End Homelessness in Connecticut!

From Lisa Tepper Bates

I hope you are well, and enjoying some well-deserved time off this summer!

Meantime, CCEH and several CT providers participated along with some 1,600 of our colleagues from across the nation in the National Alliance to End Homelessness Annual Conference, July 15-17 in Washington, D.C. It was a terrific three days of shared learning and discussion, with several sessions featuring good work to end homelessness underway in Connecticut!

An important theme of the conference: rapid re-housing continues to show great promise as a crisis-response intervention to end homelessness and stabilize formerly homeless households. Great buzz at the conference as several cities and a handful of states (Connecticut!) are closing in on the goal of ending veteran homelessness by December 31, 2015. Secretary of the VA Robert McDonald stressed the importance of good collaboration - like Connecticut’s - between mainstream homeless providers and VA resources. CCEH staff have summarized and provided links to the sessions they found most helpful.

We met a number of colleagues at the conference who are also part of the national Zero: 2016 campaign, which is building momentum and getting terrific support from HUD, the U.S. Interagency Council, and other national partners. Connecticut’s good work to move toward the Zero: 2016 goals is getting notice - all due to the great efforts of providers across the state.

Many thanks to all of you for all you do, every day, to end homelessness in Connecticut!

Best regards,

No Veteran Should Be Without A Place To Call Home
As we move toward the 2015 goal line to end veteran homelessness, Connecticut is building momentum. This past week, Senator Blumenthal, the ranking member of the Senate Veteran’s Affairs Committee, asked CCEH Executive Director Lisa Tepper Bates to testify before the Committee on Connecticut’s impressive, cross-sector teamwork (between VA Connecticut Healthcare System, HUD-Hartford, Connecticut state resources, and nonprofit providers) to end the homelessness of each and every veteran. VA Connecticut Healthcare System is a national leader, moving energetically to help every veteran experiencing homelessness to secure permanent housing quickly. Program and funding flexibility play an important role in ensuring that we use our existing resources to best effect. Click here to read Lisa’s testimony.

On Friday, Senator Blumenthal held a press conference at the Columbus House Harkness House Grant Per Diem program in New Haven to announce The Veteran Housing Stability Act of 2015, to increase veteran access to permanent housing. The photo, above, features the Senator and Lisa with Matthew - a formerly homeless veteran on his way to VASH permanent housing via a stay at Harkness House.

Zero: 2016 Update: CT Surpasses Monthly Housing Placement Goal Communities across CT continue to collaborate and innovate to reach the goals of Zero: 2016.

In just six months since the launch of Zero: 2016, Connecticut providers have housed 447 Veterans (15 more than the Jan-June target) and 274 individuals experiencing chronic homelessness (2 under the Jan-June target). Nationally, housing registry lists are emerging as a promising practice to identify, assess, prioritize, and serve people experiencing homelessness.

Through the 100-day efforts, many CT communities have established and are using housing registry lists to prioritize housing resources based on level of need. These lists also give providers a real-time estimate of the numbers of people experiencing homelessness in their community at any given time.

Building on that good work, over the next two months, the Zero: 2016 CT team will be working collaboratively with communities to revise their housing placement targets using their by-name registry lists or assist in developing a by-name list for those communities without one. The goal is to have a revised chronic housing placement target by October 1, 2015.

The Zero: 2016 CT team is also working with Community Solutions and Rapid Results Institute to support providers with a summit in October to offer more training opportunities and tools that communities can use in their efforts to house individuals experiencing chronic homelessness.

You can also find a wealth of information on the Zero: 2016 page on our website.

Capitol Hill Days 2015: A resounding success! On Friday, July 17th Connecticut providers headed to Capitol Hill to meet with Connecticut’s Congressional representatives about federal homeless response resources. The Connecticut Delegation for the National Alliance on Ending Homelessness Capitol Hill Day included representatives from the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness, the Partnership for Strong Communities, New Reach, Inc., and Supportive Housing Works. Team CT held meetings with legislative assistants in the offices of both Senators and all our Congressional representatives.

Every staffer echoed back to us their enthusiasm for the energy, drive, urgency, and sense of collaboration in our communities today - driven in large part through the 100-Day Challenges and Governor Malloy’s shared commitment with us to the Zero: 2016 Initiative. For more on the national level legislative agenda for homeless resources and to view the congressional district fact sheets, click here.

New Britain Providers’ Creative and Effective Work
New Britain received an allocation of 40 new state RAPS to address chronic homelessness - 10 for the Friendship Services Center (FSC) and 30 for New Britain administered by Chrysalis Center. FSC has already housed four high-need individuals (soon to be 5) and anticipates a positive impact on the area’s EMT call load. FSC is also working with the VA on their five GPD transitional rooms to shorten length of stay and get veteran clients housed permanently more quickly. Ellen Perkins Simpson, Executive Director of FSC, says, “Back in the early 1990s, it was so powerful to see people get a key for their room in our transitional living program ... Now, almost 15 years later, we get the same thrill when our clients get keys to their own apartments. The miracles continue to be all around us.”

Read more about what’s happening in New Britain.

Mapping It! in Fairfield County

Opening Doors of Fairfield County and the Fairfield County CAN continue to build on the energy of their recently concluded 100-Day Campaign to insure that the strategies established during the campaign are not relegated to the back burner. Opening Doors-Fairfield County (ODFC) Coordinating Council and staff are identifying exactly which resources can be accessed to enhance the rapid-exits-to-housing approach that will also ultimately meet the goal of ending chronic homelessness by 2016. They are taking a deep dive in categorizing all of the potential funding resources available to the region, starting with a resource mapping session, facilitated by Katharine Gale, of Focus Strategies and Katharine Gale Consulting, in July. They worked together to map the CAN’s system today, and envision how it would look in the future, with the right mix of funding and housing. The mapping exercise establishes a baseline for ODFC leadership to work from in advocating for subsidies to fill the gap and house those on the regional registry who are prioritized for permanent supportive housing.

Kudos to you ODFC partners -- you continue to find creative, inspiring solutions in ending homelessness. Join CCEH to Review the Coordinated Entry Data Report

Starting in August, CCEH will be providing each Coordinated Access Network with a monthly report on their coordinated entry system. In advance of the report, we will be hosting a webinar to explain what the report is and how to interpret the information. The webinar is scheduled for 2:00pm on August 6th. Anyone interested in registering can do so here