptions and in our societies and those things are
there's some um fault or choice in the person having
another and second is that they that the person
that you know illness or disorder and so things like use language like choose or
choice or commit which you know people commit or that so we've kind of put language
onto we had put language on to um death aside that really felt like it
alluded to some sort of choice and it alluded to
go to something that equated to a crime or from stigma shame and so that shift
in our language is to move away from that is really that it's not that people want to die it's that they can't find a
way to go on living and so there is no there is not here
it's really that with a mental health behavioral health challenge
um around threatened suicide so people aren't threatening to do a thing
um they're they're telling you that that's actually how they're feeling and so to sit with them and say that sounds
really hard tell me more uh can actually can be life-changing come
the other pieces are you know around saying that somebody
was unsuccessful or had a failed attack just looking at the person went on to
live and went on to find help appropriate treatment and enjoy life
again right so that shifts in this language here um are again with sort of committed
peace but also with the idea of success
uh that really just isn't isn't helpful in connecting people with
the character so another piece around function if people were coming to you
with thoughts you know you wouldn't want to say things
like you're not thinking of killing yourself off like you want and need that answer to be
no right you're not thinking about that for you I mean I'm not a person who's willing to do as opposed
just had any thoughts of suicide or what what's been going on with you lately are you
carried about you and I I'm here for you those are things that are more like door openers instead of closers
Melissa I see that something popped up in chat is there a question nope it looks like somebody was
um signing in giving us their attendance so but we could pause here to see if anyone has any questions or anything to
add yeah I have a question this is Damian Santana go ahead man so I think these
specific language examples are really excellent I've seen this in the past and I've definitely found it helpful and I
definitely get corrected by people as well um if I use outdated language or
something that you know somebody could find offensive but just in my experience I'm using it because it would not occur
to me that the language that I'm using is offensive um I guess my question is
I think we all recognize the importance of using uh good language like this
what are your thoughts on you know when we start to feel overwhelmed of like oh
my gosh everything I say I feel like is offensive and I and I feel like I'm just doing this wrong do you have any
thoughts about how to kind of help coach especially older folks like myself who
grew up in a time where language wasn't so important and now is and how to like
each other to feel like we're being successful does this make sense yeah this is such a great question I love it
thank you so much Damian so I think one of the things is that this is every time I do this presentation I add
more to what it gets the more I think that people thinking I can't memorize all this stuff and I I don't think
that's the point I don't think you have to do not this I think I'm giving some
examples to help frame your thinking and what I hope that you'll leave with is
that when you sit with someone that you're you're that person isn't there
from any drone and the person does it over their situation
um when when it comes to something like a mental illness and sub since you are
that are in the eye and when we bring it back kids wreck my background with youth we
often don't judge kids as though they got to some place because it's their own fault if we could carry that to people
into to recognize recognize and went through something in childhood adverse
childhood experiences Mama um they're just forgot oh it become
because of that debate and so if we kissing I don't think we're gonna say
all the wrong things because I think we're
therefore the language will follow
very much is that is it full effective something I think about
the thing is we're all messed up I just said I gave this presentation last week I've already given this
15 others thing last week um something with substance use disorder
that's going to be next slide I'll tell you about um because like
he said if I'm doing can earn it and I'm saying the wrong thing is
basically sound solely raw right
language it's not about that it's about the thing of terrible person or the
thing I'm trying to help you right and so I think we'll get there I think I'm trying examples just to helping
and kind of complicating if it was stuck and um and then I think we're all gonna get
it wrong at the point but I think if we're sitting with someone and they can feel that what we want is just the very
best quality of life for them it's going to come out okay yeah yeah awesome thanks
and then I think there's many of us that were already there but maybe our um saying this really Antiquated terms and
so we just need to be willing to need to learn thanks and Jenny Craig Pratt Bureau of
homeless services so things are changing um you know unlawfully my wife and I
were watching that uh game show the other day and one of the contestants introduced themselves and then with mentally children
and we look at each other gas for just a moment realize we're watching a show from the 70s on the game show channel so
things are changing and like even the sports the washed out the washing Wizards the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and now
the Tampa Bay Rays so things are changing slowly it's just people have to be made aware of this but great
presentation by the way thank you very much thank you I thought that was such a um
excellent question too because honestly it's like I can't hold all this in my brain I'm already trying to hold all these services and this complicated
system and um and you know I don't think you have to leave here and feel like now I've
memorized all this terminology I think it's just a helpful framework are there other questions in the chat Melissa I do
see a hand uh Linda okay here we'll stay back on this
she's coming okay I can't see you all
so I'm like not sure what's going on over there whenever you're ready hi my
name is Linda um only because I have personal experience in this area
um just to encourage people your heart makes more of a difference than the
words even if you stumble over the words um wear your heart
is coming to more of a difference um so just to encourage people not to
totally get caught up in in the words but I'm very encouraged by the words
because it is a difficult area to be in and to have people be able to step in
and be willing to help people walk through this area it's great I think
Linda I couldn't agree I think the exact same thing I think some of this language you have Suicide Prevention experts too
who you're listening to at a national level on a webinar and they're saying commit suicide so like yes it's changing
and uh a language is Habitual and so we forget oftentimes too or we say the
thing because we've always said it that way um but why I think it's great to talk through some of this stuff too is to see
how we're trying to shift attitudes and how we're trying to shift culture to get
us to a place of care and so I couldn't agree more that you're it is really about where your heart is at and the
percept you know how your own and likely when you're being warm and creating a
non-judgmental space people aren't even noticing the exact words you're using right especially like in crisis
um but I do just think it's really more about sort of that exceptions that we all have right and
the other thing I'll say is when we make a mistake you know it's okay to go back and say
something different so one of the big things like in this slide right here where it says like thinking of killing
yourself are you who could think to like not say it that way to like their child or someone that they love and so you're
scared because you don't want the answer to be yes
so that the question can be scary or the topics are uncomfortable because
taboo go along our society that we have some of them
that's like oh don't say that it's just a reason yeah but what I would also encourage you
think if you if you're sort of ruminating and think like somebody down
you two need a oh you can reacted that way I want to hear from
this conversation would you be what
young people like in my own where you kind of like the time to have the common in that
moment you go back to and you can always say I'm sorry that was my reaction I
felt kind of scared but I want to get through this with you you know
um I think it's more important that you ask the question question that you
all in their time of need and that you worry about how you ask it and I wouldn't want language to stop you from
um you know confronting a crisis or um working with somebody
I don't see any other questions or hands right now ready to move on okay ready
so we'll talk a little bit about the the language of addiction um so this is also you know something
that's really shifting in in our goodies and and um you know again I'll go back
to what we talked about what I talked about a little bit earlier where I said that these two main factors impact the
burden of stigma right I think this is even goes even deeper with um with
substance use is the the idea of perceived control the person has over the condition or perceived fault in
acquiring the condition um I think there's a really an additional layer of stigma on substance
use um and so we are you know working hard to try to shift some of that you'll see
on the right that things like addict and user and junkie and things that words like that are
um again they're making the person the disorder or the illness instead of
putting the person first so that person first language an individual with a substance use disorder people who use
drugs you know people who use substances that kind of thing it just makes it the
person and that's one thing that they've got going on and they're also a whole other person right so people use drugs
also have families and jobs and a lot you know all different kinds of components of their identity
and so when
you um that makes you know for eign from something
like being worthy to ask care and being worthy to get well and it places
um Percy to society and Community um which also increases our risk of
suicidality
you just triggered something that made me want to say things um so a lot of our not a lot every
project that we have through our Continuum of Care in any shelter that is funded through the Bureau of homeless
Services um is required to be low barrier and it's for this exact reason so all of
this language that Jenny's talking about in helping people see that they're worthy of assistance that is exactly why
we want our programs to be low barrier we don't want somebody to have to
fix everything that we see might be wrong with them before we're willing to help them and this all fits together in
that so um Jenny you just triggered that connection for me today just now thank you and when I think about homeless
services having worked in a space around substance use number of years it's really hard
supposed and has a substance
that just comes back to you later
you know when their basic needs are met it's so much easier to take the next
step in their health and in their quality of life right
um so some of the other things that are in here uh you know saying things like a
clean test or a dirty test your analysis and things like that the are placing
some sort of like you're cleaner you're dirty if you're if you use or don't use substances if we were to think of this
in terms of like a drug and as a society it and especially in New Hampshire our
culture um uh and so it's it's seeing how we
play sort of this really negative um sort of stigma on illicit drugs
um and I also think it has a lot to do with with poverty when we the way that
we talk about people I think we have a lot of you know wealthy also use substances
um and we don't we don't look at it in the same way as a society we often
um we often Place additional stigma on things that are hard to look at and I
think that you know that's something that comes up a lot in New Hampshire uh around homelessness
Wendy I see you have your hand raised yeah I just wanted to make a comment so much for all of this but um I also
wanted to mention that we try to use the same language um in regards to syringe service programs and
regards to so we don't have clean needles or dirty needles we have used used and new
um so I just wanted to point that out as well but I I appreciate it thank you so much Wendy
um even in like when we were thinking about policy and legislation and access to funding and all of these things this stigma impacts whether or not New
Hampshire is even ready for harm reduction programs programs addresses right
be because of these layers of stigma creates barriers to us having programs
that other states have had for 40 years we know um create better outcomes and are
life-saving so that's some of the reason that I hope that everybody will sort of carry these
language changes into their informal lives because we have this legislature of over 400 people in New Hampshire and
there are regular old community members and friends and neighbors and so how we start to think and talk about these
things really can have major influence especially in a place like New Hampshire um that I think is just so driven by
like word of mouth and relationships you know um and we we certainly are still in need
of a lot of those shifts if we are going to make you know a really big difference
in in all of these issues and services in the state
so the other thing I'll just describe in case you haven't heard it before is that substance use disorder is a diagnosable
you know illness in the DSM um whereas when we say substance use or
substance misuse that could be that you know a person uses alcohol or other drugs
um and maybe that includes binge drinking or risky Behavior or if the person is under 21 because it is that it
is illegal even for alcohol we may say misuse instead of use
um you know but but substance use disorder is that diagnosable
um piece and so you can use or misuse substances without having a substance
use disorder so just thinking about that sort of scope of what that looks like
um the other piece on here that I get is sort of why do we say recovery housing in so in um in New Hampshire we have
several programs that even are called XYZ Sober House or sober living
the reason for that shift in our language is that we um we know that
abstinence only and abstinence-based treatment are not always effective
um and abstinence-based treatment is um is really not what's recommended in
the evidence for it is meeting people where they're at and it is harm reduction services and it is respecting
multiple Pathways so if people you know you know some folks may say that their
goal is absence some people may say I need to not be using illicit substances but I do want to use alcohol I all of
these things are just from personal choice and respecting those multiple Pathways and how a person defines their
recovery um is the shift from Sober House to recovery housing because the other thing
that we find is that there is a lot of housing options and you know shelters and things I'm sure in the realm and the
field in which you work that just don't allow any substances whatsoever and that
can it can be really difficult to have someone's to start engage in treatment and then when they have a recurrence of
use it's actually a symptom of their substance use disorder but then they are discharged from that treatment so trying
to make sure that we're shifting how we think of that and that we're continuing to treat a symptom of an illness instead
of saying um you know you're not welcome here so that's some of that shift and
you know I think of it in really like simple terms like we wouldn't you know whenever the dentist asks me if I'm
flossing I'm always like oh do I really want to answer that but imagine if because I wasn't flossing the dentist
refused to see me um you know that that would be really problematic for my Prevention and my
treatment um and so if we just think about this as we would any other you know medical
condition then we're going to think yep we're going to keep meeting people where they're at because they're allowed to make decisions in their own care
so that's one of those big shifts and the other big shift around medications for substance use disorder we used to
call that replacement or substitution therapy we've now recognized through you know significant scientific research
that this is not replacing one drug for another um that really this is treatment and
it's also the reason that we don't really say like mat because the mat was medication assisted treatment and really
it's not assisting treatment it is treatment so people actually uh with opioid use
disorder have better outcomes than they would in withdrawal management or detox alone on medications long term and so
that's a big shift in that language as well and I'll pause for for questions there too
I'm not seeing any in the chat and I'm not seeing any hands raised okay
I think they must have clicked on something it will go okay so here's some additional language related to a addiction spaces so
um you know they're often times in addiction spaces people may talk about trauma and violence and
um sex work and you know all of these different types of things and we're just shifting language here as well you'll
see that we also have you know language around person without housing
person experiencing homelessness we've been you know hearing unhoused a lot happy to hear your Reflections from the
field on that language too and um if you you know how you're talking about
those things and and what that feels like and and how people that you're working with maybe talk about about
themselves and or if any of these things are things that you want to reflect on
right I'm curious about that last one yeah
never heard that one before yeah so actually this says that I have
resources at the end of this and you can see sort of where these came from um and it has like a better explanation
too but I think this is actually about like the abusive relationship then defining the people that are in it as
opposed to a person who is abusive and um and so trying to shift that attitude
again to not say that you're defined by that you know abusive relationship and
the using the person first language for the person who is exhibiting violent Behavior
sorry Jenny some of the other changes we've seen around that space
um and I am not an expert in this but we have seen a shift from victim of
domestic violence to Survivor of domestic violence it's not exactly person-centered but it is a shift from
um placing blame to um sort of giving credit for surviving a
really hard situation
do you have did you want to follow up with that on that whoever asked the question sorry I didn't catch your name
oh no that was I was just curious okay okay so here's some you know specific
language around serious mental illness so again it's going to be all things we've kind of already talked about
instead of my daughter is bipolar you would say my daughter has bipolar disorder right so it's the person and
then disorder as opposed to bipolar would Define the person um saying like the person suffers from
or is afflicted by as opposed to live with or have experiences this right
um that we can be living with mental illness and not always continuously
suffering especially as we find treatment services medications
um you know different quality of life measures that help us to be able to live with mental illness and we may do that
for the rest of our lives so there may not be that um that you that there's a time where
you're just gonna be over uh and through and cured with mental illness and so
thinking about this person experiences mentalness or lives with mental illness that's the reality
um and then moved we've moved to saying mental health condition
so that gives you a little bit of information around that space this one is particularly hard we this is kind of
goes back to like languages habitual and we say crazy or insane all the time we also say other kind of terms that we
sometimes use in a flippant way like oh she's acting bipolar or that person's a psycho
um and we hear this in you know media at like in on TV in movies and things like that so
um this is hard to stop saying uh and it's been it's just another sort of example of things we could change over
time and so we were giving you different ideas so I now find myself saying wild a
lot because I realize that that's actually what I meant for crazy was wow
that was wild you know um or I would even say like with my kids about being silly
we did something you know so crazy and it's actually actually meant that it was silly or wild so that um that's been
sort of something I'm actively working on because it's something that maybe is Habitual for me so it comes up in my
language still any additional questions Melissa I have
two different things um I have a comment from Arielle that says she uses wild as well and that it's
been a process of teaching herself to use the different word and figuring out which one felt right
um and then we had a question from Donna who asks what are your thoughts on using the term unsheltered versus homeless as
in a person who is unsheltered yeah I mean my thoughts are that it
depends on the person's situation because I think maybe unhoused and unsheltered are two different things
potentially right um so do we is the there are you know there are plenty of folks who actually
don't want to go into the shelter um and so unsheltered sort of makes
sense in that way unhoused could be a person who still who is utilizing shelter services that doesn't have
permanent housing so I think maybe they have a little bit of different meetings meanings but I think both sound
appropriate to me as long as we're using that person first language right so instead of calling the person
unsheltered or unhoused we should say a person experiencing or a person who you
know lives with or that kind of thing first would be my thoughts on it and again not coming from a place of expertise but just
learning along with you and that would be my feedback as well Jenny that um a lot of our shift in the
homeless Services world is to using language like a person experiencing unsheltered homelessness or a person who
is living in an unhoused situation [Music]
did we have another question I don't see any others right now okay
so I have something over this quote for people able to change their everyday language becoming conscious of how often
they use ableist words like crazy or insane is one small way of reducing stigma so this is just a reiterating
something that we just discussed this one's really uh
I mean this isn't funny so I guess that's the wrong term right I'd have to think about my language but it's almost funny to me I was going to say because
of how easy the consider saying things are so just like the you know instead of
saying take Take Your Best Shot take a stab at it that's kind of thing the fact that it's like the alternatives are give
it a go try they're so simple that I think why don't we say those consider
saying things even though I think you know I hear killing it all the time you're killing it you're crushing it all
of that these are not things you have to just completely cut out of your language or feel badly about saying them or
anything like that it's just the part of the presentation is just to point out to us how often we use violent language
um when we could use something else and um I think Greg earlier gave us some
examples of how even sports teams are changing their names from things that
like bullets that was more like of a violent language is just unnecessary
um and so the other thing is that we often again like sort of in a flippant way we'll say if I have to sit through
another one of these meetings you know I'll I'm gonna kill myself or we even use hand gestures that actually
um allude to taking our lives and for how
many people in our communities are impacted by suicide by Violence by trauma
um all of those things can be triggering and are just again like unnecessary
because of how easy it is to say I'm really frustrated or that you know that
training was boring I need a break I'm gonna go take a walk outside it's just
we really there's not there's there's no place where we really need to say some of these other terms so it's just sort
of pointing out that we could pretty easily make that shift and also just pointing out how often
we're using violent terminology probably without thinking about it at all so Jenny I have two comments and then
I'll add a reflection of my own since our since we did the session last week so shortina shares that at the National
Alliance to end homelessness conference a group was using the term houselessness because the term home doesn't
necessarily mean a house um and then Jessica says the victim
Survivor service space has also changed from saying triggered to activated when speaking of trauma responses
um and then just personally I apparently said killing it all the time
um and then when you mentioned that last slide last week I was like I think I do that and then in this past
week I have caught myself almost daily wanting to say that and then changing what I say typically with my kids
um around sports or whatever activity they're doing and then Barbara noted housing insecure is another phrase that
is being used yeah yeah so all of this conversation this is why I was trying to encourage us at the beginning too to be
engaged I think all this conversation and comments tells us that we're all learning and that things are changing
and that back to I think it was Linda's Point originally it's just about like where we where we're coming from as
people that were trying to get it right that were willing to sit through this training and and have this conversation
uh is huge right because that's going to help us shift things in our in our state
and going to help us do this work and gonna help us to show up for people in the way that we would hope people showed
up for us you know so I think all of it is growth um and I don't think we have to be
overly worried about getting it right but I think this training is more about trying to be thoughtful
are there additional chats I can kind of just see the red bubble that says that there's five different chats but I'm not
sure what's in there no I think I've covered everything that's in there okay yeah
so we're good all right great so these are some other
additional uh language changes that have come out more recently or in a more recent version from the APA I think some
that I'll just point out have to do with like age so saying things like older adults and older people saying things
like young people young adults instead of kids or kiddos I think it really is about
um about respect right just giving people respect including children uh not that
young people and young adults like want to be respected and validated just like anyone else as well as older adults
wanting to have respect and have uh autonomy and authority over their own
lives right and so that also goes with just some of this of their information around respecting pronouns it's giving
people um their autonomy their their choice and their um
and just giving them that full respect and and to to kind of identify however
they want to identify and all of these things also are deeply connected to reduction in uh suicidality and this is
part of prevention right so just respecting people's pronouns or respecting people's language choice in
the way that people want to be talked about or how that you know um what they
want to be called as all creating safe spaces which is good prevention so go back to that are there some you
know pieces comments I got even last week in doing this um it were about adding things around
criminal history and how we talk about that adding some things around trauma informed you know that I haven't you
know had a chance to update um and one of the really interesting
comments I got last week too is that when we call each other out for having said the wrong thing there's some
discomfort and being challenged but just remembering that it's all growth and um and being willing to do that is huge and
then really just that all of these things are about being valued and believed and heard and when we create
those spaces we're you know doing the right thing foreign
and I have one comment in the chat with just another consideration Barbara shares using different ability rather
than disability [Music]
thank you Barbara so again we just end on the note of you know why we're doing this how we talk to
others and about others makes a difference it impacts our access to care it impacts our retention and care it
impacts our health outcomes long term it impacts how people think about them their selves and their own potential for
Recovery it impacts their you know idea of worth and worthiness to receive care
it broadly reduces stigma both on an individual and a societal level it
establishes connection um and promotes that help seeking and
and that treatment piece and then in the slides I embedded some resources so when
we send these out these would be hyperlinks that you all can check out as well including you know framework for
successful messaging that's specific to Suicide Prevention some words matter pieces around substance use disorder
recovery friendly language as well as Equity diversity and inclusion these
inclusive language guidelines from the API they are have the the piece around
silent violence and the um that about that question that was asked
that I'm not sure that we that I answered very well so that's something you could check out as an additional
Resource as well as this last one and I'm going to stop sharing and happy to engage in any discussion and now I
can see you all I'm unmute um we do have a couple of different
comments in the chat um Arielle shares that she's heard some mixed things on
um different ability um sorry I scrolled up and then lost my spot sometimes people in that Community
don't like differently able because the accessibility barriers they face are very real
um and then Travis Travis your comment is quite long and thoughtful um I'm going to read it I think this
presentation ties into accountability so well people are human and are not always up to date there is so much power in
recognizing past mistakes and language apologizing when necessary and being conscious and thoughtful around language
going forward we need to remain receptive and open to conversations like these I love that feedback
any other thoughts or questions for Jenny and
um Jenny if you could share the slides with me in an email because I'm not sure I have your most updated ones
um I can send them out with the minutes for this and we can um hopefully further the conversation and I saw another comment incredibly
helpful excellent presentation thank you guys so much thanks for sitting in this with me and being
willing to learn um and any you know I'm I'm open to all feedback too
awesome so if you have ideas for changes in you know in the future um for the presentation or anything else
you want to learn about together I'm always happy to come back to excellent thank you so much lots of
thank yous in the chat awesome I can now see chat so I'll open them up to get all of my glory
um so in the interest of time I'm going to shift us to um Mandy and Christy who
are going to do um they're going to they have a very lengthy presentation
um that I'm not convinced we will get completely finished today but I'm going to shift over to them to do their
presentation on our anti-discrimination policy and
um equal access to housing Mandy are you the one sharing your screen
no I am okay okay I need to make you the co-host whoops hold on I think I just muted you
I didn't mean to and I think you'll find that our presentation ties in so perfectly with
Jenny's that there are many things that have been covered so we'll get to the presentation
I'm really sorry if I cut into your time there Mandy I really had no offensive
timing and I'm very chatty no Jenny it's totally okay we tend to um over book
ourselves and we have so many things that we we just have so many things to talk about and they all kind of tie
together um so it it really is good and this um this presentation actually will
probably spill into our May meeting because we've made some additional connections with resources in New
Hampshire that will help us with this conversation um so we'll let Mandy and Chrissy take it away for now and then we likely will
do a follow-up to this later just because it is it's bigger than I think we were prepared for when we first
started talking about doing this things
so I'm having some technical difficulties can you see my teams on your screen as well or Zoom all I can
see is your your presentation wonderful okay we'll just go with that
uh so good morning everyone um this is Christy shot again from the Bureau of homeless Services
um I will be co-presenting today with Mandy Reagan from our office as well
um this is going to be one of the first in a series of anti-discrimination trainings that we're looking at
presenting to the balance of State Continuum of Care um so we're looking at a couple other
trainings coming out in coordination with um with New Hampshire legal assistants and the new New Hampshire
commission for human rights um but we're going to start today um with talking about Hud's equal access
role and keeping families together
um just so all of you are aware that any um sub-recipients of Continuum of Care Program funding or emergency Solutions
Grant funded projects they are required to comply with non-discrimination and equal opportunity provisions of federal
civil rights laws including the Fair Housing Act Section 504 of The
Rehabilitation Act title six of the Civil Rights Act Title
II of the American Disabilities Act entitled three of the American Disabilities Act
today we're going to go over understanding Hud's equal access rule including defining families and
preventing separation of families and then we'll move on to any group questions and next steps
these training materials are intended to provide the balance of state and any
project with the framework to create a welcoming and inclusive project for
transgender and gender non-conforming people and to be in compliance with the requirements of the equal access rule
be helpful if I move my screen forward oh backwards okay
okay HUD has an equal access rule which is
um within their CFR it prohibits discriminary eligibility determinations
in HUD assisted or HUD insured Housing Programs based on actual or perceived
sexual orientation gender identity or marital status this includes any project again that's
funded by the COC program the emergency Solutions grant program and the hopwell program
the Continuum of Care role also contains a fair housing provision so does the emergency Solutions Grant and so does
the hospital Grant specifically
Hud's initial equal access rule was published in 2012. it required any
recipient or sub-recipient of Hud's Community CPD funding which is community
Planning and Development as well as any owners operators and managers of shelters and other facilities and
providers of services that were funded by the CPD program
had to comply with their equal access rule this rule initially ensure that all HUD
programs were open to any eligible person regardless of sexual orientation gender identity or marital status it
also established standards for the terms family and family Donette
the 2012 rule did not however address transgender and gendered non-conforming
individuals and how they should be accommodated in temporary or Emergency
Shelters and other buildings and Facilities used for shelter
so in 2016 HUD amended the rule to specify the
individuals are placed in accordance with their gender identity there's no requirement for individuals
to prove their gender identity providers also had to update their
policies on procedures sorry to reflect those requirements
they also asked that non-discriminatory steps must be taken to address safety and privacy concerns
a transgender participants I'll make it through how our
participants must not be required to accept those accommodations hold on one second
how to also issued a response um it was one of their frequently
answered questions um that any emergency shelter transitional housing project
or permanent housing project that serves households with children well it was acceptable for them to limit
assistance to households with children it cannot limit assistance to only women with children
shelters must also serve the following family types should they present in order to be in compliance with the equal
access rule including any single male household with
minor children are any household made up of two or more adults regardless of their sexual
orientation marital status or gender identity who are presenting with minor children
and with that I will turn it over to Mandy and do better at moving the slides forward
all right so I turned my camera on but I keep freezing so I'm going to turn it off for now an effort to maintain some
continuity here so everything we've talked about today is oh my presentation is lost
is really part of a larger theme with HUD funding of meeting people where they're at right so serving those that
show up to our programs and projects instead of having certain expectations
of them prior to us stepping in to help them so we wanted to highlight the
significance of the content behind the equal access rule with HUD
so while we're talking about HUD funding here in the presentation today it really is significant that the entire Continuum
regardless of funding source um starts thinking and strategic and inclusive ways in order to best serve
those coming through so transgender individuals in particular are impacted by violence and
discrimination in ways that both contribute to their homelessness as well as keeps them from accessing necessary
shelter resources and other services they're twice as likely to experience
homelessness as their non-transgender counterparts one in ten transgender individuals
reports being evicted based on their gender expression one in five reports being denied an apartment or home based
on their gender expression turning to point in time data next slide
uh what we're going to see here is a breakdown of cisgender adults
and we're going to get into language in just a moment but for clarity's sake for this Slide the term CIS actually means
match so cisgender then means one sex assigned at Birth matches one's gender
identity next block is transgender adults
transgender means an umbrella term for people who are identifying their gender identity is the
same I'm sorry it is different than their assigned dender at sex and just for clarity's sake this is
unsheltered so I know we had a conversation earlier about terminology and it's important to note that when we
say terms like unsheltered uh when we're talking about the point in time count this is unsheltered as defined by Hud so
a place not meant for human habitation and then finally the last and most
significant block here at 80 percent is gender non-conforming which means
someone who does not conform to traditional gender roles or stereotypes so these are big numbers right these are
Big percentages this is concerning we also know that even when folks are
seeking assistance when they go to shelter or are seeking other services
that often they're not served in a way that is inclusive and trauma-informed
they may be placed inappropriately nearly 30 of them are experiencing
homelessness they're being turned away from shelter due to their gender status and almost a quarter are experiencing
sexual assault perpetuated by staff volunteers or other shelter residents
their next slide so when we talk about discrimination
right what does that look like we want to have a baseline of what that means in
practice as you all work through so some examples could be a provider hanging up immediately after someone
calls revealing she is transgender provider making references to genitalia or surgery as requirements for
appropriate housing placement providers refusing to enroll participants because they would make
other participants uncomfortable or feel unsafe next slide
management of housing projects or facilities failing to address complaints from the
lgbtqia2s plus individuals regarding harassment by other residents
project staff revealing individual status as transgender then requiring special procedures for households of
transgender individuals or project staff excluding individuals based on the family composition
so we have some learning to do as a nation and as community and as a state
um but I think it's important to note as was shared in the presentation this
morning that this is a learning experience right we are learning together
and as a first step in creating safe transgender and gender non-conforming
environments I have them go to the next slide you using respectful language is that
huge First Step so that communicates to the project that all eligible residents
are welcome it is important to note though as Jenny mentioned that
we want to make sure that the individuals themselves make that a final decision about how they identify and how
they express themselves we would not be correcting folks when they are using terminology to describe their own gender
identity it's also important to remember this this is progress not Perfection here
um as Jenny mentioned too that language is Habitual language is created over a lifetime and sometimes we have these
well-worn Pathways of saying a word or a phrase the only way we create new Pathways and
walk New Paths is to practice and practice requires us the vulnerability
to mess up and to fail and to know that that's okay so long as
we're working on being better so if you accidentally use a wrong word or phrase when interacting with someone
presenting to your project apologize correct the mistake and move on
you may also practice by including pronouns in your introductions and your email signatures I know a lot of us are
doing that as part of a larger narrative that we have to step beyond our own
individual assumptions that one experience or our own experience is the
only Baseline that's out there it opens ourselves up to listening to others perspectives as well as understanding
how to best serve folks that are coming through our projects
so what are some terms that we could use in in order to maintain some
um not only trauma-informed practices but also some respectful phrases when
discussing diverse gender identities and experiences we've put together some of
these that I've been compiled from individuals from the transgender Community subject matter experts
Advocates as well as service providers know that these are some certainly not
an exhaustive list and I love the Indians question it is such an important
question and the question to ask about what how do you manage in a world that
has so many new languages and is ever evolving to maintain a trauma-informed
perspective but also uh that the ability to be able to integrate
new language without feeling overwhelmed so know that we're providing these words
going back to that practice though it's something to include and to be mindful of but you we understand that you may
not know every single word right out of the gate so just a few of them assigned
or designated sex at Birth frequently it's just a binary designation of either male or female traditionally uh they are
assigned a birth by a medical professional so that's based on a person's internal external Anatomy at
Birth that could be chromosomes hormones internal and external reproductive organs or secondary sex characteristics
it's important to note that this may or may not correspond with one's gender identity
which should be on the next slide so gender identity so this is your
internal or innate sense of being male female or another gender this may be different than the sex assigned at Birth
or one that's listed on the individual's identity documents this may also not be
visible from the outside I think it's important to note that when
we're talking about the equal access Rule and serving those based on gender identity it is based on that
gender that people know themselves to be that's what we're discussing here so
gender expression this is the external expression of an individual's gender
identity exhibited through Behavior pronouns clothing hairstyles body language and
voice so this is how Society identifies masculine and feminine although what
masculine and feminine are defined as often changes over time and certainly
varies by culture so this does not always correspond with a person's gender identity or a variety
of reasons why as we mentioned cisgender is that match
to one's signed sex at Birth and one's gender identity
transgender is that umbrella term again that we talked about earlier whose
gender identity may be different from their assigned sex it's also important to note that that individual who transitions may not May
no longer identify as transgender
transitioning is a phrase that some but not all transgender folks go through to
begin living life as the gender in which they know themselves to be rather than the gender that those assigned to them
at Birth transitioning does not require medical treatment trans woman is someone who lives or
identifies as a woman but was assigned male at first note that they may or may not have
undergone medical treatment and sometimes are referred to as in male to female or ntf but these terms may not
be preferred as they really can overemphasize that the person was born male rather than her current identity
that's fine so trans male someone who was born or identifies as a man but was assigned
female at Birth again may or may not have the under God Medical Treatments it is sometimes referred to as male female
to male or FTM but again that can overemphasize the person was born female
rather than his current identity non-binary person is someone who does
not identify as male or female
and gender non-conforming who does not conform to traditional gender roles or stereotypes based on cultural uh and
Society ideals that can vary quite a bit and individuals may be perceive as having a different gender than their
outward appearance
finally sexual orientation so this is the physical or emotional attraction to the same or opposite sex so these gender
identity gender expression and sexual orientation can sometimes be confused or
in use inter interchangeably but in fact they are not the same
um this attraction sexual orientation can be related to various factors not just gender identity
uh transgender folks may be straight lesbian gay bisexual or queer for
example someone who is transitioned from male to female and is attracted solely to men could identify as a straight
woman providers should always use and refer to
the person as the person identifies such as their pronouns that match their gender identity unless they request
otherwise so common forms of this would be he him his are male or masculine she her hers
female feminine they then their inclusive pronouns associated with
gender non-conformity non-binary identities and other gender identities
that's right if you're unsure about a person's gender identity or how they wish to be
addressed ask politely and privately for clarification start by offering your own
pronouns first and avoid generalized gendered titles such as ma'am or sir
it's not so important to know that people are not one thing so someone who presented a project you really want to
be thinking about all of the ways in which they may be facing
discrimination or disadvantages so intersectionality is that concept so it
describes the way in which systems of inequality based on gender race ethnicity sexual orientation gender
identity disability class and other forms of social categorizations intersect to create
overlapping and interdependent structures of discrimination or disadvantages
it really takes into account people's overlapping identities and experiences in order to understand the complexities
of the prejudices in which they face asserts that people are often disadvantaged by multiple sources of
Oppression and that identity markers do not exist independently of each other
that each informs the other and often are creating complex convergence of Oppression so for example uh one of the
things that we want to be mindful of is if a person presents to you with
additional needs we want to be as inclusive as possible and while we're on
the topic of language the next slide addresses
interpretation translation
next we're going to go over um both interpretation and translation intake and eligibility privacy security
and confidentiality and then we're going to kind of do a deep dive into training and education in the what defining
family means under the Equal access rule so we're going to start with interpretation and translation
um I said right now the balance of State Continuum care requires it Regional access points either
are able to have the capacity to communicate with people speaking other languages through telephone based or
in-person interpreter service and you may have staff members at your office
who are able to speak other languages in order to assist applicants we're really looking at ensuring that
we're able to provide information to people um including translated documents notice
of participants rights grievance forms in order for people to access the programs that we are able to provide to
them next we're going to talk about intake and eligibility for programs
um agencies cannot discriminate based on the actual or perceived sexual orientation gender identity or marital
status this also includes the age and gender of a child under the age of 18
cannot be used as the basis for denying any family's admission into a project so
this also kind of encompasses as well people with disabilities as people as
the fair housing law makes it illegal to fail to make result accommodations in
your rules policies and services and it also includes failing to allow reasonable modification to the premises
if the modification is necessary to allow full use of the premises
you cannot base your eligibility or ineligibility determinations on appearance or behavior which does not
conform to gender stereotypes if your agency requires ID or vitals you
have to use the individual's current generator ID as indicated by the individual not the identification they
present we're going to talk more about this but you need to let people know who we are
serving who will have access to the collected information um and under what circumstances and why
most of that is covered in our hmas release of information inclining acknowledgment forms
but we also brought agencies to be looking at if there is a safety risk for that individual or household working
with them to create a safety plan to ensure that they feel secure receiving services
thank you
when you're doing an intake or eligibility with participants and households oh my gosh the personal questions you
don't really want to be asking questions or seeking information concerning a person's Anatomy or medical history
beyond what you really need to know for the purpose of providing services whether or not a person's had surgery
does not determine that person's gender um
and it does not impact their service provision or legal status
next we're going to talk about privacy confidentiality and safety um most of the agencies that do receive
funding through Continuum of Care ESG and Papua um have to ensure that they develop
written procedures about the confidentiality of Records
um and ensuring especially that any project that is served through domestic violence bonus funding
um that the address of those individuals is not released except with the written
authorization of a person responsible for the operation of the project and this also includes that ensuring
that the address or location of any program participant will not be made public
except as provided and consistent with state and local laws so I think most of
you know that our hmis system is very secure and adheres to all of Hud's
security privacy and confidentiality requirements so when you're actually working with a
participant we also need to make sure that they know that we are
ensuring their confidentiality and privacy so really looking at does the
individual want a private space to complete an intake and for you to collect the data that HUD
requires um and really letting people know that their answers do not prohibit any
Services provided to them um I'm really ensuring that your agency does have those safe and respectful
places to do those intakes and to meet with people
we should not be sharing individual information um with people outside of our agency
without permission um and this is part of the hmis policies and procedures
um and the other part of this is also letting people serve know if and when you are required to use their legal name
um you may need to have their legal name and enrolling them into certain types of projects but really letting them know
that you're going to use the name that they want you to use when you're working with them and any other interactions
um kind of like if their legal name is I say Joe Smith um and that's what comes on their social
security information then that's the name that is on their social security information but if they want to be
called Bob then you will call them Bob in every other situation
another practice that we also need to look at when addressing privacy
confidentiality and safety is there some things that you can do either in your Emergency Shelters your transitional
housing or even your housing projects um you can offer stalls to individuals
in congregate bathrooms um to support client safety you can also offer gender-neutral bathrooms or
neutral shower rooms I think a lot of you have seen the signs that are out there that has a
female a male a robot a dog and it just says whatever under it on a bathroom
that's just one stall for people to use so really offering those General
bathrooms it's there for everybody to use it doesn't matter who uses them
um but also having gender neutral restrooms available for anyone who needs additional press privacy is the best
practice but you do not require people especially transgender people to use those bathrooms
if you're serving a person who is selling non-binary you need to discuss housing options with them is the same
you would with anyone else and ask them what is their choice what are they most comfortable with all of the housing and
options we provide are based off of client choice and we really should be centered around them
you're also should I have a preference to move people
um such as moving a person who has concerns towards a person who may identify as another religion that is
different from theirs if that individual needs to be moved for harassment and safety concerns then that needs to be
addressed next we're going to talk about training
and education so what are some of the things that you can do as an agency or as part of our
continuing with care working together to end homelessness um and really looking at as Jenny talked
about earlier how words matter looking at correcting any misinformation or inaccurate conclusions that transgender
clients are threatened on for their health their safety so when you have another client
that is threatening someone who is transgender really working with them to address those issues and that
misinformation and educating them ensure that your staff is up to date on
subject matter training this may involve changing the culture at your agency including trainings modeling behavior
that practice practice piece that Jenny talks about again this morning um and even Melissa was talking about
trying to implement as well and modeling that behavior to your staff
so Hud's equal access rule requires that there are policies and procedures in place to protect the health safety and
privacy and security um and is administered in a non-discriminary matter those steps must
include how to address privacy concerns which includes updating both the balance
of States anti-discriminary policies and procedures and sub-recipient policies
and procedures to make sure that we have those inflates to address
any health or safety issues and ensuring security and privacy and confidentiality
so when you're looking at your agency's um materials you need to make sure that you
have intake materials that allow individuals to indicate their legal name and the name they prefer to be called
um I think some of you know that I have one of the world's longest names so whenever I go somewhere
um people actually ask me what I want to be called um well so you know I go by Christy but
that is not my full first name um so really having that space even for
everyone to have the name that they prefer to be called and then on your applications and any
other forms that you have is updating those gender markers to make sure that they're aligned and people have the
correct markers that they can choose from that they identify as
if any of you are constructing new shelter or spaces or housing
opportunities making sure it includes and promotes privacy and safety in sleeping areas bathrooms and showers
and also having those spaces within your buildings to provide confidential space to discuss any issues related to
harassment or other concerns connected to their gender expression within your project
next we're going to talk about Hud's equal access Rule and what the definition of family means
family includes what is not limited to you regardless of marital status actual
or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity any group of people
presenting For assistance with or without children doesn't matter how old they are their
relationship or whether or not the person in the household has a disability so this can include a family with or
without children including a child away from a foster home an elderly family a family who is experiencing disabling
conditions or even a displaced family
you cannot discriminate against anyone presenting as a family based on the composition of their family
and Chrissy can I add an example so I have seen
um in the past requirements that parents produce a marriage certificate
in order to be housed together with their child that would be an example of
a violation of this equal access rule
so as I said earlier family means any group of people that present together and identify themselves as a family
regardless of how old they are their relationships or anything else and they
must be served as a family I
think I've kind of gone over this we've talked about that we cannot discriminate against anyone because of age and
disability of all the things that you see on the side of the screens past this one
so if you have a project that's serving any family with children they have to serve all families with children
regardless of their composition type so that includes single dads single bombs
same-sex couples opposite sex couples multi-generational families
Etc so HUD we kind of talked about this earlier but HUD has issued a frequently
Asked question response about what is the definition of family and it's
it's anyone again who presents together and identifies as a family and shelter
housing and Housing Programs cannot can limit to providing assistance to
households with children but they cannot limit it to only women with children so really if you have someone who
presents as a meal head of household with minor children that person should be accepted into your project if you're
accepting families or children
so involuntary family separation what is this this is where families are
separated um because maybe projects can serve them the shelters are equipped to serve them
Etc projects are not allowed to do this they're not allowed to deny admission or
discriminate against families once they're placed in housing or discriminate again households
on the basis of age with gender of a child we're really looking for our providers
to ensure that there are placement efforts to ensure that families are kept together and they're not separated that
they're all served by the housing project the shelter project the transitional housing project and that
they're not separated
we're going to talk about the protections under the fair housing act two
which we're going to do a full training on um we will representing a full Fair
Housing Act training um coming up in the next I don't know month or two but if you have any
questions in the meantime we have put together the slide where a few questions
um we kind of broke it down between Frontline staff managers and directors
and COC and other planning bodies so for you Frontline staff does your agency even have an anti-discrimination
policy is it posted if not we gave you a place where you can
go get a notice of Rights for those managers and directors at your programs are you regularly training your
staff and your volunteers on your anti-discrimination policy and how to implement it
and then for our balance of State COC do we have a standardized anti-discrimination policy there'll be
more to come on this and do all of our projects have an anti-discrimination policy as well and
what how do we support projects to train staff on policy and how to implement which was part of the training today
and then finally we included some resources for all of you to be able to access and to go look at Hud's equal
access role defining family training scenarios supporting equal access
um for services and then equal access for transgender people supporting inclusive housing and shelters
so I want to thank you all for being here today and listening to this training
um we will make these slides available I apologize for not being on video I'm also one of those experiencing internet
issues and I think it's important that we are talking about HUD funding here however
the if we go back one slide about that question about COC or other planning
bodies so maybe lsda um groups that are looking at ending homelessness but these are Concepts that
we really should be addressing as a body right uh we wanted to start with a baseline of what is discrimination you
know what is out there when we're talking and having these conversations we wanted to make sure that we were all
on the same page with what that looks like so this training series will feature different buckets of
anti-discrimination approaches and then we're hoping as a Continuum that we can
further that conversation through institutionalizing a anti-discrimination
policy across the Continuum regardless of funding source so that we know as a
planning body that's looking to end homelessness uh we are we are addressing discrimination
um wherever someone may present and I'd like to if I can speak to
arielle's questions about the shelter system oh sorry I had to fix my headphones for a second here
um the the current shelter system funded through BHS barely receives enough funding to keep
their doors open um so we're doing which is is kind of an excuse and also
sort of a level setting about why we're sort of stuck with certain things right now so
um some of the shelters have expressed interest in the past about doing some
um like physical modifications to create more family-friendly space but they don't have enough money to do that right
this moment so we've been trying to identify additional funding sources so that we can help with certain things
like that um right now we're going through that
budget cycle so we're really hopeful that our prioritize needs requests for an additional 10 million dollars per
state fiscal year will come through so that we can help um really modernize some of the Shelter
Systems um additionally we just uh he's not here
today because he's at a DHHS orientation but BHS just hired Rob Waters to fill
the shelter administrator position that was left vacant by Betsy O'Connor's retirement and one of Rob's priorities
that he has identified is really getting out there to meet with each shelter to talk through a lot of these things
one-on-one um and to identify additional ways that we can really move forward as a system
to be more inclusive more responsive um but he just started Friday so I need
to let him go through orientation before I get him out there um so so yes Arielle the
my preference would be that the shelters um immediately start working with folks to
really what it is is we need the shelters to start participating more in the coordinated entry system which is a
training that will be coming up with Rob's help as well because through that coordinated entry system we should be
identifying um the housing options that households identify that they need for themselves
and then we should be getting them referred into the right systems to get that housing that will keep those
families together however those families identify um I think until our our
housing World sort of balances out a little bit um our emergency response is so limited
right now that um I don't think anybody would choose what
is out there right like if I had the choice of staying in a shelter versus trying to figure it out I would probably
bounce around and try and figure it out because I know how hard it is
um to to find accommodations in my community
um it you know that can accommodate a family whatever it might be because our system is so taxed right now
um so emergency response right now unfortunately is whatever happens to be available in the moment but we are
really trying to shift towards identifying the right Solutions
um allowing the families to identify the right Solutions we're not identifying what they want they're telling us and
then we should be helping them get there um I think it's been a a work in progress over the past couple
years and and we're very slowly being able to expand that
um sort of culture shift as we move forward I hope that made sense and in the interest of time
um do we have other questions for Mandy or Christy
we will be sharing the slides uh we will also be getting the recording posted
um and once it's posted and I have the link to where it's posted I will share that with the minutes as well
um and then as Christie mentioned we will be having additional
um trainings in the near future are we have
eight minutes are there any um other updates that anyone anyone would
like to give either about Regional work agency updates
um anything else
thank you all for bearing with us through like the strange internet connections we've had today
uh it's Chrissy the only thing I would say is we really are the coordinate entry system is moving towards matching
people to appropriate housing choices
um including you know whether they need permanent Supportive Housing record rehousing looking at
those things but also looking at is this a good fit for this person um are they going to be able to maintain
their permanent housing option that's offered to them what would be the permanent housing option for them
um and really looking at matching them to the appropriate resources we have in the community
all right any other updates if you didn't put your name and agency
in the chat please do so before you log off
and I think if there are no other updates we can call it a day
thank you everyone I'm going to leave the chat I'm going to leave the meeting open for just another minute or two so
if anyone needs to put their name in the chat they can but um I appreciate all of you attending on the
snowy cold miserable day
all right and not seeing any additional names being added I'm going to go ahead and end the meeting for everyone and
we'll see you next time thank you
January 9, 2024
Balance of State Continuum of Care Meeting, January 9, 2024
Balance of State Continuum of Care Meeting, January 9, 2024
Balance of State Continuum of Care Meeting, January 9, 2024
Transcript of video:
I saw your message Melissa but I know if Mandy you had anything you wanted to start with before we jumped
in think I saw her somewhere um I don't I
mean good okay all right I'm going to share my
screen
just make that a little bit bigger like the actual slide there perfect thank you okay so hopefully everyone can hear me I
know Melissa was having some technical difficulties with her sound um but we're
here today to do the 2024 hmis and nonhis W time training I think most of
you probably know who we are but I am Robin meloff um and I'm accompanied by
my partner in crimes Tina Walker we both work for the institute commun for Community alliances uh we are the hmis
uh system administrators for the state of of New Hampshire so we are the ones who are managing the hmis here in New
Hampshire uh we work across all three cc's in the state um we're the ones who
are always bugging you about your data and running reports and we submit all of those things to um to the federal
government to HUD uh so that's kind of what we do um we help with the point in time training every year uh this is kind
of a two-part training we're going to talk about uh both hmis and who enters into hmis and that process and what it
looks like and then also the non hmis agencies so those agencies that do not have access to hmis they don't have
anyone other agency entering into that system so 202 2024 point in time count
our agenda today um is uh that first we're going to go over a little bit of a background pit
information we might have some people on the call today who have never participated in the app point in time before so we're just going to give a
little background about what it is and why we do do it and when do we do it um
then we're going to talk about uh the those agencies that do enter into hmis and the sheltered count what that
process looks like um what the timeline for the reporting is going to look like and then we're going to take a look at
the actual uh reports themselves and kind of go through what they're going to look like what sort of Errors you should
be looking out for how we're going to get those reports confirmed um and then we're going to talk about non hmis and
the unsheltered count so we're going to do a timeline for that as well we're going to talk about the type of people
who were making sure to count for the point in time and then the people who we want to make sure we're not including in
the point in time um how that data is kind of collected for agencies that do not enter into hmis um and then we're
going to talk about the paper survey and the Google forms uh for non
hmis and we just wanted to mention that um we're going to stop every now and then for questions so if you could avoid
putting them in the chat um just because it will be difficult for us to respond in the chat and we will be
responding verbally once we stop um we have we'll stop in between every few slides we'll just let you unmute
yourselves and you can ask any questions as we go we also have Mandy on the call too
hopefully Melissa will be here at some point if like here if she's here already but Mandy can jump in and answer some questions for us too if they go beyond
uh our skill set of data
so a little bit of background on the point in time the point in time is an annual count and Survey of both
unsheltered and sheltered homeless persons and it's conducted on one single night every single year in the month of
January every Community Nationwide participates in this count and it's categorized by three program types which
is emergency shelter transitional housing and safy so again um we have those two project types we have the
sheltered which are agencies um with the above programs that will count individual individuals that are
physically staying in a bed and then the unsheltered are agencies who are going to count individuals who are sleeping in
places not fit for human habitation and we'll talk about that a little bit more as we go through this
Paro so when do we conduct from point in time hopefully everybody knows what the point in time date is at this point but
uh the night of Wednesday January 24th 2024 is going to be our point in time
for New Hampshire you can collect the data for up to seven days after uh the point in time but we always just want to
be making sure that we're asking where did you sleep on the night of January 24th
2024 uh because we're collecting data for that single point in time we want to make sure that that's even if it's two
three four days later we want to know where were you on on this night we have
a
I think somebody un oh okay ionna say Melissa I think you muted me I unmuted myself I should be good um so uh
important to be asking people where did they sleep um on the night of January 25 um only clients who are physically in a
bed or who were unsheltered on January 24th 2024 those are the clients that
we're going to be counting for this point in time
do does anyone have any questions before we get into the nitty-gritty of the point in
time Al
righty so first up we're going to be talking about the shelter couch um and these are for hmis agencies so hmis data
is used for all agencies that enter their shelter their transitional housing or their safe haven data into our New
Hampshire hmis um IC is going to pull the reports for you and send them with
an email we do this every year so uh agencies who have been around for a while and who've been participating in this um it's the same email that we send
every year it kind of breaks down um this is what we're expecting of you your report is attached here's things to look
for and then we usually uh link you to our knowledge base which has uh more
Pitt and hit resource guides on it for you uh if you need that so that's going to be sent to you January 2th which is
the day after the point in time um please pay attention to the timeline and due dates we're going to go through them
in this PowerPoint but they're also on our knowledge base they've also been announced in the hmis newsletter that we
send out twice a month we do understand that the timeline might seem a little tight as far as making sure all your
clients are in there making sure the data is correct getting a confirmed point in time report uh but we also have
to finish our work so that we can submit that to HUD uh so we just want to make sure that we're kind of keeping with the
timelines as close as we possibly can and then again yeah can I interrupt you
for one minute um can everyone please make sure that you're muted um and if you have a
question you can raise your hand um and ICA will be checking for questions throughout the presentation as they
stated thank you thanks Christie
um so again be on the lookout for emails and newsletters from a um both are going
to contain important information we are always squawking about the newsletter because not a lot of people read it even
though we have all of our most important information in there so especially at this time of year you want to make sure you're keeping an eye out for that
newsletter because it's going to have important information in it again keeping an eye out for emails with your
PO uh your point in time reports we might need to go back and forth a couple of times to say oh we still see that
this is missing you still have some things that you need to work on can you look again and we'll send it again and confirm sometimes it's a little bit of a
back and forth so you just want to make sure that you're watching out for those emails uh just to make sure that we're getting those reports in when we need
them to be
in uh so here's that timeline that we talked about uh Thursday January 25th
again that is the day that we're going to be sending out all of your hmis pit reports to you Thursday February 1st a
week later all of your data needs to be entered into hmis so this is kind of when that back and forth process happens
of um you know maybe sending us a report and asking if it looks good or adding
clients or taking out clients that don't need to be there or fixing data that's kind of going to be that week between
when you're getting sent your report and when all of your data really needs to be entered into hmis and then a week after
that that's when we need the confirmed and accurate uh pit reports so that'll be Thursday February 8th 24 that's when
those reports need to be done to us confirmed everything's accurate and good to go any questions on the
timeline uh the timeline again is going to be in the newsletter and it is also on our knowledge base so if you forget
and you need to look back it's you'll have various places where you can go back and find it and feel free to always email us at the help desk if you have
questions as well um so diving into your pit reports
you may see some errors or some missing data when you're reviewing your pit report um we're in a much better system
this year um and we were last year too so we saw a lot less of this which was nice because the system kind of forces
you to not make mistakes um but there still may be some things that you need to to go through what we find a lot of
times is we send the pit reports and people don't even look at them and they just say yep it's good to go and then we
have to email you back and say well you're actually missing this data you actually don't have or is this really
the accurate amount of client and then we have to go back and forth so making sure that you're kind of taking the pit
report when we give it to you and actually going through it and reviewing it to make sure there's no missing data
um there's not going to be anything um highlighted on the report for you we're going to pull up a report so you can see
it we've highlighted some things that you know might be missing but we're not going to give you a report that's highlighted with a bunch of missing data
that's your job um for your agency to kind of review that and see what's missing and see if it's accurate so um
again check that there's data in each cell of the um Excel that we're going to give you if not it could mean that you
do have missing data on your program enrollment um or you could have missing data on your client profile um but keep
in mind that children do not need to have data for things like veteran status or domestic violence so if you see
missing data in those categories for children that's okay that's supposed to be missing um but if you see any other
missing data and your program enrollment you those are things that you'll need to
address um so households households is one of the things that we've seen in this new system that is not the most
intuitive um it's not always easy to add people together to go back and add them
if we have new people being enrolled later on um it's the thing that people
struggle with the most so we wanted to make sure that we just went over that all household members um must exist in
Clarity before you're able to add them into uh the households and the enrollment when when you're creating
that enrollment you want to make sure that all of the appropriate house me members are included in the enrollment
um and then ensure that you're enrolling the household in the correct program so
for things like if a head of household exits the program before the rest of the household you have to make sure that
you're going back into that file and changing the head of household from the
person who left to whoever is going to be the head of household now that's another thing that we've seen a lot where people are not going back and
switching it to be the correct head of household and then you get the error where there's no head of household and
then that's going to reflect on your appoint and time for um a child only household means that the child is not in
the same enrollment as the head of household we've seen that happen a lot where you know a four or five-year-old
is being the head of household because they're not being added into the enrollment appropriately with the actual
head of household um the only time that that's appropriate to see is if there is if you're a youth program who is allowed
to serve child only households otherwise we would not expect to see a 5-year-old being the head of
households any questions on that households are a little tough so I just want to make sure that everybody
understands that we need to to be adding them in
correctly it's also I just wanted to quickly mention it's something that um
for you to also realize how many households you have because when we send the report the the families are together
but they aren't kind of clumped as a household so if you serve adult and children they won't be um it's not
separated out it just says a list of people so you have to know how many people should be in your program and how
many households on the night of the pit
and we'll see that a little bit more shtin is going to pull up their report we're going to take a look at it so we can kind of show you what that looks
like all righty so uh now we're going to move on to sheltered count non hmis
agencies um so who to count um here is where we're going to count sheltered
people who are experiencing homelessness this is um as defined by Hud physically
in a bed at an emergency shelter or a safe haven or a transitional housing uh
designated for people who are homeless uh in a motel uh paid for by state funds
or in a motel paid for by a charitable
organization those are the people we're going to and Mandy feel free to jump in at any point in time if you want to add
more information to any of these because I know there's some confusion about sheltered and unsheltered and non- hmis
and hmis there's a lot going on there so if there's any questions yeah we really
want to clarify that HUD captures sheltered and unsheltered homelessness on the night of the point in time and
within those categories we have agencies who enter into hmis and we have agencies who don't enter into hmis so as you're
listening to this presentation just be mindful about kind of where you fit in based on your own agency so Robin
reviewed the hmis sheltered count in previous slides and now if you are a
program or an agency that has either emergency shelter transitional housing
um and you're not entering a hmis these slides would be for you these are how you would then submit surveys um to
collect the data so still sheltered but not
hmis um so uh agencies with emergency shelter transitional housing Safe Haven programs who do not enter into hmis as
Mandy just said um we'll need to survey people staying in their program on the night of the pit
to gather that data for HUD so you're still going to be gathering the data just like we would gather the the data
in hmis um but we're not using hmis for that um so it's it's entered and
submitted uh with Google forms and paper forms um and we're gonna we're going to
talk about those a little bit later in this presentation but it is also important to note that all the data on the survey is required to be collected
so an hmis it's a little bit easier because we can at I can say you didn't collect this data you you have to go
back and and put in the data we want to remind you too that even for the paper surveys the Google forms all of that
data is required to be collected HUD does not allow for any missing data for the point in time so for example if you
missing someone's race um and the client refuses to give it to or you're not you just didn't get it for some reason uh we
have to then reach out to the COC leads and we have to have a conversation with them about what we're going to label the
what we're going to put this what category we're going to put this person into because um unfortunately HUD is not
going to allow us to submit anything to them with any kind of missing data on it so that's important to note for both
hmis and nons okay so this is the unsheltered
both hmis and non hmis
agencies so the timeline for this is going to look exactly like the timeline for the
hmis the dates are the same um it's just that how you're doing it is a little bit different so Thursday January 25th day
after the point in time that's where we're going to start collecting data um and we can start entering uh you can
start using those paper forms again we're going to review those a little bit further um and then you can start entering into the Google forms as soon
as as January 25th uh the next Thursday following Thursday February 1 that's
when all data should be collected and ready uh to be into the Google form so if you haven't um entered any of your
data into the Google forms yet that's when you want to make sure that all of that data is in there and ready to go
and then by Thursday February 8th all data should be entered into the Google forms because what's going to happen is
um IC is going to work with the cooc leads and we're going to take all of the hmis data and all the non- hmis data
we're going to compile that together we're going to try to go through and duplicate things make sure that it's as
accurate as we possibly can um and then we're going to take all of that compiled data and we're going to send that to HUD
um as the final submission for the point in time um so again that's why this timeline is a little tight because we
have work to do um at the end of the data collection to make sure that we're getting it all compiled together and
sent on time any questions for that timeline so
is exactly the same as the hmis data St shouldn't be too conf
using all right so uh for who to count we're
counting people who are literally homeless under Hud's definition HUD has a very specific definition of who uh
they deem as literally homeless um we do have that information on our website but you can find it on Hud's website too if
you're curious to know what that is um unsheltered people who are homeless so they those are the people as we talked
about before that are staying in a place not meant for human habitation uh they might be in a tent in a car in an
abandoned building on the street uh those are people who are uh do not have
a roof over their head they're unsheltered they're staying in a place where they uh should not what that's not
meant for human
habitation um so who not to count so these people who are uh doubled up their
couch surfing um they have a private Motel stayed by their household or
family or friends those people per HUD technically have a roof over their head
and so those are the people um that they have they're staying in a place where
they are covered by family friends you know they're they're hopping around her
HUD those are the people that we do not want to count for the point time anybody who's in a jail prison any sort of
Correctional Facility um the doc transitional housing those people who were not counting to the point in time
anyone who's in foster care so like a home placement or a group uh home that's dedicated to serving the homeless we're
not counting those individuals um anyone who is staying at the state hospital
hospital or equivalent um any of these dmh housing subsidy programs Mental
Health crisis fed or group homes again those are all people that HUD is deeming they have a roof over their head they're
in a stable environment that they're not literally homeless for the point in time
and then any other kind of Health Care facilties so hospitals nursing facilities Assisted Living substance use
treatment um deeds and Facilities um those are the people that were not tting it looks like we have a
question I think from Bob if I can see that correctly hi it's Bob Mack um hi Robin
um just a quick question as far as the hospitals I know in the past we've reached out to like emergency
departments should we not would that be considered in a hospital if they're in
an ed um that's a good question Mandy do
you know the answer for that I would definitely say uh emergency rooms are a great resource for point in time because
it could be someone coming in off the street was seen in that moment and then returning back to the streets right
because they're not like impatient so when we talk about hospitals we're talking about people that are impatient
in a hospital kind of thing okay once they're ad be at the emergency room for
two hours right and then be back on the street so yeah sorry Freeman go
ahead no I was just gonna say I've always gone by whether or not they were admitted that
night so if they were admitted they were inside you know
yep that makes sense thank you any other any other questions on that also if if
somebody is arrested and just taken to the county jail to be booked but are not going to you know you
know with bail reforms many get let out that same day that they were able to
be counted as well right yeah so I think what's important and Mandy if you want to jump in here
too it's it's it's more of like a we're we're looking at a single point in time
for one night versus like a long-term stay for clients so like Bob was just
saying if they're going to be admitted to the hospital and we know they're going to be there for a week that's or two weeks or whatever the case is those
are clients that we might not want to count otherwise we're counting them if it's not a a more
stable stable environment that makes any sense and I think it also brings up a good point
about um the fear of double counting like don't be afraid of double counting because we dup the back end we want to
make sure everybody counts so if they are in this kind of weird situation where they're in an emergency room and
you're not sure if they've been counted by someone else please conduct that survey um yeah we'd rather have
everybody count and do a little bit more work on the back end um and have a better count for the New Hampshire so
good questions so better to overcount than under count for sure
great so how is the data being collected so for all agencies hmis non hmis
they're going to need to do they're going to need to survey clients that are sleeping in places not meant for human
DEH habitation on that night of the 24th um Extended window can be to
collect information like we kind of talked about at the beginning of the the presentation that you do have up until
seven days after the point in time to continue to ask these questions to survey but again we want to make sure
that we're asking that question of when did you sleep where where were you sleeping on the night of the point in time that's important um the paper
survey can be used and then um all that data is collected um it's entered into a
Google form by the agency who collected it and then that's when we take the Google form responses and we uh dup and
combine them with the hmis um it's important to note to that all the data on the survey is required to be
collected again as we said previously we can't have any missing data um we can
actually show a a picture of Shina has it up on her computer the paper forms
and what they look like so you can kind of have a little bit of a visual um again we do have this on our um
knowledgebase uh website that you can pull from um and I'm sure that everybody has access to them at this point but if
you want to pull that up shtino we can kind of take a look at it I do just want to jump in like really emphasize that up
to seven days so I know as we're planning uh within the balance of State um some of our more rural areas you know
brought up in the past maybe a snowstorm hit the day of the pit right so we know that the count Maybe wasn't as accurate
as it could have been so please by all means use those extra days to go back to
that night the 24th to see where folks stayed you know again we want an accurate count and that may mean an
increase in homelessness by the numbers but we need to get to a baseline to understand the scope to be able to
really work on a solution to reducing that number so um I think after this
presentation we'll probably just highlight a couple of areas and how they're approaching that but definitely the seven days please keep that in mind
U during the week of the point in time um so this is what the paper form
looks like um again it's all the same information that is collected in hmis
it's just kind of on a paper form instead it gives you a little bit of a um a script to kind of say hi my name is
this I'm volunteering for this this is kind of what we're doing we're conducting this annual count and so
it'll kind of walk you through um how what to to say um and then if the client says that uh if they refuse or unable to
be interviewed um that's when we're going to do an observation instead um
and kind of fill out what you see um and Mandy might be able to touch a little bit more on that but if they do say sure
I'll I'll fill out this this form this is what's this is the next steps that you're going to take so um asking where
are you staying on the night of Wednesday January 24th uh what type of place were you staying in again place
not meant for human habitation were you in a tent campground all of those places or were you staying in an emergency
shelter transitional housing hotel room it's going to give all of these options where were you staying that night um and
then if we scroll a little further down um next questions this is all of that
household information so this is that information that we were talking about in relation to the pit report where you're asking them what their name date
of birth their age range their gender their race and ethnicity again those are all the same questions of right asking
in hmis we want to make sure that we're filling that out to the best that we can
um and then it gives you some information down here uh about the date of birth uh the age range the gender um
what we're kind of looking for for these These are the options that you can choose from in hmis so it's going to
give you those options down here below and and then currently fleeing from domestic violence um HIV AIDS and then
some disabling conditions as well and if you want to scroll a little bit further
down sorry we just had a question um I was going to just go through the form Al together and then
answer questions okay yeah good I just want to make sure we get through it first um so again disabling conditions
and then history of homelessness so again this is that per HUD definition is this the first time that you've been
literally homeless how long have you been literally homeless um if it's the first time how many separate times this
is that HUD definition of what they're counting as literally homeless so it kind of it's nice that it breaks it down
for you so that you don't have to think of that definition off the top of your head it kind of walks you through those steps of is this person literally
homeless per the HUD definition then you can keep scrolling I
think we're close to the end here um and then down here in our uh our
little section about do not count that we already talked about these are the people that you're not going to count so it gives you a little reminder if these
people are double do couch in paid for by motels those are the clients that you don't want to count and then in our nice
big red bold writing here we have the due date is by uh 2824 so that's kind of what the Forum
looks like uh and then I think shtin said we had a question I think I saw something about the Google forms in the
chat yeah in the chat um Sue is just wondering how we access them yeah so we
have the Google forms that are going to be up on our IC website um it's in our pit and hick knowledge based article um
which again has been sent out in the newsletter we're going to include it um in our emails uh for the pit reporting
but you can um access them through our website these are just the demo links the ones that are up currently we don't
like to post the actual Live Links until the week of the point in time because we just want to make sure that nobody's
actually going in there before and accidentally entering data um so these are the demo links if you want to take a
look at them before the point in time you can find them on our website um and I don't know shatina maybe if you or one
of us at some point can drop the link to that in the chat here as well um but it's going to go over exactly what you
just saw in the paper uh the paper survey um so if you want to go in you can kind of play around with it and kind
of see what it looks like enter some data feel free to enter fake data in here so you can practice with it and
then the week of the point in time is when we're going to set up those Live Links so that you can begin using them
once uh once we have the point in time thanks cha
and we have another yeah one other question I didn't see it I H do we have
to use the Google forms for everyone for everyone I'm not sure what
for everyone in the house Kelly can you
elaborate I think she means everyone in the household but they're on the form
you could see that there were multiple there were spots for each family member and then that translates to what
goes on the form in Google I'm assuming that's what you mean
but if not D us another question Mandy anything well and I want
to just say that there is a a that check box uh going back to the paper form you saw of an observation and I just want to
stress how careful we want to be with that you know this is really about collecting information and having people
be a part of that so I'm very hesitant always with that observation box you know we don't want to assume gender we
don't to assume ethnicity and race so uh as much participation from the
individuals that you're working with uh that we can get please please please go
that route technically it is a choice that we have there but uh again be very
careful with that yeah and that kind of goes back to the missing data too we don't want to have to choose people's
RAC or ethnicity or things like that for them so as much as you can possibly get
from the clients that you're speaking with the better we all are
so all right great so we talked a little bit about
the paper survey already we've taken a look at it the paper survey is um used by all three coc's it's the same uniform
survey across Ross the whole state so you'll all be using the same thing um again can't stress enough all required
data is on the form it's required uh the pit committee creates and edits and approves the survey uh months before the
point in time so that's kind of how we uh get to what survey we're going to be using um and then the pit committee is
made up of leadership from all three of those coc's uh so that's why we have a nice uniform uh point in time survey all
three coc's
and then again the Google forms um ICA creates the Google forms uh they match
the per the paper survey exactly we use that raw data and again we D duplicate
it uh we produce the aggregated data once all of that is cleaned up and D duplicated and that's what we then
submit to HUD um the Google form surveys can be found again on our ICA knowledge
base in the pit and hick article um sha just had it up and you might want to we might want to pull it up and show it
again sha it's a so this article is all about the point in time and the housing inventory chart so it's going to have um
everything that you need in it the timelines that we were talking about some of this information um about what
it is and why it is uh for the housing inventory chart as well and then below is when um we have all of our resources
so we have some like um Quick Gun and some um uh the the access to the paper
forms the Google Sheets everything is on there and then once this Melissa started recording this video as well so once
this training is complete and we get the recording we'll post this onto our website as well so you can access it go
back and look at it if you need
to perfect and again those Live Links will be there uh the week at appointment time so you'll be able to access
those great so that's kind of the end of our
uh PowerPoint presentation uh the next step is that cha is going to pull up hm my and we're going to kind of go over um
the the uh report and what it looks like um does anybody have any other
additional questions on anything we just went over before we do
that did I miss any in the chat sha I think we got them all no we'll just put
our um I realized there was one last slide that I missed on the PowerPoint but we'll just put the email if you have
any questions that comes up that come up after the fact we also will have um
office hours that will be in our newsletter that come up if anybody has
any questions as um we start going with the pit it'll be after the pit I don't
the dates will be in the newsletter I don't know the month it's already been in the newsletter so the it'll it's
already been in the newsletter it will be again it's um January 29th uh from 10 a.m. to 12: p.m so the link to register
for that is in the newsletter um like cha said it's a time two hours that we set aside to if you want to look at your
P your point in time reports you want to talk to us about anything we have that time set aside so you can register for
that with the the link in the newsletter so the pit report that we're
moving into that's specific to sheltered hmis agencies correct so before we move
into that since I know there's a lot of people on here for the unsheltered count I just want to uh you know because it is
so different and that you're going out you're canvasing um you're you're you know working with your community at large to
really go out the following days after the 24th know that there are pit
planning committees happening uh throughout the state so if you haven't already been looped in or connected uh
please reach out we can connect you into your local community um for kind of
joining in on that either Street Outreach canvasing being a part of actually working with individuals
experiencing homelessness or other ways like maybe making pit kits or you know
having soup on or you know there's a bunch of different roles that I think I'll contribute to making that day
successful um that maybe not necessarily direct Outreach so uh please let us know
afterwards and I think there are a couple other things coming through the chat as well
I see one from Melissa I I think I know what the what what it's asking it's um
this one for the point in time count purposes only what is the effect an observation has when no one is counted
without all data entered I think I'm not sure what no one
is counted without all data I think it just is asking what happens if we have missing data is that I don't know if I'm
reading serine or Mandy if I'm reading that wrong
yeah if whoever answer asks that question can elaborate on it just so we have Clarity on how to answer it yeah
I'm not quite sure um if we do have that was me Mandy okay
go ahead what we're we're being told at one part in the slides that we need to have all data in order for someone for for it
to be counted if we're just doing an observation what is the effect that has
on the count you know what is what is the purpose for the piit count itself
I'm not saying it doesn't have other purposes but just for the piit count itself for the
unel yeah it's a great question because so what happens and maybe IA can further
explain but what happens if they don't have all of the data it defaults to the
uh population at large so again going back to uh you know either race or
ethnicity or gender it will default to whatever is the largest number in the
the system so it will skew our results because it will not necessarily be
accurate as that person identifies because we live in New Hampshire and we are primarily in a a
white state so for example you know it's going to default to White so that's the impact that it has is that we're not
necessarily getting the corre account okay I just wanted to make sure
because we want to get as much data as possible obviously we want to make sure our folks are counted but I just wanted
to make sure what was the the effect of that thank you
sure okay so I think we're probably good question wise uh and we can move into
the system and kind of take a look at what that report looks like and hand it over to
stina okay um we just had the this is recorded um somebody just asked in the
chat so we'll put it on the knowledge base like Robin said I did put the link for the knowledge base into the chat so
um if you don't subscribe to our newsletter you should but if you don't
the link is right there and you can access all of the documents we've reviewed and then this training eventually will be on there as well um
Christie hi thanks uh we're also hoping that the recording will we will get up
on the Bureau of homelessness services website and we can send out that link as well
great um okay I'm going to go into what the
report will look like this is for again as Mandy had mentioned for the agencies that do enter into hmis so the agencies
that don't enter into hmis and are doing the non non-sheltered that is the Google form and the Google
form uh data will then be merged with this and that's how we get the ultimate
um the end numbers for the the pit so again four agencies that enter into
hmis and will be receiving a report from us I just don't want people to get confused so let me share my screen
again Zoom is insanely difficult
to share okay can everyone see my
spreadsheet great okay so when you receive
according to that timeline we will be sending we'll be running all of the reports for each individual agency the
night of the pit so any the day after the pit so any emergency shelter transitional housing or Safe Haven we'll
we'll be writing the report for you and sending it over to the following day and this is kind of what it will look like
um except there will be no highlighting I highlighted this for the purpose of what we will be looking at but as I
mentioned before this is this doesn't combine any families together so this
will just give you all of the clients um unique IDs their ages all of the
required questions but it will tell you over here in column U what their
relationship to head of household is so it's important for you as an agency to know how many clients you should have
had the night of the pit um and then how many households so that you if you see
um a head of household a child only household then you will know that you
are missing you know a couple members uh on the report um I don't know why this
downloaded with this fun little symbol but that's supposed to say head of household's child and like Robin
mentioned there are some that will be empty because it's for children so
children don't need to have their veteran status obviously this child no
veteran status um and then the DV question are not answered for children either so if you see some of these blank
it should relate to a child if it doesn't then you'll need to go back and answer it um because we are in a better
system most of the time it doesn't let you move forward if you didn't answer this but there are cases where that
might be um there are times when that might be the case the other thing to look for is that if this says um
Survivor of domestic violence if this is a yes there should be um a response in
the next column so yes no yes no yes yes
so we want to make sure that there's a follow-up answer if this does say yes um the additional required data
elements that are there are the um race and ethnicity secondary race and
those should all be race and ethnicity should be completed but that's something probably
on our end that needs to be fixed um I didn't notice that till right now oh wait nope it's over here there's right
the right column um okay so this is what it will look like it
should if you are a big shelter fit has a very large shelter this will be a really big and possibly overwhelming
report for you to look at you can filter columns however you want to look at to sort through that but this um unique ID
is how you'll go into and find the client that may have any errors so for
the sake of this training I highlighted the few errors that um were intentional
data not collected is an error data not collected here is also an error um and
data not collected and Veteran status of an this is a child that's I don't know
that's an adult it should be but um the data not collected should have um should
all be you should go back and fix them um does anyone have any questions about
the way this looks so
far before I go into the actual clients Robin anything I'm
missing I don't think so chat anything in the
chat uh NASA City Welfare recently started entering into hmis the clients
were served in motel hotels will we receive this report yep so hotels motels are
considered emergency shelter for the city um and any welfare that doesn't enter
into hmis we use a Google form but if you enter into hmis those who considered emergency shelter and we'll send those over to
you did I see something else in the chat too I think somebody uh can you define the age of a
child yep so um unless you're a youth
provider you shouldn't have any head of households that are under 18 so um the
children are under 18 and those that's why those questions don't populate do that answer the
question okay all right so when you receive your
report and oh something else okay great so when you receive your report and you do see some of these errors that you
might need to fix or you do notice that there's somebody that doesn't need to that have has to be exited um another
thing I didn't mention was making sure that any client that has to be exited the night that has to be exited because
they weren't there at the na of the pit should be exited from this report um and then from the program for this report
and then anyone that needs to be added the same thing you'll have to add them in to make sure that it's counting all
of the people that are there that's why we send this report and then like Robin mentioned we have the back and forth for a few days because you might have
clients that you need to enter that I mean we're guys are all super busy you may have not been able to enter them
right away um especially in a shelter setting so what if you do see that this
is too little or too many or whatever um we obviously go back into the system so because I have I put enroll the test
client and I didn't enter some information I'll just show you how to kind of go back into the system
everybody should know how to enroll everybody enroll a client if you enter um and to how to get that information in
there but I'll just quickly show you um I have to figure out how to change my
screen please hold
okay um so you log in like you normally would and you in
this case I'm already in my client so I knew that from my report that R race and
ethnicity was not collected and again this is one of those required data elements elements that Hut is not going to let us submit um so if we see this on
the report we send it to you we see on the report that it's not there but you tell us that this is confirmed we're
going to come back and say this is something you need to answer um again because we can't stress enough that Hut
is just not going to let us and the cooc leads are put in the position where they have to make a decision and again we'll
just defer to White because of the state that we live in and that may not properly collect the right information
so you will have to go in change this information to whatever it may be and
then save it the other question that we didn't
have answered was their um disability I
think so you'd want to go into your program that you ventured the client in and you
want to make sure that all of these are answered so all of these disabling
conditions here you can see data not collected so I would just change that to whatever it is if this is um if this the
data is not collected the client doesn't know again you have to put something if you can't OB I mean if it's a situation
where um unless somebody has a disability like a SSDI letter or
something and they're saying no it's self-report so just put no um and make sure that you have the following
questions answered so that it comes up on the
report another thing that we want that I wanted oh it looks like there's something in the
chat um our organization only uses hmis
report clients covered by cold weather emergency respons otherwise we usually use so
um okay so the question is I was reading it
quietly to myself so uh there are some agencies that may have a um a cold
weather like day Center or something and then additionally offer um shelter in
another case they would be using you would use both non hmis the Google
Document and then hmis
does that make sense so some of the like warming
stations will be using the Google Document Outreach may be collecting maybe going out to collect that
information however your community wants to do it thank you yes that answers that
question thank you no problem we also have a question from Lynn about um
conflicting information so it's it's not conflicting information so HUD does not accept any missing
information but what happens is is that um that's that's how it's not missing
once it's missing then we have to say here's the answer and we give them that answer and then it goes into HUD as that
answer right so it might be missing originally you can't get the information but then the COC leads are going to say
okay this person's race was not collected that means that they're white and then we're going to put it in as
white and is going to get submitted to HUD with the answer of white even if you did not give even if you didn't collect
that information so um so it might be missing originally but then it's it's going to get an answer and it's going to
be submitted to HUD with an answer whether you collected that information or not does that make more
sense thanks for clarifying Robin yeah um and and that's that's exactly right
so the answer may not be there originally but we have to come up with something and then because otherwise head would be like nope we can't take
this and then Olga I saw your question about people staying in the warming station that's some so this is something
each cooc I think and Mandy you might have more of a perspective on this but I
know that um people in the warming stations that are not sleeping that did
not sleep at a shelter the night before or at your shelter the night before are counted as unsheltered the people that
are in your shelter the night before um they would be put into hmis as as
sheltered that night because they were in your
shelter yeah I think that's actually a perfect example of why you do community counts right so working hand inand with
your Outreach teams on who's being counted on shelter or if they can do drop in hours at that warming station um
again don't be afraid to double count we want to make sure everybody's counted but there are ways you can be strategic
and use each other um I know Sue I think is is spearheading that down there so
you all do so well in ashaa of having that comprehensive planning but yeah it's a great point of why you use each
other as partners to make sure that everybody is counted regardless of their
situation does anyone have any more those are really great questions the warming stations are really confusing for people so um including us last year
we had a lot of questions because who was counting them so yeah they're if
they did not sleep if they were if you are meeting with them on the the day after that Thursday and they did not
sleep in your shelter that night before then they would be counted um or in a
shelter they would be counted as non
sheltered um declin to answer instead of leaving blank um in hmis there is the
client there is the option the client did not answer uh but again we will still have to put a response
there um okay so any more
questions okay great so I'm going to go back to the
report because so once you fix those errors you'll back to us um and say
these errors have been fixed um and we will send you a
report back so um it's that back and forth that once you get the report you
look at the data you decide you are able to fix whatever you need to fix or if there's nothing that needs to be fixed
then you're like all right this is good we confirm it we send you a copy and we keep it on a copy for ourselves and say
a confirm it as the report the night of the pit um you will then when you get
your new one you'll have the correct answers in these highlighted spots instead of the ones that are highlighted
and you will um that is what we'll take for that's what we'll use for HUD so the
thing the next thing that is a big um something to really remember is that the
data that you've confirmed with us is the data that we're submitting to HUD so we've had in the past people go back and
change data without letting us know so whether that means exiting clients um
I'm not talking about specifics of like data elements more so exiting or enrolling clients for the night of the
pit that we're not here on this confirmed report um if you do need to do
that you it's important that you let us know so that we can update our numbers because otherwise we're submitting you
know 10 clients on the night of the pit and then we run run a report closer to
submission and it says that you have 12 clients and then we hit come back to you and we say did you add these clients
these numbers are different what happened and then we do the back and forth again so whatever you confirm with
us that's the number that we are sending to HUD and of course we know that things happen Etc that number if it does need
to change then just let us know but we we need to be sure that the number
that we are are confirmed is the number that we're submitting and that your data doesn't
change does anyone have any questions about
that okay so that's kind of the entirety of what the report will
look like they're going back and forth um and the data the cleanup again because we were in a much better system
than we had been in the past the system doesn't really let you move forward even when I was trying to make these
intentional errors it was like hold on you messed this up so um we don't anticipate there to be a lot of errors
on these reports but we do often have this case where people need to be added or exited from each program um and
that's something more so to keep up to keep in mind when looking at these Robin did I miss
anything I don't think so I think that's the gist the only final thing is that when we do
uh send you the final like this is it this is your confirmed report we're also going to send you um the aggregated data
of that report so it's going to just say this is the amount of households you had this is the amount of adults with
children adults only this is the total count so we just kind of do it as an additional uh check just to make sure
here's the exact numbers that you should see um in your report so you're going to get an Excel and a pdf version for your
final confirmation um just with those final KS and we're happy to we have the pit
office hours as Sha said but we also um are happy to meet at any other time with you uh in between if you don't want to
show up to those pit office hours or they don't work for your schedule we have calendly links that are also on the newsletter um every other week uh you
can it has all of our availability so you can just sign up with a day or a time to talk to us about it um if you
have any questions that you can't ask on the P offit Reser you can't make it
Mandy anything else that you would like to add I think the only other thing I'd like to add is just to really look at
the pit forms when you get them like there's a script on it and you don't have to stick to the script of the form
but it has some specific definition information in there you know for me I always think back to veteran status and
it has a specific Federal definition so if someone says oh National Guard in the
script it has additional questions to ask to determine if that individual meets that status so for the sake of the
point in time we want to have it as accurate as possible so that we can have a scope of understanding about the
populations experiencing homelessness these are the numbers that Congress uses uh when they're talking about homelessness across the country so it's
important to have those subpopulations U be as accurate as possible so we can make the case uh for funding and
programs and all of that good stuff and I did put a link in the chat
to uh HUD just released new Hampshire's 2023 numbers um as we're gearing up for
2024 so that's the New Hampshire Statewide numbers and you can also Break It Out by COC as well for subpopulations
so if you're interested take a look um you know no surprise over the last two years we have had increases in
homelessness um and then we expect again a very comprehensive count this year so
uh likely we'll see an increase as again so so if you have any
other questions you know how to reach us uh again if you have any questions about linking up with the unsheltered count
and what's going on within your local community please let me know and otherwise are we turning it
over to you Christie for because I know Melissa's mic is still out yes so good
morning everyone yeah Melissa's microphone is still broken um I want to thank everyone for attending this um
balance EST State meeting today um it's really exciting we're looking forward to the piit count in
2024 um I am going to ask and I know we didn't prepare anybody but do any of the subcommittees for the balance estate
have any updates that they want to provide to the Continuum of Care
membership Heidi oh yeah um so the youth subcommittee will
be having a meeting on the 29th of January which is a Monday um we'll be breaking out into to work groups for the
coming year during that meeting uh giving updates on where our projects are
at where um sort of kind of where the whole yhdp uh community plan is at um
and context around that and then breaking out into workg groups um so that the leads for those work groups can
um put together um how we're going to work on that during the year so we have single points of contact again uh our
rural Outreach folks if anyone's interested in that uh we'll be doing a youth count this year in October so
they'll be planning for that group um trying to think of all the ones uh there's a driver's ed one for young
people um I think Becca's on this call am I missing what am I missing Becca there's five of
them uh training that's the other one I knew I was missing one and uh a training
work group to uh look at uh kind of following uh Mandy's lead with the Outreach groups in terms of putting a
curriculum together partnering with the right agencies uh the Hampshire coalition to end homelessness certainly
being one of them but also folks that are uh working with youth and young adults and um kind of planning a
curriculum around what would be best practices for those folks thanks Mandy for putting in the chat
too um yeah and uh also we are planning monitoring visits with all of the
projects right now Christine and I are putting that together and we'll be out there very soon
thank you Heidi uh Mandy do you have any updates from the Outreach committee or is there
we'll start there I mean Outreach uh all across the state right now is definitely
unsheltered point in time so again if you need to be connected let me know um
and then the veteran sub committee I am no longer the chair of so I think I saw
Katie maybe Emily as well they want to give a quick update
I can give a quick update I don't know if Emily is on this call but um we have
uh moved our um our subcommittee meeting this
month it was going to be today but scheduling conflict um it's going to be the afternoon of the 24th um via teams
we have some a lot of program updates a lot of program changes we have a new ssvf granty in the state of New
Hampshire so they will be um discussing um that service that's being
offered and we have the staff sergeant Fox Grant as well that's going to be um presenting at that committee um lots of
changes within the subcommittee uh for 2024 um I will send the um invite link
um to Christie so you have it so if anybody from um balance of state from this meeting that wants to attend that
meeting um just to get more information um you'll have that opportunity
thanks and a huge shout out to Manchester VA I don't know if we've announced it here but they have a new
coordinated entry specialist for the VA Nicole frisella so we are very excited
um as we continue to expand the coordinated entry process and kind of moving forward with data sharing and all
of that good stuff so positive
movement right thank you both um and then Freeman and I um chair the
coordinat subcommittee for the balance of State Continuum of Care um we have we
were supposed to have a meeting this week which we have cancelled because we are going to have the leadership for the
coordinat subcommittee do some strategic planning which we will present to the entire subcommittee in
February um we will also be looking at recruiting new members for the coordinate entry subcommittee meeting we
are hoping to have at least one step staff person from each one of the regional access points as part of the
coordinated tree subcommittee so you will definitely be getting an email invite from me to join if you work at a
regional access point and I think that's it for
coordinate entry today did anyone else have any updates that they wanted to share with the
group hi Susan here just want to appreciate Public Health they've really hired a lot of Outreach for workers
Bobby baggley has really seen the need for the Outreach and it's made a big
difference in nashille just just to thank you we meet on the
20 2nd is that right crew at 2:30 for
Pow Wow before the point in time actually it's Tuesday the 23rd 2:30 so
looking forward to it I have I have about 22 folks volunteering this year so
and I see you there so thank you for taking care of the the folks for the the shelter that
for the warming Center so we don't go through that this year thanks and thanks that's
it unless anyone else has anything else I don't see any hand raised or anything
in the chat our next meeting is in May um I do want to let all of you know that
we have gone through and we'll looking at last year's notice of fun oh sorry
March I think it's March already it's okay it's the weather uh so our next meeting is in March um Melissa and I
have gone through the requirements from HUD through the notice of funding opportunities available and we will be
scheduling some Continuum of Care wide trainings um and also some very specific
subrecipient trainings for all of you um so stay tuned for that we do have a training already scheduled for the March
balance of State Continuum of Care meeting um and I think that's all we
have Patty did you have anything are you good um actually this is this may seem
far field but it's it's not we're seeing more and more um referrals coming our
way of people who are working but who are stating that they are homeless so on
that vein we are just about about to Kickstart our free tax prep program um
that is a program that is National regardless of where you are in the country but most especially in New
Hampshire there is a very robust um number of sites of uh volunteer income
tax assistance as well as AARP tax Aid who will do anyone's return regardless
of income eligibility but if you do find that you are being presented with people who who
are working or who have worked recently please feel free to have them call 211
or I can um send a flyer that I've made out that can be sent to everyone as well
it is a a ridiculously valuable tool um
and and benefit for people especially uh looking in the H in our rear view mirror
with covid and all of the stimulus funds those people who had not thought they
should be filing a tax return it was much more difficult for the IRS to find them and alert them to to those stimulus
funds so there's a lot of reasons for people to um to have their taxes
prepared fuel assistants often will ask for them so again I will send out the flyer that I have it the reach in New
Hampshire is excellent so no matter where you are sitting uh there will be a a program
nearby thank you Addie does anyone have anything else
otherwise I will say thank you for attending and we look forward to seeing all of you in
March thank you thank you
March 12, 2024
Balance of State Continuum of Care Meeting, March 12, 2024
Balance of State Continuum of Care Meeting, March 12, 2024
Balance of State Continuum of Care Meeting, March 12, 2024
Transcript of video:
connections with a lot of you folks out there too um
so and just a statistic uh between 22 and 57% of all homeless women report
that domestic violence was the immediate cause of their homelessness and additionally 38% of all victims of DV
survivors become homeless at some point in their lives and often times a Survivor will leave an abuser multiple
times before finally escaping the abuse and therefore they may experience
multiple periods of homelessness um so now I'm going to fly
over into assessing for fleeing when working with survivors of Domestic and Sexual
Violence um so a Survivor May call in to you and you may they may start sharing a
little bit about their experience and so we want to make sure we first stop make sure you know it's a safe time to talk
with them that they're in a safe place and if they need medical attention if
they need to have assistance getting to the police department um and then it's
always good to get multiple means of contact for a Survivor as they may need to discard a phone they may it may not
be safe for them to use email and so just asking them what you know if they
have other means of communicating so that way you can stay in touch um and then asking them is it safe to leave a
voicemail an email how should I identify myself when I call um just again because
they as they're in fleeing they may still have some connections with that abusive partner um and then of course
always offer to provide a referral to the local DV program um which again is
their choice um if they do or do not want to um
participate um so as you're working with somebody to really identify if they are immediately fleeing and and or um in you
know in need of domestic violence specific housing or domestic violence specific shelter um we want to really
work on having a conversation with them we find that the more open a conversation you can have with them and
more open-ended questions you'll generally get more information as opposed to just let's go down ABCD we
have all these questions let's get on with it kind of um we want to get a
timeline of the abuse so kind of understanding all right so you're calling me now when was you know um when
was the last time there may have been um contact with the abuser um is there an
act of restraining order in place um where did you last sleep for example um
and then ask if they feel safe in housing that is not confidential that may vary between Survivor um if they
identify they need a confidential shelter or location you definitely want to direct them our way um but it is
possible for survivors to be safe in homeless shelters um especially if the abuse has been some time apart um and
working with a crisis center in um to safety plan um there is a possibility
that they can be safe and um through in you know
protective orders and legal support and intervention as well can help somebody become safe um to access other programs
as well um so this is just sort of an overview we kind of already um scroll
through that the one thing that I will also point out that might is a little bit helpful too if a oh sorry um a
person you know talks about um for example if you ask them what has happened before when you tried to leave
that really kind of gives us an indication um and often times we'll hear a Survivor say the abuser repetitively
calls me he searches for me he shows up at my place of work um the last time I
left you know I had to leave in the middle of the night and he you was calling my my friends and family and
showing up at their house that's like a real indicator that somebody is actively
fleeing um and then just some guidance on confidentiality um you know at crisis
centers we have really deep confidentiality and um we're covered under a statute called
173c so in order to communicate with anyone we need to get a release of information from the Survivor and so
we'll be a little bit mysterious and we might say like I cannot confirm or deny or um but so if for best the best way
for us to work together would definitely be in getting a release of information um and then on just in general uh
working with survivors avoiding as much of a paper trail as possible um redact
utilize ID codes as opposed to names um definitely keep locked you know locked
cabin if you do have any paperwork um case notes should be vague
and non-identifying so like having real specifics in your case notes like the Survivor works at T-Bones a nsha or
something like that for example um that's a little bit too specific we you know can be more General um ensure that
you are using your databases safety guidelines and you're really up to date on what that entails um ask you
definitely getting releases of information um sometimes family members
and friends will call to try to support a Survivor and sometimes they have wonderful intentions and they're very
helpful and then other times um not so much and we want to make sure that the
Survivor is in control of how much information is getting out there and so even if a family member is calling it
it's best practice to get a release of information from the Survivor to speak with them um but again up to the
Survivor how they want to proceed um and then informed consent is ensuring the
client knows how their info is being used how it's being distributed um and make sure you have permission at each
step so if you're going to disclose information out make sure that you talk to them about I'm sharing it with with
Bob at such and such location and I'm going to share with them this um just so that way permission is really um in the
in the Forefront so I talked a little bit about crisis centers so just a little bit um
more to to this um we provide crisis counseling support groups obviously we
have some Housing Programs um we also have Advocates that support survivors
through the court process whether that be through restraining orders we're not lawyers but we can certainly connect to
Legal resource such as 603 legal aid um all Advocates I mean everyone in New
Hampshire is a mandated reporter um but we talked to survivors about um what that looks like as well um and let's
move forward a little bit here um so interrupt you for a hot minute
absolutely um just so all of you know um the New Hampshire Coalition against Domestic and Sexual Violence um as
they're a victim service provider they do not enter into hmis they enter into a comparable
database and we have set up a process to ensure there's confidentiality for all participants in
that project um in regards to entering them into coordin entry and to get them onto
the prioritization list for housing and Rachel I'll let you talk
about housing protections yes definitely yes and so we we do go through coordinate entry for our rapid rehousing
program but like Christy said sorry to open up a bag of worms there Christy but we uh yes exactly what chrisy was saying
about that um so um HUD was re I'm sorry
um the violence against women act was reauthorized in 2022 with some extended
protections but just first off the bat vawa um is um a set of of of legal
rights that survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault have um specifically through public housing
programs such as Section 8 Rapid rehousing transitional housing um it's a
safe bet that if you're receiving Federal funding especially from HUD that um your programs are going to need to
comply to these protections um so basically some of
these protections are that anyone un um that has experienced domestic violence dating um violence sexual assault or
stalking um is covered through vwa protections and they cannot be denied
admission or assistance under a HUD subsidized program um based off of the
fact that they are a Survivor um they also cannot be evicted
from a HUD program or unit um nor have their assistance terminated um be again
because of violence that has been perpetrated against them um
and so they have the there's also the option um of transfer through um through
vawa so if a Survivor so is in public housing and they experience um domestic
violence they can go to their public housing provider and ask for a transfer um they must be allowed to move
with continued assistance and if the Survivor has a Section 8 um housing Choice voucher
specifically um they must so in order to basically gain
these protections a Survivor must self-certify using um the HUD vawa
self-certification form this is specifically through public housing but it stands um in general um that
basically they need to disclose that they are Survivor they can disclose whatever information they're willing to
do they can provide um a doctor's note they can provide provide a restraining order a letter from a third party such
as um a crisis center or um a therapist um but they do not need to provide any
definitive proof if they do not have that um but they just need to excuse me
self attest that they are a Survivor um and then they have to be
provided their their rights um of basically under vawa and um
they have a right to strict confidentiality of information regarding their status as Survivor um so the
agency isn't going to be able to disclose their status unless there's Again release of information and
permission um what can also happen is through these programs you can request a lease bifurcation from the owner or
landlord to remove the perpetrator from the lease or the unit and if the housing provider bifurcates it must be done
consistent with applicable federal state or local laws and the requirements of the HUD housing
programs um basically to um we survivors cannot
be coerced intimidated threatened or retaliated against by a HUD subsidized housing provider um for seeking
protections under vawa they have the right to seek law enforcement or emergency assistance for themselves or
others without being penalized by local laws or policies um for these these
requests um because they were victims of um of criminal activity um there's a
significant amount of Rights and protection so it could be really helpful to get um familiar with vawa and I do
have a link here um that takes you straight to the um to the the most
updated policy um it also expanded um to include broader like to include more
definitions of domestic violence including um economic abuse so um just
as a federal housing provider really understanding those those vaa guidelines um can be
helpful and so that's it for me I really appreciate all the work that you do and
I always look forward to collaborating um we can provide training um really on
anything related to this topic um feel free to reach out anytime and here's my contact information right there um and I
would be happy to take any questions
Rachel I have a question sorry sure um when you said Roi do you have a specific
Roi or would our agency Roi suffice yes so um your internal release
of information um will suffice to be able to provide information out in the
community if you're working with a crisis center we have our own confidentiality so the Survivor would
basically have to sign a release with both of our agencies um for us to
communicate so they would have to sign one like with um let's just say conquer crisis center of New Hampshire and then
whichever agency you're working with and Rachel not to overstep um but
in working with both the Coalition and the crisis centers through their rapid rehousing project the the member
agencies of the Coalition prefer to reach out to the participant and get that release signed
if possible um because they have that relationship with the participant um and really want to make
sure that the participant is okay with signing the release for other agencies to interact with outside
parties
yeah and there's one question in the chat um from Kelly if one has an
eviction due to a domestic violence situation is the victim penalized for
this Kelly I would I'm asking where you think they would be penalized in regards
to an eviction status well mine would be like if
somebody would have caused damage to um say the apartment or whatever because uh
a person got violent and if they went and applied for somewhere else um would they could that
be used against the person that did not cause the damage obviously they didn't
cause it but it was the perpetrator that caused it um how do you deal with a situation like this one applying for
housing yeah so um it can be really helpful in those circumstances if there
is a police report that like um identifies um the
circumstances um but also there um as a person is a Survivor and you know they
didn't not you know um they're not asking basically to be a
victim that in cases like that that could be a discrimination issue um so I
would really reach out to the 603 legal aid fair housing team in that circumstance so that way they may be
able to Advocate or um with a potential landlord or housing agency
um because again survivors are a protected class so denying eviction
based on the fact that somebody experienced violence um you know will you know make fall into that
category Kelly did that answer your question yes thank you I just was
curious because um there are some people that I have encountered that worry about
yeah absolutely and I think it could be really hard for landlords to like um to
fully understand um so I think that advocacy is important but thank you for that
question does anyone else have any other
questions I do we will share with the entire balance of State membership the
balance State emergency transfer plan um we will send that out with the notes so
all of you can see that and see what it says um it's really a policy around if
there is an individual or family who believes there's an eminent threat of
harm from further violence if they remain at the same unit it provides protections and assistance in order to
move that household or participant into another unit so that they are safe
um so we will include that emergency transfer plan that was developed by the balance estate with the notes for this
meeting anyone have any other questions for
Rachel they're all quiet today all right and without further Ado
I would like to introduce Cindy from straford County Community Action Program
Cindy is going to talk about the cantry domestic violence project that is
balance of Statewide um they serve participants throughout the balance of State
Geography who are fleeing or attempting to flee domestic violence and also at risk of or experiencing homelessness um
so she's going to talk about that project and how it intersects with coordinate entry Cindy I'm hoping you can share
your presentation or I will I hope so too I send it to you just in case because sometimes I'm not a
technological wizard neither can you all see that's what my kids are for exactly
what one of my co-workers is for can you see the screen
now yes so the cantry domestic violence project I think it's been two or three
years now since I think this is the third year so we are currently in the third year of this project that was awarded by Hud through
the notice of funding opportunities um and we have seen some
thanks to the hard work of straford County cap some significant increases in
people utilizing this project and some positive exits to permanent housing
destinations and just the support and assistance that this project is providing to those specific people
within this population and I will let Cindy take it away thank you so some of
this um I may skip through because this um a lot of you already know some of this information um
so let's get to the second screen oh good it's not going okay there we go um
so uh I believe everyone here should know what coordinated entry is um so we will skip this um Rachel went over a lot
of the domestic violence so that is very helpful um I always like to remind people that it's not just the physical
violence that is domestic violence um and that it's typically a pattern of course of behavior to gain power and
control um it's not just what most people would think of as an assault um so physical violence sexual violence
stalking emotional financial and it's rarely a one-time occurrence um the people that would
qualify for our project would be um and Christy gave a good intro to this um individual or family who's currently or
attempting to flee domestic violence and is homeless or risk of homelessness due to this um and um I do have some
examples later I think in the next slide that might help um because a lot of times U people will come in and you will
not know whether they are appropriate for our project or not um first of all you're always H we're happy to get the
referrals and reach out and um either work with you to get some more information or with the client um but
what it looks like would be if they are leaving their home wherever they consider home which could certainly be
um a homeless encampment um due to safety but they have no other place to go they're attempting to leave a violent
relationship and they have no resources or support systems um and if the abuser
is no longer in the home but the Survivor is still facing homelessness um because as Rachel mentioned a lot of the
domestic violence focuses around financial and so often um the the um
abuser may be removed but the Survivor has no way to continue staying in that home and they will be homeless um
imminently so what it doesn't look like is if a client is being evicted um but
they are also a survivor of a previous DV incident but they're not currently at risk of harm or actively encountering
abuse um that would go more towards just the regular Regional access points um or
if the abuser is no longer in the home and they don't feel like they're in danger um but they're looking for other
housing for other reasons it has to actually they have to be fleeing or attempting to flee homeless or facing
homelessness at this time not sure why this is so there we go
sorry about this one it's a little bit small but um the flowchart of how this typically works is a Survivor discloses
that they're fleeing or attempting to flee and at risk um or facing homelessness and they are provided with
the contact information for their local um victim service provider so anyone in the Coalition um often people are
referred to us first which is fine um but if they are currently actively fleeing what they need more is the
support um and the safety aspect from their local uh domestic violence agency
so that they can safely flee um then the next step would be to either um have
them call 211 or any partner agency at all can refer them to our option um and
uh what you do first was get their permission to participate in the coordinated entry system um if you are
an agency that works with that you could do the prevention diversion tool um and then make the referral to us if they go
through 211 211 typically does the prevention diversion tool and then sends the referral to us um once we get the
referral uh we would reach out to the Survivor within 24 hours we try to contact them multiple times with any way
that's provided so if it's a phone number an email we will try any of those ways um it's very important like Rachel
said to make sure that this is safe um for us to be doing so so when you are getting their information make sure it's
safe for us to reach out and leave messages and texts and emails um because we never want to put someone in more
danger by reaching out for help um uh if we do not hear back from
them after these multiple contacts um we would basically close that referral until we hear from them again um because
it's not safe to continue to try and do that um in this situation once contact
is made the we would assess the situation um through a lot of the things that was Rachel was talking about about
um having conversation with them about what's been happening where they've been staying um if this is the first time
they've tried to leave what's happened before when they've tried to leave um to sort of assess you know their safety and
what kind of um shelter or supports that we can offer them um we Supply them
because we cover the whole balance of State um we Supply try to supply them with whatever resources we know
throughout the state um we have a you know a sheet for each um County so that
they can access any resources there um we can help them Reach Out to any shelters to see if there's if that's
something that they need um any other U basic needs that they immediately need
um we also uh throughout this time working with them would um complete the
coordinated entry assessment and place them on the prioritization list if that's appropriate um if for some reason
we get a referral that is not uh currently fleeing or attempting to flee or is not homeless or facing
homelessness then we would do a warm handoff to their Regional their regular Regional access point um or any other
service that might be more appropriate for
them sorry I'm not really sure how that went down there um so how to make a referral to us is you can have them call
211 you can email or um call us at the numbers provided on this screen um and
you can also um a lot of the agencies use the referral form that we have made
um which sort of gives an easier way for you to put all the information down and it's a good reminder to make sure you
have their permission and if their texting is safe and if they're calling is safe and things like that so if you ever need one of those I
can certainly provide that um most of the um Coalition agencies have access to
one already um one thing that we try to make clear to the people that we're working
with is that there's a difference between working with their local crisis center and working with us um we our
focus is on housing uh and on you know providing them with resources and Connections in the community but um
obviously it's their choice if they want to work with the crisis center but we always try to provide them with information about why it could be
helpful um the crisis center would have the things that are on the screen the 24-hour confidential support helping
them with protective orders safety planning um as Rachel mentioned they have their own housing um programs that
also we can work in conjunction with um they can accomp them to the police or to
the hospital or child advocacy whatever is needed um those are not services that
we provide in the domestic violence coordinated entry program ours is really focused more on um housing and resources
and connections sorry this is just the map that I use every single day to uh tell
me where everything is while we're trying to serve the state um this is the map of the um crisis centers that we
work with throughout the state the things that we do um so we are the
regional access point for the balance of State um sometimes clients are referred
to their U regular Regional access point and at that point they determine that they might you know be served better by
working with us and uh they are asked if they would like to be transferred to us Sometimes they come straight to us we
get referrals from um lots of different agencies uh most of the crisis centers
211 um what I like to call a self- referral when someone just emails and says someone told me to call you um we
get a lot through our website at cap um and so any way that they come in is fine
um we provide trauma informed case management for housing and Supportive Services we collaborate with all the
crisis agencies we connect them to Local resources um sometimes we can provide advocacy if they're struggling to work
with um any agency that um they're just having a hard time getting hold of them
or having a hard time Comm unting with them um or maybe um the agency just isn't um quite aware of the barriers
they're facing by fleeing domestic violence we can help with that um we definitely help them apply for any
housing option that we can come up with um and we one of the things too that we do is provide information um a lot of
people that are currently fleeing they have no idea what the difference is between a housing Choice voucher and a
housing authority and an income based housing and um we can sort of U help them understand that and figure out
which ones that they are eligible for um we can provide immediate needs such as food clothing toiletries and
other necessities uh and we can assist them with budgeting and developing a housing stability
plan um sorry I didn't ask if anyone had questions I was just going through my um
so if you have questions you can certainly ask me now um I'll leave this up on the screen for a minute this is uh
all of our phone numbers and our email um we're happy to answer questions anytime someone reaches out um does
anyone have any questions now about the
program the presentation was so good no one has any questions stendy you're
amazing so what I will say because I think all of you know me um but the
cordian your domestic violence project started three years ago we have seen a huge increase and because of the
education and marketing that straford County cap has put out there with in the community and to the regional access
points and people accessing this project anyone who is fleeing or
attempting to flee domestic violence or is at risk of or experiencing homelessness they have the option to
work with the regional access point in their area or with the coordinat domestic violence
project um we are allowed because of Hud's rules to have specific Regional
access points for specific populations but again it really is client centered
and we are looking at where does the client want to be served what options do
they want to have do they want to be served through Southwestern Community Services
because they know the staff there are they fleeing or attempting to flee domestic violence and want to work with
shafford County capab so it's really up to the participant to decide which way
they want to go in order to work with our coordinate entry system to get prioritized for
housing we also have the same situation set up for youth as well we have several
youth Navigator sorry M Alexa is talking we have several projects set up just
specifically for youth um in order for specific providers to provide assistance
to youth navigating our homeless Services Network
there are also specific rapid rehousing programs that are just for people that are fleeing domestic violence or human trafficking but the clients that we
place on the prioritization lists are um eligible for any of the rapid reh housing openings um but the specific
ones are very helpful because um sometimes our clients have some the same
barriers and um you know the questions on the assessment do apply to them and
sometimes we have people who have not faced any of those barriers but they are very very unsafe and fleeing domestic
violence so it's helpful to have those ravry housing projects that focus on that um and just to explain on that
every single year through the notice of funding opportunity the noo that we do for the balance of State continue ofth
care we apply for whatever funding HUD has an opportunity for we currently
have a domestic violence rapid rehousing project through marra County um soon and
we also have the New Hampshire Coalition against Domestic and Sexual Violence reper housing which is balances
Statewide we were recently awarded projects through um I call it Triple C
the conquered Crisis Center of Central New Hampshire um will be starting a rapid rehousing domestic project this
year as we were just awarded it we also awarded a project for straford County
cap um with will be balance of Statewide to provide rapid rehousing services to
people fleeing or attempting to flee domestic violence who are also at risk of or experiencing
homelessness so we are working on building up those opportunities for this
specific population um and there are options for them they're also eligible for any of
the Continuum of Care projects that we have out there um because you either
have to meet one either category one or category four of the homeless definition from HUD to be able to enter into a
continu of Care
Project anyone has any questions about that um HUD is continuing to
offer projects for specific populations specifically unsheltered those attempting to flee
domestic violence and the youth experiencing homelessness um so we will see those opportunities for funding
moving forward if anyone has any questions you can email me
directly christe there is a question in the chat oh thank you you're welc done
thank you chrisy um I'm going to let Rachel answer
this question but it is how do you get help with getting an Advocate when someone has to go to
court yes Kelly so um all of the crisis centers um do have Advocates uh Court
Advocates that are able to connect survivors with legal resources and also provide advocacy in court so with an
issue like what you have um experienced comes up um this is an example of where
you can certainly reach out to the Coalition and we can kind of do a little you know deeper to see you know what may
have occurred there um but there should be um a a court Advocates available to
be present at restraining order hearings
um as well as um divorce or you know child uh child custody uh kind of
experte orders again we're not lawyers um but we are there to provide support
and can connect to Legal Services so I'm sorry that that was an experience that
um your client um had so um please feel free to reach out to myself anytime something like that um pops
up and I just want to jump into if we're working with a client that is not
working with a crisis center this isn't a service that we can provide but it is a way for us to talk to them about why
it's important to connect with the crisis center and sometimes we will even go with them um or sometimes I will meet
with them at the crisis center so I can connect them all together um because sometimes if they've started to trust us
working with them it can help sort of join them to the right organization to help them with other
things and um just to add to that too so our crisis centers have relationships
with all of our courts and there's usually a DV point of contact at the courts um sometimes we do find that that
they usually call us when somebody comes forward just fill a protective order um and sometimes it's also a matter of
training for that Court staff so um just just to give a little background too um a person can access Legal Services sorry
court services by walking into a crisis center or um potentially through walking
into court and asking to speak to an advocate um but any issues that may arise feel free to to reach
out thank you anyone have any other questions you
can either put it in the chat or raise your hand or start
talking um so as I'm not seeing any other questions
um we will move on to the last part of this presentation for the balance State um I'd like to introduce Bethany catrell
who works with Bridges House of Hope they have a rapid rehousing project that
is is specifically to serve those who are fleeing or attempting to flee human
trafficking which is funded through our Continuum of Care um so I will let Bethany take it
away thank you chrisy can you all see that slideshow okay awesome so I'm bethan
Katrell um thank you so much for having me back today to talk about Bridget's House of of Hope um I am excited uh this
is my first presentation to announce that uh I am only using the term founder
and um we have our new full-time executive director Miranda Lane well she'll be full-time hopefully by the end
of this month um on the call today as well so uh we're excited at Bridget's house as we talk about some of the
updates and changes but looking forward at sustainability our agency truly as
many of you know needs a full-time executive director um to manage our full-time staff uh so that way we can
are accepting more referrals and supporting those uh who have been trafficked or exploited in our area and
um manage some of our our weight list as well and so when we're talking about
Bridget's house um Bridget's House of Hope is a safe house which provides
Housing Services for victims and survivors of human trafficking and exploitation and our goal really is that
full support of um um care and coordination of services for those
experiencing or having experienced trafficking uh we have grown our program
in the year and a half almost two years that we've been open but to see a little bit of our history uh we've been a part
of the task force here in New Hampshire since in Inception um we received funding in um
2022 to open our safe house here in New Hampshire so it's been quite uh the ride
and journey uh through covid and everything else as many of you are aware and have seen but um we know that here
in New Hampshire it has been a gap in services and a need and many people were saying you know um why why did we open
Bridget's house where did this come from and being a part of the balance of State COC and also the task force for many
years prior to opening Bridgets we would often be saying um you know how do we
help what do we do doing with these survivors because they were choosing homelessness um they were going back to
their exploitation or their trafficking situations in order to avoid homelessness or avoid going to a
situation that may have been worse and we kept hearing over and over again that housing was our biggest concern as many
of you know um having these discussions in these meetings and presentations often and so a a few of us said well
what are we going to do about it because we're really tired of hearing that and this was before we had all of this
funding through the continu of care to assist with rapid rehousing and before
really housing was uh funded like it should be uh sort of should be in New
Hampshire sort of funded I should say we're still making those strides uh and so that's really where this this stemmed
from was quite a few of us in those two groups getting together and saying let's start a nonprofit because this is um
something that we definitely need to focus on and so in 2022 like I said that is when we were able to start accepting
client currently we have uh three clients in our physical location and not and six
clients in the community uh receiving rental assistance and ongoing case
management through Rapid rehousing and other voucher programs uh my favorite
statistic to give although that is a good one to say that we're working with nine clients and in the past year and a
half um we've worked with almost 20 uh survivors in New Hampshire and coming
from surrounding areas that's a lot that's a lot in our small State uh that's a lot for the referrals that we
see and I can promise you at least once a week we're getting another request for
housing and for services uh and having to put people on a wait list because the
the need is great as we all know um so with those nine clients that we're currently working with we also are
supporting um four cats and four dogs as well and so I find that an important
statistic to share because as we know many shelters do not allow pets uh to be
a part of that program and also a lot of apartments are really hard to find that also allow animals and many of our
clients will either choose living in a campground um homelessness or um you
know living in an unsafe situation before they would give up their animals and so it was something that uh as staff
and a board we said this needs to happen and so um I always find that interesting and I have more information about it
later but I'd like to start with it and so people will say to me you know what is human trafficking and I think you
know we've grown in our in the professional world and even in our community to be able to talk about what
it is and to understand it but I can remember back uh when we first started talking about Bridget's house and doing
interviews with the local paper and uh one of our one of the reporters said to
me don't worry I watched the movie Taken last night uh I I did my homework I know what trafficking is and I was like man
that's not at all what we do uh that's you know that's not what we're seeing here in New Hampshire but we are seeing
exploitation and we are seeing trafficking um that is a crime um through of exploitation of a person for
labor services or commercial sex through Force frauder coercion that's the definition I have to say I you know I
Stumble over it every time because it's a lot of words and it's a lot of definitions within there that we would
have to look at and so it's hard for us to then work with
clients to get them to identify as being a survivor of trafficking because if it's hard for us to even Define what
these words mean exploitation Force fraud coercion what's the difference between commercial sex between labor um
how can we expect that someone who has a trauma history someone who has substance use disorder someone who has a mental
health diagnosis uh someone who has been sexually assaulted or in a domestic violence relationship or has no support
or moved here from somewhere else in this country how do we expect them to say yes I'm a Survivor of trafficking
and so we really rely on our stakeholders on our Community Partnerships on groups like this so that
way when referrals are coming in we can have those conversations I talk with Cindy often uh and and many of you to
say okay you know what does fleeing trafficking really mean and really look
like and it's more about having those conversations than it is about being able to check a box and so you know what
does it present as it presents as prostitution um it presents as you know
someone living in a home a home share maybe so uh when it comes to prostitution a commercial sex that we're
seeing where people are going out on the streets or or going into homes of others
and being forced to provide sexx to maintain their opioid addiction uh it's
the only way that their boyfriend or um their partner will give them their drugs
or some of the money that came from that they're not getting all of the money they're not making that choice on their
own free will um they're being told to get back out there and to make that money and to and to do what's needed and
then maybe they'll be allowed to live at sort of a status quo um we're seeing a
lot of referrals regarding domestic servitude so what
might look like a home share people can't afford um uh rent they can't afford to live on their own it's hard
for anyone even in professional roles that are making a a standard wage to be able to afford the rents that we're
seeing here in New Hampshire as we know and so we're seeing um I i' have to say
out of the last four referrals three of them were clients who were live moved
into a home of someone to help either take care of their Farm or their animals or to help take care of the house itself
um and then those people that they were living with started saying well you used
our internet and the electric and you ate some of the food and you have your
room so you actually expensed and cost us you know
$1,500 this month but you only worked in the farm for 10 hours or whatever it may
be and we've seen spread sheets um we've had people you know have clients report
that there very detailed um sort of invoices done and they were never
getting any of that money they were supposed to be working to get paid and then living there as part of that agreement um but none of that many money
was ever given to them so then they can't get out they can't get a security deposit they um can't you know even even
put the money down for an electric for the initial for utilities and so that
would be the exploitation of Labor as well and so it's it's really showing its
its ugly head in many different ways here um in New Hampshire and I think the more that we can talk about what we're
seeing and what some of those experiences may have been the easier it's going to be to start identifying so
that way then others can identify and and self-identify as well many of the
myths that we hear is that it's only affecting adult women um you know in it's very sensationalized that that's
what's happening and that's where it's happening but we know that's not the case we know that there are males we know they are
transgendered um we know that it can really be happening anywhere uh also people are saying you know some of the
myths that we believe especially through watching movies and and different TV shows is that violence is always
involved um the interesting one to me this third one here uh I spent my a lot
of my career working in the Child Advocacy Center model back when we first started talking about human trafficking and what did it mean and we used to
always say uh it's mobile sexual assault right it's Tri coming across state l
it's like going from different counties and then like no we were wrong right we
learned a lot through all of that it doesn't require travel or Transportation ac across borders and I think that's
where some of that definition comes in but I think back you know we first start talking about this that's what we really
thought is that there had to be some sort of um transportation whether it be
across state lines or across um country uh borders and that and that's not the case and that it doesn't happen here in
our community people think all the time there's no way in a small state that's safe like New Hampshire that this is
happening but what we know is that this can really be happening to anyone again regardless of age gender or race um the
clientele the referrals that we receive are from all over um that many of them
are from the majority of them are from here in New England so it can be happening here it happens in our community um we have seen referrals from
transgender um from fluid neutral uh sorry gender neutral and gender um fluid um we have seen male
referrals we have seen female referrals we've seen referrals around um youth as well um which we have to refer those out
at this time um so it's it's anywhere and can be happening to anyone and we
know that it's not always involving violence it can it could have some violence at some point it could start
that way but most of our tra traffickers are using psychological tactics um many
of you may have seen Jasmine Grace uh do her presentation on Surviving
trafficking in the New England Massachusetts mainly in Maine area but in the New England area and her
trafficker put her through college to get her degree to be um a bookkeeper and
to do um office management so that way she could then run the strip club and
the trafficking business that he had going and so there was this tie there there was this like like you need me but
also how can I leave because you've paid for all of this schooling um and you
know and I feel tied to that I owe you something and sometimes that can be even larger and even more um controlling and
detrimental to many of these clients and that's that's the hard part that's those are the pieces that it takes a long time
um as many of you know to overcome and to then support many of these clients as
they transition into Independence right that's always our goal but we also feel very strongly that case management and
and the support that we provide doesn't have a end date because many people go
through this process at a different pace um many of them once they get into a
rapid rehousing program uh sort of you know revert back to some of their old behaviors or their um or their old
trauma triggers because they're now living on their own again and so it's important for us to be there and be able
to support them um and so knowing that human trafficking is not human smuggling doesn't require Transportation or moving
across those borders uh as we said but we do know that it's happening globally globally as well and so um the amount of
trafficking that we're seeing uh globally is astronomical but it's also
very much related similarly here in New Hampshire the between local law enforcement Homeland Security and the uh
collaborative task force trafficking has been identified in all 10 counties from the northern tip of Coos County down to
you know Hillsboro County and Manchester NASA um you know out in pouth as well um
these numbers have been hard and so I'm sure if anyone from the task force some of my numbers are older um because it's
been hard to identify like what are we seeing for referrals and what is coming in um I know there's been a lot of work
around that um you know I always find it interesting because it's we've been identifying it for a long time
um I grew up in Hudson New Hampshire which is right next to lynfield and I can remember every you know spring or
summer the migrant workers coming in and you know you knew it was almost time for the Farms to open because there'd be uh
pickup Tru trucks driving down um 3A and everyone would be sitting in the back of the truck you know they'd have the
workers going back and forth um there was a house on one of the farm
properties that you everyone like there was probably like 15 or 20 people that lived in there and it was sort of part
of like our community but we never really understood what was fully happening and come to find out one of the first cases that was prosecuted in
New Hampshire was in Lichfield at a tree farm and you know I look back and think
why didn't we ask the questions why didn't we try and figure it out more why did we just accept that as normal when
really people's lives are in danger and and that's why it's important that we're all here and still talking about it
because although it may hard to identify it or maybe hard for people to self-report the more we can be talking
about it the better it's going to be um for them to be supported throughout this process and so through Bridget's house
where are we now we're still working on our grants and fundraising and growing through our rapid rehousing program uh I
think we were a little bit ahead of the curve I have to say nationally because we have our initial uh OBC offic of
victims of crime grant that supports our physical location um and when I worked
with Christy and Melissa around adding the rapid rehousing program we thought you know this is really going to help
people as they transition to Independence um and and assist with some of the weight lless problems we see when
you have one physical location and I started to have conversations with the offic of victims of crime um Grant
supporters the project managers there and they said that across the country people were starting to see that the
independent rental assistance case management process is what is working well and what is working better because
people are able to as we always say build their tribe with our staff and with our with our support but then
actually be building that tribe in the community too and not continuing to have those Transitions and um having to build
their Roots there and so um it's exciting to see that because I think a lot of the grants that were initially
looking at how do we support this one brick and mortar space are now saying
how do we support these survivors and where they at and get them in the community because that's how they're
going to be most successful um and so that's really exciting as we're seeing that with our rapid rehousing program and continuing to grow that as well
we're continuing to collaborate with our Community Partners and agencies um and those of you on this call that we work with are probably so
excited to hear that uh we'll have a full-time Ed so that way she'll be able to communicate with you um during your
normal business hours and you won't be waiting for me to uh respond to emails after hours and so that is really
exciting to be able to continue to build those relationships um continuing to build that residential program model
identifying you know we've been open um and and accepting clients now for uh you
know for almost two years which is wild to think about um it also feels like a lifetime but to be able to look back and
say okay what have we heard we have residents who have transitioned we've been able to talk with them and say
through your life experiences what worked well what hasn't worked well what do you think could be changed we're able
to have those conversations with the clients that are in the program to say you know what do you need for example
one of the things um when we first started was that we wanted to have a 247 staffed program um you know when I'm
sitting at my dining room table and reading research it sounds great to say that that's what works best and then
when we implemented that um clients were saying it feels like a group home it
feels like when I was a you know when I was under DCF or when I was in care and
you know I was in a group home or when I was in a um Hospital uh for you know mental health
concerns and you know it felt very triggering and so we were able to dial some of that back and say okay how can
we build your Independence give you that lifeline and that safety net so you're still being supported but not making you
feel like um someone's looking over your shoulder every second and not making you feel exploited again all over again you
know not controlling everything um that happens during the day because if we're
trying to build that support for Independence that's what we need to continue focusing on um and continuing to build our relationships with our
business and Faith Partnerships because we know that again as our clients are building that Community um they need to
have those supports they need to be getting jobs they need to be finding where their if they have a faith group then what is that Faith group and how
can they partner with them and how can we get them into that community that would be most supportive for them when
we talk about our location the physical program itself it's four two-bedroom apartments um mainly female residents uh
that are there and their animals um intensive case management like I said we've recently changed that
247 Staffing and we see most of our clients are there about 18 to 24 months
uh before they transition into Independence our rapid rehousing program is the just over seven um units we
currently have um six people in uh five people in the rapid re housing program six people in the community uh and
looking to grow that as our staffing Stables out so we're excited for that we
work really hard obviously on confidentiality similar to the crisis centers um our location is private and
so we want to ensure that confidentiality of the location itself we also utilize uh PO Boxes and our
address confidentiality program for both those in the physical location and then also for those in the community if that
is something that they would like to continue using um and really assisting in keeping them Anonymous um ensuring
that they have that safety that they need as they transition to Independence and build their future
goals these are some pictures of prior to there being any furniture in there um we're going to promise you that that's
not what this looks like anymore because we're cleaning everything and trying to reorganize uh but I like to show this
because the space that we have um they renovated the entire building and you know many of our clients say it's it's
the it's the best ofart I've ever had or it's the best space I've ever been in but you know we don't want anyone to
have to worry about it we don't want anyone to have to worry about do I have to get um toilet paper or milk this week
um that shouldn't be their concern their concern should be am I safe do I have a safe place to live um and then how do we
continue moving forward with that um you know because many times the as we all
know the level of trauma but especially with our trafficking survivors is it's so complex it's such an onion and every
time you peel one layer back you know uh you find 10 more so uh it's important to
try and keep some of the other pieces there still consistent and so for our referrals although I said we have a wait
list which we do we're really working to um get the Staffing into a place so we can start accepting more of those in you
can email uh the info@ Bridgets houseof hope.org uh email address that goes
right now to both Miranda and myself and as we uh continue with our staffing that will go to other staff too um you'll be
able to connect with the executive director and have initial intake discussion to our board and um our
program development and our program committee uh in my background in the CAC world it was really important to us that
there be this sort of discussion right the discussion with the Survivor and the
um Community partner that maybe they're currently working with when I first started uh talking about Bridget's house
I was working with Homeland Security and we were at Franklin Hospital uh working with a patient that was there who was
non-verbal and uh came in non-verbal and pretty much catatonic and slowly over time um
started to speak and I had applications for her for housing and the first
question on both of them was are you a survivor of trafficking check checkbox or exploitation checkbox and we never
got past that we never got to her name we never got to her address she could not identify what she what
her box was right we put so many people in boxes all the time and I think that's the biggest thing these are humans these
are um family members they are friends they're neighbors and so if we don't
have to have someone put themselves in a box again we can have that conversation between them and whoever their current
Community um supports are it's only going to make it better as we move forward with these referrals and so I
think that that is really an important part for us is that yep we have a form online yes we you know accept emails yes
we're going to ask questions but it's the conversation that helps just figure out where someone's at are they going to
work well in a program like this are they ready um to you know to better
themselves and and to work towards independence um and are we going to be the right fit there there is an
assessment to um assess are they a survivor of trafficking um so that way we can understand working with the right
population there are amazing people in this state who work with survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault um
and there's a long list of people that are trying to get into those Services right so we want to make sure we're
staying in our lane and wearing our our right hats and we can support each other when we can um but for the most part you
know we're working with those survivors of trafficking so that way the experts on the other side can be working with DV and sexual assault um we do that intake
interview we have a team house discussion and then plan that intake and move in plan um throughout this process
and then really looking at what is the case management what are those needs one of the biggest uh one of the most
powerful moments for me in this process was uh years ago there used to be a
annual conference training at the Bethany Church in Greenland um the faith Justice Summit and one day they one of
the sessions they had a Survivor get on stage and she listed off all of the community services and community
supports that she worked with and um she you know talked about uh rental
assistance she talked about utility assistance and the church and her therapist and um her case man for
Medicaid and the list went on and on by the time she was done there were 13 people standing on stage with her that
means 13 phone numbers 13 email addresses 13 appointments to try and schedule and coordinate 13 people that
somehow had an effect on her daily living or her weekly living that she had to try and organize
and I don't know about you but like I can't live without my phone and my calendar and um even then I'm like
dropping the ball or forgetting something or you know what was I going to get for groceries or whatever it is
how can we expect people who are constantly in fight or flight who have lived their entire lives like that whose
brains are completely different as we talked about as um the Coalition talked about in the first session they're their
brain structure is different because of this trauma how can we expect them to facilitate and coordinate calls and and
life conversations with 13 people and so that's really you know when we're talking about case planning and case
management it's about how can we help people manage that not how can we do it all we can't do it all there are already
experts doing it but how can we manage you know the work with those different Community Partners the work with those
those agencies and those needs and those next steps and help really try and put it in a package to say okay you know
here's step one and then like next week we'll do two a b and c right like what does that look like and how can we help
set them up for Success so then that can continue moving forward um we are so
thankful I keep saying this but relying with on the work with our Community Partners working with dartman Hitchcock
the um continum of care we work really closely with lamry Healthcare they've been fantastic um and Community Mental
Health Centers in the area we also recently have started a partnership with Goodwin Family Health um home care for
homeless uh the crisis centers and then bless this home is a great nonprofit if you're not familiar with them they
anytime someone moves into a new apartment uh we work with them and they completely furnish and decorate the
entire apartment for them based on a survey that our clients fill out so they get to pick what they want and their
colors and their needs and then they get to move into an apartment that's fully furnished and all of that then becomes
theirs that they get to keep um and many of them have never owned a mattress have never owned a coffee pot um and now this
is theirs um to take with them if they move out and go to a new apartment so we're very thankful for that partnership
as well here's some of our contact information um um you I you are more
than welcome to email me but I can promise you Miranda will be more responsive uh but I am still here and
trying uh but uh we you know are just very thankful for this group and for the work that everyone here does and I can
put these email addresses in the chat as well any
questions I not seeing any questions in the chat as of
yet the only thing I will follow up with is that this is the only project that we
have in the state of New Hampshire that specifically serves those fleeing or attempting to flee human
trafficking um and I think most of you know that when we go through the coordin entry system and part of doing the New
Hampshire coordinated assessment tool we do asked that question if they're fleeing or attempting to flee human
trafficking um so that we can make appropriate referrals to this project to
house those survivors who need assistance um they currently serve seven
households and about maybe 10 people give or take
um and again it is the only project that we have throughout the entire state that
serves this specific population um all of their referrals do go through the coordinate entry
system and if we cannot find anyone who's fleeing or attempting to flee human trafficking we do look at those
fleeing or attempting to flee domestic violence as
well it's been I do have to say though Chrissy it's been interesting right because um you go back to like putting
people in boxes and the trauma-informed conversation we had and everyone has a you know a laundry list of diagnosis and
how frustrating is it every time they have to write it out um and so we've had a couple referrals who are fleeing or
attempting to flee domestic violence but when you talk to them right goes back to that conversation in my brain I'm like
uh no this is definitely exploitation you've been being trafficked but I don't want to say it because I don't want to
give them another label uh another box that they have to live in but it just
you know the things that people do to survive oftentimes fall more under other
labels and I think but I think that's on us as professionals to talk about and to
identify and address without making someone feel like they have to be a survivor of something else or a victim
of something else I completely agree with you um
it we really look at trying to match the right participant with the right project and not put another label on them but
make sure that we're matching them with the appropriate services throughout the balance of state so that
they're housed and they get the services that they that they need to move forward
and maintain that permanent housing option that we are able to provide hopefully and I think that's one of the
things through the um rapid rehousing uh and and some of the crisis centers probably see this in some of their
shelters is that um when you're doing rapid rehousing and people are in the
community there's less of a comparison well how'd you get here what was your referral right like when in the sh in
the home in the Tang physical location there's more opportunities for that where people are like oh well you're
just a victim of DV and I'm like well well well that's not what we're doing here um so I think it just goes to show
why rapid rehousing and the the support through the COC and through um the beer
of housing supports which I know is not the right label anymore I'm sorry someday say the right one um is so
important because I think our profession as a whole is becoming more trauma informed but that is why we see such
success with programs like this i' just like to say too I if you
are questioning whether someone is fleeing domestic violence or fleeing human trafficking or which one are they what should I check up reach out to one
of us because I do this every day and I can't tell you how many times I've reached out to Bethany to say I just run
this by you because it feels a little like human trafficking but I'm not quite sure um it's better if you you know
reach out and and figure it out um then have somebody miss an opportunity so or
have somebody in there's nothing worse than someone being in um
a we had a referral once that said domestic violence it was not domestic violence and then having to not like
take away an opportunity from someone and redirect them somewhere else is terrible and so um you know reach out to
us if you have a question if you're just not sure thank you Cindy I will say we are
very very lucky within our Continuum of Care to have these very specialized
projects for those human trafficking domestic violence we have specific youth
projects we are very very lucky to be able to focus on specific populations
and provide the services they need in through a lens whether it's trauma
informed whether it's for the Youth that we are serving but we are very lucky to have all of these projects to be able to
serve those at risk of or experiencing
homelessness does anyone have any questions for Rachel from the Coalition Bethany from Bridges House of Hope or
Cindy from shefer County
Cap all right um if we don't have any other questions or if you have questions
afterwards please feel free to email me and I'll drop my email in the chat um and I know Bethany put her information
in there and I can share Cindy's and Rachel Duffy's information if that's okay with
both of them Rachel says yes um I would like to introduce Megan
raferty from The Institute for Community alliances she's going to provide a point
in time update for the balance of State continue of care still morning right good morning
yes still okay um so this is just a really quick update um
right now all the hmis point in time reports have been confirmed um and we are waiting on I
believe it's three um housing inventory chart reports to be confirmed um and
then for anything that was entered into the Google forms um I will be working
with um BHS to review clean that data and then get it all aggregated so we can
combine it with the hmis data um we do not have a point in time due date
historically it's been the end of April um we don't even have HDX 2.0 available
to enter the point in time or hick yet um hopefully sometime this month that
will happen um so we're not and this is a new process we've always entered it
into what is called HDX the HUD data exchange um and there's a newer version
of that that's the 2.0 where we have always entered the longitudal system
analysis um this year new was putting in the system performances in the 2.0 and
it will also be new for the point in time and housing inventory chart so we are hoping that they open that very very
soon so we can at least get familiar with it um and thank you to everyone for your
point in time um they hmis especially because we've been able to confirm that
um and we also thank those that entered unsheltered and for um anyone who
entered their emergency shelter uh into the the Google forms really appreciate that it's very
important for the COC it's the only time we have like all the data together because most of the time it's just the
hmis data so this is very important for the COC thanks thank you Megan and I just
want to follow up to say that a lot of the data from the count in January for
the point in time and the housing inventory count um is used during our
notice of funding opportunity for the Continuum of Care competition so a lot of this data goes
in and that's how we get scored on our overall Contin of care system performance and how we're doing so I
really appreciate everyone and all of the hard work that went into the point in time count planning because I know
there's so many of you on here um even just from our staff who worked really really hard to make sure that we had a
really good point in time count this
year see Rob waving um we do have final numbers from
the FY 2023 point in time count um which I believe have been shared with all of
you but if you haven't gotten that information I did drop that email my email in the chat so I can send that out
to you um we are here and getting it up on the Bureau of homeless services website as
well anyone have any questions about the point and time count or the housing inventory count
are awful quiet today all right the only last thing that I will say is that we did and Melissa
sent out last week we received our FY 2023 notice of funding opportunity
scores for our Continuum of Care competition um and I think you all saw that we were awarded all six of the
projects that we applied for um so we're very very excited um we are able B to we
applied for an expansion of coordinate entry to include the last remaining County that we cover and fund them which
was Western Rockingham um we also applied to expand hmis so that we can work on more data
analysis of the data we have in h we received the conquered crisis
center of New Hampshire domestic violence rapid rehousing project conquer Coalition
against homeless to end homelessness sorry um permanent support of housing project was funded we
also received funding for a Statewide domestic violence rapid rehousing
project through the community action program of straford County and we also
received funding for Waypoint in order for them to provide coordinate entry
services to youth as well I feel like I'm missing one I don't know who it is
um but we're very very excited we're hoping to get these projects up and going by the end of
October the only other thing that we want to bring up is we as the
collaborative applicant the Bureau of homeless Services is looking to revamp subcommittees similar to what we did
with the balance estate Continuum of Care um meeting list um Melissa recently
updated that entire meeting list for the Continuum of Care we will be working on
updating all of the subcommittee email lists as well in order to ensure that we
have the right people at the right tables so that we can move forward in ending homelessness connecting people to
permanent housing options um and really meeting the needs
of what HUD expects from us each year through the
noo that's all I have I don't know if anyone else has any
other updates
Rob says
no all right well I am going to end the meeting and we will share the recording
and post it on our website um as soon as we humanly
possibly can and we will send that out to everybody I also will include all of the Powerpoints from the three
presenters today from the Coalition stford County cap and from Brides house so that you can all have access to those
trainings as well thank
you thank
you
August 9, 2022
Notice of Funding Opportunity Meeting, August 9, 2022
Notice of Funding Opportunity Meeting, August 9, 2022
Notice of Funding Opportunity Meeting, August 9, 2022
Transcript of video:
0:00
right and we're cool there it goes i am recording this um because i know that we scheduled this
0:07
very last minute not everyone that wants to get this information will be able to participate so we do plan to get this
0:14
posted on uh the dhhs youtube video or channel
0:19
today and we'll send that link out to our entire network um so for anyone who doesn't know me or
0:26
who's starting to log on i'm melissa hatfield i'm the bureau chief for the bureau of housing supports
0:31
uh bhs is the collaborative applicant for the balance of state continuum of care
0:38
um for those of you who have participated in a continuum of care competition in
0:44
the past throw out everything you remember because our time frame shrunk to about this big and we are um
0:52
the name of the game is flexibility and adjusting this year so
0:58
i'm thanking you in advance for your patience and understanding through this entire process
1:05
usually we have about 90 days for this full competition from the date it was released till the
1:11
date it's due we had 60 and we are down to i'm looking at my countdown we are down to 52 days as of
1:18
today for when this is due um these are not time frames set by me they
1:25
are not time frames i enjoy or appreciate um but they are time frames that we are
1:31
working within um real quick some of the the time frames
1:37
that are going to impact all of you the most are project applications
1:42
um hud sets a deadline of 30 days before
1:47
the due date i have my binders behind me i'm not reading it exactly project applications are due into
1:55
the collaborative applicant that's august 30th um hud has not released the project
2:02
application templates yet so we can't even give you exactly what hud's looking
2:07
for yet because they haven't released them to us so what's going to happen today
2:14
is a very high level overview of everything that's coming and maybe not everything because we
2:20
don't know it all yet um we are not going to be voting on anything in
2:26
this meeting as i originally thought we would because we just have not been able to put everything together that we need
2:32
to in order to vote and i know that we don't have enough people here so we will be doing electronic votes as allowed by
2:39
our governance charter all in one survey monkey so the whole survey will go out
2:44
you'll get a description of what we're asking you to vote on um and it will be a relatively quick
2:52
turnaround that we're asking for the other thing that we don't know yet is exactly how much bonus funding we
2:59
have available we have an estimate based on old numbers in our grant inventory
3:04
worksheet um we don't know exactly what our domestic violence bonus
3:10
is yet and we um we think we know what our reallocation total is but we'll put it
3:16
all out at the same time together so
3:22
so that being said if everyone could introduce yourself in the chat your name the agency you work for anything else
3:29
you would like to identify with your pronouns if you'd like to do that um we encourage you to
3:36
share your representation with us i am going to turn it over to melanie mondello from the technical assistance
3:42
collaborative um to give us the high level overview of this year's competition and then we will
3:49
talk about the supplemental competition for rural and unsheltered homelessness
3:55
we will talk a little bit about hud's priorities in this boring tool and then we'll wrap it all up at the end so
4:00
melanie will you need to share your screen yes please okay give me half a second here
4:05
okay so for those of you that haven't met me um my name is melanie mondello and i work for the technical assistance
4:12
collaborative otherwise known as tac um and i've been working with new hampshire for i guess almost 10 years um
4:19
on this nofo coc program fund so like melissa said we have a really short time frame
4:25
so that's not great but you have a lot of experience behind you and you have systems in place
4:32
so we're just trying to move as fast as possible while keeping integrity to get you the information you need if you're
4:38
considering a new project this year under the regular nofo which melissa you may have said already
4:44
is different than the special nofo that you've probably been talking about in other forums so this is regular coc business um
4:52
what i'd like to do is um i did a summary of the no flow what's been available to
4:59
us so far everything has not been released so it's an abbreviated summary it is 11 pages which i'm not going to
5:06
read to you but i want to share them on the screen and i'll kind of roll through and try not to make everyone too dizzy
5:13
as we go through just to give you the highlights about where hud's putting their priorities this year
5:18
and kind of what we can expect when they do publish the questions out and we're able to actually start writing
5:24
um the responses that you need to get some money into new hampshire so and we
5:30
will share all of these documents after the fact we just don't have them right this moment to
5:37
share so stay tuned for everything coming from us we will make sure you get it yes so melissa already went over the
5:43
time frame so i'm just gonna everyone can kind of close their eyes as i scroll down to the important part there we go
5:50
so um this year hud uh it's a 200 point scale with 25 bonus points
5:56
um this chart is helpful just so you can see where kind of hud is putting their priorities
6:02
so you can see like what kind of community responses we're going to be speaking to in the questions
6:07
so you can see coordination which is number one and coordination which is number six
6:13
are you know half the points of the whole competition so coordination engagement of people
6:19
with lived experience engagement of stakeholders all of that is really where hud is putting a lot of emphasis and then
6:26
also you'll see number five system performance something we've talked about every year
6:31
uh biggest change there is last year they gave us a little bit of a break because of the pandemic and this year
6:37
they put all the points back so you're going to be you know judged on what was submitted i think it was last april or
6:43
maybe february whatever your community submitted based on performance measures
6:50
that data will inform part of the points and our narrative about what we're doing to
6:56
stop people from entering homelessness get them out of homelessness quickly all of those things our narrative about your
7:02
community response will be the remainder of the point so some of it is predetermined based on
7:07
data you've already submitted some of it we have a little bit of control over as we talk about your community response
7:14
so this is nothing that any of you have to like dig into deeply uh christy melissa and mandy and i will dig deep
7:21
into this when huda gives us the questions but just wanted you to kind of see where hud was putting um their emphasis
7:28
this year around where they want you to spend your time as a homeless response system
7:35
i'm going to scroll down past some of this attachment
7:40
so new key changes the 200 points so it's more points which means more
7:46
questions which is fine um the biggest change this year is they put back the tiers so i think there's
7:52
some new faces here um what hud does is they say hey balance of state new hampshire
7:58
you have this many renewal projects it's worth i'm just going to make up a number five million dollars
8:04
and then they say well you can have 95 of that 5 million as long as you put in an application do a pretty decent job
8:10
we're going to guarantee you basically 95 of your current money and then they make you compete
8:17
for the other part so this year it's called tier one and tier two tier one is going to be 95 percent of
8:22
the current renewal projects are mostly guaranteed use that word lightly with
8:28
federal government funding um and then five percent of it is going to be competitive nationally you all do
8:34
well you do well in the competition i anticipate you'll continue to do well but it is stressful for whatever project
8:42
is in that five percent we just want to acknowledge that but these are the rules that hud has set up
8:47
maybe it will be a new project based on reallocation funds but it just you know we wanted to tell people the tiering is
8:53
back so when you see the project list that christy publishes you'll see tier one
8:59
tier two and then our tv bonus project so just wanted everyone to know that
9:05
um i think this part here is what people will be most excited about uh new projects there is coc bonus
9:12
project funding there is dv db tv bonus project funding available
9:19
the biggest change here is some of you may remember last year hud did bonus points
9:25
to talk about um to incentivize you to do partnerships in a new project application to bring in money
9:33
right money and resources from either places that had housing funds for
9:38
subsidies or actual units and a second bucket of bonus points for
9:44
projects that could bring in formal written agreements with health care entities to provide some of the support
9:50
of services that people need when they're um exiting homelessness and going into some of these programs
9:57
so those changed from bonus points last year to regular points this year
10:02
and when i did the math hud is really serious about these we knew that but they kind of put their money where their
10:08
priorities were the new questions around new projects with housing subsidies that aren't coc
10:14
or esg funded and new health care partnerships that bring money into projects
10:20
each of those questions is worth three and a half of the points three and a half percent of the points available
10:26
so seven percent of a national competition is based on checking the box on these two things so that's going to
10:32
be really important as you think about new projects as you apply for the bonus the db bonus
10:38
and any reallocation money that if you could bring this to the table it helps your coc stay competitive and i my
10:46
disclaimer i'm all about the points during the nofo it also helps because it gets better projects
10:52
but for this conversation it helps you stay competitive so you can continue to get additional money every year and keep
10:59
all of your current projects as you'd like to see them so i'm going to stop there for half a second and see if
11:05
there's any questions that came up or if i'm just talking in greek if anybody needs me to decode a
11:11
little better about hudspeak
11:16
any questions your all the cameras are over here so i'm just looking over here i have a quick one when when do we find
11:23
out that uh whether we're in tier one or tier two when does that list come out from melissa
11:29
i can review that at the end melanie i get the time frame kind of built out um
11:35
[Music] that makes sense yeah ellen let me i'll pull it up and i'll have that answer for
11:41
you before it's over okay good yeah we will have a final priority
11:46
listing and the ranking and scorings will go out per usual and you will have a chance to appeal
11:52
as well um which is built in i just want to remind everybody that all of your annual
11:58
performance reports which is part of the scoring process were previously sent out this year for
12:03
all of your agencies to review um and you are being scored on the calendar year of 2021.
12:14
okay um so i wanted to highlight that the
12:20
emphasis on building equity into your system is also actually written in even more deeply into the nofo
12:27
this year um they uh the first year they started talking about this they wanted evaluation the
12:33
second year they wanted plans so they kind of keep saying you'll evaluate you'll plan you'll implement so
12:39
this year they're really looking for evaluation they're looking for what you actually
12:45
did so the plan and then what you did and then that you implemented evaluation
12:50
so you've made it you've evaluated what issues there are you've done something to rectify those issues
12:57
and then looking at did what you do right um increase equity decrease disparity so
13:05
well again we're waiting for the questions we don't know exactly what hud wants us to speak about there but that's the general kind of guidance that
13:11
they've given um that we'll need to speak about this year they also um it's a little later in
13:18
the document but i'll speak to it now they also are emphasizing uh what's happening at
13:24
the project level so a lot of it has been about um
13:29
uh the coc policy here right um for
13:34
equity anti-discrimination but you can see here they have talked
13:39
now about developing provider anti-discrimination policies and making
13:44
sure there's feedback and assistance on that so there may be questions this year where we have to follow up with you all
13:51
to say okay this is what we do at the coc level we need a little bit more detail about what you do at the agency level again waiting for the details um
14:00
uh on that and then you know yeah they did define um underserved communities so
14:06
if that's something that um you think applies to any of your area i would read that definition
14:12
and see it might be something we have to speak to when they um publish the questions but again we don't know the
14:18
questions yet um so that's some of the just highlights of what we've seen around um
14:24
[Music] equity um for anti-discrimination policies and questions that are going to be coming
14:30
our way for policy priorities um you know typical fashion these are all the things
14:37
that you should be doing right everything under the sun or the all the policy priorities are all the
14:42
policies but um you all again do some really good stuff in this area there'll be plenty to talk
14:49
about lenovo what i wanted to um kind of highlight was these last four
14:56
so increasing the affordable housing supply is not directly under the control of your coc
15:02
but it may be um part of the role of some of your members some of you on the
15:07
phone you know on the call right now so increasing affordable housing supply is a new question this year
15:14
about what was done to decrease zoning barriers things like that what you're doing to work with
15:21
entities in your state to increase the housing supply so i would expect more and more emphasis
15:27
on that so probably be a couple points this year but i just wanted to plant that seed and everyone's head we're
15:32
gonna need to think to make sure we're at the right tables and be able to talk to that to again continue to have you be
15:38
a strong applicant so that you can continue to score well and get money into the balance of state
15:45
new hampshire and melanie to give some reassurance to the group um
15:50
the so all three continuums of care actually sit on the council for housing stability
15:55
the statewide council in addressing the lack of affordable housing is a huge
16:00
part of that work um and there are a lot of other continuum of care members who
16:06
participate in our work groups in our um subcommittee so if you
16:11
aren't actively involved and you'd like to be let me know i can get you connected with one of those work groups but that work is happening across the
16:18
state it's slow and we don't have enough yet but there's work being done to address it so if you want more information let
16:25
me know yeah um great um some places where they
16:30
increased or decreased points again it kind of tells you where their policy priorities are
16:36
um there's a list here i'm not going to read it to you we're still waiting on the details of what the question changes
16:42
are um if something had decreased points it doesn't mean it's not so important to
16:47
them they're just putting their emphasis somewhere else so hud still does want to see that families are not separated they just um
16:55
sometimes they put that as a priority question and then as soon as enough people are saying yes to it
17:00
they'll decrease points and emphasize somewhere else so it's not to undo the good work that you've done um in
17:07
discharge planning and families it's just we're not gonna get we're not gonna continue to get points
17:12
for your past good work we're gonna need new future good work so we're just gonna have to keep you know
17:18
um taking lots of credit for all the work that you do throughout the year so i just wanted to highlight that
17:26
um [Music] let's see
17:32
scanning through the stuff that is kind of the biggest you can see here the new new questions
17:38
um i mark with the bold um parentheses new uh the dating violence um sexual assault
17:45
stalking dv there will be different questions that we have to answer this year if we want
17:50
tv bonus funds we're waiting for those details so there still will be questions but
17:55
they hinted in what has been published that they'll be a little bit different um training people on the needs of lgbt
18:04
um at individual level agency and coc level around policy and compliance that's a
18:11
new emphasis it's always been there but not really talking about the compliance piece of it
18:17
of what the coc does if someone isn't is discriminating or doesn't have policies that are following
18:23
the coc policies um this question here we might need some
18:28
you know group thing from local um smaller local um efforts that are going on hud has talked
18:35
about um ensuring that you're working with your state to not criminalize
18:40
homelessness like not make it illegal to sleep out um you know be in a public park that type of thing this year they
18:47
took it a step further they want to know not only what you're doing to prevent um policies from doing
18:53
that but they want to know if you have that policy now or policy that criminalizes homelessness what are you doing to
18:59
reverse it so that we just might need some like you know feedback if there's something in one particular county again
19:05
waiting on the details of that question um a big new emphasis on soar which
19:11
again i think you're really strong in so we'll just need to talk about that around certifications and um at the
19:17
project and coc wide level uh non-congregate shelter here again you
19:22
guys have been living this it's really thinking about um
19:28
uh are you ready to put non-congregate in in the future if you need it what are the lessons learned from coven
19:34
um a lot of the rest of this oh this is that zoning question i was telling you about what are we doing to reduce the
19:40
regulatory barriers to affordable housing right all of our wishes and dreams
19:45
but like melissa said you guys are working on that at the statewide level and i think the rest of this um
19:53
oh this is really exciting i don't know melissa and christy if you found this yet so every year uh you do really well in
20:00
your permanent supportive housing you have 96 of people who either stay or leave for a permanent housing place and
20:07
we've lost points on that question because you can't do much better like if you're already at 96 or 98 to increase
20:14
by a full percentage point is really tough so this year hud set some criteria so
20:20
like for successful exits to permanent housing if you're already at i think it was 96 you're going to get points even
20:27
if it didn't go up any higher so i think that will really help new hampshire because you already have really high
20:32
like responses and good data but you were kind of getting penalized because you couldn't do any
20:37
better than 90s than 90 percentages in some of the categories so i think this
20:43
will help over the long term and you can see i was super excited about it because i was been waiting for this for years
20:50
um we talked about leveraging already um still big emphasis on including
20:56
people with lived experience at all levels of the process so making sure the voices of the people that are gonna be
21:03
you know impacted mostly by these programs are having a hand in designing those and giving feedback to those of us
21:09
working within the system and i think that is all i would highlight there the rest of it is more
21:16
like things for christy um melissa and i to watch out for as we like get those detailed questions
21:23
uh okay i'm gonna pause there before we kind of maybe pivot a little bit into project applications any questions on
21:30
the content [Music] melissa do you want me to go over these
21:36
project things or wait until we do the scoring uh why don't so i think we'll shift our agenda just a little bit so we can keep
21:42
flowing through so if you do this part then chrissy can talk about the scoring and then we'll have mandy bring up the
21:48
the end um i think that would be helpful and then at the very end i will share our um tentative timeline with the whole
21:55
group perfect yep so like i talked about there's bonus funds there's dv bonus
22:00
funds you can also continue to expand projects which means if you have a current project and you want to make it
22:06
a little bigger serve more people add new housing units whatever the bigger part is um hud is allowing that
22:13
again this year i know your yhtp community don't worry about this bullet you're not in renewal yet this is going
22:19
to apply to you in a couple years so just wanted to highlight there are new funds um
22:25
all new projects all renewal projects have a scoring tool process that christy can talk about more
22:32
but this is the calculation like melissa said hud hasn't published what these numbers actually are yet so we're kind
22:38
of guessing we're doing our best hub math without their publication to figure out how much new money is out there for
22:44
you to apply for okay i'm just going to scroll to make sure there's nothing else i think the
22:49
rest of it is going to be available to you for details if you're actually
22:54
going after [Music] some money i think you'll want to read more about this bonus funds you'll want
23:01
to read more about i'm going to scroll to the bottom there's a chart that's much easier to read
23:06
there's a chart here about what bonus money can be used for and what db bonus money can be used for
23:12
so as this publishes if you're doing a new project the latter half of this document is good for you to review
23:19
as you go forward and the tools that christie's gonna go over are really based on what hud um
23:26
put his eligible activities and what you incentivize as a local coc
23:31
so i'm gonna stop that share again that document will go out for melissa when everything goes out
23:37
and i think i'm going to pass it to christy to talk about tools
23:43
good morning everyone um just before i jump into the tools for
23:48
all of you sub recipient agencies who are on this call you were sent out last year's um project
23:55
application from the fy 2021 nopo to review by friday
24:00
um because we do not have access to the fy 2022 project applications as of yet
24:06
but i don't anticipate any big changes for renewals um
24:12
and lastly i will be sending out match templates hopefully by the end of today for all of you to put those together
24:19
um in regards i'm gonna share my screen remember how to do this in regards to the ranking and scoring
24:28
tools we made a couple of changes
24:33
to the ranking and scoring tools both for new projects and for renewal projects
24:39
this year there were two questions added specifically around equity
24:47
if you can remember last year we sent out a supplemental questionnaire tool which had numerous questions on it from
24:54
an equity perspective last year we only included four
25:00
questions you can see on the screen it's questions 18 to 21 that were scored on
25:07
this year we are proposing adding two more questions um question 22 does your
25:13
agency have a process for receiving and incorporating feedback from persons with lived experience
25:20
and then has your agency reviewed participant outcomes in your current projects with an equity lens
25:26
the reason we are proposing adding these questions is because the specific hud policy priorities within the nofo
25:34
in regards to the first question has your agency review participant outcomes
25:40
without equity lens this is specifically cited in the nofo on page 72
25:46
having the coc address racial disparities in the provision of outcomes of
25:51
homelessness assistance and taking steps to address those disparities um
25:57
and also looking at in the review of project capacity and
26:02
rank projects are rated and ranked based on the degree to which their project has
26:08
identified any barriers to participation faced by people of different races
26:13
ethnicities and particularly those who are over represented in the local homelessness population and how you can
26:20
step to eliminate those barriers one of the other big things that i want to point out as well is that one of the
26:27
things that we look at when we do on-site monitoring of sub-recipient agencies
26:32
is participant satisfaction surveys as well on
26:41
so that's one of the questions we're looking at and then the second question is does your agency i flip them i'm
26:48
sorry does your agency have process for reviewing and receiving and incorporating feedback from persons with
26:53
lived experiences this is another one of pods big policy priorities that i know we've been
26:59
talking about um for the last couple of years the balance of state continuum of care
27:04
participated in some ta around incorporating people with lived experience um and hud is really pushing for cocs to
27:12
include people with lived experience and the planning processes um and we're also looking at ensuring
27:20
that we're involving people who have lived experience in sub-recipient agencies projects
27:26
service delivery and decision-making so how sub-recipient agencies are
27:31
routinely gathering feedback from people experiencing homelessness and
27:37
looking at those who have received assistance from coc or even esg programs
27:43
on their experience receiving assistance and those steps that projects are taking to address challenges raised by those
27:48
people um and making sure that we're involving them in these processes and our feedback
27:54
loop and changes that are needed for coc projects
28:00
so we will send out both of those questions were added to the new project scoring tool the renewal project
28:07
scoring tool and new this year is the coordinate entry project scoring tool um so those
28:14
two questions were added to both of the tools
28:22
we removed points from the balance of state
28:29
questions where how many meetings have you attended in order to accommodate those two
28:35
questions so we removed two points from coc participation and added them one
28:40
point each for each of those equity questions to the root scoring tools
28:47
so i will pause there see if anyone has any questions
28:55
and this will be one of those items that we send out the electronic vote on so we want you to think about it we'll send it
29:02
out for you to look at and then there will be a survey monkey vote for you to vote on adding these questions or not
29:10
and christy can you stop sharing your screen so we can see yes thank you
29:17
and we will be sending out drafts of all three of the scoring tools for you to review once these are finalized because
29:25
i know ellen asks this question once the tools are either approved or rejected
29:30
once they're finally approved i can begin to work on the scoring of renewal project applications
29:48
i'm just finally emphasizing out of these two questions really looking at what hud was focusing on for
29:54
policy priorities from the noble this year yeah and it's important like you'll hear
30:00
us say a lot like hud wants hud wants but we do try and be very cautious or
30:05
you know at least when i work with communities about hud wants it and its value added i think is the second part
30:11
of the question right like it has to add value for new hampshire also so i think um that you'll find that
30:17
balance there's some things hud has asked for we're like nope that does not make sense for a rural
30:22
state right like um so just wanted to add that is we get very points and narrative focus uh do you know that the
30:29
larger system is as important because that's what happens every day you know i've i've warned people
30:35
throughout the year that when it's nobo time we are very um point driven but it
30:41
i try to remember to say the same thing melanie that it comes back to um improving our system and the people
30:47
we're trying to serve um but getting more points on this competition allows us to serve more people so
30:53
um we do get i do anyway i get tunnel vision this time of year when it's um
30:59
especially right now with such a tight time frame so um feel free to call me on it if you think i'm just chasing points and don't
31:06
care about the system i promise i do it just um i might not say it as much as i should this time of year
31:14
so while we're talking regular no-fo i just realized i wrote no on my
31:20
timeline let me fix that i will share our timeline it is in draft form because
31:27
some of it we can't do until hud gives us certain things so you'll see um
31:33
this time frame is unreasonable and we acknowledge that and we apologize for it and um we thank you for your patience
31:40
with it so we anticipate releasing our rfp by this
31:46
friday um knowing that our exact dollar amounts
31:52
for bonus funding may not actually be available yet so
31:57
if we don't have that dollar amount the rfp will say anticipated approximate and it'll be
32:04
based on that formula that was on melanie's summary where it showed five percent of and then 10 of a different
32:11
number um once we do have the final dollar amounts
32:17
we will edit it and we republish it for everyone to see the exact dollar amount but we want people to have as much time
32:23
as possible realizing that we are not able to give you very much time at all
32:29
um so my dates are all out of order here this
32:36
is an old one too this should come off sorry about that um so friday we we
32:41
anticipate releasing the rfp um the two that are highlighted
32:47
we need to change we'll change those dates once christie's able to send the actual renewal project
32:54
applications out for review um we have tentative deadlines that christie already described she sent out
33:00
last year's documents to everybody yesterday with feedback requested by friday
33:05
um but if something dramatic changes we will have to re-send those to everyone
33:11
so that we can look at them so um that part will change
33:17
um new project applications will be due to me they'll come to me directly
33:24
by monday august 29th so we realize that we're giving you i'm trying to look at my calendar
33:30
about two and a half weeks to do a new project application we understand that that is a really really challenging
33:38
deadline um and we really can't do anything about that so
33:45
if there are ways we can help you we will knowing that it's a competition we can't
33:50
do your project application for you um our ranking committee meeting is already
33:56
scheduled for friday september 2nd um i did reach out to the executive
34:02
committee to see if anyone would like to be a part of the ranking committee and i think i've received one response so far
34:09
um at this point i'm i'm looking for anyone to be a part of our ranking committee um
34:16
so please let me know you cannot be on the ranking committee if your agency is submitting a new
34:23
project application renewals are fine because the ranking committee does not review the renewals um its renewals are
34:30
all based on data but if your agency is submitting a new product application you cannot be reviewing the new project
34:37
applications um so
34:42
we did give ourselves a tiny bit of a buffer here two days we like to try and give us a little bit of extra
34:48
space this year we can't give ourselves as much as usual um so the ranking committee will meet on
34:53
friday september 7th we will notify everyone who applied about the status of
34:59
their applications appeals will be due to vhs in writing two days after that
35:06
and then uh july i'm in the wrong month
35:11
whatever day of the week september 12th is we will publish our final project listing so that's after the appeals have
35:17
been submitted if any uh section for 12 will publish the final project listing
35:22
um we technically have until the 15th to do all of that but we again like to give
35:27
ourselves a tiny bit of a buffer um and then we
35:33
anticipate posting our final complete coc application for review on september
35:39
26th with comments due back to bhs by
35:44
september 28th at 3 pm um that way if
35:50
if there are no major concerns complaints issues
35:56
we can submit that afternoon um
36:01
with the with a buffer of about a day and a half so um that is that is our target timeline
36:08
for this year it is going to be very challenging and um
36:15
i'm going to stop sharing this i will send this out for everyone once i've cleaned up the highlighted yellow section
36:20
i will try to make our communications about novo as clear as possible i think
36:25
in my subject line i will put nobo first and then what i'm requesting so that you
36:31
can see right away that i am sending nobo communication um any novo communication that is coming
36:37
out will be time sensitive um and again i'm not trying to
36:44
i'm not trying to be unreasonable in that it's it's the reality of our time frame this year so again i apologize in
36:51
advance and i thank you in advance for your understanding
36:57
felony any other regular coc high level stuff before i let mandy talk a little bit about the supplemental nobo
37:04
um the only thing i would say if there's new folks here folks that have been through
37:10
this with us in the past yes we won't be publishing the rfp until friday but you know now right the
37:17
project types that are being allowed you can kind of guess from last year the money probably is going to be about the
37:23
same at least for bonus so if you have time before friday not then anyone probably is a lot but if
37:29
you have time it's okay to start thinking about your project design now don't you don't have to wait till friday for this document to come out to tell
37:35
you it could be psh it could be rapid it could be right like the rules haven't changed that much this
37:41
year we just don't know what the numbers are yet and hud's doing a webinar thursday so
37:47
hopefully that means the materials will be out they don't want to talk to the whole country without publishing materials but we'll see
37:53
um so just if you're thinking about a project you know look at last year's rfp look at you know read the rule about
37:59
what's allowed you can get a jump on it if you have time in the next three days before that comes out so just that's the
38:06
other reason we wanted to talk about it today okay so
38:12
while this is happening we also have the supplemental
38:18
notice of funding opportunity that came out for rural and unsheltered homelessness we have 72 days left on
38:25
that one um compared to the 52 days we have for the regular competition um
38:31
we are trying to keep our time frames aligned for the ease of
38:39
um just for all of us i guess for for managing uh different deadlines so
38:45
as part of the rfp that comes out there will be a separate document that explains the
38:52
project types that are allowed under the supplemental competition there will be
38:57
tools that come out with that as well and mandy is going to talk a little bit about hud's priorities on those items
39:05
um what's eligible and then um we will send more information out on
39:12
friday as well so mandy go ahead get screen sharing so in the meantime i just want to say if
39:19
you're brand new to this process well you should be happy happy to have you okay awesome happy to
39:25
have you here and we fully recognize that this may seem like a different language like please don't be
39:31
intimidated by that we are here for you we want to make this as accessible as possible and we want to bring people to
39:36
the table so with that said share my screen here
39:45
so we did review kind of an overview uh the last balance of state meetings so i did kind of a hybrid for those that are
39:51
newer to this and those that this is old hat for you all you've done this million times i'll quickly go through this
40:00
so just as a reminder this nofo is broken out into two different funding opportunities those
40:06
for unsheltered homelessness and those focusing on rural regions
40:13
there are two different funding buckets underneath that the unsheltered maximum and the rural maximum
40:20
and again this will all be coming out in these documents that will be released this week
40:28
so regardless of the unsheltered or the rural category
40:33
that you're looking to apply for all project types are the same so supportive services only permanent
40:40
supportive housing rapid rehousing or transitional housing rapid rehousing combination
40:46
so some of these are in the regular nofo you familiar with them all but i did
40:52
include at the end of this presentation a full list of them with reference
40:57
documents for those that are newer to this and are looking for more information about what is included in
41:04
each but i did want to just highlight the supportive services only that is
41:09
included in this s nofo snowfo as we're calling it
41:15
so coordinated entry uh that is one we've seen in the regular nofo that helps us administer our coordinated
41:22
entry process there's street outreach sso supportive services only which is pretty
41:28
straightforward that's a street outreach project and then the standalone project this is
41:34
for individuals and families who have experienced homelessness in the last six
41:39
months but who are now residing in permanent housing that is not coc or
41:44
sorry psh or rapid rehousing or are currently experiencing homelessness
41:50
so if you think about the number of resources that have come through housing choice vouchers or other funding streams
41:57
that can do things like rental assistance but may not come with those supportive services that case management to help
42:03
support that project this is where that sso standalone project could fit in
42:12
hud has also provided other examples about what this standalone sso project could look like things like housing
42:18
navigation for people experiencing homelessness drop-in centers that provide supportive services family
42:24
unification services to reunite people experiencing homelessness with their families
42:30
so the sso category provides a lot of opportunities to really boost up these service
42:38
components to a lot of the housing and rental assistance that we've seen coming out over the last couple years
42:47
so with that said i want to just focus on a couple differences within the two buckets that we're talking about
42:53
so unsheltered that set aside all projects must focus only on category
43:01
one of the definition of homelessness or four so just as a reminder what does that
43:08
mean so category one is the not fit for human habitation
43:13
anyone residing in emergency shelter or hotel motel paid for by third party
43:19
or anyone that is exiting in an institution where they have entered as experiencing
43:25
homelessness and exited within 90 days
43:30
category 4 db specific so any individual or family who is fleeing or attempting
43:36
to flee domestic violence has no other residence and lacks the resources or supports to obtain other current housing
43:48
the unsheltered can be served anywhere within the balance of state geography
43:54
in contrast to that rural the hud has defined what rural means for
44:00
the balance of state continuum so under the formula they gave us
44:05
the following counties are eligible for the no-fo services
44:11
so not that your agency has to be based in these counties but in order to have a project approved these services or the
44:18
project type that is administered must take place in these counties so bill knapp carol cheshire
44:25
coast grafton merrimack and sullivan
44:31
unlike the unsheltered definitions this project type you can serve any of
44:37
the definition of homelessness so category one two or four
44:43
so category three is specific it's very uh focused on unaccompanied youth and
44:48
other youth specific uh criteria that must be approved by hud we do not have
44:55
that approval by hood so at this point uh we cannot apply anyone to category
45:01
three so very important in that and as part of the supplemental
45:06
materials we will be sending out we will include hud's definition of homelessness and the record-keeping requirements
45:13
so we all are on the same page with what is included in that homeless definition
45:20
there are also new eligible costs on the rural side so again only in those
45:26
specific regions hud has allowed additional costs over and above what
45:31
traditionally is seen in this no full process because of the lack of infrastructure
45:37
and resources in these communities so some examples that you'll see coming out
45:42
in the document are things like emergency food and clothing capacity building for your agencies
45:48
up to six months of rent or utility arrears after two months of non-payment
45:54
emergency lodging hotel motel etc etc a lot of different components that are
46:00
not traditionally seen
46:06
so on the unsheltered side we will be graded if you will by hud as a
46:12
coc so no the unsheltered side is extremely competitive we are a small
46:19
state with not a lot of folks experiencing unsheltered homelessness relative to communities like new york
46:26
city and los angeles you know and some of the texas communities
46:32
so smaller communities smaller cocs are going to be extremely competitive in
46:38
this so all of this is a maybe on the unsheltered side but what's very important to know is
46:44
that on the rural side hud is grading if you will projects
46:50
so the individual projects applications that are submitted will be reviewed on a
46:55
hundred point scale importantly uh these are related you know this is not siloing uh the rural
47:03
and the unsheltered homelessness separately so fifty percent of your score in your project application is our
47:10
overall coc score followed by the project ranking within
47:16
the coc and then serving structurally disadvantaged areas so hud has defined this
47:23
and we'll be noting this in the priority tool i'll be talking about in just a moment
47:32
all right so requirements of all projects regardless of which bucket you're
47:37
applying for housing first you know we talk about this a lot but hud has come back very
47:43
strong in this snowfall that we are to be practicing housing first
47:48
fidelity to the model not just checking a box we know homelessness ends uh
47:53
homelessness is ended by housing and that is first and foremost our focus not requiring services or any preconditions
48:01
on that housing so you're going to see that a lot in our ranking tools because it is a high priority
48:07
and requirement the other thing that is important to
48:13
note for all applicants is that hud is assessing our coc response to
48:20
identifying sheltering and housing individuals and families experiencing homelessness with severe service needs
48:29
so we as a continuum will be attaching a plan
48:34
to our application to show the efforts that are being done and how they will contribute on going to
48:41
our response so when we started talking about this when we released this information we
48:47
were kind of flooded by you all saying our region's doing this we're already
48:52
working on this plan so for us it made sense rather than starting from the ground and putting
48:58
together a plan to source you all so we will be attending your local community meetings
49:05
to talk to you about what's already going on uh we know hud's priorities and we know
49:12
where they're looking for us to input information you can see here across the screen
49:18
but it just makes sense to utilize the expertise in our continuum to build
49:25
a comprehensive plan that is actually happening right so know that over the
49:30
next couple months we do have some time to build this thankfully on our end um
49:36
we will be reaching out to you all for that we will be gathering information and then submitting a plan to you all
49:42
for discussion about what is missing what else is needed etc
49:53
so with all of that in mind we are discussing how to prioritize
49:59
prioritize these projects so i want to echo christy and
50:05
melissa and melanie's comments about the scoring and the points again it's
50:11
the right thing to do however if we don't if we are not competitive as a coc we can't be
50:18
competitive for our projects and therefore we will not get the funding to support the projects to serve our folks
50:24
so in light of everything we just talked about hud's priorities
50:30
hearing from you all about what's missing in your communities our proposal for a prioritization of the
50:37
funding for this nofo is to have the highest ranking projects be
50:44
supportive services only permanent supportive housing followed by rapid rehousing and the transitional
50:51
rapid rehousing combination project so we this will be a vote that comes out
50:57
to you all after the meeting so please keep this in mind um and if we have time at the end maybe
51:04
we can open it up for discussions of any thoughts about that
51:11
so we will also have a scoring tool as chrissy just mentioned and went through
51:16
we want to mirror this process as much as possible with the regular nofo
51:21
because they're both coc funds they should talk to each other and everything
51:27
that melanie mentioned as priorities in that nofo are also priorities in this
51:32
nofo so in effort to not be confusing we want to keep it as consistent as possible that
51:39
way we as a ranking committee can be objective in these project review and applications and you know that we're
51:45
speaking the same language the only difference on the scoring tool
51:50
for this nofo will be the structurally disadvantaged regions you
51:58
will get two points and the plan for identifying housing or sheltering
52:05
individuals or families experiencing homelessness with severe service needs
52:11
that plan you will get up to five points so again those are requirements that hud
52:16
will be scoring us on so including it in the ranking
52:21
allows us to be the most competitive and choose projects that will get us
52:27
the highest ranking that we can with fingers crossed that we get the flipping
52:33
and we will be requiring a vote from you all on that as well
52:39
so that's all i have on the presentation
52:44
stop sharing so that was a lot of information we just
52:52
gave to all of you does anyone have any questions about what mandy just shared
52:58
and if you i'll put out there you can send us your questions after the fact too this is not the last time you get to
53:04
ask your questions um as i noted in the chat we can't talk about individual project applications we
53:11
do have to treat it um as a competition and maintain that some level of um
53:19
i don't know what the right word is confidentiality is not the right word but integrity to the competition but as far as like
53:25
priorities process um eligible activities
53:35
reactions so i thought ellen has a question in the chat about the timeline
53:42
so we are having the same timeline for the supplemental nofo on the project
53:48
application and all of the the nuts and bolts of the application process we are
53:54
giving additional time on the plan so that will be a longer process because of the priority hud is placed on that that
54:02
is 50 of our overall score so taking the time to really invest in that
54:07
again will make us the most competitive we can and we recognize this is a tight
54:13
turnaround um but in order to not double your admin to have you go to two
54:18
separate meetings for two separate no phones we just thought it was the most
54:23
the only way really to move forward we're also hearing staffing capacity is challenging so we're trying to meet
54:30
meet you where where we can uh with these tight timelines ellen there may be a little bit more
54:36
time for like um after we get through the review of the
54:43
project applications to clean it up and like you know make it pretty for for hud
54:50
um but we on top of the project priority listing this is for
54:56
the supplemental new uh competition we have to do a project priority list like we do for the regular no vote we have to
55:03
do a coc application which is a set of questions like we do for the regular nofo and on top of that we have to do a
55:09
15-page plan addressing unsheltered homelessness um so it's
55:16
it adds like an extra component that we don't normally have
55:21
um so we're some of it really is our capacity as well to to manage all of it
55:28
um and i think we acknowledge that
55:33
project applications may not be the strongest we've ever seen because we're not giving you enough time to do it
55:42
by investing in the plan our hope is that that score that 50 of your project
55:48
score will help you in get above other project types and other continuums if that makes sense
55:56
one other question that that standalone um thing that you could do in the
56:02
supplemental noco so those people would already be housed right it's providing supportive services to people who have
56:08
been housed in the last six months i think it said but then they wouldn't really be fitting that definition of
56:15
category one or category four so it could be persons experiencing
56:20
homelessness or up to six months um have been permanently housed not in a
56:26
permanent supportive housing or rapid rehousing so really we'd be looking for that on the rural side
56:32
um that that opens it up to that category to homeless as well
56:38
yeah and to clarify hud puts a lot of language in these nofos but they want people in literal
56:44
homelessness moving out of it so while they give us the world sometimes about what you can do the focus really would
56:51
be on what moving people out and then maybe following up with them so if you're going to design something think about
56:57
the front end versus the follow-on services that we know is a huge gap so
57:03
and final life go ahead ellen and then i see chris canada if we have questions about the special
57:10
nofo the extra no vote is our mandy are you the person who's the person we would ask about a particular project we want
57:16
to submit so i would send all communication to me and i will i will be
57:22
um directing traffic here just for ease of communication that way
57:28
you only have to remember one person um and i will put it out there
57:34
over the next two weeks if you email me you will get an out of office email
57:39
response um i am only working nopo i am taking vacation from the rest of my job i don't
57:46
know how that works um but my kids don't have child care for the next three weeks so i
57:51
i'm i'm multitasking um so what you may see is an out of office response and then an
57:58
email from me later in the day than usual but i i will be checking it um throughout the
58:04
work days and craig you had a question i just wanted to clarify uh so mandy the
58:09
rural has the most money but it's limited geographically to the six
58:16
counties and it is more inclusive of the definitions of
58:21
homelessness that we can serve with it and we're only going against other rural
58:27
communities so the pool that we're against is smaller as well in terms of
58:32
competition okay thank you
58:48
so tony i saw your question about the um the webinar i can forward the email from
58:55
the snaps program office but the best way to stay up to date with
59:00
any of the hud um webinars that come out is to sign up directly for their
59:06
their list serve so that you get the hud exchange emails and the snaps program
59:12
information emails um the webinar information did come from the snaps
59:18
email so i will forward that to everyone um i don't see it on the hud exchange yet
59:25
but the hud exchange has been a little bit slow to catch up this year
59:31
so when i when i go there i often am finding fy21 documents not the 22 but
59:37
um i do strongly encourage you to sign up for those snaps office emails
59:46
so we have one more minute scheduled for today any oh now it's at now we're 10 o'clock so
59:52
um what i'll say is we will send as much information out as we can on friday
59:57
as hud updates information we will send that out as well um i do plan to keep as of today anyway
1:00:05
i do plan to keep our september coc meetings scheduled just in case there are things that we need to address with
1:00:12
everyone there um if the time is getting tight and we don't
1:00:19
have time to do the meeting we'll communicate that out to everyone um
1:00:25
i think i think that's all i have for today i have a list of the voting items we'll be
1:00:30
sending out to everyone um i will do my best to really make it clear when i'm sending nobo
1:00:37
communication out um again if anyone's interested in being part of our
1:00:44
review team please email me um
1:00:50
and i think that's it for today i know that was a lot please don't hesitate to reach out with questions um
1:00:57
we are here for you the best as we can be there may be some hysterical laughter on this side as we
1:01:04
you know process the time frame it's better than crying so um
1:01:09
to stay with us and we'll get through all right thanks everyone we'll post the recording soon as well
June 20, 2024
Housing Focused Design Outreach, Day Center, and Shelter Design
Housing Focused Design Outreach, Day Center, and Shelter Design
Housing Focused Design Outreach, Day Center, and Shelter Design
Transcript of video:
all right we will jump in uh welcome everybody uh hope everybody's staying cool in this weather uh good to see you
all um we we're now in session three of our housing focused strategies uh Series
so thank you to those who have been able to join before if anybody uh is newer to
the uh group or or you haven't been able to see some of the other uh sessions uh introduce myself and have my colleague
not to that I've got one in
person thank you uh my name is Doug Tatro I'm with the technical assistance collaborative we're a TA provider that
supports uh communities project States across the country in all things ending
homelessness uh we do a a have a number of different Lanes of work uh uh across
the country we are based in Boston but I live in Southern New Hampshire so it's nice to be in my home state here with
you all today and I'm joined by Chelsea Mahoney from our team as well Chelsea do you want to introduce
yourself yes like Doug said my name is Chelsea Mahoney um she her pronouns I'm
based out of Raleigh North Carolina and very happy to be with you all today great thank you Chelsea uh so this
is being recorded and uh we have about 90 minutes scheduled we're hoping that we'll either use a little less of that
time or open it up for some discussion um but this is the as I mentioned the third installment of this series in the
last couple uh we have uh focused uh generally uh on this series around
housing first and housing Focus practices so in session one if you haven't seen it we did some basic
introduction to the history and terminology around housing first in our last session in may we talked about
system level practices with a little bit of uh touch on coordinated entry as well
but really trying to look at how different types of projects interact with each other in a in a housing
focused uh environment or approach and then for the next couple of sessions we
want to drill down a little bit more specifically So today we're going to talk about Outreach and shelter uh and
then move into rapid rehousing and psh at our next session followed by uh some
of the core skill sets and uh in our in our final session thinking about data
and Equity all of the sessions also embed Equity throughout as part of the the discussion as well so for today uh
we'll do what we've done in the last couple quick reminders about housing first for those of you who may not been
on or or may want clarification about those terms uh uh Chelsea is going to
talk about uh housing Focus Outreach I'm going to focus more on shelter uh and
and shelter design and then we'll have some conversation I do want to acknowledge before we get to your
introductions in the chat from the last two sessions this session and moving forward some of the things that we're
talking about we uh appreciate and understand are sort of utopian right you
need money to do some of these things you need the resources to do some of these things you probably need other people in your organization likely those
who have bigger titles to actually make these types of changes um we also
acknowledge that the reality of working uh to support some of the folks that you
do support make U meeting some of these ideal standards or sort of utopian
standards really difficult so you know we've talked about that in the other sessions but I I just want to really
acknowledge UPF front here and others that uh this is really difficult work I
think in particular you know there's nothing in homeless Services that's easy uh you all know that very well I have a
history in that prior to my work with with ta so is Chelsea um that that work is really challenging and so when we're
looking at PowerPoint slides and sitting in on a training with you know ta providers some of the things we say may
feel a bit toned deaf or or may not reflect the realities on the ground and I I just want to acknowledge that to be
true uh we're approaching this series as thinking about how do we kind of think about the gold standard or what what
would what could we do if we had all of the resources spaces and people that we would need to do those things but the
reality in your work is that you know resources are limited philosophies
differ politics is uh a challenging uh thing to navigate in our state in many
states but in our state as well and so as we go along I you know if if there are areas where you think that uh this
is unrealistic or there's no way we can meet this that's okay uh we're here to talk about where we could be and even if
there are little pieces of this that the those of you who are providing Outreach and shelter doing the system level work
at the state or across the state um can take as uh general principles then then
then we've made progress so I don't want folks to feel defeated if we're talking about things that feel uh Out Of Reach
and also to say that there are very few communities or States out there that um
that get all of this right uh there are none that get it all right and there are very few that get most of it right so as we get into this just wanted to
acknowledge that uh and with that if folks could introduce themselves I I don't have the chat open or I'll open it
now it looks like there's some folks doing so name organizations if you choose to use pronouns and when you
identify yourself throw those in there as well and if anyone has a favorite New Hampshire Sea Mountain or Lakeside Food
Spot uh here in our great state of New Hampshire Chelsea I don't know you've ever been here so you don't have to
answer this one but uh where do folks like to eat uh that's near either uh the
beach uh out up in the mountains or by your Lake uh your favorite lak side spot
maybe some of your colleagues will get some ideas for this summer um and uh we can dive in from there I'll add mine in
as folks are doing so so with that I'm going to turn it over to Chelsea who's going to start us off with the general
uh reminders around housing first and housing Focus systems and some uh of the Outreach discussion uh if folks want to
pause if they if you have questions if you have uh areas that you want to chime in because frankly many of you are doing
this work now and we're not doing this work right now in the state of New Hampshire directly like please
contribute to the conversation uh uh either come off and you put your hand up or add to the chat and we'll reflect
that throughout the training um and uh with all of that said I'm going to turn over to you Chelsea and let me know when
you want to move slides along thank you you can go ahead to the next
slide as Doug mentioned we're going to do a little bit of level setting for those that this may be the first session
you're joining in or just to remind everybody where we're coming from um when you hear the term housing first um
you're often going to hear it in two different ways one is going to be where they're talking about housing First Fidelity to the model um which was based
around permanent Supportive Housing um and then you're going to hear about housing FR which is how we're talking
about it in this session series which is the approach um and that approach is basically us with um stating that we
believe that everyone is ready for permanent housing with no prerequisites um and we believe that
stable and permanent housing is the foundation to all other health and Recovery goals um and there's certain
tenants that come with a housing first approach that's uh connecting to permanent housing as quickly as possible
there's no preconditions to housing that includes income sobriety um or different
service particip particip participation requirements um and then the goal is to
connect um those living in unsheltered conditions or experiencing homelessness
as quickly as possible um next
slide so in our last session we discussed how housing first can happen on the system level as well as the
program level and when we discuss systemwide uh housing first that means that our programs are adapting to our
clients our clients needs um our system is ready um to engage and connect those
that are experiencing homelessness as quickly as possible we also discussed our systems being data driven um and
strategically coordinated uh with our programs within the system to support and prioritize certain populations today
we're going to be focusing more on housing first at the system level which is still housing focused um the goal is
going to be we're going to be person centered in low barrier as we try to
connect people within our Outreach programs and connect them to emergency shelter interim housing options or to
that permanent housing um placement which is the goal um we're here to the
make sure that we are removing barriers to access honor honoring the part participants Choice um and ensuring that
we're holding to that engagement um in servces is volunt voluntary but our
system our programs are ready to engage whenever necessary next
slide and you can keep going so when we're talking about um
housing focused Outreach it's important to notice that there is a difference or there's been a shift between traditional
Outreach um and housing Focus Outreach to additionally there was no systemwide
coordination when it came to outreach efforts programs tended to work more
independently and often um our staff frequent frequented the same places at
the same times to offer some basic Goods such as toiletries water maybe some food
I'm going see if a person was ready to engage in treatment or work towards some other Rec recovery oriented Services
prior to accessing housing um and those types of support Supportive Services
Outreach typically did not uh include housing problem solving or diversion
efforts that was something that happened once you were within the coordinated entry system um when we shift it to more
housing focused Outreach that's when systemwide coordination came into play
um as a system they decided to use staff more efficiently um as a resource and
viewed the whole geographic area and then tried to disseminate staff appropriately to make sure that
everywhere within the coverage area was being tapped for Outreach Services um
also Outreach became more person centered and C culturally inclusive um
often including those uh with lived experience um or being informed by those with lived
experience um there also includes opportunities for same day access to
Emer emergency services or other interim housing options next
slide and then when we're talking about housing Focus Outreach at the practice
level uh traditionally staff who were doing Outreach may have been a little
undertrained in harm reduction techniques motivational interviewing that sort of thing they were very
well-intentioned but often needed to rely on their own um knowledge of
support networks and resources within the Community uh there would typically be one staff person who would go out
meet a high volume of participants those experiencing unsheltered situations um
and trying to get them connected to whatever services or get them the basic needs that they had so it would kind of
limit the relationship or Rapport building that they can do as they were trying to work with such a high volume
of participants as we shifted uh to this housing focused program program um at
the practice level we noticed um that we were going out more in teams typically
that would mean that one staff person would work with a lower volume of participants but it would increase the
relationship um opportunities it would help inform that housing focused um
problem solving that we're doing and it would help inform the type of services we could connect um our participants to
it also led to better engagement um also staff became more trained not only in motivational interviewing
Suicide Prevention trauma informed care but also safety and harm reduction techniques um staff um were also
encouraged to be more culturally responsive understanding um the population that they're serving um and
how our approach um may may suggest or um lend to how well we engage with our
participants next slot so when we're talking about systemwide
housing focused Outreach there are four key principles um one it's that is going to be housing Focus the second is that
it's systematic coordinated and comprehensive third is that we remain person centered trauma informed
culturally responsive and then finally um that our efforts um emphasize safety
and reduce harm next slide
keep going back to there you go all right next slide you're good all right
so um when we're talking about Fus to the end right next to the button that hits next slide so I apologize you're
okay no problem uh when we're talking about housing folkus Outreach the goal
is to make connections to stable housing with tailored services and supports of
the individual's Choice making sure we're honoring the individual's choice is extremely important um we once again
keeping to those tenants that there's no prerequisite um to engaging in Outreach
or additional services within our coordinated entry system so certain income does not limit what program we
may connect you to unless it is a eligibility requirement of that program um absence of criminal history need or
desire to enter or not enter shelter um temporary housing placements such as
sobriety or completion of treatment are not required prior to permanent housing
supports um it is important to notice note that as we engage in housing Pro
problem solving as a part of Outreach sometimes we're going to notice emergency needs that um a participant or
those that live that are living in unsheltered situations may have um and part of that is emergency housing or
interim housing placements that should not be a requirement for individuals to
engage with our system if someone denies um entry into emergency shelter or
temporary housing that is their choice um that should not make them ineligible for additional Housing Services within
our system however if someone is in need of emergency or interm housing placees
it's important that our system um has that option and is ready readily available to take them in connect them
to that emergency placement and making sure that even in that emergency placement we have the services and
supports in place to continue to drive forward the the end goal of permanent
housing um we also want to make sure that as we're doing Street Outreach um
our staff are trained to do that housing navigation problem solving and diversion
efforts making sure that we're having these conversations about natural supports resources understanding what
their prior housing situation was where they are currently and where they intend to go and what can be the um least harm
least um traumatic way to get to that situation next
slide um as we talk about diversion I like to think of diversion as a conversation it starts as a conversation
but is an intervention that's meant to immediately prevent those that may enter
the homeless system by tapping into some natural natural resources or resources
within our community if that is unable to happen then it is to immediately
resolve that household's current housing crisis homeless situation exit them out of shelter or transitional housing um or
the unsheltered situation into a more safe temporary housing option as we work
towards permanent housing um these services are meant to provide support
services they can have um brief financial assistance to assist the household as they identif ify safe um
alternative housing options even if it's temporary because the goal is to reduce trauma reduce harm as we work towards
that goal of permanent housing um and hopefully not making them encounter the
housing crisis response system which in and of itself is a little bit TR traumatic um and once again like I said
the purpose of diversion is to reduce the trauma associated with living in a
um housing crisis but also it reduces the expenses associated with extended
periods of homelessness um that not only strains the system but also puts additional stressors and strands on the
person experiencing homelessness next slide um so the second key principle is
that is systematic coordinated and comprehensive um as we engage in
Outreach this is where we're talking about as a collective we we look at our programs and we look at what is the
coverage area area of our coordinated entry system and then who in our system
has capacity to do Outreach work and then we coordinate those staff um making
sure that we're touching all areas of our geography but it may not need to be touched by each person um by each
program at the same time we're more efficiently using our resources um not
only to meet the the vastness of the geography but also the varying needs of
the population um one thing we noticed here in Wake County in North Carolina is during covid
and then post pandemic we saw an increase of um the working unsheltered
uh so although Outreach traditionally would happen N9 to five because that's
when our Outreach workers were working we had to adjust um because some of our
participants did not get to these unsheltered or these locations where they were staying these uninhabitable
locations until after o clock so making sure that not only do you have staff to meet the geography but also the varying
times and needs of those uh living in unsheltered situations um also making
sure that we're looking in places that are not maybe obvious to us I know sometimes we see encampments off
highways or we see encampments in certain areas and so that's where Outreach workers typically frequent um
but we don't want to create this instance of invisible homelessness within a certain area or a certain neighborhood simply because we're not
looking um this is also why it's very important to pull on those with lived experience specifically within our own
communities um to to increase our knowledge of where um we may be able to
engage encounter and connect with those that are currently experiencing um an
unsheltered living situation um and then also making sure we're also considering faith-based
situations for um considering where else may culturally specific um individuals
experiencing unsheltered situations be are we connecting to our veterans group to see maybe we can identify some within
um the VFW maybe we can identify certain places within faith-based organizations
maybe youth that are experiencing homelessness frequent in a certain area consider things like race gender um and
other populations as we're considering how to best engage with those experien ing homelessness next
slide um we also want to be knowledgeable of those that are within
our system those that we are encountering right when we're talking about reducing harm one of our best
tools is the the datab database systems that we are using um we can if we're
using our database systems to their Highest Potential we can be able to track um encounters with our Outreach
Specialists and C and unsheltered individuals were able to put them into the system monitor what services they
may have been given um understand maybe some of their histories um and make sure
that they're embedded within the coordinated entry process it's important to understand that as we're talking
about housing focused Outreach as it shifted from traditional Outreach is no longer kind of that you do Outreach as a
prerequisite to get into the system Outreach is embedded within the coordinated system so the goal is if you
enounter an Outreach specialist should have encountered the coordinated entry system and the data is getting pulled in
um also as we were talking earlier about understanding staff and monitoring um
how we deploy those staff within the geography we understand that Staffing is a limited resource um there's a lot of
turnover within our organizations sometimes our Outreach staff are also our case workers and so their time is
limited um and that's why it's important to be aware of your key Community
Partners that can help you in this Outreach effort um do we have law
enforcement that tend to frequent certain areas do we have hospitals court systems um local social workers um in
our more rural communities Church do churches do Outreach um so making sure
that we're engaging with those Partners who may frequently engage with unsheltered populations and we're
pulling them all in to make sure that we have a most more robust system um also
when we're talking about across multiple systems previously I me mentioned hospitals but also School social workers
your food pantries places where um our unsheltered populations May frequent
that are not surrounding Housing Services but we can identify those in
need and coordinate appropriately uh next
Slide the third key principle is that we remain person centered trauma informed
and culturally responsive um when we're talking about that and we're talking
about staff that's the first thing is making sure that staff have that core belief that those un living in an
unsheltered situation are not lacking in strengths or resources um just because
it's not something external or tangible we see does not mean that they're lacking those that are living within an
unsheltered situation have figured out how to navigate our community they have figured out how to utilize resources
within our community they have figured out how to maintain a sense of safety um
they have still interacted with those in our community in a safe manner um they
also have inherent strengths strengths resilience um positivity um also including those
external resources that they may have so we need to hold that belief in our heart once staff have that belief then it is
also about training our staff with evidence-based practice to better best engage with those living in unaltered
situations so making sure that our staff have the skill to engage in housing based problem solving right and it's not
always a checklist that they're going through but having that conversation with as they're talking to participants
being able to understand um how stress is impacting their current situation and
maybe the conversation they have skills to do conflict resolution they also have the open ears to understand that as
they're talking and get to know getting to know the person to pick up on U previous housing situations what were
the barriers what were the gaps that led to the current situation and then being able to assess what resources they have
that maybe can mitigate this emergency housing crisis Ian that's that diversion conversation that you're talking about
and then moving forward to understanding what our system can offer them as we're working towards that permanent housing
situation and we're doing all of that through a trauma informed care lens we're under understanding our implicit
and explicit biases which are not always a negative thing sometimes we have an
implicit bias to those that are female that that are women on the street single
mothers um living in this living in an unsheltered situation um and then also
that um we have safety in place and safety protocols in place not only for
our for our participants but also for our staff um making sure they understand
proper ways to navigate different situations and scenarios and they feel confident in their ability to do so um
and then making sure that we have um tools and resources around substance use
um and overdose prevention such as Naran we also want to make sure that as
we are um engaging our participants that we are keeping a
person centered lens so if someone refuses to enter emergenc shelter if
they're living in an unsheltered situation that does not make them ineligible for additional housing
programs or other Housing Services within our system we should be able to find a way to um connect them to the
coordinated entry system and to the appropriate resources um and as always
the program should be committed to housing first and Bel low barrier next
slide um staff should also be sure to be respectful and responsive to belief and
practices and when we're saying um respectful respectful to things like sexual orientation responsive to um
disability statuses um understanding of age gender identities cultural
preferences um making sure we understand linguistic needs and then also have the tools and resources available to um uh
be responsive to all of these different identities or needs um also we should be
aware of all the services within our system as a an Outreach specialist that we have the ability to know when um and
how to give appropriate handoffs to certain programs um within or providers
within our system we use data to understand the disparities and then um
help us prioritize as we are doing engagement efforts um and Outreach efforts within our communities um once
again we're talking about housing problem solving techniques identifying strength sometimes when we're talking to
our un altered um participants it may be hard for them to identify within
themselves how do we help them uncover that how do we help them uncover the existing supports that they have um that
can help the divert them to other safe housing options you know sometimes it's not as as easy as talking and we find
out oh mom lives down the street we can join sometimes it's really thinking through you know are you at a church
well hey I know this church does watch Care Service let's coordinate in that way um includes families and friends or
other other temporary housing options to make sure that we're given those safe housing options and then um we solicit
feedback right our systems are Ever Changing because our unsheltered population is ever changing our housing
um our housing within our community is changing and the needs are changing um and then finally that fourth tenant is
emphasizing safety and reducing harm uh so when we're doing that are we making
sure that as our program programs as we create our programs are we have putting protocols in place um to ensure that
safety is there for everyone seeking assistance um when we're talking about safety we want to make sure that we're
putting key emphasis on certain subpopulations such as those fleeing domestic violence experiencing Dating
Violence those that have experienc experienced sexual assault trafficking or stalking or different sub populations
that may need additional safety protocols we want to make sure not only are they able to seek assistance but
confident in the assistance that we're able to provide and the safety that they will have while engaged in our system uh
we want to establish Rapport understand that the individual have the right to say no uh not only to Supportive
Services but maybe they're not um accepting offers of any service at this
time and that's okay Outreach doesn't stop just because you say no Outreach is there to let you know that our system is
ready and willing to um engage you and connect you when ever you are and we're
not going to stop just because you're you're saying no now um we'll come back later and check in and we're all we're
always going to make sure that we're offering life-saving resources um as needed we utilize harm reduction
principles which are nonjudgmental and non- coer coercive and we'll go into that further a little bit later in the
presentation um and we also recognize that unsheltered populations have a
significant risk um associated with their health including medical needs mental health needs substance use needs
um and so we want to make sure that we are able to administer or connect them to um critical needs as quickly as
possible so although we are housing first we want to make sure that our connections are wide um and we're
connected to the broader network of resources within our communities to not only address the housing needs but
connect them um as medically deemed and um with that I'll hand it
over to you Doug thank you Chelsea
um just looking at the chat I haven't seen any questions come in so feel free to put those in and we will have some
time here in a few minutes so Chelsey really talked about the Outreach uh
settings and housing focused Outreach and the that then sort of transcends
into shelter and day Center settings as well so I'm going to dive in on the hether side and I think to start off I
just want to mention something that Chelsea said uh quickly that you know I
think is here as well is that we often try to serve so many people that we don't serve anybody very well and I
think that's true across systems across the country whether you're an Outreach provider and you're you're you're being
measured either for yourself or internally or by your Grant by the
number of Outreach contacts that you may have in a given month or year or week or whatever may be sort of this out this
output measurement uh that tries to then be a proxy for performance and
Effectiveness and oftentimes when we design programs to be output focused we
we lose sight of the outcome that we're trying to to achieve and this is true for you know Outreach where you may have
50 contacts in a given week but if none of those people have any appreciable difference in their life after in terms
of their ability to not be homeless anymore then you may have provided some basic uh uh Services which are really
important you may have provided some basic safety needs which are really important but we're not moving to goalpost on our outcomes we see this and
we'll talk about it in our next session around rapid rehousing which is a pep peeve of Mind where providers try to
propose to serve so many households because I think it'll be make them more competitive in a grant cycle but then
none of those households get served well because you don't give yourself the flexibility both in your services and
your financial assistance to actually do the job it takes to get people out of homelessness so when Chelsea talked
about doubling up staff hiring those pure Outreach workers um uh putting more
time frankly into your diversion and problem solving and looking exploring those Creative Solutions that can be a
really important feature of moving ourselves from outputs to outcomes perect you're gonna do that I'm listen
sorry somebody's on off mute please mute your lines unless you have a question in which case feel free to come mon so in
the same vein um I I I just want to emphasize that we have seen emergency
shelter and even day centers become this acceptable sort of Niche or housing
niche in our communities where there's no more emergency in shelter it has become the place where people live for
long periods of time until either they get lucky enough to get house or frankly until they get kicked out for arbitrary
rules that we've created to uh kind of box folks into our own philosophies and paradigms and when I
say we I mean we as a country we as a a a nation of practitioners trying to
solve this problem it's not specific to anybody on this call though I would suspect there are some folks in this call work for programs that fit into
this where emergency shelter uh has lost its emergency has lost that urgency of
trying to move people through the system toward housing options uh or at least
some Alternatives that are not being literally homeless on the street oring shelter and folks linger there for long
periods of time so I think that we need to put that urgency and emergency back in emergency shelter I think emergency
shelter should be treated as such where it is an immediate focus on the acute
needs that are in front of us the triage to to support those needs and then moving people out and on to more
positive outcomes more positive environments whether that be even a transitional setting that follows
housing focused practices of which many do not and those of you who have been on my trainings before I'm skeptical of
transitional housing so I'll own that for for those of you in the room that run transitional housing but we often
are are are creating this Niche and building shelter shelter capacity where people just end up living there instead
of on the the corner or in the encampment down the road anyhow and while that may be a safer option it is
not necessarily going to lead us to those better outcomes so we want to play that dual role right there's an
immediate safety concern an immediate need to get somebody uh off the street it's 100 what 98 Degrees in Southern New
Hampshire this week uh those are dangerously high temperatures for many people both for those who are uh uh
experiencing homelessness as well as other people who may be in poverty or otherwise don't have access to uh uh
relief from the heat right we can we can transcend that to any season of the year or dangerous situation or a perfectly
reasonable 68 degree sunny day in New Hampshire we still those safy so we have to provide that immediate safety but we
but the the shift and I think New Hampshire has started to do this uh pretty well but the the Shi at large is
how do we immediately begin to think about our ongoing housing uh uh
connections and what is the Staffing and what is the setup of the shelter to allow that to happen to create the
safety to create uh uh reasonably comfortable spaces where people can uh
uh be free of worrying about assault or their medication management or their
ability to get food that day will also not creating this new Niche for them to
be living in as if that is their housing option for long periods of time so that
connection back to a coordinated process that focuses on housing is where the
gaps have have been historically and where we shift we see the shift happening uh where we're seeing High fun
functioning systems that use emergency shelter as that Urgent Response with a
triage to the longer term housing plant so that goal of case management in in
many shelter settings historically Staffing is focused on hmis data entry
checking people for drugs and weapons and making sure fights don't break out and serving food there's a Hots and CS
mentality to our shelter settings more and more what we're seeing in shelter settings is that infusion of some of the
principles that Chelsea talked about which is building that rapport with folks beginning to assess what their
actual housing needs are and frankly their desires uh for housing what types
of goals they can pursue within the setting we're in now and what other settings are conducive for them to pursue other goals they have
coordinating those services and then moving them on to some other setting that is more appropriate now a lot of
that means that we have to uh uh create an emphasis Within These settings right
and the Staffing and the setup on this can be challenging because we're trying to do a couple of things at once we're
trying to make sure that we have folks that can make sure that those safety needs are met that are well trained in
life-saving techniques that understand folks who may have medical needs or medication needs who uh frankly do need
to be able to make sure that guests within a shelter setting are safe in that setting both to themselves and to
the other guests at the same time there's another skill set or set of
skill sets that uh often that we often Overlook or hav't traditionally been funded in shelter settings and likely
are not funded well right now in the New Hampshire systems where we have not just those uh folks that can do intake and
kind of kind of maintain space and keep people uh safe but also that next level
right putting those diversion conversations and problem solving in place beginning to make connections with
people not only about what they might eligible for within our Rapid rehousing or psh or transitional portfolio but
what other opportunities might exist for us to divert them into another safe environment that is not necessarily
receiving dedicated homeless services having mediation with family and friends re realizing when somebody's got an
illegal addiction that they still have uh uh legal rights to their um tency or
to their unit looking for opportunities where people may be willing to take a roommate who's also living at the
shelter because we know that in New Hampshire and in every other most other places I should say we don't
have enough Rapid rehousing or psh to give to everybody so some people are going to have to pair up to combine their incomes to be able to live
independently in any sort of private rental market so we go from Meeting
those basic safety needs maintaining that need because that is a place where that emergency response can happen with
a shelter setting but also including that capacity for housing uh Focus case
management for direct housing navigation which is which is a separate distinct
skill set it doesn't matter what your title is but nav housing navigation is a separate skill set uh I am a firm
believer that we need to have trained housing Navigators in every part of our system every program that operates if
you don't have a housing Navigator whether by title or by by skill set then I don't know how you end homelessness if
we're not navigating people to housing within our projects giving that low barrier access which we're going to talk
about in a moment uh uh the the biggest tragedy uh in most communities in this
country is the people who need shelter the most are the ones who are most actively excluded from that shelter
because of rules and barriers that we as systems and projects put on people human
beings who are are without housing so we're creating or we're shifting over
time and this has happened in our state I've seen it I see it in my local news I I I talk with you all about it from
let's make you safe tonight and give you a place to rest how do we do that while also combining strategies to figure out
longer term Solutions in an environment with those longer term Solutions at least funded by federal and state
resources are tend to be limited and then where do those other skill sets come into play to help us overcome some
of those barriers to look for the assets that exist within people's lives that may not rely on longer term financial
assistance or other things like that so what does low marrier mean we talked about this in the broader syst system
perspective the broader housing first perspective from a shelter setting and I know some of these are extremely
difficult uh but but if we're going to get down to like the fundamentals low barrier means just that we again as a
country as a uh a national group of practitioners trying to end homelessness
have been really bad at keeping the barriers low and pulling people into
Services who need them uh we've been very good at finding ways to EXP exclude people from services and exclude people
who may have uh really challenging situations really challenging barriers from our uh uh settings who are
specifically that are specifically meant to be designed for those folks it's like if we had uh a hospital emergency room
and if you come in with a broken arm we're going to treat you right away because we know how to do that easily we can put the cast on we get the x-rays
and get you out the door you come in with a head injury though we're going to turn you away because your case is too
difficult for our doctors so you'll need to wait it out the same analogy applies to our shelter settings the people
getting into shelter are often those who have already overcome some of the most significant barriers to their housing so
what does it mean to have low barrier shelter it means that we have options maybe not every option in the community
but we have options that don't require I'm sorry there's a missing word do not require sobriety treatment criminal
background checks or income requirements there may be some rare exceptions based Bas on where there's a location uh we
hear you know the first someone on this line is going to yell into the chat about sex offenders I know there are
particular circumstances that you're either barred by law or that or it's un um you know irresponsible perhaps to put
somebody with a sex offense into a setting with uh women or children or whatever the case may be but generally
speaking we need to have options that allow people who are actively using who have act or an active mental Health
crisis and you have don't have any money into our crisis response system which is
our shelter settings and that also means allowing people who are under the influence of drugs or alcohol into our
settings as long as they're not a danger to sell for others we've heard the argument well we can't put somebody in
who's been using because it'll affect other use and other uh clients within the shelter setting Fair argument uh but
frankly it's a moot point um we can design settings to allow for that separation for people who are actively
in recovery and want that type of setting we can also create that triage so that we're putting or or offering
settings for people that they're comfortable with but we need a place for people to go who are not a danger to
themselves and I just I feel like I have to say this out loud a lot and I know everybody knows it but there are plenty
of drunk drug users who aren't homeless so we shouldn't assume that everybody who's been drinking or using drugs is a
danger to themsel or everybody else in the community or can't handle housing uh there's plenty more alcoholics in
housing than outside of housing there might be some folks on this line who struggle in that way or with your family members and the same goes for our
shelter settings just because your family member may have schizophrenia that's untreated or be actively using uh
uh substances does that mean that they then don't deserve to at least have the basic needs of a shelter setting tonight
I would argue not and I would argue that if if that is our belief then this might not be the type of mission that that
you're pursuing um because our job is not to cure people it is to help them find housing there are other practical
applications here so Lock storage for elist of drugs and prescription medications without punishment we've
seen this be widely successful in the communities that have adopted it where you have hold harmless lockers where if
somebody comes in with illicit drugs or their medication or other valuables that they have a place to put those and they
can't keep uh unlawful drugs or use them within the facility but they can bring them in lock them up uh maybe with other
valuables uh then they don't have the fear of things getting stolen uh uh they
understand and trust you to to allow them to lock those things up uh without harm and then they can take those items
and leave the facility uh to use them as needed and if they come back and they
are uh not a danger to themselves or other or or in a medical emergency a medical emergency is not just being
drunk It's a it needs to be a medical emergency then they come back in and they're able to access those basic
Services basic storage locking and a change to that policy can be a a way to
engage those folks who have traditionally refused shelter right we went we talked about in our first
session uh that nobody uh refuses or doesn't want housing they don't want the
type of housing or services that we've offered that's also true of shelter settings in many cases again across the
country and communities we've worked with that then also means we need to be flexible with our time so Chelsea
mentioned those folks who through covid were now uh folks that were fully employed uh but were also now finding
themselves experiencing homelessness and the shelter rules had to change to accommodate that so we see the same
thing on here about the same thing where everybody's got to be in line by 6 pm to
get your 7 PM bed then out at 6:00 am but also you need to have a job and be working in order for you to earn
yourself out of the shelter setting so you're setting people up to fail with with your competing policies that are
unreasonable on any human being that are really only reasonable to our staffing commitments and again as we I'm saying
across the country not anyone specific on this call keep disclaiming that um uh
we should have 24 access to our shelter settings people should be able to come and go we are not operating quasi
homeless prisons we're operating a place where people can connect with Services
remain connected to Services until they're able to move on to a better situation and only under the most sort
of egregious infractions or challenges asked to leave those Services because it
is those folks who need us the most and if we're going to ask folks or we know that employment or access to benefits or
Health Care needs are the uh some parts of your foundation for successful
housing Transitions and then we ask everybody to be in line by 5:00 pm and they can't get there from work now
they're back in their car or sleeping on a on a you know uh in an unsafe situation
uh only to then have that effect whether they can go to work the next day we created and reinforced that cycle of
homelessness so we want to emphasize that there is a lot of responsibility
that folks who are homeless are are are going to need to pursue to to partner with us in that housing fund but we also
have to adapt our spaces and our systems right now there is very few dollars to do these things that we're talking about
but if we're talking about where can we go and make improvements uh for our shelter setting these are some of the
basics and then really trying to make sure we're clear about policies around bed commitments and um uh and stability
so do folks have to line up every night at 6 or do some arbitrary thing in order to get to bed that night can they hold
can we hold a bed and guarantee a bed for a certain period of time that gives us that that uh window to do that
diversion work to connect to coordin anry to explore other housing options to build trust to connect to Legal Services
to make sure that somebody is moving on from our services there is a balance point on the shelter side in particular
between serving uh as many people as possible to create safety while also not
over diluting the services we offer so that nobody that we serve actually has positive outcomes outputs versus
outcomes if you can serve a 100 people in a month in your shelter but all 100 people are still homeless 30 days later
let's try serving 50 people serving them better and if 25 of them end up permanently housed we've reduced our
population in that particular little block of space by 25% sometimes serving
more having higher outputs does not lead to better outcomes and these types of
strategies allow us to explore that balance point between safety outputs and
and outcomes where we're given the time and space and breathing room we need to create the services that are going to
ultimately lead to somebody exiting shelter and hopefully not having to come back that also means that the there are
space considerations so these are not only policy considerations everything on the previous couple slides or many of it
your executive leadership can do today uh with training with support with philosophy you can do that but some of
these also are uh space constraints right so of some of the areas where we
see uh major challenges with space constraints are folks with Mobility impairments or wheelchairs or other
types of physical uh uh disability that make it difficult for them to navigate a
shelter setting whether because it's congregate uh whether it's because there's stairs whether because of a
myriad of different factors I would also put on to here dietary needs um uh you
know we understand that we need to be able to provide basic food uh for folks
but a lot of the people that we are supporting are also medically compromised there's higher rates of diabetes higher rates of heart disease
higher rates of other uh ailments for people experiencing homelessness you know how do we reflect that within even
some of the basic things we offer like meals and things like that uh over uh uh
very generally our capacity to serve females and women in places where they feel safe particularly women who have
experienced domestic violence or concerned about that is uh inadequate at best um oftentimes we are trying to
squeeze women and females into systems and projects that were originally designed for men uh back in the 80s and
90s and they don't meet the the same needs we may not have the same emergency supplies uh we also uh tend to be
inadequate in being able to serve families with children including men with children single parent men with
children which historically have been excluded from shelter across a wide array of settings um uh with recent
changes in the law um that you know you can't do that anymore you're not allowed to exclude men just because it's uh men
with children but we continue to have inadequate spaces to omate those types of households we continue to struggle
with people with varying gender identities and thinking about what does it mean uh when folks identify as
transgender or other types of identities where do they go and how do they fit into those spaces uh safely how do we
create separate spaces for those populations uh but then does that then uh kind of pigeon hole those folks into
services that are less adequate these are difficult questions to Grapple with but but these are areas where we've
tended to fail over time those with pets um most shelters that I'm aware of in
this area do not allow pets and I'm not talking about service animals I'm talking about pets and in in you know
that one of the major barriers I do a lot of work in the veteran space one of the biggest barriers to veterans in the Outreach and shelter settings is that
many veterans um do have pets especially those who are living in rural and Suburban areas and that is a major Gap
in that space and it's true in other spaces a pet may be the emotional support somebody needs to be able to
just bear with their daily life and you know you hear the criticisms oh they can't afford this but they have a cell
phone and a dog well you know you can't do anything in this world without a cell phone and I've got a dog and if someone
took my dog I'd be devastated and you add that stress into people's lives sometimes it's the last thing they're
holding on to and so looking for ways to support people with pets folks that are medically compromised other populations
we're really good at creating Barrack style shelters for middle-aged white guys we're not great
at creating reasonable comfortable safe spaces for people who are have different
gender identities different racial identities who have different types of medical needs different types of household types we have generally not as
done as well there and as our population shift as we continue to focus on Equity
these are the areas that we have to continue to concern ourselves with if we're going to invest in shelter and I
would argue we should be investing in housing not not as much in shelter but we need that Niche if we're going to invest let's invest in ways that meet
the unique needs of populations that we're currently struggling to serve so this all requires a significant level of
Staff skills right um you know we we are talking here on this webinar or this
training about all of these really great thing we're going to create Outreach teams with multiple people and people
lived experience we're going to have a fully mapped system everybody's going to get connected when they do connect we're
going to have robust case management and direct access to housing we're going to create safety planning our teams can
also save your life if you're overdosing while we're also uh looking for roommate situations once we connect you to
shelter somebody who has severe and persistent mental health issues who's got a pet who is actively using and uh
and is a sex offender with no income we're going to get them in the shelter we're goingon to be able to work with we're gonna do all these wonderful
things with all the policy changes and physical Investments and and and uh
philosophical transition that have to happen to meet that we also need skill sets these skill sets or sort of uh
areas and practices that you see are universally applicable uh across the
homeless system and there are ones that regardless of how much we say it as ta
providers or you say it there's always ongoing training that is needed there's always ongoing reinforcement there's
always that uh that need for and value in using supervision using team meetings
using other staff support strategies to make sure folks are are sort of uh
grounded in these practices from an ongoing perspective some of these are policy and some are skill sets so pure
and lived experience supports you know the conversation around Equity took off during covid when it became clearer and
clearer that the Health Care system was leading to inequitable outcomes and then we started to see that
conversation transcend more nationally uh more publicly within the homeless
space now inequities always existed in these spaces but one of the things that
Co and the response that Co brought out was the public conversation around inequity that then led to what has been
uh probably one of the most obvious solutions for a long time uh but really hasn't hadn't gained traction until the
last few years and that is hiring people who have been through the the the the
trauma and the challenges the people are trying to serve to help them uh serve
them so we should be hiring people that went through our programs we should be elevating folks who have lived
experience in homelessness or of different types of gender identities or different ages or different ethnic or
racial identities or religious identities to better reflect the populations that we're working with to
create spaces where people can build trust to create a an environment where
there's actual empathy not just sympathy but empathy for the experiences that
folks are are leading to we have seen a tremendous amount of success with projects at all levels Outreach in
particular Outreach Outreach shelter rapid re housing psh uh I don't know a lot about the transitional housing side
because those are kind of going away across the country but we've seen tremendous success you know COC level uh
board where people who have been through the systems that we're operating are directly contributing to the program
policies the system design and the direct Client Services and they are building that level of trust they are
telling us what we're missing they are telling us the hardest part of navigating to housing that we can improve in our own processes and
sometimes it's very simple uh sometimes it is you know this one little thing could have made my experience better it
sometimes it's bigger uh uh you know you're missing half the state or your Outreach efforts are ineffective because
you're not doing X Y or Z or you're making these wrong assumptions but if you are in a hiring position um you
should be promoting that lived experience across systems whether it's
homelessness or or interacting with systems of care or mainstream benefits is a skill set and is a part of
someone's history that would qualify them for a job master's degrees are completely useless unless they relate
directly to the ability to to uh provide adequate services and oftentimes
experience provides adequate services so even the way we do our job descriptions is important in this context uh and I'll
talk about that in a couple of moments as well um so elevating lived experience infusing housing problem solving is that
term we've talked about in training settings here a few times now um I don't like the term I was part of the group
that created it or was part of the conversation when hug created I think it's silly but it is what it is this is
about you know having an opportunity to uh leverage people's strengths Empower
people to partner with us in their housing plan and creating costeffective solutions to resolve homelessness I've
mentioned this before many people uh would uh would not remain
homeless for long periods of time if only they had an opportunity to explore the strengths in their lives and some
support in mediating a an acute crisis that we can overcome quickly and get them back on their feet the longer
someone remains homeless the less uh the more difficult it is for them to leave homelessness without support and the
more expensive it becomes to find them housing again so housing problem solving is about moving up our interventions
earlier getting out of this business of scoring people on a spreadsheet the first time we meet them as if that's
going to tell us anything useful and focusing on relationships that allow us to have trust with folks them allow them
to trust us and being able to look for other Alternatives because we simply don't have the money to help everybody at once that requires other skill sets
like motivational interviewing thinking about our our stages of change and using
that to understand how we can uh shift behaviors over time with people based on their choic and needs to overcome some
of the barriers it is about understanding the trauma that is inherent in homelessness and not only in
homelessness but in many of the life events that may lead to somebody becoming homeless or experiencing a
housing crisis and what are some of those short-term uh sort of interventions that people uh uh that we
can we can sort of uh Infuse to build that trauma informed strategy to convert
that into that critical time intervention where we're recognizing that if we we can reduce trauma and
stress we talked about this in two sessions ago then we are setting people up uh to succeed in partnering with us
in that endeavor and then harm reduction approaches so it may be and harm reduction has often been thought of in
sort of the um uh I think recovery Community or even some in the Mental
Health Community but we can apply some of those based principles to outreach and and shelter right so a harm
reduction approach to shelter may be that instead of uh Banning everybody who's actively
using is creating Bas where people can come in and if you're not comfortable or able to create a space where they come
into your full facility right off the bat uh Under the Influence due to whatever um policies philosophies or
practices need to be adjusted then maybe we create a separate space for people to still come in for basic services but but
be separated from those who are not under the influence uh quick Side Story I was working with a shelter in the city
of Boston a number of years ago that was uh completely dry you weren't
allowed to use substances you couldn't come in under the influence uh medications were all managed by staff
very very restrictive environment for folks and they had developed through the
HUD COC program their first uh housing first uh program uh housing first isn't
a program just a side note but at the time they called it that their first housing program I'm sorry housing first permanent support of housing program and
at the time there was no coordinating entry this is many years ago and they didn't know where they were going to find clients who had high barriers
because they didn't let any High barrier clients into their services so they had all these sober medicated you know rule
uh you know uh following people and none of them were the folks that were like literally living outside their door who
were using substances or out untreated mental health issues or Quarry histories and things like that and the program the
per sportive housing program that they designed was specifically designed for those people with those higher barriers
so what they did they took part of their space uh and if we could ask folks to Muse their lines that would be great um
they took people and and they adapted their space so they had a separate space for people who were coming in with
active uh substance use or untreated mental health and that space was uh
identical uh in its comfort and the services to the space that that uh
required sobriety and one is they found folks that that needed you know that
higher level of permanent Supportive Housing care but the true transformation happened over the next decade that
program that provider now allows low barrier access to nearly all of its
programming Grant PDM beds for its VA side of the house it's emergency shelter bed for that part of the house all of
its housing programs none of them are prerequisite on substance use or recovery or treatment and the only
reason that they got to that point from a decade ago is because they tried something new they brought people in who
they'd never worked with before who had barriers that they they had frankly refused to accommodate before they
started to play with it and I remember six months after they started this housing program and about six about
eight months 10 months after they kind of opened this other space for those who are actively using the case management
team we were meeting with them talking about their projects and trying to you know uh offer support and uh the the
lead case manager said I've been doing this for 15 years I never thought this would work and I can't believe it took
us this long to allow people in who have these types of issues because now they're they're getting housed they're
getting healthier they may still be using but they're doing so in sacred ways they're using those harm reduction
strategies they're they're understanding the trauma that folks are facing and now that organization that was seen as one
of the most restrictive organizations for many years is is I would argue uh uh
a leader in the Northeast right now in creating programming and practices that
adapt to and support people of varing needs abilities and desires so you know the these things take time but as we
think about the principles and staff skills uh we we have to I'm sorry where
we're trying to get we have to think about those key principles and staff skills so you know the peer- lived
experience right it's a great thing to say Doug on the TA from the TA team hire folks there's a lot of benefits we've
talked about that right uh May redu strain it it allows for uh a reduction
in cultural barriers helps people um uh uh create that sense of belonging and
Community uh those types of things but some of the challenges is you know we need to compensate people if you're not
going to hire somebody but you're going to have a peer Network we need to pay those people for their time right we
have to make sure that if they're not clinically trained folks that that we are relying on their lived experience as
part of that job description or part of that basis for their expertise that we're giving them the adequate training
that they do need to help people be safe or to uh access Services we may see that
there are uh a fewer benefits for people who are considered peer supports
oftentimes we say peer support you know in different types of clinical domains and those are often the lowest rung on
the on the employment poll at our organizations oh there are pure support Specialists you know they're the lowest
paid employees are the ones who may have to work the hardest with those folks who the Great barriers those should be elevated just like housing navigation is
a a foundational uh fundamental skill set by either by either uh skill set or by
title for every organization if you don't have a housing Navigator I don't know how you end homelessness I don't
know how you end homelessness without hiring people who understand what it's like to be homeless it doesn't make sense to me you don't need a bunch of
people like me mid-30s white middle class dudes uh trying to end
homelessness for people who have very different life experiences than I do so I have a role in this fight as does
everybody in this call but there are other people who have roles in this fight as well that we often don't put enough value in and we can really create
spaces where we can Elevate that value if we if we if we put our kind of uh
hiring practices behind that right so look at your job descriptions do you require master's degrees for positions
that don't require a master's degree do you allow for the uh for the Equity
between a formal education and and experience um you know this is not just
about racial Equity or gender Equity this is about people being able to connect with other people and I you know
we at tack at our organization even um in the last couple of years have reorganized our job descriptions to be
better about elevating experiencee a lived experience elevating racial
diversity elevating gender diversity and just the way we describe positions that we hire for our team our Associates and
Senior Associates and even our admin team and as a result of that I've been with Tac for many years now uh when I
started we had nobody on staff who identified as having um a history of being homeless and now I think we have
in Chelsea May correct me if I'm wrong if you know the better answer but I think we have four or five people in our organization now who have been literally
homeless themselves so that that makes a tramatic difference right so see like
you know I I don't identify as having been homeless but maybe I'm connecting with a colleague who can bring me back
down to reality and we transcend that same idea we're we're in the we're not even working directly with clients in
our space anymore you know put that same movement into uh uh folks that are
working directly with clients and we've seen a lot of potential there again we've talked about housing problem
solving a few times uh we actually did a full training on that I believe for the State of New Hampshire um we've got
plenty of resources related to this this is the the first part of a course ated
assessment approach it is the first part about our shelter protocol and frankly
it is trying to rehumanize this experience and this trauma that folks are are going through
and and Infuse back the ability to build trust most people who are coming into
our services and I've said this before are coming in on the worst day of their life they've been failed by other
systems and they have been told no a lot now we have an opportunity to pull
people into service even them away from emergency shelter we
have the ability to say yes and to build trust and not burn them and to create that relationship early and often so
that it transcends and moves along into the longer term housing conversations basic motivational
interviewing right this is not a motivational interviewing training we have one slide on it but all of your
staff should be trained in this understanding how to affirm people's uh uh past experiences and what they're
saying reflecting that back we've asked so many yes no questions of people over
time that we've learned nothing and not solve the problem open-ended questions we do this active listening uh um
training where we ask people to just describe a problem that they're facing
uh and we ask the person listening to them to not offer suggestion to not uh
uh uh you know jump in on the conversation just listen and what we've seen is even in a training setting if
you ask somebody to just describe their problem to O with open-ended questions rather than yes no responses many people
will solve the own the the the exact challenge or problem that they're trying to describe they'll solve it on their
own just by talking it through so rather than yes no questions let's pass those open-ended questions and your staff need
to be trained on how to how to do that right to summarize that back and to look for those connections that then can
elicit change and move things along motivational interviewing basic skill set everybody should be trained in it if
you're a manager executive director you need to invest the time and money uh into this there's not an excuse not to
we know it works both in a clinical setting as well as non-clinical settings and this is like the basic foundation
for housing problem solving trauma and formed care basic uh uh uh elevation of
strength and empowerment versus deficit uh uh mindset and that brings us back
into that trauma informed care working from a strength based framework work we've done uh again I don't mean to be
too negative on our systems but we've been really struggling at actually ending homelessness for 50 years so we
got to do something better so I think we need to blame it on ourselves right generally speaking but uh often we're
deficit focused you know what made you homeless what' you screw up this time why' you lose your job why do you keep
drinking right rather than looking at strengths you've been in poverty for a while now but you've continued to hang
on what are some of the strategies you use to be able to remain in housing how to that change this time around can you
tell me a little bit about some of the things that you enjoy doing can you tell me a little bit about your family and
and your connections there opening up with th with those uh with those strengths understanding that people are
coming to us with trauma and being able to emphasize that psychological and
emotional safety giving people the breathing room to communicate to us you know when somebody walks in the door are
we asking their social security number their mental health status you know every place they've ever lived how many of itions do they have sign this
document so we can share your entire life story with the other 80 people on this Zoom call all of these things that
just create more layers of trauma and distress rather than getting to know people as human beings can really you
know if we're looking to set ourselves and our and our and our clients up for Success we have to start by building a
foundation of trust and partnership in housing Endeavors rather than dictating housing Endeavors to them so we look for
those interventions that are focused on trauma we look on reducing the the stigmas of
trauma uh and trying to keep those uh practices in check so empowering versus
Co coercive looking for the ability for people to make their own decisions with our support uh recognizing that the the
client goals and life and pursuit of what they want next is theirs it is not ours we are not The Gatekeepers to other
people's goals if somebody's goal is not to sober up or to quit drinking
or to quit using drugs or to get medicated or whatever that shouldn't be our goal right we might need to figure
out how are they going to maintain that lifestyle and not get themselves evicted again or to be safe generally but that's
not my decision or your decision that somebody else needs to stop drink they don't need to earn their housing and if
and if you're writing programs that require sobriety that may be appropriate but we need to make sure the community
also has programs that don't require sobriety or or treatment because is not our goals we are not The Gatekeepers we
it is not your money frankly that you're using to support this so we need to make
sure that we're trying to help build clients build the life that they want based on what matters to them not based
on what matters to us and that is the shift that we're making as systems we started this in session one we're start
we continued in session two and I'll say it again here in session three we've been very good at building programs for
programs and not for people and we need to shift to building programs for people and adapt them to those people and these
are the types of of sort of training and skill sets that allow us to do this so just to acknowledge uh that that you
know a lot of this requires training similarly with harm reduction right you know we understand that some people may
not be able to uh pursue certain goals but can we get them into a place where they can do so more safely can we get
somebody who's actively using uh a heroin to understand that when they use they
should be using with a friend or a partner who's trained in ouram that is a harm reduction approach that does not
romote use it makes it so use is uh more palatable and more safe right we've saw
in the news recently at the nationally in in New Hampshire the number of Overdose deaths continues to plummet
that is not because people are not using opioids it is because people and their
friends are saving each other's lives so if you want to stop the opioid crisis go
for it but this might not be the space you need to work in we want to support people who are looking for treatment but we may be housing people who are an act
of addiction right so we want to make sure that from our perspective we're
looking for it to help people uh either be safer or be able to maintain housing so another example is somebody who's
drinking somebody may be actively drinking in housing how do we reduce the harm of that whether that be physical
harm how do we reduce drinking to a level that's safe so so folks are less likely to get sick or die while drinking
how do we reduce harm to their tency so is it that they're spending all their money on alcohol what are the budget
conversations we have to have in order to overcome that are they interested in some sort of fiduciary which has Pros
but also has a lot of cons um are they uh interested in any other Ty of strategies around that or is it that
when they drink they have parties and create damage in the unit different set of strategies to reduce the harm of their tency if that the case or if it's
both right it's another set of strategies but we can think about the ways in which we can make small changes
we can advocate for measurable discret manageable uh uh kind of shifts in
people's behaviors or their use or their uh pursuit of treatment or or counseling
or services to give them better outcomes physically mentally psychologically or at the base level to keep them into
housing because that's our job our job is not to to solve poverty though poverty is a contributing factor
probably the most critical one we're not here to be to solve the Mental Health crisis in this country or the opioid
crisis in the country while we need to work on those issues with people we're here to solve homelessness and we will
have people who are deeply in poverty who are actively using who have untreated mental health issues who can
be sustainably housed and we know that because there are more people right now in housing with all those problems than
there are who are homeless so it is not just those problems that are creating homelessness it is a broader issue
around housing and if we can create an environment where housing can be retained and supported then we can give
people an environment where either they are doing those things but they're not going to die on the street or uh they're
looking for ways to pursue their goals and and I'll just say you know some of you know me over the years you know my
father was a a SE severe alcoholic he was homeless for a number of years in Manchester he was continually denied
Services because he was actively using by are my good friends on the line for Manchester not you personally but
programs in Manchester um he uh was
housed when he passed away um with a roommate in a one-bedroom apartment and the only reason he got housed I have a
family member who owned that apartment and rented it to him and the only way they could afford it was two people
together right roommates uh sharing an apartment and working that out between them he died and when they they knew his
cause of death because of how much alcohol was left in his bottle now that doesn't sound like a good outcome right
it wasn't happy that my father passed away in such a way that we could gauge how long he had been dead for just by
how much vodka was left in his gallon next to him but he didn't die on the street he died in a comfortable space he
wasn't getting any healthier in that comfortable space but that wasn't his goal in the last couple of years of his
life he gave up on on pursuing sobriety that didn't mean he had to live on the street while he drank himself to death
uh it meant that he could be in a place that was at least comfortable that had some basic amenities was a very basic
apartment in downtown Manchester and as much as it was a tragedy that he passed away I'm always grateful that he tra he
passed away in housing and not on the street right so as we think about harm
reduction and we think about the the challenges people face even once house we also have to recognize that even
dying in housing rather than dying on the street has reduced harm to somebody uh somebody at least at the end of their
life and and maybe my perception of that is different than others because of my
own personal experience with my family but I strongly believe I'd rather have somebody you know die in housing that on
the street and if that is the the bare minimum outcome that we can pursue or that we can reasonably expect from
somebody then that might be the outcome that is most desirable or most you know reasonable uh at that time um so with
that we've got about uh 10 or 15 minutes here 10 minutes or so I haven't been looking at the chat uh we just have some
of these opening questions and and we can deviate but you know from the folks on the line
many of you are doing this work uh directly today you're probably leaving after this call or you've got your team out there you know what are some of the
things that you're doing to uh embody some of the concepts and practices that we brought up here what barriers are you
facing not for Chelsea and I to tell you how to overcome them but other colleagues on the line who have done so
uh other efforts that you're making other ways to train staff and bring them to the fold uh we we've got about 10
minutes and really wanted to take Chelsea and I out of the conversation and open it up with the rest of the
group so with that I'm actually going to stop sharing the screen so we can get other folks up on on screen and uh see
if folks have anything to add in and then Chelsea or Christie if there's anything in the chat as I transition to that that you want to highlight go ahead
and do so but for anyone else to come off mute or add to the chat uh this is a good time to do so as we get toward the
bottom of the of the hour
you're on mute Christie of course I am I'm not seeing any questions in the
chat I'm just reading through this at here don't it'll make you
hungry I know I'm trying to get through the restaurants and then other folks though uh even like
discreet population lesson learned you know we certainly didn't cover everything that makes you know good programs and I know a lot of it's
utopian but uh other Outreach your shelter providers or or or other
providers that want to share a success that they've seen with your colleagues new strategies you're testing out uh
things that you may do differently say when it's 100 degrees versus you know 0 degrees as we see in New Hampshire those
absence ways what else is working what other struggles are folks having what would you like to share with your
peers and uh and actually Karen you put in the chat if either in the chat or coming off mute uh I'd love to hear more
about your uh circles coordinator I don't know that I've ever heard that before um and
and I really appreciate the recognition dinner but could you would you speak to that just a bit more I sure can thank
you Douglas um I I've got I'm I'm not on speaking uh show today so I'm going to
stay um my camera off but I do want to say that um so please look up Circles
USA I don't have a link real quick to send you all but um Way Station a few
years ago came on and decided to be the circles uh chapter for the New England
area um circles USA is really a circular effort to get people out of their
circumstance and into a leadership opportunity it is free I didn't put that
in my little message there but um we finally hired a coordinator and we
needed that coordinator in order to start the first cohort there are volunteer opportunities for it um
we have thank you Douglas you put that link up I see it now um so check on that
and we also have another situation with next Tuesday we're going before the town
of Conway and asking uh their support for a $500 Grant and that will enable Way
Station to renovate some of the um rooms that we have in the center and our our
way station property is a very old property it's um we received a
cbdgrandma10.com
my email is development waystation nh.org and I
will also put that in the chat if you'd like um or Hayes would be a great person to reach out he's on this
call thank you thank you for that and uh we encourage folks to connect that sounds
like a great Pursuit I think it also highlight one another your comment um
someone's on uh the federal government doesn't pay for everything we need so like that
$500,000 Grant there's no like I mean there's shelter operations under ESG uh
for communities that choose to use it that way but uh oftentimes it is our
local foundations or other types of Grant programs outside of our federal and state dollars that are paying for
things that we need to do like a shelter renovation or update to space to reflect some of this so uh I just want to
acknowledge that not only does a lot of what we talked about take money or resources or time but oftentimes the
main funding streams that we think about especially in Outreach and shelter environments are not covered by the most
major um programs uh particularly out of Hud um you know we saw some investment
through uh ESG CV and some of the co dollars but HUD and and the FEDS are
typically not building up shelter capacity so where that's a need we have to either look at state or local or our
philanthropic Community as well and I think that's that's important to to mention we see a lot of frustration with
projects that can't make ends meet with with federal dollars and the reality is the federal government really never pays
pays for all of what they're asking you to do so it often takes other Pursuit other folks we have about uh four or
five minutes here they're piggybacking on um uh Karen's discussion or or more
generally just want to raise up that Mandy put in the COC wide Street Outreach standards uh which I hadn't
looked at Mandy so I'm hoping nothing I said was completely opposite of what's in there but it sounds like they're generally supported so that's good um
other
folks one thing that I would like to mention before we sign off that we didn't put on slides is there are
Supreme Court decisions pending that will that may uh change the way in which
our local communities interactive people who are living in public spaces and I think there are um a lot of risks
involved with where those decisions go at Supreme Court which should be out uh today I think or in the next week if we
are in a position where the Supreme Court rules that uh in in its most basic
uh summary that the criminalization of homelessness living outside is acceptable I think there's going to be a
lot of emphasis that we need to do to partner with our law enforcement and City officials to both educate but also
offer a way for us to mutually support each other's goals even if those goals
are not always aligned so as we look at the Supreme Court there may be now more
opportunity for local officials to uh to criminalize things and uh My Hope and
belief as a human is that there's no Mayors or you know or very few maybe that really want to criminalize homeless
people but they also have to reflect the frustrations of Voters and a business
owners so where our Outreach teams and shelter teams can partner with City official who may be going down that road
I think it's really important I think as we see what happens with the Supreme Court as a system you all might want to
start talking very soon about how you can engage with your local uh towns
offices or Mayors or even at the state level to acknowledge that there are going to be new tools that we may feel
like counterproductive and where we can come in to partner to make it so that the cities and towns don't need to use
those tools particularly with the folks who are most vulnerable in our communities so just a little advocacy
plug I don't want to get too deep into that from my personal or even professional um uh opinions but I think most folks
are aware of it and it's something to be on the radar for so that we don't get caught off guard as that last system of
care for people um any other comments we have just about a
minute well thank you uh thank you Chelsea and chrisy I'll turn it to you to um close this
out so I want to thank you all for attending today we are now halfway through the housing first training
series um we are on a pause on our monthly trainings um so our next
training will be September 18th and we will be discussing rapid rehousing and
permanent support of Housing and a housing Focus design for those projects um so I look forward to seeing
you all in September and if you have any questions let us know I did record this
training and we'll send out the YouTube link as soon as we have it ready for all of
you thank you thanks everybody thank you have a good one
everyone I don't even know what he I thank you
May 15, 2024
System Level Housing Focused Practices
System Level Housing Focused Practices
System Level Housing Focused Practices
Transcript of video:
my name is Doug Tetro uh with Tac and we're gonna be jumping into our second session of five sessions focused on
housing first practices today with a little bit more bent toward uh systems
uh which also includes program types and components that we'll dig deeper into as
we go along we'll also discuss briefly uh document Readiness but we'll probably
uh also discuss that in more detail when we get into this spefic program types that have different types of
documentation needs if folks could mute their lines that would be appreciated for now uh feel free to use the chat for
questions uh we will have a couple of thought points to uh hear from the audience as well um so with that we will
jump right in um as I mentioned uh my name is uh Doug Tetro I'm with the technical assistance collaborative and
we've partnered with the state of New Hampshire over the years uh in different efforts but more broadly our team uh
Works throughout the country on all things homelessness and affordable housing and uh systems that support
people with disabilities and other marginalized groups so we do work uh in many different states uh but I am from
New Hampshire as I as I always say on these call so it's nice to be with my my hometown crew I'm joined here today uh
as in last time uh with by Chelsey Mahoney who's also with Tac and Chelsea do you want to introduce
yourself yes good morning morning everyone Chelsea Mahoney with Tac I am based out of Raleigh North Carolina I'm
and glad to be working with you all thank you Chelsea and I'm gonna turn to Chelsea in just a moment this is the
general Arc of and I know there's two number ones here I we tried to fix that and it didn't work um last time we were
together about a month ago we gave a basic overview of the core principles of
housing first some of the history of of the housing first uh uh
philosophy both from a psh originating with permanent support of housing as a sort of defined model and then using
those same principles and approaches to then transcend into broader uh uh system
of care that you all are working within from Outreach and shelter all the way through psh and today we're going to
dive a little bit more into how those different uh types of programs components contribute to a housing first
system environment and then in subsequent sessions we'll focus uh uh more so uh we've got a slide on each of
these different types of uh projects today we'll dig into those in much more detail in future sessions So today we're
talking about system level housing focused practices so as as Christy mentioned we'll talk about those components we'll rehash a little bit
around uh what housing first is we'll talk a little bit about equity and bringing in uh folks with lived
experience and and quality engagement strategies a little bit on um
coordinated entry and some of with a court entry discussion I'll invite to our partners from New Hampshire and from
you all uh to chat as well uh because you've continued to make uh improvements and changes to your court entry process
over the last couple of years uh but that's where we are today so we'll plan these a monthly we skip I think it's
July or August one of those months uh we take off but those should be on your calendar uh so you can see that agenda
here uh we do really strongly encourage folks to use the chat to communicate with us and then come off mute during
the portions uh where we are going to stop with some questions for folks to reflect on this is a 90minut training uh
we know that's a lot on a busy Wednesday uh but we hope you'll stick with us and I do believe it looks like uh this is
being recorded and transcribed for folks that either need to duck out early or are multitasking or need to share this
with your partners or staff uh with that I think this is already prompted in the
chat to make sure you're putting your name and organization if you choose to include your pronouns or other identities feel free uh that is part of
the attendance for this session as well as just a good way to introduce ourselves and if you also want to put uh
how you would describe New Hampshire in two words I'll do that in a moment when I hand it to Chelsea but go ahead and
put those in there uh we can see uh who's on the line and what you think about our state so I'll keep an eye on
that as we go and with that just to Jump Right In I'm going to give it over to Chelsea who's going to kick us off for
the first part of this presentation Chelsea I have the slides let me know when you're ready for me to move um move
them and I will do so and I'll give it to you thanks Doug um you can go ahead and
go to the next slide um so like Doug said we we're talking about housing first the last
session we discuss the difference between housing first approach and its framework but we want to level set and
redefine it for everyone um so housing first is an approach and framework that is centered on the belief that everyone
can achieve housing stability um that means that is there's no prerequisites to housing and the fundamental belief
that stable housing is a foundational platform for pursuing other health and recovering goals um as we continue to
further in this discussion we're going to talk about housing first from the approach standpoint um and there's four
key components to that that's that we quickly connect those experiencing housing crisis to permanent housing we
believe that all participants are housing ready um the goal is to quickly get them there um and exit them out of
that housing crisis there will be no preconditions based on sobriety or um
any other treatment oriented goals to get into housing um we believe in the um
wrapping with supports to maintain that housing stability and understand that homelessness is the crisis situation
that we need to resolve quickly next
slide um so once again like Doug mentioned um this series we're this session we're
discussing um housing first from a systems level and when we're talking systems level we're talking about how
does the system adapt to the clients the participants those experiencing the housing crisis is the system client
ready once we engage do we know how to quickly get them to access and engage
within the system and then get through the system connect them to permanent housing rapidly and then is the system
data driven in using Equity practices when we start talking program level
that's when we're talking about um our programs adapting to the client's needs removing barriers to access and services
within the program um making sure that our goal planning are person centered honoring how um the person's Choice the
participant's choice is the housing first principle um and then engaging in
Services is a voluntary action it's not something that is required in order to obtain per
housing next slide so when discussing the system
level there's several qualities of a community that uses housing first
approach once again that is housing crisis focused and Rapid intervention ready understanding that our homeless
participants that are engaging with our system they're currently within a housing crisis um treatment and and
prerequisites um prerequisite services are not needed the goal is to get them
to permanent housing as quickly as possible understanding that we want to
honor the participant's choice their housing choices their location the services that they want to engage in and
how often or the frequency um is all a part of how we plan to engage with them
throughout our system and connect them to Services um when we're talking about
the services within our system we want to make sure that we have the right resources for our population we want to
make sure that we can engage them at the right time um in the right amount of
time that's the the um idea of progressive engagement understanding that everybody doesn't need everything
upfront but when they do need it how do we get it to them are we progressively engaging them stepping them up to the
appropriate services at the right time and stepping down um that's also us dynamically using our resources within
our community um and then ensuring programs across system our client ready
as a system we need to make sure that every program within it has the capability to provide the right supports
to our clients and that includes Street Outreach shelter transitional housing and other services that are meant to
permanently house our participants next slot um we also want to make sure like
we said those um in the housing crisis situation it's traumatic so we want to
make sure that access to to our system is userfriendly are we making sure that
those that most need our system know how to engage it are we limiting the frustration and the barriers to connect
with our coordinated entry system and thus get housing related Services um when they're engaging with
our system are we using rapid resolution techniques making sure that we're assessing the um participant and their
family for any familial support social networks alternative safe housing
options so they do not have to enter into the traumat trauma or engage in the
traumas of our housing system to begin with um if they do have to engage with
our crisis-like services such as shelter and Street Outreach making sure that um we have safe opportunities to engage
with our participants that those services are low barrier um and are easily accessible within the coordinated
entry system to obtain housing and then making sure throughout as we do all of our projects planning um engaging our
programs that everything is data driven as we're prioritizing um participants and connecting them to Housing
Services next slide um we're making sure that once
again like we said our Pro our providers are housing our participant ready within our system and we know how to connect
them via referrals the providers are ready to accept referrals and work to House people as quick as possible also
across our system are we creating any standardized practices any standardized applications or screening processes to
remove restrictive criteria ensuring that we're um you know being trauma
informed and making sure that we mitigate any barriers um that are not necessary for our participants to access
permanent housing and then making sure that our policy makers our funders and
providers are all together at the table as we continue to plan and develop P
future resources and align our practices to increase uh availability and
affordability when it comes to Supportive Housing or permanent housing within our community understanding our
mainstream services and being able to maximize housing choice for our participants um making sure we're all
coming together at the table seeing how our services align and how we can connect them to sure that we are
mitigating and um um limiting the length of time a participant has to remain
homeless next slide also we want to make sure that we're connecting with other mainstream
systems right housing um housing homelessness does not happen in a silo
often times people are experiencing several different challenges and so how
are we connecting with other social behavioral mental physical health communities is doing income Maxim income
maximization um systems or benefit and entitlement programs um to ensure that
we're able to wrap around with appropriate supports to help those that are experiencing homelessness and
getting into permanent housing um we want to make sure that as we're working to kind of cross-pollinate these systems
that we're helping to eliminate some of those barriers while still remaining housing first within our housing system
but trying to get those reports um within the other systems um so that our participants can have all the services
that they need and then also making sure that we're considering Staffing across
the entire system making sure that people are trained appropriately and evidence-based practices for client
intend engagement we're util utilizing motivational inter interviewing harm
reduction techniques client centered CL um counseling critical time intervention
and Trauma informed care next slide you can keep going so when we're
talking about programs across the system which you you all are aware of the programs that you have within your
coordinated system but from a high level we're going to break down um each component and how um we can use housing
first approach so when we're talking about Outreach um we're saying that
Outreach programs across the system should be low barrier um there's the ACT
to to be able to ACC access our Outreach Services um there should be limited
restrictions um especially on things such as substance use and mental health or criminal history we want to make sure
that our staff are representative of the population that they serve once again right we're talking about um
understanding Equity within the situation understanding um the historical components that come with it
and making sure that our staff are indicative representative of the population that we're serving um we also
want to make sure that we're always constantly evolving our system involving how we engage with participants How We
Do Outreach Services based on the necess necessities of housing um housing
navigation services and of course the demographics of the population that we're serve um once again that notion of
no preconditions or other recovery goals needed to engage in Services that's going to be seen throughout our system
components making sure that we're trauma informed in our approaches is and reduce
or avoid retraumatization um when we're gathering information and how do we um you know
appropriately share that information to not ret traumatize as they work their way through the system um and then once
again that proactive coverage making sure we're knowing where to engage our
participants to make access available for everyone we want to make sure exess
especially in outlining communities that we don't have this situation of invisible homelessness that we don't
connect with the homeless particip participants in a certain Community simply because we're not looking we're
not engaging in the appropriate cover um coverage areas taking time to think about cultural and religious specific
locations that we may be able to engage participants that typically would not come to other areas where we we tend to
find our homeless population next
slide when it comes to sh um we're also talking about that being
low barrier um without restrictions you know of substance use or criminal
history once again when we're in shelter rapid resolution efforts do not stop um
that is something that can be carried on throughout the life cycle of a participant within our system um so in
the shelter are we engaging and diversion efforts are we problem solving with other community supports constantly
assessing social and familial situations to see how can we support them um to get
them quickly out of this current housing crisis um also are we honoring the vet
the participants Choice making sure that we are accessible at varying times of
the day based on kind of their schedule and activities that they have are we honoring employment needs um of the time
of day they can work location or other personal needs without punishment or loss of services are we accommodating to
the participants needs to help them achieve their identified goals um also
do we have adequate coverage um in shelter specifically um thinking about
women lgbtq older adults those with significant Health needs are we able to
care for them within um within our s our
shelter system um are we able to address safety concerns once again when we're talking about um our women
lgbtq gbt Q sorry uh older individuals um and those engag in our sh shelter
system um with housing Case Management Services do we provide um marketing and
Outreach for vulnerable populations including marginalized populations so
once again they know how to access Services where to access services or just the understanding that the services
are there um and then shelter staff much like through um the remainder of our programs
making sure that the staff is diverse um and represents the population that we are serving next
slide um so in the last slide I briefly talked about diversion um and that's an
in intervention that is meant to prevent entry into our homeless system or immediately resolve a household's
homelessness once they enter shelter transitional housing or any unsheltered
situation um diversion is a conversation that you're having
throughout um your Your Case Management Services while the participant is
engaged in your system constantly to ensure that we are able to provide the
right Supportive Services if they need financial um assistance we're able to provide brief financial assistance to
help households identify surf alternative housing options or even temporary options that will get them out
of our crisis service such as shelter and into a more safe stable temporary option until we're able to get them into
permanent housing um and Divergent efforts are known to reduce the trauma and expense associated with um extended
periods of homelessness and the strain on crisis response systems and affordable housing resources within the
community next slide um and then housing first within rapid
rehousing programs some key approaches there are making sure that um we're using all the flexibilities that are
allowed within our programs are we ensuring that rental um assistance
practices can fully meet the needs of our participants with little to no income at entry are we targeting
landlords to make sure that the housing options that that we are getting are
actually conducive to the participants that are engaged in our program um
coordinating appropriately with those Partnerships to make sure also that our landlords are more prone to screen
people our participants in and then instead of screening them out so how can we no not only be a low barrier housing
program but connect to low barrier landlords um are we making sure that
adequate staff budgets are there to ensure full range of Supportive Services
um or connecting to other programs do we have good connections to other programs within our system that can wrap around
our participants with Supportive Services if we're not able to do it in-house um are we also frequently
adjusting financial and budget projective projections to adapt to the need of our community and the
participants and then when it comes to exit planning um are we considering marginalized groups that may face
greater challenges in retaining housing so once again looking from a high level but not just a client perspective as a
program are we following the data to see what is what has been working when we're
targeting landlords what has been working when we're talking about provision of financial assistance and
other Supportive Services not just for obtaining housing but for the maintenance of Housing and then when we
exit participants from our program are we not noticing in disparities in certain populations are we noticing a
certain group have um having challenges in retaining housing long term and what
changes may we need to make to our program to support that um also our programs need to be sure to participate
in coordinated entry including serving um clients P prioritized for psh um but
also when PS is not available right we need to have somewhere else to to ensure
that we're still focusing on permanent housing with our participants and not saying okay well this program is not
available we're just going to hold this participant in their current housing crisis until it becomes available how do
we Bridge our participants from a rapid rehousing program to a psh or any other
programs um to ensure that we are supporting them um and then also employing people
with lived experience at all levels of the organization including our rapid
rehousing programs and we're going to speak a little bit more throughout the system to ensure that we're focusing on
participant choice that we're considering accessibility um that we're considering prioritization and just
taking into um consideration their lived expertise and how it may help us to make
a more dynamic system next slide um so housing first and permanent
Supportive Housing once again that's um designated for those individuals with the highest level of vulnerabilities
housing barriers and longest term um of homelessness uh we should promote direct
access to housing from the streets shelter or places not meant for human
habitation um this is like we talked about in the last session switching from
that stair step model that first you need to get connected to your services first we need to make sure that your
treatment is in order then we're going to get you in the shelter then connected to permanent housing um this is saying
we believe in direct access from wherever we encounter you in your housing crisis to permanent housing
which um the goal is to reduce paperwork at um an intake documents to only what
the funders require including avoidance of collecting unnecessary documentation
Beyond basic funding requirements to support housing goals right the goal is
to get them in into housing and yes we understand that there's so many other barriers but we believe every client is
housing ready so let's get what's needed required by the funer required by our
program get them into permanent housing and continue to collect documents as
needed to ensure that we're still able to get them to maintain that housing um
for their long-term goals uh there's low barrier access and retention policies
within the program termination is going to going to be the last resort for psh
and and um many of our other programs um sustaining tency is the goal and
focusing on the client defined goals as well so how do we support them in their current housing what Supportive Services
do we need to wrap around them in their home to make sure that they're able to maintain that housing if they violate
their lease and it does turn into an eviction that does not mean termination from the program but how can we support
them with what what do we need to address what goals may need to be changed in order for their next housing
goal to be a long-term housing placement um it should be robust and
flexible with multi-disciplinary teams or access to multi multidisiplinary teams within the community to support
all the needs and services that they'll have to maintain that long-term housing stability and then making sure once
again employing those with lived experience at all levels of the
organization next slide so when it comes to mainstream and
retention um there's a continued focus on um and I think we meant maintenance
and retention on housing retention as a primary service goal um with focus on
overcoming tency barriers and avoiding situations that would lead to eviction
so this is as we assess our part um participants with in program programs and we're looking at our programs from a
high level um what are we noticing as many challenges to retention right
sometimes we can find Trends within our program there's certain tendency barriers that we notice within a rapid
re housing program or a permanent Supportive Housing program that may lead to evictions as a program as a community
what are we doing to support our participants and make sure that we have
um adequate um supports and ways to address those barriers um are we relying
on roommate or other creative arrangements to create long-term affordability and support um in networks
in housing and communities I know here in Raleigh um a lot of challenge that we
had was some of our participants would say we're moved into the community with
no support um no one that understands our housing situation and over the last
10 years we've really be up our shared living um and that has definitely helped
with our long-term housing stability so once again not just from a client Center
perspective but as a system as a community um we notice Trends and how do we address those barriers um at in a
system level and that took a lot of Engagement with landlords and programs
um to engage in shared living toolkits and trainings across our community um
when we're doing exit planning um is it focused on the ability to
retain a unit and access um mainstream or specialized results results so are we
connecting to those Supportive Services um and and
coordinating coordinating efforts to make sure that our benefits are there our supports are there to maintain
housing in the long term are we creating Partnerships with our housing owners and
phas is um to create priorities for mainstream vouchers for people experiencing homelessness or
transitioning from housing related programs and then are we also educating
our staff um for Community related or historical racis racism or mistreatment
of marginalized groups and strategies to ensure Fair access to housing regardless
of population type next
slide and we just wanted to put this in here a note about sober living um we
want to make sure that it's not antithetical of H of the housing first model um there's a few things that we
want you to consider if a participant chooses sober living we want to make
sure that it's a part of their housing plan and they've been afforded other housing options that do not require
sobriety um we want to make sure that the recovery based housing options are
not the only option we're providing to them we want to make sure that termination and eviction policies
heavily lean to towards preserving program enrollment and pre prevention
and if for some reason that this particular recovery based housing setting is not appropriate for someone
that the program they're enrolled in actively relocates and provides housing navigation Services before
termination um we believe that the housing Pro that the participants should
have tenant rights in a permanent housing setting um or near full rights in non-permanent housing
settings next slide so if you noticed in every component of the system we discussed um
lived experience including those with lived experience into um how we are
engaging and directing the system um and including those with lived experience as
a part of the system stakeholders can help Advance Equity throughout our homeless system um by engaging in
meaning meaningful engagements with those with lived experience um and systems in program programmatic
implementations that are more relevant and responsive um when we're talking about
Equity we're talking about the proportional representation of opportunities um representation by class
or race or gender of opportunities in housing and Healthcare and employment and all other indicators of uh healthy
life um we've reached Equity when we're talking about a particular demographic
in identification is no longer an indicator of housing economic or other
health outcomes um so when we're talking about meaningfully engaging with those with
lived experience um you can go to the next Slide the next two slides are just going
to talk about you know the difference between a meaningful engagement and an inauthentic engagement um the engaging
those with lived experience is a two-fold process one Studies have shown
that um Li those engaged in lived experience those have that have come from housing crisis situations and then
are asked to re-engage with the system and uh leadership or advisory role um
Fosters the dignity and worth of a person it helps them to have a meaningful Conn connection not to A
system that they have just gone through but helping to coordinate and evolve it to help meet the needs um in a long term
and then from the systems perspective we're really um being able to identify
more dynamically how do we engage appropriately sometimes we don't know what we don't know um in coordination
with those with lived experience helps us to broaden our Horizons think more deeply and dynamically about access and
engagement prioritization efforts within our system and also understand the ever
evolving challenges that are happening within our community from a different lens um so when we're talking about
meaningful engagement we're fostering relationships we're creating a collaborative environment and including
those um willing to share as the highest priority next
slide um we're also all o ing opportunities for transparency what worked and didn't worked on both ends of
the spectrum um sharing missteps with community members um and allowing
opportunities for humility dedication but also Improvement within the system
um we also want to make sure that those meaningful engagements are happening um
once again right time right place are we meeting um outside of regular business
hours are we considering the space that would be um meaningful or helpful for
our individuals with lived experience to be able to share comfortably um in those
spaces and then understanding that contributions of those with lived experience are valued and
prioritized um making sure that decision makers are in the room so those with lived experience feels like it's not
just a listening session but they're really helping to um make Dynamic change
within the system next slide and I think you're taking over
Doug yeah thank you um Chelsea very much for all of that and there's some good
chat uh happening as well um and Mandy again just raising up nothing for us
without us I think has been a really important theme that we've seen across uh communities uh we did want to open
this up a little bit and kind of pause our our slide rotation here and uh get
some input from you and I think even uh your system leadership chrisy at the helm for coordinated entry uh I know
that that is continue to change and you commented a little bit chrisy but we do have these couple of questions for discussion either in the chat or coming
off mute the first being more about the larger policies and procedures uh and how your your overall
Court entry process or New Hampshire's balance of State as a system is targeting certain populations and
prioritizing those populations uh within you know with that theme of ensuring
that those with the with the greatest housing barriers are um prioritized for
resources first and then coming back down uh that only works if we continue
to reduce barriers to access and one of the things that Chelsea mentioned across a number of the components that we see
Time and Time and Time Again are programs that have uh uh an absorbent
sort of uh data collection processes that actually don't lead to anything productive um especially projects that
are collecting data that goes far and above what your funders require uh we
often see intake packets of 15 and 20 Pages worth of paper about somebody that
uh when HUD or your your your funding source only requires a few data points
we wanted to open up this discussion how are you uh as a as a group prioritizing
certain populations what does that look like and then how once those populations are prioritized have you worked within
your programs or even across uh Partnerships to reduce barriers to access getting folks document ready with
minimal documentation requirements based on what your funding source says and not necessarily layering on additional
paperwork burdens that aren't necessary so we're going to leave this question up but I am going to give a pause and see
if we have folks in the chat or who want to come off mute to discuss uh one or both of these questions and and try to
get some other voices besides mine and Chelsea at the table so we'll pause there and see if we have any brave souls
who want to jump in on these questions go for it
Freeman yes Freeman I see your hand yeah you could have guessed I'd be the loud mouth I should have just called on you
Freeman I knew you'd start us off I'm trying to keep my mouth shut shy is not one of my traits um so how does our our
system targets certain populations for a prioritization boy well I think that's
something chrisy and I and the you know the the boss CES subcommittee are are trying to address and fix on a on a
day-to-day basis that's kind of the Ana of everything we're doing right now is making sure that we're targeting people
in an ex in an equitable way so that everybody gets into the right type of housing right because that's a theme I'm
hearing a lot today is is making sure that not just housing first is fantastic
but when you live in a state that's not set up for it like ours it becomes really tricky to do it
properly um you know how do we reduce burdens in uh to access including
minimal documentation and program rules um well you
know any time I'll use our housing stabilization
fund as an example like we have reached out to like our friends at the Bureau of homeless services to figure out like all
right what exactly do I have to require like do I have to have someone go to welfare because that in itself could be
a barrier um you know is this application too long is there a way we
could condense it but still meet the requirements of what it needs are we required to require certain types of
identification or is it really just something that makes us feel good um you know I do think that there's a lot of
housing first programs that are operating within our state that won't
enroll people unless they have all the IDS up front and people miss out on housing opportunities as a result of not
being able to secure uh you know the right types of documentation so that in itself is not
housing first in my opinion you know but there are other issues because there are
certain requirements where we're required to produce certain types of documentation so I think some times the
uh documentation requirements are direct in in direct contradiction of housing first um and they actually create the
burdens uh to housing the other piece I would add is um when you're in an area
and and we have done a good job building exclusive relationships with property owner agents that will do things like
not run a background check and just understand that some of the people I'm working with um are are not going to
have good credit or any credit or may have uh legal entanglements or other barriers to housing um and that there's
an agreement that we will uh because we're a housing first program that we will case manage these issues as
problems arise and we will case manage these issues in advance to prevent them from becoming a problem so that the
participants not ret traumatized however I do feel as though rapid rehousing programs and permanent
Supportive Housing Programs have been become a Dumping Ground for the mentally ill um and uh you know there's no one on
my staff that is clinical and there is a severe lack of path funding so when
we're talking earlier about having to um uh have a robust system of
multi-disciplined professionals I'm in agreement with that 110% but like they said in that old movie Jerry Maguire
show me the money um because if you're not going to pay the
cmhc's to do this work and I'm not saying you I'm just saying you know the
Royal you if if you will um then then then these systems can't be put into
place right and we're we're putting people into housing uh under a housing first model who are destined to be ret
traumatized and be unhoused again because they're being placed into
housing um that even with our best wishes and intentions they're not right
for they they need some sort of stepping stone solution so I guess what I would say is um housing first is great but you
have to build the structure uh before it can work properly I think in this state
all of the people on this call do a brilliant job at um living housing first
I think that we're often met with really bad outcomes because the underlying
Foundation of what housing first should be that support structure that safety net those multi-disciplined
professionals like there's just not enough of them to shake a stick at all the people that we're serving that are
suffering in ways that that your average rapid rehousing team or permanent
Supportive Housing team is not qualified nor should they have to be qualified to
address um so uh and the other piece and then I'll shut up is the sober living
piece so sober living is one of the only options that is presented for a lot of
the participants we're working with um we certainly never ever ever ever require sobriety um people have heard me
say this one a lot I'm not here to tell people to stop using drugs I don't care if you can handle your stuff and you're
you're you're kind to your spouse and you're you're you know you're paying your bills and you're showing up to case
management it matters not to me if you're using substances I just want you to live long enough to get past that or
help you be safe enough to continue using substances without it causing an adverse impact to your health or
well-being um but sober living is a tool in our kit um in psh we can't even put
somebody into sober living because they don't offer um one-year leases so people
simply in the interest of housing first it's not housing first to take an option off the table um because it doesn't
offer a one-year lease that to me is contradictory to housing first
um so thoughts feedback tell me I'm wrong please I I just want to elevate I
appreciate all those comments Freeman and um and I and it looks like uh is it
U Mandy put in the chat something I think's really important is that Homeless Services tend to be the result
of other structural failures so a lot of what we talk about um is you know your ability to do some of these things is
based on other systems of care that simply aren't strong enough or robust enough in the state of New Hampshire and
frankly in Most states um I think we're probably kind of midlevel in New Hampshire in terms of like the uh the
commitment the funding the structures around um Community Based mental health and other types of outside mainstream
resources there are certainly states that do frankly much better than we do on those Investments and there are some
states that do much worse uh but uh regardless it it continues to be a
challenge I would uh also uh wanted to highlight from the chat um the point
that was made around uh tradeoffs with serving fewer people so uh with all of
what Freeman said in mind you know uh perhaps an unpopular opinion but one that I hold is that we often need to
serve given the level of need within the community and the lack of robust other
mainstream resources we often do need to serve maybe fewer people to be able to
serve them well and what we've seen you know in different places is we try to
maximize the overall number of participants because it makes us more competitive for our grant or we say this
amount of money can serve this number of people and we feel held to that and the
the um the resource that we can provide to those people case whether it's the service side of the house or the rental
assistance and subsidy side of the house is not enough to adequately serve them so we have lots of people we don't serve
well and then to your point Freeman they get losing housing it becomes harder and
harder to rehouse right so it is something to think about from the funer level on the line all the way down to
those who are seeking these types of programs and designing them what is the tradeoff between your overall gross
number of folks uh who are served versus being able to serve a you know a smaller
amount of people but serve them better and be able to achieve better outcomes for those folks that's always a constant
tension that I think is important um and we're going to dive more deeply I think some of that documentation piece that
you brought up as well Freeman um it was David I think that had a hand up David do you want to come off
mute yes uh so thanks uh kind of echoing because I work with Freeman's group
quite a bit um the one question on here of how does your system Target certain
populations uh I think we're trying to do a fairly good job here in New Hampshire with targeting just the
veteran population by having uh Outreach workers and teams go out
with the other Outreach people so when we do come across veterans we can kind of we have the people in place on that
team to work with them exclusively um so that is one thing but as far as like
Freeman said reducing the amount of paperwork I've got a perfect example
with um one that I'm trying to work with now he was with another agency but they
can't serve him due to his service and we're going to have to redo all of the paperwork that they've already done so
it's just a kind of a tough situation sometimes where you're stuck with the
system requirements of what your agency needs as far as paperwork I can't take
their paperwork I've got to redo a whole intake packet with this person that's
been working with this Agency for a month now so that's one of the things we definitely need to look at um is you
know can your paperwork cross over to mine so we don't have to have this person reinvent the wheel for
sure dou I'm GNA chime in for a hot second please do I was gonna call you in on that one thank you
twitching um So currently our system we for the COC projects and the youth
projects at least we do Target specific populations for those housing
opportunities because we have domestic violence um projects we have a project for human trafficking and we are
building up our youth p portfolio across the board um and I think most of you
know Waypoint is now doing youth coordinated entry across the balance of state which is
phenomenal um and we do have the veteran specific Regional access point as
well it we're not currently targeting them for prioritization but they're
prioritized based on the eligible permanent housing opens that we have and I would say one of the big
things that we're looking at is reducing Bur access is utilizing case conferencing to get people document
ready so that when there is an opening we have those documents they're uploaded into hm and everyone has access to those
so that we don't have to recreate the wheel hopefully too much um but making sure we have all their vital docs their
homeless dis homeless verifications their disability verifications and that those are uploaded into
hmis Christy I'm G to I'm going to keep you off mute for a moment this is a little off topic but you brought it up
and it's not in this session um I uh one of the things that I think we've seen
over the last decade of of these coordin entry policies and and requirements coming into play was this pendulum right
between uh you know freefor all who wherever you walk in a door you know that's now your service package or not
to everything is going to be based on how we numerically score human beings and sort of spreadsheet and pretend we
understand what they need and I think New Hampshire has done a really nice job and other states as well in in bringing
that pendulum back toward the middle and balancing uh access um uh you know that
documentation piece that you're continuing to work on the assessment piece but also case conferencing which
is that link I think between kind of a clinical or vulnerability assessment and the professional judgment that we all
carry on this call to really talk about who the who these human beings really are versus a score could you just just
for anyone who may be on there's 55 folks on the call I have to think there's a couple maybe that aren't as familiar with where you are with case
conferencing now what that is meant to do for coordinated entry because I I I I'm a firm believer that we need to
continue to infuse that that discussion as part of our prioritization and not only rely on scores and I think that's a
balance you've been trying to strike so I hate to put you on the spot chrisy but I think this is also a passion ask you
um so case conferencing um we actually just talked about this at our internal Bureau meeting on Monday um we currently
have case conferencing in Sullivan Chesire March bellnap and Western Rockingham counties
there's also veteran case conferencing and youth case conferencing as well um
we're working on building up case conferencing in the other areas that we do not have it in yet um but what we
really look at is identifying the most vulnerable people on those Regional prioritization lists and having a
conversation and trying to creatively problem solve Housing Solutions um and really looking
at can does this person need housing more than the other person and what are
we doing in having those Clin not really clinical conversations but the conversations about why these people
need housing what else can we do to assist them who can we connect them too um and we've had I we just had one
yesterday case conference and we had several people who were connected to permanent housing which is
phenomenal um so we're really looking to grow that across the rest of the state and it really does help having I can
probably tell you like everyone who is on a Case conferencing list across the balance of state so I can even like I
don't have a face to a name but I have a name for a number from each of my S um
and I can tell you about these people and what they're going through and so that we can really look at their
vulnerabilities are they being prioritized correctly and how can we help them get connected to
housing you feel like I got off topic and was rambling I think I I think I got you off topic chrisy that's okay it's
okay um other folks that want to chime in on this conversation around uh how you're
prioritizing whether you're and and we can even bring this down right systems rely on programs if your program is in a
position where it's difficult to accept those referrals or have had to adapt to accept referral referrals you know what
does that look like um have you been able to reduce document burdens uh I'll give an example as folks you know
continue to ponder if they willing to come off mute we we were in a training for some veteran work recently and we
had the funders with us and we were talking about a numerous different things one of which was um uh same day
access to programming so rapid engagement enrollment and projects and a case manager raised their hand and said
why do we have to have a 30-page intake packet the response after the the fun
from the VA basically like fainted right was you don't and you need to talk to
your boss and stop doing that because we don't require a 30 page intake packet they require it's probably two or three
pages worth of of information in order to enroll somebody so the barrier to just accessing basic Services was
entirely contained or or primarily contained within the organization to to to Freeman's Point making the
organization feel good about what they've collected or feeling like they needed more then was actually going to contribute toward enrollment or
ultimately their housing plan has anyone else worked through that or done audits of your of your intake documentation or
or internal policies that allow you to be more efficient with these types of intakes so I know frean wants to talk
but I'm gonna BHS does review all your policies and procedures and we've really tried to
standardize all of the forms and say why do you need this form like this is what
you need and I know no one likes when I say this but we technically have 45 days to collect all that documentation even
after their enrolled in a COC project um and I know the hesitancy is to make sure
that they're actually eligible for your projects but we do have that time period even if they're enrolled in a permanent
housing project to gather all that documentation on the other hand we're also really using case conferencing to
get that docu those documents up into hmis that we absolutely need Freeman I'm
going to be quiet now it's your turn yeah no hey everything you're
saying is Right Christie um and that was kind of the point I tried to you know make earlier which is like we can enroll
somebody in a project we can start assisting them and sometimes when they're already in our uh house so to
speak um it's a lot easier to secure those documents rather than working through a third-party agency as a middle
uh uh an intermediary is the best way to say it um you know but what I was going
to add um and it's it's pretty much in line with what doug was saying is that I'll give an example of a best practice
that we've started employing um not that long ago which is to many of our agencies offer many products and that's
kind of how I refer to our different um uh grants or housing um options so we've
started to uh leverage the ability to dual enroll people um to increase better
out to to to add to better outcomes uh under that that housing first philosophy
right so if we're working with people that are already saddled with many many many um uh things to overcome in order
to uh to gain housing stability not the the grants that we're
serving people through whether it be ESG Rapid rehousing or the Continuum aare permanent Supportive Housing that I
oversee or the state housing stabilization fund for my agency um um
you know we found that sometimes just one of those programs doesn't necessarily cut it so rather recently
what we've started doing is dual enrolling people uh who are in ESG and
in the permanent Supportive Housing program in the state housing stabilization fund as long as they're eligible to uh bolster those households
with some of the allowable activities um for instance um if we're identifying
that one of the reasons we're having problems with a participant in the rapid re housing program is that we can't
reach them well the state housing stabilization fund right now at least for my agency has more money to address
those types of hard needs those those urgent needs um and we can dual enroll a household that is uh let's say in ESG
for Rapid rehousing we can build a rental assistance uh bucket on state
housing stabilization fund because now they're housed they've been placed um we can buy them pots and pans in a sofa and
fix their car so they can go back to work so they need us for a shorter period of time or pay for their plumbers
license renewal which is something we did recently for a gentleman who came out of incarceration um and uh noticing that
we're able to uh not that anything we're doing is rapid um because like the
housing stock is the housing stock and vouchers take how long they take um but we are more quickly I'm noticing moving
people through our funnel and that's where I'm going with this we developed a funnel where uh going forward when we
renew in July with ESG I get a very small bucket of money for rental assistance lights laptops everything
Outreach it's all in one bucket um and if I were to try and serve uh somebody
for two years with that even though I technically could it wouldn't be wise to do so it's better to enroll them in ESG
do the housing placement the case management through ESG give them their first in security if they're literally
homeless and then immediately dual enroll uh or exit to State housing
stabilization fund and the same can be done with psh um for a couple of reasons there's
benefits um you're recertifying people every 90 days with State housing stabilization fund and there are uh
there's more money to buy things that people need which often really increase housing stability um which I think
really supports that housing first model you're you're meeting all those basic needs so that a person's not just in a a
apartment sleeping on the ground with a mattress they're now in an apartment with the Dignity of a bed a sofa the
pots and pans they need and they're not thinking about those basic needs they're thinking about their housing stability
goals which is where I want them thank you Freeman uh just on the
point of co-enrollment you know that you've got a that housing stabilization fund is a really great opportunity to to
supplement and complement services and for anybody on the line who works with
veterans there's a lot lot of effort right now in the veteran space to promote what VA is calling their one
team approach but essentially what it does is it breaks down those silos between programs and allows for those
complimentary Services even across a traditional Housing Programs so co-enrollment between uh transitional
and Rapid rehousing settings co-enrollment between rapid rehousing and psh where say rapid rehousing has
more capacity to do housing navigation Services psh is able to focus more on the clinical side of the work there's a
lot happening in the V space so if there are VA Partners on the line or or or ssvf or Grant prum you know you
hopefully are hearing and beginning to implement a lot of messaging out of the va's national office around
co-enrollment and complimentary service packages that may uh be useful kind of
Lessons Learned as we think about the civilian population or other specialized populations as well I think youth here
is is a good example older adults uh connecting to gec care and other types of clinical support is also another good
example uh anyone else we do have some more uh slides we're going to get through we have about a half hour left
anyone else want to comment off mute before I move us into the next part of the discussion some of which will be a
little bit redundant to this conversation but we'll we'll dive into it so give it a second here of course I
want to speak again the only other thing I would say is we do try to match people to the appropriate Housing Resource but
we also offer them the Housing Resource we have available and If you have anybody in
your agent IES or projects or whatever who needs a different type of housing please reach out to me so because we do
have a procedure to transfer people to different projects and let's not talk about match
anymore that can go away I know I I wanted to highlight that and Christy I think that's a good setup and and I
think some of what uh is already happening uh in New Hampshire falls in line with this but as we think about you
know what does that mean um we're not going to get into uh while Christy and feel free to
chime in on New Hampshire's specific process but we want to give this kind of broader overview that I think the state
has made uh progress in in many of these areas or is kind of Midstream and some around what what does it mean to think
about housing first approaches in a in a broader Court entry process right so Chelsea really dug into you know the the
the programs or types of interventions and how those uh are related to housing first and in future sessions we're going
to dive more deeply into that what does it really look like from a shelter perspective or Outreach perspective but
we have to use those but ultimately those programs especially in new hampture where you've got uh a lot of
strong leadership coming out of BHS in terms of trying to create standard policies across uh the state or across
the balance of State um uh that uh your programs have to be responsive to how
the court entry process is is defined and the cour entry process adapts and
defines based on what programs are a available you know to Freeman's point when you are uh not only in a finite
Housing Resource environment but also your other mainstream programs so as we think about it from the four primary
components of coordinated entry which we've done trainings on in this space before the first being access uh making
sure that those access points are clearly defined and easily accessible and culturally diverse so there's been a
lot of mapping that has happened across the state around ensuring that folks who are in a crisis whether it be via 211 or
physical access points have somewhere to go and there's always then a question
that we we continue to ask ourselves no ma no matter how often we've answered it is are those access points accessible
are the uh is the ability to connect with someone either virtually or or physically uh apparent to the broader
community and and particularly the community of people that are more likely to fall into a crisis those in poverty
those from marginalized groups those that may be in areas of the state that are less service rich and there are less
uh connections and then within that do we have a culturally diverse uh way for
folks to to do that so for instance we've seen a lot in certain cities uh
there are predominant uh you know either uh religious affiliations or other sort of cultural affiliations where those
cities or states really need to adopt their services there are uh this isn't quite as true in New Hampshire though I
think it is in some areas where uh if you I've worked in states where predominantly there shelter and Outreach
staff for bilingual and speak you know Spanish or or other uh languages that
are predominant uh there's a a portion of the city of Boston where the primary shelter and Outreach settings uh those
folks have to speak Mandarin because it's got a heavy Chinese population uh there are other parts of this uh state
in this country where you may have a predominant um Muslim populations or
Jewish populations or other types of religious affiliations that we have to be responsive to right in an Outreach
setting it is uh not necessarily something that we we don't prioritize based on religion but it's good to
understand how folks religion or spiritual followings or other types of cultural ident identifications are going
to contribute to their ability to work with you right um and that also means
that we look for those unique places or programs where those groups may be engaged uh on the veteran space we see a
lot of success within um you know veteran related networks and uh uh uh
some of the sort of local clubs and other sort of support systems that exist for veterans or or military personnel in
other places we may see that certain racial populations are either congregating or interacting with uh
certain types of services or even sort of community events uh we may see that within School settings we may see that
Within in uh cultural events we may see that within uh places of worship right
so what are the areas where we may be able to engage with people who are
otherwise uh not necessarily going to either have the desire or the capacity
to find us that we need to find out there in this state uh this includes uh
folks that may be living um unsheltered in the woods or up in the north country or parts of the state that are extremely
rural or in the mountain areas what is that look like from an engagement perspective when somebody is uh not
camping necessarily on the streets of Manchester or Portsmith but are actually camping in the in the White Mountains or
in the National Forest those are likely to be uh folks that have different needs
and desires for what types of services they're going to engage with and that then transcends into how we develop our
access and Outreach points the Staffing that we do that with the the mapping we do around that and then moving into
as people access our services uh how do we assess folks that uh uh is is client
centered and in trauma informed uh one of the things that we've talked about a lot and I highlighted in the chat uh as
well as Mandy uh was this sort of Need for these really robust relationship
building uh conversations and efforts from the get-go most people who are
homeless uh historically have been denied services or denied trusting relationships or been told no or
disempowered for parts or much of their life right other systems have failed them if we think about marginalized
groups and disproportionality in things like criminal justice or foster care uh if we think about the way the general
population and and and some political leadership across our state and Country will view or speak about people who may
be homeless we know that folks uh the engagement that we have with people may
be the only true opportunity for authentic engagement that person has had with some sort of system of care so when
we're assessing folks that's where we talk about that phased assessment approach that we've been promoting and I
know Mandy's team has continued to put policy around here in the state of New Hampshire we do not start with a scoring
sheet that asks them to tell us everything about everything they've done wrong in their life so that we can
assign a point value to them part of a phased approach is that relationship building aspect working with them to try
to understand other types of supports looking at how we can use motivational
interviewing we can use uh Client Center counseling we can use harm reduction approaches to try to help people you
know to Freeman's earlier point there are plenty of people who are actively using drugs and alcohol or have active
mental health issues in the state who are not homeless and will never become homeless so it's often only on those
folks who do fall into homelessness that we place these conditions on their ability uh to R retain housing and
oftentimes we rest their ability to retain housing based on whether or not they're willing to accept or engage in
Services relative to that mental health or substance abuse uh Disorder so are there ways that we can use that phased
approach employ those practices which require training and really be
intentional about how we're accounting for their life experiences as we're assessing that is why your current
assessment tool is not designed to be used the day you meet somebody it is
designed to be a disposition of a recording of information that you have
likely been able to collect and understand in building that relationship I put in the chat earlier and and this
is really Falls in this assessment bucket and this is not a training on diversion but I think we're missing huge
opportunities across this country to help people connect back to their uh housing unit where you have unlawful or
expedited evictions where they don't need to leave the unit and simple legal services or mediation would be able to
um negotiate that most landlords don't want to evict people uh if they can help it if we can create an environment with
with kind of a a mutual benefit between the landlord and the Tenant um uh many
people have family and friend supports within their community that we can tap into that uh may take that mediation may
take that service connection may take a little bit of a leap of faith for folks I've had people in my family who without
support from my and my house my physical house uh would not have had a place to stay for a short period of time and we
were willing to take them in uh and that is because they ask for that help but there are many people who will not ask
for that help or where Bridges have been burned maybe not all the way down but but you know they're charred out pretty good and we have to recreate those
connections but if we can think about assessment not as the pipeline to a
waiting list but rather the the active collaboration with people to try to end
their homelessness as quickly as possible some of those folks that we've been talking about that have you know
severe and persistent mental illness who uh have significant substance use issue have significant traumas and health
conditions may not have gotten to that point if we had an opportunity to intervene earlier and find other
creative ways to link them to housing so assessment uh should be seen as a
process that allows us to uh explore housing options at any given point in
somebody's crisis not as our pipeline or first step in a process to put somebody
onto a waiting list that they may not be able to move off of with a a housing subsidy for quite some time then as we
move along in that process right uh we are uh helping people access with those
creative ways we're making sure to reduce that barrier both in terms of their own uh barriers and
vulnerabilities as well as the paperwork and the and the and the rules we put on on conditions of occupancy or conditions
of Engagement we are working through the assessment process not to assess the pipeline to the waiting list but to
assess how quickly we can find an alternative to them being homeless some people may be uncomfortable uh but they
won't be homeless as long as they're safe others will then need to go through our longer Term prioritization Policy
right we're not going to be able to divert everybody most people or many people who end up homeless for a period
of time will need some level of support in order to re Access housing even if that's light touch and in some it's
going to be a much deeper level of support so our prioritization policy is
uh uh necessitated by the fact that we don't have enough of the right resources for the right people at the right time
and we have to make collectively or you all collectively have to make the really difficult decision between two people
who desperately need help and there's only one slot or resource available how
do we make those really difficult decisions it is not to say that anybody who's homeless uh doesn't need help and
should and should remain homeless because they can figure it out themselves but it is to say that if we
don't have enough for everybody the way that we our resources are defined now and the demand on those resources we
have to have a way to make uh those difficult decisions and that is what's uh chrisy spoke to right how do we make
sure that housing is prioritized as part of coordinated entry that that system is
dynamic and you know we've talked about this before where um the uh the sort of
interim model from uh everybody uh it gets you know um uh you know we we sort
of throw uh everything at everybody who walks in the door to a heavily restricted model is is allowing that
system to flex to say yes this person has significant vulnerabilities that we've identified on paper but they have
assets within their uh within their life that may make them successful within uh a rapid rehousing program and if that
doesn't work maybe we can escalate to psh because we've tried that stabilization of Housing and it's not
going to be a good fit others on paper may not look like they necessarily need
psh but perhaps there are other circumstances that we bring together in case conferencing to to talk through
that and try to make the best decisions that we can or at least uh make the best offers of housing that we can and that
allows us that flexibility right um and we're we're reserving those more intensive resources for those who are
more vulnerable but if those resources and intensity of resources are not available and somebody can safely live
in housing on their own and I know there are some folks that cannot right away um then we're able to offer them some other
intervention right with housing as a stabilizing Force we may need to take chances on some people it may be that
some people are unsuccessful that we try to of course mitigate against that and then we use our psh portfolio to really
try to hone in on those uh uh folks that are least likely to succeed without that deeper longer term subsidy so from a um
a quore entry perspective we also consider Equity somebody had put in the chat earlier uh when we asked about the two
words that uh New Hampshire is quote mostly white those were the two words and that's true but it is also true that
disproportionately in poverty and uh and I don't know your data so I'm not going to say it outright but it's likely that
your inflow to homelessness is disproportionately uh gravitating toward marginalized groups in particular across
racial lines and and also likely across uh uh gender ident identity and sexual
orientation those generally are those types of populations that we're seeing inflow to and communities are doing a
great job in creating more Equitable outflows around that but your assessment tool right now begins to account for
some of these right begins to account for the types of systems people have uh
uh interacted with over their lifespan or over their over their time that predominantly or or gravitate more
toward those marginalized populations again criminal justice is a really good example we know that at least nationally
um uh folks who are uh black or indigenous or people of color are more
likely to have been engaged with and uh been uh incarcerated by our Criminal
Justice System then their white counterparts even for the same infractions or crimes and so knowing
that we also understand that criminal histories then transcend into housing opportunities and options and that then
transcends into that inflow of folks that may become homeless because their past criminal histories or credit
histories or whatever it may be are leading them not to be able to access permanent housing on their own and
regardless of whether or not those uh criminal histories um are rested in
truth in that person's history we know that it is going to contribute toward a more inequitable foundation for their
housing goals so part of our our focus on Equity is trying to understand those
nuances through those problem solving approaches through that phased assessment looking at uh data and trying
to understand disparities at both the system and program level at the system level are there differences between
racial or gender identities on the inflow side on the assessment side on
the referral side on the housing side and on the retention side throughout the Continuum of services are there areas
where folks of different identities are uh failing more often and are there ways
that our system can adapt to that and also our programs there was a really great example of a rapid rehousing
program I had worked with in the past and and some of you may have heard this that recognized that their intake their
hous uh time to lease up and their initial uh income and employment connections were consistent across
racial populations uh I think this was predominantly for males or for men and
uh but what they were seeing was uh black men were returning to homelessness at a higher rate or at a quicker rate
than their white counterparts after program exit so that project level looked at their data looked at the
different reasons that might occur and realized that those folks who were leaving with employment at consistent
rates their white counterparts had longer lengths of employment prior to program exit than did their
African-American or black counterparts and so their employment in their white cohort was more solid right that first
month or six weeks is always you know there's always a learning curve that's your probationary period That's when you
find out whether this job May uh hold or not and so while the overall enrollment
characteristics across racial lines were consistent the exits were looking different and it was be partly because
their employment partners and their employment opportunities had had disperate impacts across racial lines
they adjusted their program to put in more concrete uh uh uh program exit
planning which they coordinated with their their Continuum of Care and their case conferencing team and they saw that
those outcomes began to align where the white counterparts or the white coort was continuing to see a similar level of
success and their uh black counterparts of the same age group of men were coming up to those similar success rates just
by making adjustments to their exit policies as a Continuum and then within that program because of the disparities
they saw so using data you know that that wasn't a hard change they added a level of supervision and a level of
review what that income and that job looked like they did a little bit more Outreach with employers and and the and
the participants to figure out what was going to stick and what was not in far as income supports and that gave them a
better informed opportunity to either Exit that person from Rapid rehousing or continue to keep them enrolled for an
extra four weeks six weeks eight weeks to make sure that that income stream was real and that was going to be sustained
that little change made a difference not only in the aggregate but at the client
level and who is having a more successful tendency uh that otherwise may not have because their employment uh
was not solid yet and then we used all of these things that we learned to elevate people lived experience to
provide that feedback I know the state's done good work here I would say regardless of policies that require this
at the at the organizational level uh we are a country of uh uh predominantly
based on the data uh you know white middle class social workers right and it is not necessarily true that white
middle class social workers are the people who are experiencing homelessness so how do we use our organizational
capacity our hiring practices uh our our kind of system Partners to really
Elevate those that have lived experience of homelessness those that look like and have similar experiences to the people
we're trying to support so we can create those pieces and then this comes down to
creating policies on funding that I'm sure chrisy can chime in to as well but you know part of this is about the money
the 50 people on the line some of you don't agree with anything I'm saying right now or someone that might watch
the Youtube video may think this is this is ridiculous people need to lift them up from their bootstraps and they need
to get sobered up and get back into housing but frankly your funding sources are now uh compelling you to do this
work so if you don't like what we're saying uh you can either not chase the funding you can uh FIB or or make up uh
what you're about to do on your funding applications you can find a new line of work right the funding priorities from
HUD and from the state are that we are committing to housing first that we're looking at those reasonable termination
and mediation policies now being audited by the state of New Hampshire we're committing to low barrier access and
we're going to talk about in future sessions low barrier access versus unsafe access how do we uh create those
spaces and that's another topic um and and funding that monitors that oversight
are you denying referrals from coordinated entry for arbitrary reasons or because you don't think somebody's
housing ready are you creating a greater documentation burdens that are making it more likely that somebody will disengage
from Services uh prior to their Housing Opportunity are we able to work as a as
a community to work together to support those clients through case conferencing through barrier busting uh to uh
Freeman's Point earlier to braid and blend programs and enrollments to meet those unique needs where one type of
project cannot support a certain types of cost or service how do we then uh Infuse other types of services or costs
that may be available and bring those together in a coordinated way and we focus all of these components on uh
permanent housing now we often to the chat Point earlier are the ones who are
working to uh absorb the failures of many other systems of care right but our
primary job is is to end homelessness we are not always going to end poverty that we need to work on income in order for
people to be able to sustain housing in in many cases we're not going to be a to solve substance use disorder in this in
this state or this country though we need to work with people on strategies to be able if they are actively using to
do so in a way where they can sustain their Tendencies or where they can have the the supports that they need right uh
we're not necessarily going to be able to uh help people resolve their their uh
past criminal histories or credit histories but we can create landlord relationships as partners and standards
with how we work with landlords to make sure housing access is available it was mentioned earlier about having dedicated
housing owners that have units available that only happens when you can create commitments that people can stand up to
and can feel comfortable around and that then leads us and we we talked about this in our last session to what the
outcomes look like it may be uncomfortable for us sometimes but but the outcom speak for themselves and and
and how uh uh we see people moving along we decrease that length of staying
shelters r large and often times uh for very specific people who have greater uh
needs we're reducing length of time to housing placement by reducing those say paperwork burdens to the point earlier
if it takes three weeks or two weeks to figure out how to get somebody's ID you've now lost and you don't need that
ID for some programs you've now lost two weeks and that person has spent two more weeks traumatized in homelessness if we
can set these systems up right with those Progressive assistance models that uh Christy spoke to in your policies we
can decrease recidivism into homelessness we can keep the length of time how's longer and what we've seen in
other states where they've done the data and I I'm sure it happens here though I don't know if we have the data that those who are most unhealthy that become
house are decreasing their ER visits they're improving their health conditions so if we need another
argument uh Beyond uh everything we've said not only are your funders making you do it not only is it a best practice
but frankly our taxpaying dollars are uh are paying for fewer Health emergencies
for people who are in housing it is expensive for somebody to be homeless it's very very expensive to our state to
our local communities to the federal government ultimately to us to have people lingering on the streets and so
even if you think they got to pull them themselves up on your bootstraps uh if you're just worried about where your tax dollars go uh the more that we can think
about housing as a a social determinant of Health uh and a way for us to save
not only lives but dollars and how those dollars interact with lives uh that all
contributes toward this the least healthy people are those that that are harder to house with the highest level
of of Health r related cost that we try to change and then of course increasing uh economic well-being one thing that we
wanted to mention before we start to close out here is that all of this requires training right and many of you
work at nonprofit organizations and I think the state has done a great job of trying to create I think there's a
YouTube channel I don't know if the the link went in there uh two different trainings the national allance then homelessness does a lot of great
training uh we hope to provide value in this setting as well but we need to make sure that if we're going to be working
uh within a housing first environment that not just the folks on the line but all levels of your staff understand that
we can't have housing first shelter settings if our intake staff have not been trained in some of the the
interventions or or approaches that you see here things like what is diversion really mean what does housing problem
solving mean what's different from that than come in doing a basic take in providing basic safety needs what is
trauma informed care and how does that work both from at a clinical and non-clinical level how can you do
motivational interviewing even if you're not trained to do so again from a clinical certified level how can you use
the principles to help people work through their goals to help them be safe when they're actively using or a mental
health crisis while still retaining tendency or working toward their housing pathway what does it mean to understand
our implicit and explicit biases right I'm a kind of you know what do you want to call it middle-age middle class white
guy from New Hampshire I do not have a similar experience to an African-American M female from Seattle
right I'm going to inherently have biases whether I like it or not when
working with people with different racial or cultural or economic backgrounds and that doesn't mean I can't work with those folks but it does
mean having an understanding of where those biases come from how to mitigate against those biases affecting people uh
in a negative way is really important and that happens from the from the custodian at the shelter all the way to
the CEO of the organization every level of the organizations um uh people have
biases and those biases contribute in some way uh either negatively or positively or in a neutral environment
toward the experience of participants you're working with um so with that we have a final discussion but I saw that
the chat was uh grazing my eye over here so we did want to just sort of open up
uh for other strategy IES that folks have found effective if you as you've come along in your journey on housing
first what I opportunities do you think there are for growth so where are some of the gaps that you'd like to see uh
all of us across the balance of State continue to harness or if Chelsea or or
um Christy have seen something in the chat they want to highlight or or bring up here before I have a chance to read
it we can bring those in as well so we've got about five minutes I'm going to pause and just open up the call and I'm GNA take a look at the chat
oops I stop sharing anybody have thoughts on areas
that you've seen for growth success that you've had in your organization that's worth sharing with others uh areas of
concern that you have around housing first that you'd like to bring up it's a this is a safe environment to have these
difficult conversations though we only have a few minutes left for
them just want to see more openings for the severely and persistently mentally ill um I want to see like integrative
housing and I want to see all the cmhc's pluck their openings from coordinated
entry um you know cherry picking your easy clients that stay engaged with you
like that's not going to make a dent in the Main Street issue um um got to serve the ones that that nobody wants to help
and showing success with the hardest to serve is I think how you can prove to everybody that that you're the
lighthouse and this is the way to do it thanks
Freeman well you've been with us now for about 88 and a half minutes um so I'm
going to see uh Christie I think we're about ready to close out here I want to turn it to you for anything that you'd like to offer before we uh give folks
their day back I don't have anything else to offer I love the comments in the
chat and I really enjoying this housing first training series and having all of you here together I will send out the
PowerPoint slides and once I get the video uploaded to YouTube I will share that link as well um we will compile an
entire list of all the links for these trainings once they're done in November for everyone as well
okay well thank you Christie thank you all for being with us today just want to call out Chelsea from from our team here
at Tac thank you Chelsea uh for your comments and and really the engagement in the chat and on the line uh we will
reconvene I think it's next month for our next session to start getting into more of the program level uh our next
session focused on uh Outreach and shelter settings that will be another session which we're going to be inviting
a lot of discussion because I think oftentimes the greatest expertise on these trainings are you not us so uh uh
come ready to type away or or speak um but we will see you all again in a month I'll send out the slides to Chrissy who
will distribute them out thank you all have a good rest of your Wednesday afternoon and we'll see you again soon
the next training is um June 20th and then we reconvene in September we
purposely did this um because of the noo for Continuum of Care and yhp projects
so we will see you in June thanks all
thanks thank you to
April 17, 2024
Introduction to Housing First, History, Myth Busting
Introduction to Housing First, History, Myth Busting
Introduction to Housing First, History, Myth Busting
Transcript of video:
very excited about um so without further Ado I present Doug
Tetro thanks chrisy uh and welcome everybody on this Wednesday morning thank you for joining us uh we are gonna
jump in here in a moment um and I actually do have a colleague with me so we'll introduce ourselves before we get
in um so as chrisy mentioned my name is Doug Tetro I am with Tac uh we're a
nonprofit organization but we operate much like a Consulting and training firm so we work with HUD and VA and
continuous of carers like yourselves focused on uh all things ending homelessness and I'm joined today and
and I I'll say too for those some of you have heard this from me before but I do hail from New Hampshire I am I live
currently in Manchester uh and oftentimes we work in different parts of the country so I always love to
reconnect uh with my local team here um so I did do a Hiatus in in Boston for a
little while but you don't have to judge me on that um I came back home uh ever more uh so that's me I'm going to be one
of the facilitators today uh also want to give my colleague Chelsea Mahoney an
opportunity to introduce herself so Chelsea do you want to introduce yourself yes good morning everyone my
name is Chelsea Mahoney I am with the technical assistance collaborative I am based out of Raleigh North Carolina and
excited to be uh co-presenting with you all today thank you Chelsea and fortunately
North Carolina doesn't have any major sport team rivals with New England so we'll let we'll let you stay on the call
here uh for a little bit um we're gonna jump in uh just with one second going
too fast um so as as Christie mentioned this is the first of a series that we're
putting together throughout the course of this year some of which may be refresher for some or old news some of
which may be new uh but it is designed to be a series so today we're really going to just begin to introduce the
concept and the history of housing first with a little bit of the myth busting that christe mentioned um uh probably
more geared toward folks who haven't been as exposed to housing first principles in the past and as we move
through the year we're going to build out kind of the foundation we build today into different places so thinking
about uh housing first at a system level what does it mean for things like coordinated entry and service design
then we'll get a little bit more focused on specific types of services in later sessions starting with how we Infuse
housing principles in our Outreach settings uh day centers or other shelter settings moving on then into uh similar
but but different uh pointers and discussion around how housing first Works in a rapid rehousing intervention
or permanent Supportive Housing and then we'll do a little bit more skills Focus as we go along and throughout the series
but also to Capstone at the end uh we'll be we'll be talking about how housing first principles and and homeless
systems in general can work to promote Equity um across populations uh as well
as using data uh to promote that so that is the sort of Arc of the narrative that
we're going to continue to build out and I will say that uh the purpose of these
trainings you know there's a lot of didactic we'll be using the chat some um but we really want to you know uh Bend
our discussions to meet your needs so today's really well preset folks can that would be great
to all right we're muted uh uh either way uh so we have not yet kind of
designed every one of these sessions and so I would invite folks to share feedback with Christie with the team on
what is most useful what may not be useful and we can we can sort of adapt as we go to make sure today we won't
have a ton of discussion base we wanted to see how many folks we going to be on we'll have some chat uh but we can certainly add like those
layers in as we go throughout the year so that's our overall agenda today we're going to kick in uh with uh a general
overview some of what it looks like in in action and then some uh discussion around Equity again this is our
foundation sort of 101 introduction to housing first for those of you who've been around for a while or feel like
you're really strong here we welcome you and encourage you to stay and listen uh carefully and and contribute in the chat
or if there's 's time to come off mute later uh but this will be kind of our level setting uh session in in that uh
spirit it looks like folks have already begun to introduce themselves in the chat would welcome you to continue to do
so if you've already put your name maybe add in your favorite New Hampshire spring activity um I'll just give mine
verbally uh my my wife and I started uh hiking more adamantly in this past
couple of years and we didn't get out to a decent hike uh this winter even though we invested in all the winter gear last
year uh so uh in two weeks we get back up north for our first hike of the spring so that's one of my new or
renewed favorite spring activities here in New Hampshire and uh we'll keep an eye on that uh we got other folks that
like to hike we should share some notes there kaying dog walking uh I like that one Christina got a dog last year and
it's definitely added my to my steps every day um visiting camp for spring
cleanup uh all sorts of good stuff so keep those going in the chat and we'll Jump Right In and uh we do have quite a
few slides here but we've got plenty of time so so we're talking about housing first
and this may mean different things to different people uh so we're going to at least Begin by defining housing first
and this is a framework it's not a program um you none of you run housing
first programs uh you may operate programs that follow the housing first
approach or principles or framework and it is centered on the belief that everyone can achieve stability and
housing out of homelessness and that stable housing is the foundational platform for folks pursuing other goals
and you know we've talked about over the years and and I've said and many on this call have probably said that housing is
a basic human right and I continue to believe that and I hope all of you do too the the Nuance to that is I actually
think that it's a basic human necessity when we think about our ability to navigate the complexities of every day
life um we often uh uh need the foundation of housing that allows us to
pursue those goals and so housing first is a way to think about housing as the
foundation for other types of goals whether it be income related family related recovery related goals if they
choose to pursue those and the the overall purpose is to quickly connect people uh to permanent housing and
recognizing that homelessness is a crisis and in order for us to
homelessness we have to remove uh maybe the historical or even current preconditions that we've put on folks uh
to Access housing things like uh enough income to sustain when we have uh the ability to provide those subsidies or
sobriety uh or or recovery or or treatment services and participation in
those Recovery Services as a condition of working to get people housed um it
also means that we need to be able to support people in maintaining that housing stability and recognize that
coming out of a of a crisis situation folks are going to need that support so it is not a complicated set of
principles though it may be a complicated and difficult practice to implement when we know that these four
or five bullets are sort of a utopian kind of Outlook around uh the ease with
which we can connect people who have significant housing barriers and needs into permanent housing but our kind of
premise starts with the idea that those who have the most significant barriers and needs are those who are most uh in
in dire need of being connected to housing and supported in that housing so that they can break down those barriers
and and and needs or at least be able to manage those barriers and needs in a safe environment uh in permanent housing
what I want to start with though is something that we've done on these trainings with this team or parts of
this team before and I think it's always worth resetting and reminding ourselves
of the folks that we're working with and the stress and Trauma that they're experiencing in that experience of
homelessness so often times we think of or sort of prejudge or have implicit or
explicit biases toward the people that the very people that we're trying to work with and this is not a fault of
anybody this is not a uh uh you know a shortcoming of our professional lives
but it's a reality of the human nature that we all experience so if we look at the folks on screen as we think think
about the folks we work with we encounter an African-American male experiencing homelessness uh 52 years
old he's late to the appointment he's been complaining and irritable perhaps suspicious you can smell liquor uh
they're not making eye contact UM or a white uh latinx woman who's experiencing
homel she's young uh she seems sad and hopeless she's worrying she's talking over you uh a mother of three uh very
young um she's not having difficult concentrating she's got poor hygiene think about what those negative
uh sort of inherent negative reactions may be that you feel uh whether or not you carry out any action based on those
negative reactions when you sort of encounter these types of folks in your daily work what are the judgments that
we often make on people just at first sight or first discussion that may uh
contribute toward our own biases and how we support that person or what we may think that person is cap AP able of
doing and in an in-person uh training experience we would do this as as a
group work but I I want you all to be thinking are these the types of folks that you may encounter in your
professional life and even if you are outwardly and proactively supportive and
recognizing their trauma where are those implicit biases or those negative reactions you may have to somebody who
walks into your office you have an appointment and they have liquor on their breath or somebody who's talking over you or not focusing on the task at
hand when you meet with them now think about uh in your own kind of Life a time
when you faced a very difficult situation uh it was very important to you you didn't feel that you had any
control over it and perhaps that that situation lasted uh more than a month or
or some prolonged period of time and let's open up the chat let's see how uh active we have folks I'm going to move
my chat over so I can see uh what are some of the ways that you felt and acted in your own life uh when faced this
difficult situation that was an important thing to you that felt like you were losing control and and that
have persisted for some period of time what are some whether it's you or common reactions or feelings that folks May
display when in these types of situations anxiousness thank you Robert nervous stressed other folks you're
angry thank you Daniel Panic um anxiousness scattered
bitter frustrated what are some other words that we angry
again distracted there's a lot of words here that begin to capture our three
fictional clients in the slide before any other Frozen right unw helplessness
feeling like you're drowning under that pressure disoriented frightened right on edge uh
that's I think on edge is a good word I recently went through a life change a few months ago and my wife for the first time in many years of us being together
man you're really on edge this week and I said well yeah there's a lot going on frantic right so we have these uh these
inherent reactions whether this way we act the way we feel not feeling like yourself and these can manifest
internally or externally uh based on the situation and and how long that goes along a lot of what you all are putting
in the chat and what we may have seen with the folks that we encountered in the slide earlier are uh clear signs of
symptoms and symptoms of stress and stress overload as defined by the Mayo Clinic and often times these symptoms
can resolve uh slowly or quickly uh but when the crisis is over and in this case
we again begin with the premise that housing allows us to mitigate against this crisis that we can begin to
self-resolve these symptoms but often times while folks are under an immense amount of stress they're experien a
significant amount of trauma their emotions and behaviors are are less under control right so then we think
about if we we start to recognize the stress that folks are under the stress that you all felt in those
situations quietly think now and take a second and I'll and I'll create an awkward pause here in just a moment to
allow you to a secret that no one knows about you and perhaps you don't want anyone to know about you and say I asked
you to write that secret on a piece of paper uh I told you we wouldn't share it but I asked you to write that down what
would you feel about that how would it make you feel to have to write down on a piece of of physical paper that secret
that deep Dart secret that nobody had ever heard uh and that you don't want to share what are some of the words that
come to mind or feelings and you can put those in the chat as
well what is I'm not asking for the secret I just want to know how does it make you feel if someone ask you to
write that secret down hesitant yep you don't trust me to
do that not trusting thank you Heidi uneasy why do I have to write this down terrified
embarrassed uneasy again good you don't want to do this right
even right now many of you may be uncomfortable thinking about the idea that you're going to take this one secret you've held for your whole life
for the last minute or the last year and have to share it with somebody now what if I ask you to tell me that secret on
this call or write it to me in a private chat how would you feel then what honesty would come out what would you feel if
after you came in and you wrote down your your secret you felt annoyed you felt that reduction you felt embarrassed
and I said I now I need you to share that with me we just met today you know Mandy I can see on my screen so I'm pick
a pick on you Mandy and I just met and I've asked her to write down her deepest darkest secrets and then I tell her I
need and she needs to share that with me what would Mandy be feeling annoyed the word we're looking for here
would be shame who here would feel shame in sharing that deepest darkest
secret with somebody they just met while they're in a crisis situation under stress right powerless doubt so as we
think about housing first and as we think about the ability for us to
provide supportive trauma-informed environments to work with people we have to recognize in ourselves what are some
of the symptoms that we see when we're under stress and how does that manifest into people who are coming to us for
help often times in the worst day or worst month or worst year of their life and looking for help and then asking
them to tell us why' you lose your housing what happened to your family tell me your Social Security number
what's your income why don't you have income when was your last drink do you have a mental health disorder that's been diagnosed what is that mental
health disorder are you getting treatment for your mental health disorder do you do any illegal or illicit activity that supports your
income how do we stop doing that do you have a criminal record how invasive uh are we by necessity in some
ways and by choice in others for folks who are under this tremendous amount of stress feeling this shame as they
approach us again on that worst day of our life and this is not just a political or or or personal philosophy
of let's be nice to people and not cause trauma let's think about this for a moment and this will be our only science
uh sort of uh presentation of the day but when your brain is feeling good uh hopefully all of you right now and I
feel pretty good this morning um I got out my little walk with my dog this morning it's a beautiful April day here in New Hampshire my prefrontal cortex uh
hopefully is on uh most cylinders right we are alert we are safe uh we feel like
we can manage situations we are able to Think Through rational and regulated
Behavior because we're not under a tremendous amount of stress or a tremendous amount of pressure or trauma
at the moment at least in the context of what we're doing here today now if we think about that flight or flight that
you know historically has always been the way we talk about people reacting to stress we can see that not only do we
have outward and sort of internal um uh challenges our feelings our actions that
react to that stress but our brain chemistry literally changes where our ability um our prefrontal cortex that
allows us to do that top- down regulation becomes weaker in in stressful situations and other parts of
our brain take over and our stress response goes into uh making sure that
we can survive but it reduces our overall ability to do that um critical
thinking in those executive functions so not only is this the you know the idea of housing first and crisis response and
and and and recognizing the stress and Trauma that folks are experiencing when they show up at our door or we show up
at their their uh encampment or we knock on their car window in the middle of the night or whatever it may be um not not
only is it the right thing to do which I think everyone in this call a belief but it is part of how our brains react to
different situations and so by reducing stress reducing the crisis and Trauma at
hand we offer the ability for that prefrontal cortex to come back into play and it empowers people to be our partner
in their housing plan versus us having to have a a sort of reaction and we and we base our ability to move toward that
prefrontal cortex on our ability to help people secure that basic Foundation for
other types of goals which is permanent housing so our stress effect really
diminishes our ability to solve problems to modify behaviors to create and follow
through with plans uh to override impulsive behaviors to listen and remember and retrieve information
there's a really uh uh foundational reason why when somebody is is um
meeting with doctors and is about to get a medical diagnosis that medical team will suggest somebody be with that a
loved one or or a cared one be with that person during that and that is not an emot just an emotional support process
that is literally uh because the folks who are receiving that difficult information will have a difficult time
understanding that information just based on the stress that comes from it and so it's the same idea here under
this crisis response now when we think about what it takes to get into housing right now or get a job you know we have
one of the tightest rental markets in the history in in in in the country um
uh based on our wealth and capita here in New Hampshire we have uh uh tremendous amount of downward pressure
coming on from the housing market we have folks that uh we have a low unemployment rate um but we have a uh
lack of like the service employment and other sort of uh jobs that folks may go into from a training perspective we have
all of these systems that people need to navigate in order for them to be able to
regain access to housing to regain access access to employment to regain access to effective or affordable child
care to be able to reconnect with family and friends and reintegrate into their community in a positive and healthy way
and we try to do these things well folks are under that stress so if we if we frame ourselves and thinking about what
does it take to get into housing what would it take for us uh for anyone who's had to move abruptly um uh personal
story is is we you know when I moved back to New Hampshire we were renting for a while before we thought where we
wanted to to invest in our home and uh our landlord sold that condo right and
we didn't have the opportunity to plan the timing we wanted to move and there's a tremendous amount of stress and we had
to actively my wife and I think through how are we going to what is the next step for us in this process under just
the stress knowing that we we had housing and we weren't going to become literally homeless we had backup systems
and that still became so important and and the the amount of work it took to navigate our next housing option and
what that was going to look like was tremendous and then you add on the layers of barriers that folks are facing
and we we can see that in order for someone to accomplish the things that we hope they can accomplish they physically
and mentally uh and emotionally are incapable of doing so without some level
of support and some level of our ability to try to reduce that that trauma and get that prefrontal cortex back in a
place where it can solve problems it can work on plans and move forward so as we get into this five-part series we just
wanted to start with this these few minutes to really kind of uh offer uh uh
what that means and reframe the work that we do whether you're a program manager or director whether you are a
direct care uh person all of our systems all of our programs the way in which we're oriented as a community as a state
as a balance of State the way that your case managers or your supervisors are oriented to the project and the project
to the client and the client to the project all contribute toward this this sort of uh coordinated algorithm of
trying to help people reduce stress reduce that trauma reduce that crisis
situation using housing as a platform that allow us then to be again a partner
with them in that housing plan and and getting that uh that brain chemistry
rebalanced from a stress point of view so that we can pursue other goals and that brings us to sort of the premise of
housing first and I'm just looking at the chat and I want to mention Chelsea and I will be watching the chat if there
are questions if you don't believe us if you have an example of what you've where you're hearing from us that you've seen
in real life that you want to raise up uh put it in the chat raise your hand we'll keep an eye out we do want to make
sure we can bring in other voices as we go along but with that as we now that
we've talked about sort of the client a little bit and and done this simple exercise to reset and I would strongly
suggest if you have new staff uh coming into this training or as you hire moving forward that you start with some of
these exercises help folks understand not only that the clients that you're working with face barriers or that they
are uh in dire need of housing but what that looks like from a human response how would we react as human beings in a
similar situation and what are the some of the strategies that we could use to overcome the shame that we feel the
stress that we feel the trauma that we're enduring in our experience of homelessness how can we translate that
internalized uh uh anecdote or feeling into the way that we practice our services uh in in
the real world and uh so with that I'm G to turn over to Chelsea to start with some history around housing first and
then we'll get some into some of the underlying principles on the housing side and the service side and we'll go from there we'll keep an eye on the chat
so uh uh Chelsea I want to bring you in here and I have the slides and I can move them as you just tell me next slide
thank you Doug you can go ahead to the next slide um so in discussing the history of
housing first it's important to know how we got to this approach as a community and how we believe that this is how we
should work with our participants moving forward um in the 1980s we saw an
increase of what we would call the modern um homelessness in our system in our community um with this increase it
was a very visual representation of our homeless part population within the United States
being visible to the rest of the world we saw a de institutionalization of those that were
dealing with mental health conditions where they were leaving from community-based services and housing um
and many of them ended up living on the streets we also saw some increase in our
co-occurring homelessness with HIV and AIDS um and other Behavioral Health disorders within the community we also
saw reductions in SS I which led um to a
lower income in many Metropolitan communities higher unemployment rates
gentri gentrification of communities and cities um and then there were cuts to HUD which also led to some lack of
affordable housing within the community um and so with that these kind of Bea
became looked at as underlying conditions of homelessness and you can go to the next slide Doug
and from this kind of theory that these are the underlying conditions of homelessness we came the um this
staircase model also known as the linear model uh became kind of the homeless
response systems plan to address homelessness um so you would come in we
would encounter an individual who was homeless and we would say these are the steps to take in order to get you to
permanent housing first we need to address what are these underlying conditions so if you have mental health
concerns let's connect you to some providers and you would need to get that addressed prior to being able to be
ready to be housed um same thing when we're talking about those that may have any um sobriety concerns or those that
have behavioral health concerns or challenges and so there were these steps that took place you couldn't just move
from homelessness to permanent housing We believe We engage with you we put you into the shelter system we connect you
to a treatment maybe psych psychiatric stability um or different things and then transition you slowly um as you
agree to engage in these Services till you're ready to become permanently
housed um and so this led to some disconnect on what's the difficulty in
getting some people house once again the belief that we needed to get all these other things in line and correct in
order to become permanently housed go ahead to the next slide Doug
um however of course with anything we did some additional studies and notice
that because we were operating in such a system centered goal of we need to once
we encounter a participant we need to connect them to Services we need to connect them to these treatments to
address these underlying conditions and then we can get them to permanent housing there was a disengagement that
happened with our participants um whether like Doug said they were in such
traumatic situations homelessness itself is the tra is the trauma um and so
forcing them to engage in these services in order to obtain these goals and saying we cannot get you housed until
you do XY and z um led to a high level of disengagement we also saw a high
increase in health care cost due to hospital utilizations with the U mental health
behavioral health and sometimes chronic health conditions that a lot of our homeless population faced because there were all these
additional barriers to getting House people would then engage our Hospital Systems not only for health care but
also to meet meet that basic need of housing as well um and then there were um we identified that it was increasing
barriers to accessing transitional housing and permanent housing so in 1992
Pathways created um the new housing first approach
which simply required tenants to pay 30% of their income for rent and to meet
with their act team twice per month that was the only requirement to become housed in this permanent supported
housing model um and you can go to the next slide and with this model we jump the
steps we're saying there is no prere prerequisite to housing if you want
housing if you access the system our goal is to get you into housing we're going to connect you immediately make
sure that we have the access and then we're going to also give ongoing support to you because it's not just how do we
connect you to this housing um but how do we maintain that housing for you also
where are your needs we're thinking about where your brain is right now we're thinking about what your situation
is right now we're understanding that everyone doesn't have a on siiz fitall response to traumatic situations we use
F reduction approaches and um we believe that housing is a right from the from
there we also continue to offer Supportive Service Supportive Services
that is just not a prerequisite to you getting housing we continue to work with the participant on this journey to
permanent housing and then maintaining their permanent housing next slide um with this model
once again another study was done to show that it led to to a 30% reduction in homelessness um also it leads to
quicker exits from homelessness because we're not having these prerequisites because we're not believing that
homelessness has underlying conditions but homelessness is a situation that um
the individual entered into and we believe we're going to get you housed we
were able to lead to quicker exits from homelessness um participants spent 73%
of their time housed versus 30 32% of their time being housed using the linear
model um and there was also a decrease in homelessness by 88% and then improved
housing stability which is that longer term retention um by
41% next slide um and so although housing first
this approach started with a permanent Supportive Housing model it has then expanded to be used across our housing
system uh with your Outreach and shelter Services um we're making sure we're
focusing on identifying safe options um for housing and making sure we're doing
assessments for our participants with diversion Services we try to prevent them from entering the homeless response
system at all I making sure that as providers we're not just jumping to hey
let's get you to permanent housing but let's assess the supports that you have already right this is also the belief
that there's no underlying conditions to homelessness that doesn't which means just because you lose your job doesn't
mean you're going to fall into homelessness what supports do you have what other Community Options do we have
what else can we connect you to to ensure that you're able to maintain your
housing um with our program um homeless prevention programs
um what are we targeting in our communities for those that are most
likely to become literally homeless and how can we then as a community and provider respond to that with our rapid
rehousing programs using all the flexibilities that we have provided to
us to address the barriers for the clients once again the barriers is not to getting them housed but let's let's
support them let's get them document ready let's make sure we're working with them and then once we get them housed
let's continue to use all these different flexibilities we have and Bridge them to permanent Supportive
Housing if needed um and then within permanent Supportive Housing make sure we we're utilizing and engaging that
robust clinical and Health Services coupled with supportive focused um teny
preservation mainstream afford affordable housing um projects as well
using the Deep sub subsidy that they have to maybe support the income barriers and then connecting with other
supports that exist and then when we use the private private market for housing we're focusing on overcoming the
retention barriers so what leads to eviction once we get them permanently housed once again that's a right that's
always going to be the goal but how can we continue to support them to make sure that they're sustaining and retaining
their housing and being able to navigate these barriers appropriately next slide
D so a lot has changed um from the linear model to where we are currently
within our housing first system um we don't believe that there are underlying conditions to
homelessness we don't believe that um other steps need to be addressed prior
to being able to get into permanent housing we believe that housing is a
right it is not something that must be earned it's not something that you have to prove your worthiness for um homeless
systems are specifically staff we believe in Staffing our systems to be able to support the person not just the
system and how we believe it should work but how do we make sure that we're supporting them maybe through peer
supports we're making sure that we are appropriately staffed to provide the Supportive Services needed and order to
um make sure that we're helping those navigate our system with within a housing first approach next
slide um and it's been proven that housing first Works um people move
through our homeless system faster they move out of homelessness faster they stay out of homelessness and um we'll
touch on this a little bit more when we're talking about retention um the retention rates increase um they also
participants also Express a greater control and choice um and this is that autonomy we're speaking of taking away
some of the shame that they have an encounter in the system but it's not about what we believe the journey should
be working with them on their journey to permanent housing um majority of
participants do still engage in the support Services although it is optional
once again when we talked that linear model it was either um either you're going to work on
these services in order to get housing or we can't help you get housing at this time now we're saying housing is right
you're we're going to work with you to get this and as you identify your needs and as you are willing to work on other
stuff we have these Supportive Services to offer you um this leads to an increased quality in life increased uh
um especially in areas of health and mental health um and then also it saves our system money in the long run um
especially when we talk about how homelessness um does not happen in its own Silo it happens along with um our
chronic health conditions it happens along with food insecurity um so we'll talk about that a
little bit more next
slide think we jumped all the way to the end yeah that my bad close your eyes a
second here while I fix fix my uh I think we're at the myth fact sorry about
that okay we'll just remove this part of the recording chrisy all
right so your first um myth versus fact housing first is a set of approaches
that apply to permanent supportive projects focused on individuals with significant Behavioral Health diagnosis
if you can put in the chat is that a myth or is that a fact and we're going to give you another awkward pause for
you to
answer that's fine
they're coming in now yes all right Doug you could go
ahead correct it is a myth our housing first principal started with permanent
Supportive Housing but once again like stated earlier they apply apply to the full spectrum of services um this model
can be use for people experiencing homelessness and for those facing housing
instability next slide and Doug's gonna talk about
housing and action yeah and and I want to just highlight that mytha it seems self- obvious I think uh you know we
kind of set up these to be fairly easy to get folks to participate right on on the myth fact but I think it is
important and it goes back to this shift over time from have a housing first
program to uh we have programs and systems that have housing first orientation and we often think about
housing first and frankly it's still written about in some domains as as purely a psh model for highly vulnerable
people high you know folks that are very sick that have that has significant uh barriers um but what we've learned and
as Chelsea reviewed in the earlier slides is that this is an orientation that no matter what your job is on this
call whether you are a funer whether you're a case manager a manager data person whatever it may be uh you have a
role in helping to promote uh housing first approaches within your community and I think it's really important to
recognize that looks uh that there are uh services and nuances to how that's applied in different settings and that
is a conversation that we'll get into in later sessions but just to sort of call that out a little bit um but housing in
action uh we want to just kind of get into now some of the basics so there's three basic goals of housing first um
one is that we're making homelessness as rare and brief as possible so we are trying to expedite our ability to either
intervene for people who are on the precipice of losing housing and I know that's very challenging in the prevention space or reconnecting people
back into permanent housing as quickly as we can sort of uh regardless of or in recognition that in order to uh rebuild
uh their goals uh housing becomes that that Foundation that we've talked about uh so we are looking to help them obtain
that housing as quickly as possible and then access the care and support needed to maintain that housing and achieve a
better quality of life or other types of outcomes that they choose now uh one of
the things that we hear in many places is uh this confusion and we're going to
get into a little bit more after around housing first is housing only and we really want to make sure that we're
clear and we will say this multiple times that housing first is not going to work as an approach or a set of
principles unless uh we are uh including the services necessary to support that
housing and we're creating the service packages that help people sustain that housing it also does not mean that there
are not um expectations on our clients or the folks that are that are gaining
access to housing to be able to maintain that there is the need for us to support
basic tency preservation how do we work to uh ensure that this person can um
have a successful tency that doesn't necessarily mean that their clinical or other types of goals are are being
pursued uh but how can we make sure they don't get evicted how can we make sure they're not going to lose that housing
and that becomes a key question and when we get to a couple sessions from now that Focus really on the case management
strategies we're going to break down the different types of barriers that folks face and how that then manifests into
their overall tency preservation because our goal is not necessarily that
everybody is going to be coming out of PO is going to LIF be lifted out of poverty and be clean and sober and their mental health is all going to be in
check they're going to have a job and be on their way our goal is to end homelessness and what that looks like for different people based on their
needs their goals their their situation is going to look different and those types of things they can pursue will
look different so that not housing only becomes a really a core feature of this
but we focus on that rapid intervention um Chelsea mentioned diversion strategies what we've seen is that in a
in a in a highly trained and tuned up system that really puts a lot of front-end work on trying to help people
identify other resources that they have in their community in their family or friend Network that many people who may
present to us for services who may request access to shelter who may be reaching out via 211 may have other
options right and the quicker we can intervene the better to try to help people preserve housing on the other
side of that equation the longer that people are experiencing homelessness the more trauma that they're experiencing
the deeper levels of stress the more health or adverse Health outcomes the more morbidity outcomes come into play
uh and and it becomes harder and harder for us to rehouse those folks and it becomes harder and harder for us to
provide the level of service they're going to need we all know that the folks who have been chronically homeless or on
our streets or in our communities for many many years uh have significant challenges and we have significant
challenges in finding uh suitable housing options that can be safe that we can um uh preserve Tendencies within
that we can provide services but that person who has been homeless for 10 years was also at one point homeless for
one day and if we were able to more quickly intervene in that in that crisis
we know that their uh Health outcomes would have improved their mental health may not have gotten to the state that
it's in now perhaps their substance use disorder may not have gotten to this state if we had been able to move that bar up so from a system perspective um
uh and a program perspective the more quickly we can connect people back to some sort of stable living environment
the more likely we are to set them and ourselves up for success in that and that requires us ensuring that we're
providing self-determination and choice for the folks that we're working with it is not only about the ability to accept
people into programs that have uh you know sobriety issues or mental health history or criminal history but how do
we create an empowered model where folks are pursuing a self-determined set of goals and that goes back to the
discussion we started with around stress how can you create a self-determination uh self self-determined set of goals and
really realize your choices if you if you're under the stress that don't even allow your brain to function in that way
or how do we create choice and systems that have historically frankly reduced choices for people and able to access
services and even further reduced Choice reduced choices of people from different marginalized groups or groups that may
have different types of service needs whether that be across racial lines or gender identification or uh single
parent households whatever it may be how do we create choices but one of the key principles of housing first is the idea
that we are partners with that client with that person in that experience of homelessness and we are working to help
them guide what that housing plan looks like what do they need and want in order to be successful in their housing we
hear folks and I'm sure this is uh uh something that is a feeling for folks on
this call I've had this feeling too those people don't want housing I would argue that maybe they don't want the
type of Housing and services that we've offered so far but it is a exceptionally
rare occurrence that there's a human being who actively chooses to to live on the street or in a tent or in their car
in an encampment or even an emergency shelter often times it is about what those choices that have been provided to
them are and how they can pursue those and whether that aligns with their needs and their values and their abilities at
that time so we want to make sure that uh there are conditions on all many of
your grants if you're HUD funded whether it you know there's case management requirements in certain programs there
are certain expectations from your M there are certain expectations from uh State funding sources or local there may
even be conditions upon charitable giving that come into your organization or to your services but service and
compliance issues should not be our conditions of tency to the extent that they don't need to be with uh outside of
our funding stream so uh uh if we can create an environment where compliance
is not not the underlying feature of how somebody maintains either the services in our projects or the housing that
they're in then we can focus on allowing folks to pursue their goals and it is
about delivering those right resources to the right people at the right point in time so uh an example of this and and
this sounds so so cliche right right right person right time uh all of that you know it's sort of um uh an over
ssung Mantra but if every single one of the housing plans that your case managers are developing with the same
four goals and they're already pre-written for folks and your housing plans aren't going to work because I'll tell you I've made significant changes
and I'm sure everyone on this call has made some significant change in their life and it is very rare that people
make significant changes in their life unless it's a goal that they want to pursue making change by force does not
work and so if we're able to provide that right resource to the right people what is it they they need to be
successful is it that they do need to uh pursue or are encouraged TOs pursue
treatment because not because they have a mental health issue or a substance use issue but because those issues are
directly affecting their ability to sustain their tendency what can we do to help them mitigate against housing loss
even if they're going to continue with that behavior I've used this example before I'll use it again here and I
would love to see other examples in the chat uh the chat is our tool really to to bring you all in as best we can in
this large call um but when we think about tency issues uh and and and
Readiness for housing there are many people who are going to continue to have untreated mental health
or untreated substance use disorder and I there was a great example that we had heard from the field a little bit ago
I've used this before so I apologize if it's repetitive but I think it's super useful if we think about the right resource to the right person at the
right time so there was a client in a rapid rehousing program who uh was diagnosed with schizophrenia and when
they were symptomatic uh from their diagnosis uh they would play music
exceptionally loud very loud in their apartment and it was becoming a problem with the neighbors and the landlord and
this person uh would uh pursue their treatment um with uh for their mental health but you know go off medication or
or uh duck out of therapy for periods of time and they would become symptomatic they would blast the music and uh uh
their neighbors would get upset and I think in our old way of thinking this would become a housing barrier that was
insurmountable this person must go to treatment they need to take their meds to stay in our program we need to relocate them into a more service heavy
presence so that we can make sure they're not we need to take their stereo away uh and all of these things what
this provider did was actually work with this client and recognizing that this symptomatic issues were going to
continue regardless of what the program hoped they would pursue in terms of treatment and they worked with that
client to purchase a uh an expensive pair of like Bose headphones and so when
that person was symptomatic they could still blast that music they could still get the relief that they needed from those mental health symptoms but it was
no longer causing an issue with their landlord and their neighbors so then there became no longer an issue in
retaining their housing for that particular issue right so uh that's a simple example but it's a a creative
thing that doesn't require pills and Outpatient Treatment and evictions that allow somebody to continue to uh be
housed to be safe in that housing situation to work through the mental health challenges that they have without
disturbing their neighbors and landlords preserving that tendency and giving a platform for that project to continue to
work with them in a creative way this is one example of how we think about the right resource to the right people at
the right time it may be that somebody you come in and somebody really wants uh
employment right now uh but in but they also recognize that they have significant health challenges that
prohibit their employment and on your predefined housing plan you may have their employment and income outcomes as
a first step that might need to be step four we may need to connect that person with primary care first we may need to
over subsidize them and rap re housing for a few months recognizing that it's going to take time for them to get on
their feet uh and overcome their health challenges to get back in the workforce or apply for uh benefits other people
may be in an opposite situation where their healthcare related needs are less uh uh prevalent or urgent and we can
work on income at that point in time at the point of onset or the point of housing so everybody has a different
point in time when they're ready or wanting to pursue different types of services but we don't condition housing
based on that Readiness of them to pursue those very services so we we recognize that folks are housing ready
and that means that we need housing to start with and I want to just uh start this section by acknowledging that we
have an exceptionally tight Market you are underresourced we are in this in this state in our cities our towns and
our counties whether you're from the North Country whether you're from outside of Manchester where I live whether you're from the Sea Coast Area
we simply don't have enough affordable housing for everyone when we get later into this series we'll talk about core
dated entry we'll talk about what are the hard decisions that we have to make with the limited resource pool we have
in order to uh have the greatest impact but in a housing first environment we
need to focus on how we can uh as best we can within that finite resource environment ensure that our housing is
Affordable that it's safe that it's lease based right so one of the um uh
things to clarify is that while all of our points in system our shelters our
transitional settings our even you know sober living situations all can work
within a A system that promotes housing first values and principles the ultimate goal is for people to be permanently
housed and I and I and I will say this and I am sure that there are some folks on the line that won't like it but transitional housing is not permanent
housing folks in transitional housing are still homeless and transitional
housing is often and probably not for all of you on the line who may operate it but from a national perspective
transitional housing has been shown to be more expensive and have worse outcomes than direct access to permanent
housing opportunities so the money and the investment that we make in different settings matters when there's a trade-off toward a setting that may have
greater outcomes or greater cost affordability for our overall system but we're looking to ensure that folks have
lease access that they are protected under landlord tenant law that they are the lease holder or suesser on the units
that they're providing that were assisting households to overcome those barriers to accessing and retaining that
housing and that our our practices from the ground sort of Direct Care through
supervision and program management levels are looking to prevent those lease violations and evictions there's a
lot of things that people can do in their units that we may not find good or healthy or we may not think are the best
goal for them that won't get them evicted and it's important to recognize that our role is to help them maintain
housing while supporting other goals even if some of the behaviors or um
uh things that they're doing in their life may not feel uh healthy to us or what we might want to pursue in our own
goals so it requires us right to do more than just case management um I'm a firm
believer that every Community should have dedicated housing navigation services and then housing Navigators
working with Direct Care staff need to be able to work with speak the language of support our landlords I saw in the
chat the challenges with public housing authorities absolutely something we talk about in future sessions now that that's
been brought up um how do you work with management companies this is a skill set this is an effort that takes time it
takes expertise it takes frustration it takes a surprise success in working not
only with the tenant on on how they can you know um manage different challenges in their life within a housing situation
but how do we bring landlords on board and build trust how do we work with phas to do some testing to to Pilot some
ideas around bringing folks either IR ly from the street or I think in New Hampshire you also have or have had some
move on strategy for people who have entered housing in very uh uh challenging clinical situations that now
have stabilization time and can move toward a more mainstream voucher how can we work with those relationship to help
people Access housing and then respond to landlords to uh mitigate against
concern um oftentimes we think of our landlords and our property owners as other clients they need care and
attention they are stressed uh they have deeper concerns about that property and
their concerns are not whether uh I am actively drinking or if I have an active
me mental health concern uh in in the unit their concern is whether my drinking leads to partying the police
being called in property damage or my mental health issues lead to land uh client complaints or if my if my rent is
getting paid on time right so thinking about the ways that we support landlords and we're going to dive deep into that
when we get to more of the Direct Care discussions in future sessions but housing first is not just on the client
side of the equation it is a system practice that includes the partners our most important Partners often time who
are the folks who own the housing that we need access to in order for us to to make any sort of dentor strides toward
ending homelessness individually for people and as systems so here's a quick little checklist right and this is uh
from USIC it's about as self-apparent as as it can be but do you accept and this
is for all levels this this is for your shelter projects this is for transitional housing this is for uh uh
your permanent housing projects are you able to accept participants that are not sober um and if you are a sober living
project uh which is not uh antithetical to housing first we can have sober
living environments in a housing first setup as long as the ability or the uh
move toward those environments is based on the choice and goals of the client themselves so even if you only accept
folks that are sober our are folks making an active choice to go into that sober living environment because that is
a goal that they want to pursue do you allow to the extent that your subsidy packages allow uh you to do so bring
people in that have little or no income upon entry if you're a rapid rehousing provider do you have flexibilities
within your rental assistance packages to serve people with no income or do you give everybody three months at 50% of
their income in rent and pay a security deposit if you're doing that um you're not doing rapid rehousing correctly
right rapid rehousing is a highly flexible project model that allows for deep subsidies for some allows for
shallower subsidies when not needed allows for different U prolonged durations of that subsidy um and so are
you able to serve participants based on your program design in order to uh work with people who do have those greatest
uh income barriers or other things like that does your case planning focus on that uh regaining of housing as quickly
as possible can participants refuse uh non funer mandate services and maintain
their housing so all of these questions Point toward whether or not your orientation as a shelter as an Outreach
provider as a housing provider are oriented toward a housing first uh uh
environment will you work with somebody who's on the street who's actively drinking or using while you're working
with them are you uh uh putting benefits applications in and and employment
applications and before you consider the housing plan is your housing plan pred
determined or is it focused on an individual support system can the participants refuse your services and do
you still show up to offer them and to give them different choices and how they may pursue those so it is not a housing
only approach it it requires that partnership um the services are
voluntary and while I recognize that there are um uh services that uh may be
required by your funders or you may need to use harm reduction and and uh
motivational interviewing approaches help people understand the realities of their choices voluntary doesn't mean
that we don't create the choice it may be that unless you change this Behavior
We Fear you're going to be evicted and lose your housing again and it's going to be hard to get you rehouse what can
we do to help mitigate against these choices or mitigate against the idea that you're going to get evicted because of them so while those choices are
voluntary we also are trying to create an atmosphere where put folks understand the choices they have ahead of them what
is their ability uh to to reframe or to uh change their behaviors that would
mitigate against their housing loss and their overall uh lack of housing stability so we consider housing as uh
or housing first approaches housing oriented approaches use whatever term you'd like but there for anybody if our
system is going to respond to people who are in a housing crisis the first thing that we do across any type of client or
family or or or participant that we work with is recognizing that our orientation
is back toward housing that becomes our foundation so it may be individuals or families it may be folks with higher
needs it may be everyone in between it may be folks that have been chronically homeless for a very long time it could
be folks that are uh newly homeless and just need a rapid intervention how we make choices about the way in which we
target resources is a broad is another discussion for a future session because ultimately if we had enough money and
enough services to serve everybody we wouldn't be in this training right now all have succeeded in our jobs we'd all
be running prevention programs but we've got lots of folks who are on the street today right and there's not enough
resources for everybody so we'll talk about that system approach as we get along in in the next session or two but
for today just to recognize that from a system orientation uh or a basic principle
orientation our ability to focus on housing is the prerequisite backbone to everything else we do applies across all
populations and it applies differently amongst different populations with different needs and it applies
differently amongst different populations with different life uh histories and experiences um so when we think about uh
housing Readiness uh we want to make sure to reemphasize that housing is that
crisis and there are some people who are going to need very little support others are going to need intensive longer term support some people we're going to we
can start with a lighter touch support package and then we have to escalate it from there I'm a firm believer that most
permanent Supportive Housing should be reserved for people who have been rapidly rehoused and have shown that
they need that escalated level of support for permanent support of housing because we often underestimate people
and what that initial housing linkage can do there are a lot of people and I and I hope that there's been this
experience on the line who we say there's no way this person is going to stabilize without a full subsidy forever
deep clinical supports uh connections to all of these different services and then they get into housing and things begin
to improve very quickly perhaps their mental health and their stress are are reduced and they're able to sustain that
perhaps they're able to access income streams and employment somebody even who's been homeless a long time who had
no other support systems maybe they're in housing now and their family is now coming back into their life and and
being a support system to them in that housing on the other hand we recognize that there are folks that on paper on
our assessment forms and how we score human beings and put them on a spreadsheet look like they can easily
access housing on their own but we get into that situation we get them rehouse we find them those connections to
landlords we're starting that service engagement and all of a sudden we start to uncover deeper layers of trauma in
need that really are going to require more robust housing package so we think about how our systems interact and we're
going to get into that more but the the main point being that we are looking at homelessness not as a condition or uh uh
you know a a characteristic of somebody but a crisis situation that we need to address as quickly as possible to reduce
that length of time homeless reduce that trauma work with people to um uh focus
on those supports and then think about those other goals that they want to pursue we want to pursue sobriety we
want to help people with treatment we want to help people with criminal records but in order for us to help them
be successful tenants we may not need to address all of those issues at least from a compliance point of view so um as
we go forward we're going to talk more about um services and housing in some other sessions particularly for direct
care um but first you know we talked about that act model you know myth fact
so when we operate housing first programs you really need a dedicated acute clinical treatment team you need
that robust clinical service package team in place who thinks this is true who thinks this is a myth or partly true
let's put that in the chat as well and um you know the ACT model really was the
the basis for housing first back in the in the 90s um is this a myth or a fact that we
see here
we have a couple of misss so
far few Miss so we'll go with that um so false right so in the early models of
housing first and and still today frankly a lot of folks think that they only can do this with an act team or an
equivalent a pack team an act team a dedicated clinical Service uh wraparound uh service model team um something
equivalent to that and that's still an important feature of many projects right uh especially when you talk about people
with deep clinical needs folks with significant mental health issues that are unmanageable or unsafe in housing
those and I think in in New Hampshire we see this even more so um not so much the
ACT model but really deeper treatment models around folks who are addicted to opioids or things like that but housing
first approaches do not assume that everybody is going to need that that it's a one-size fits-all model our
services need to adapt to those unique needs and sometimes that means that we start with lighter services and and need
to bring in the equivalent of an act team or we start with an act team and recognize that that is not a Serv a needed service so if you operate
projects that require engagement with these deeper much more expensive service packages it's worth looking at is that
necessarily uh a uh prerequisite or a um a required service that you're
delivering for folks to maintain their housing in a safe way in some places it will be other places it may not be so we
break down that barrier now this is another one housing first programs offer flexible client driven Supportive
Services this is uh a little bit easier I won't even pause for this just watching the time but that's true we
know that some people are not going to want to engage in the services or goals especially the one that we set for them
so we try to create those individual goals and housing plans my favorite type of housing plan template that projects
use are mostly blank they start with the clients's articulation or the tenants articulation of what it is they want to
achieve what they think they can achieve in what periods of time and what supports they need to achieve those and
that can only be done if we're flexible if we allow for that client driven empowerment if we're really having the
clients Drive the types of services services in the engag in so that means that they may vary levels right um uh
that are offered it means that they're flexible it means that even if your fun requires you to meet with somebody in
case management once a month for some people that's enough and other people you will need to then be meeting every
day or twice a week or doing home visits uh three times a week right so from a direct care perspective we think about
housing plans as a conversation with our clients from a management perspective we
have to think about what does that imply for us in terms of case loads you have a 1 to 25 case load and you have one case
manager who has a a a number of folks who need intensive uh Services even in
like a rapid rehousing or shelter environment and another case manager whose clients really only need a
check-in once a month how do we think about that from a case load management perspective how do we ensure that our
case um uh sort of supervision and oversite of case management is promoting
a client centered approach and tailoring our service to the needs of the household and then being able to EB and
flow it may be that somebody feels really stable for a number of months in psh Rapid rehousing or what not and then
a crisis occurs and now we need to reinv with a stronger uh or or or more robust
service package to get that person back on track with that longer term goal of helping them uh uh maintain that housing
over time uh so that means you know we're we're focused on that individual uh work uh we're trying to help people
create dependent uh decisions we're trying to reintegrate people into their Community one of the things that we know
is that homelessness is a silo for many people it is uh not only based on the
folks that see you on the street but it is one of those things that pulls people out of their Community they create
Community within a system that we've designed oftentimes designed to keep them in that system and they've lost
touch with the rest of their of their Community I mean we think about family supports we think about people you know
joining U uh religious or faith-based groups we think about people who want to go to the gym we think about people who
want to go to Taco tour in a couple of weeks in downtown Manchester and not be you know looked at as if they're trying
to steal things or that there are some sort of nuisance on Elm Street in Manchester and thinking about what it
means to be part of community and using those support systems to help people reintegrate into those things in their
lives that give purpose that give empowerment and that allow them uh to live uh as as fruitful as they can as
healthy as they can so that means that we break our services in different parts and we're going to explore this in much
more deeply in a couple of sessions but thinking about the distinction between those transition Services into housing
what does it mean to match people to an appropriate unit subsidy project what does it mean to then help them overcome
the barriers to accessing those which are often uh are most often focused on what the landlord is concerned with
versus what does it take to sustain that housing once they're in housing how do we help them preserve that it is often
as difficult to help people preserve housing as it is to help them Access housing we can get anybody housing we
can subsidize them for a few months get them a lease negotiate with the landlord some places even have incentives in
different parts of the country or for the through VA services to give the landlord a bonus for that um I've
actually advocated for that with our local public officials that's the fund that we need is an incentive fund for our housing owners and we can get them
in but now what do we do how do we keep them there right and so the service package the goal planning looks different between those two distinctions
as well and we'll dig into that as we go so those transition Services is about identifying those preferences thinking
about how we support Housing search pairing up either Char through charitable uh organizations through
Goodwill uh and I don't mean Big G Goodwill Goodwill of humans as well as our funding sources the basic costs and
then planning for that move and supporting that plan uh into that and then looking at what does it mean to
sustain as we go how do we make sure they understand their tency obligations and leech how do we coach and work with
the landlord to understand that while our tenants may be a little bit more
challenging uh as tenants we can help preserve those tendencies in that partnership can we resolve those
disputes one of the biggest things that we've seen lately is uh the ability um a dedicated mediation training for case
managers and psh because when landlords get upset there needs to be somebody that can talk with that landlord in a
way that is mediating against uh housing loss mitigating against that housing loss and to come up with common uh
outcomes that are positive for both the landlord the neighbors and the Tenant and preventing those evictions or
housing loss and then thinking about what it means to then uh uh move forward uh in that leasing process so what does
it take to get someone in how do we then keep them in those are different types of plans that we'll Explore More as we
go along this series and then that coordination with the tenant to update those housing support plans and that may
be very simple uh folks who haven't cooked a meal for themselves in a while may need food preparation support how do
we get them shopping do they have family in the area that can bring them to the grocery store once a week and and reintegrate into that part of their
their uh their society or their Community are we able to support them in Money Management are there ways to make
sure that if they are going to have guests or they are going to have a party once in a while if they're actively drinking that we can reduce their their
effect on neighbors or the police being called if they have repairs that need in
their apartment when do you call the landlord at midnight versus when do you wait till Monday morning to let them know either the pipe is broken in the
ceiling or the light bulbs out uh we used to work with a psh client in an old role of mine that um you know we had to
have some sitdown mediation with the landlord because they literally they would call the landlord at midnight on a Saturday because the light burned out
but then they wouldn't call when the toilet was overflowing and creating a flood downstairs so we literally had to write down here are the things you call
the landlord in an emergency about here's what you let your case manager know about and here's when you call the landlord within a couple of days and
they'll get back to you what are those expectations as a tenant so that we can make sure that you're not creating
problems for yourself and that we can help you understand what that role as a tenant is it's easier said than done
every one of our 40 slides so far is easier said than done but it is a practice that leads to better housing
outcomes overall and with that uh housing outcomes overall I want to turn it back to Chelsea going to talk a
little bit about that uh as we get into this last 20 minutes or so of our of our discussion and I'll keep an eye on the
chat too if folks want to share any stories that they have that kind of reflect some of what we've talked about
here so Chelsea I'll turn it over to you thank you and you can advance two slides actually
Doug all right um so when we're talking about housing for first outcomes we're looking at it within your community
right how do we know that housing first is working how do we know that we're getting the outcomes that we're wanting
how do we know how we need to change how we're operating as a program and to make sure that we're operationalizing housing
first approach es correctly and that we're using Equity to drive how we um
engage in these services so the first thing in determining the effectiveness of your housing first housing first
approach is going to be relying on the capture of data right we have to use data in order to show what we've been
doing what's been working how we've been growing as a community how we've been making sure that we've been reaching our
outcomes with our participants when we're you when we're utilizing the data
certain EX ex Les of housing first outcomes is going to be is it showing that our length of stays in shelters
have decreased from using this model are we able to quickly get people from
homelessness to housing are we reducing the length of Stay by housing placement the data will show you know is it diff
is it differing based on age gender um the local within our state um are some
communities or some programs able to reduce the length of time from homelessness to housing
um are we decreasing recidivism rates within homelessness are the Supportive Services that we're offering within the
community are the connections that we're making to other uh supports able to
really keep our people not just getting them housed but retaining them in that housing and ensuring that they don't
have to Circle back to our homeless response system um that also goes to increasing the length of of time house
and then health status changes right because the Supportive Services this is not housing only only from the work that
we're doing and the um the services that we're offering the the supports that we're giving are we noticing that hey
we're able to decrease as a community overall ER visits right homelessness does not happen in a silo as mentioned
before um but many of our participants that are engaged in our homeless
response systems are also engaged in several other systems whether it's the healthc care system um food insecurity
different things and so we're able to also see are we able to improve outcomes in those Arenas and then are we able to
increase um income in attaining appointment and that can be all collected through data next slide
Doug um so uh USIC believes once again like we've been saying all throughout
the slide that housing is a right not a privilege however we do understand that
there are Equity concerns um that that come into play when we're trying to get our
participants from homelessness to housing um and so the in a statement they stated we will never be able to end
homelessness until everyone has the equal opportunity to live in safe and affordable housing um they believe that
in doing that there's some key things as a community we can do to implement housing first one of those is including
those with lived experience and the decision making planning and implementation of policies and
procedures sometimes you know as providers we have our or just
individuals living in the community we have our own individual biases we don't
necessarily under understand the entire process so including those that have
lived experience including those that have gone through these situations have in interacted with our programs have
gone through our systems and helping us determine Hey What Can we fix within our systems how can we tweak these policies
and procedures how can we be more trauma informed in the work that we're doing including them can definitely help us
drive Equity when we're implementing housing first approach also including race Equity as a core component um of
priority planning and corresponding goals understanding that some of our systems were built from an inherently um
racist Place understanding that it was meant to be discriminatory and exclude
certain people from having access to affordable housing so in order to combat
that we have to be intentional with including these these things these determining factors race Equity um into
how we determine to solve the problem how we include it within our system and then also increasing opportunities for
access to Equitable housing and other systems such as health care education transportation and employment we
understand that all of these things work together to to increase long-term
housing stability right we can't just like Dougs mentioned earlier we can put people in housing but how do we ensure
that we're giving them all the supports to stay there so we need to look at Healthcare education Transportation
employment and various other systems out playay in our communities and use equity
in those lenses to ensure that we're um leaning towards long-term housing stability next
slide once again making sure that we're really focusing on those marginalized groups once again historically
disenfranchized groups including racial ethnic and sexually marginalized groups
they have faced stress when it comes to encountering the systems and the structures as well as interpersonal
prejudice and discrimination within all of these syst systems so how do we look
at the roots of racism within our society and the effects that they've had within all the system that we have to
engage in in order to really create a more robust homeless response system um
we want to look at the various of Life the various areas of life that these stressors can come in and how it's
limiting the access to housing how it's increasing housing insecurity how all of
this connects to job insecurity food insecurity and the relationships that people may have in engaging with the
system engaging with safe and affordable housing engaging with appropriate Health Care next
slide so we want to take this time to reflect maybe in the chat you guys can
um discuss a little bit but we know that many people on this call um have family
members or close friends who struggle with drug or alcohol or maybe some other things that people identify as
underlying conditions to homelessness which we know is not true but just have different um challenges in life and we
want you guys to think do you guys think that these challenges or barriers um
lead to a person's homelessness would it be acceptable for your family or your friend
um friend or even yourself to say hey I'm having these challenges and so this is going to lead to our
homelessness and in effort of time we're going to keep moving forward
DG um so in our final myth versus fact uh programs committed to housing first
strategy should not focus on sober living and Recovery oriented living
environments if you guys could put it in the chat do you believe that to be a myth or a
fact Chelsea I think we made our myths and facts too easy or thep Point
yeah alrighty well go ahead Doug yeah a lot of myths coming in and
you guys are correct once again like Doug said sober living environments are in line with the housing first principal
if our participants that's right you guys are smart uh if our housing part first
participants choose it if it's a goal that they believe they want to accomplish it should not be something
that we're forcing on them um we should also makeing sure that uh it avoids least termination if someone relapses or
chooses not to pursue recovery as a treatment goal and next
slide so we just want you guys to take uh these last couple of minutes read through this case example um I'll read
it out loud and then maybe in the chat discuss um you know are we uh within
this case example is it operating within housing first principles if it's not what are some things that we need to
change in order to ensure that we are operating um at using housing first
approach um so for Robert a shelter has referred Robert to a CLC permanent
Supportive Housing program that has beautiful uh relatively new
units the program requires weekly meetings with a case manager Robert is
meeting with the staff member of the housing program to see if he is eligible here's what Robert shares in response to
the staff question I've been homeless for a long time I don't have any money and I can't work I used to have an
apartment long time ago I was evicted because of using alcohol and all the people that came into my apartment I
tried to get clean but it was hard it is very hard being in the shelter to too
hard to sleep and deal with my diabetes the staff member tells Robert that housing program doesn't allow alcohol
use and gives him a referral for a substance abuse treatment program and a transitional housing program so he can
work on getting clean and learn good tency
skills so like Doug put in the chat um we're going to give you guys a few minutes to respond in the chat or maybe
come off mute and discuss what are some changes um to Robert's services that would be better support housing first
principles what is good in this situation and what could we improve
have a quiet chat group
maybe an introspective reflection here is um and I'm sure there are some amongst the 60 folks on the line is this
something your program does I suspect there's somebody you know programs on the line that uh if
somebody's referred and is actively using they'll get the referral to a different setting and that and that is a
a an arc right a discussion an opportunity continue to look at
practices um so they're they're working to give him resources thank you
Christina any others as your CC program
administrator I would ask if any of you require weekly meetings with the case
manager yep thank you Beth um denied housing based on past uh is the worst um
it's showing proving your worth thank you Christina Beth um that doesn't allow
alcohol again maybe this psh project does have a recovery orientation um so even going from a system perspective
let's let's assume that this project does um how does the system refer Robert to this and create choices before that
referral to reflect that what Robert really wants um and and that may look different right I just want to highlight
case scenarios are really difficult after 86 minutes on a webinar um but I put this in the chat I really think
supervisors on the line and others should be thinking about how do you create complex and this is a simple one
complex case scenarios and use those in supervision use those as a case conferencing internal opportunity to
support your staff who are working through these issues day in and day out with folks like Robert and trying to be
supportive that way to identify what's going well what's what's a challenge where are the barriers that maybe we
maybe we're putting up arbitr arbitrarily and trying to make those course directions um housing first can
encourage that treatment without uh without uh the barriers great
um so with that we just have a few minutes and I know this was a lot of dactic and we were uh frankly you know
there's a lot of folks in the line so we have to find ways to be interactive with you all but with our five minutes left I
don't know if there's anything that Christy you wanted to highlight or anything that you want to emphasize that that we brought up or the remaining
training or if there's anyone on the line who has questions um or wants to raise any uh anything either verbally or
in the chat that we can talk about knowing we've got you know other five sessions in the series a monthly Series
going through this
year so I don't know if anyone has any questions I would just say from the balance of State perspective I believe
all of our current projects are housing first which is
phenomenal um and utilize and practice housing first practices and best
guidance I'm just gonna see if there's any questions because I know we have three whole minutes
left just a preview while folks may be doing that um now that you've been on
this session um you know the other session again we're going to work to mix in interaction it's hard when there's 60
plus people but uh we are planning this series and you have the agenda for what we're going to be focused on some will
be very relevant to your Direct Care staff others a little more relevant to system planners data folks we hope
everybody will attend all of them but we do encourage you especially for those Direct Care uh ones um coming up that
you know case management teams join these calls and other folks I don't think there's a limit chrisy on the number of people that can join um you
know even to listen in I think there's a session where we're really going to dig into that distinction between tenant
screen barriers and retention barriers and landlords and coordinated entry and how do we Orient shelters in you know
systems in a way that um can provide basic necessity while supporting people to try to move toward uh a safer
Alternatives um uh discussing how to get agencies on board I think part of our
goal is to help people get on board through understanding um uh this uh there's only so much evidence we can
present and and without breaking down doors right it's more coste effective it's better for human beings we have
better performances systems sometimes we have to swallow our pride but that's the deal um and we'll continue to try to
convince folks of that Christina and and try to re reinvigorate that um and yes
eviction prevention anything
else Kathy I'm glad this has been helpful Tammy as
well so we're right about at the hour chrisy I'll let you close this out I think this recording is available I'll also send you the slides that you can
distribute to the group uh just to encourage folks again we have an outline for the next six months but if there's
stuff missing or if this is completely useless to you and there's something else that could be more useful we can't
uh meet everybody's needs in a 65 person webinar but we can certainly make adaptations to best meet the needs of
the most people so communicate that with me with Christie with others like how can we be most useful if we're going to
take 90 minutes of your valuable time once a month for the next six months we want to make sure CU you right now
you're here with me and not with the client right helping them get out of homelessness so we want to make sure
that's valuable so we're okay with critical feedback that gives us an opportunity to improve the experience that you have the knowledge and the way
that we can support you as a team so with that I'll give it back to chrisy to close this out thank you and I want to say thank you to both Doug and Chelsea
this was a phenomenal kickoff to the housing first series um and I am getting
a lot of emails and messages that they thoroughly enjoyed this training um are next training will be on
May 15th it is focus on system level housing Focus practices including Cordon
Andre which is as you all know one of my other favorite topics and Doug's favorite topic um I look forward to
seeing all of you there we will be sharing this recording um and the slides
with all of you I don't know if everyone knows we do have a DHHS YouTube channel
um but we will be putting this training up there and Hope to also share it with the New Hampshire coalition to end
homelessness for their training Library um so let us know if there's any
feedback or anything you want to see from this training series we did send out the agenda and what we're going to
cover but we're happy to look at other topics and things that all of you want to discuss and thank you so much for
taking time out of your day to be
here thank you everybody thank you ch and Christie thank
you thank you all if there's no other questions I'm going to stop recording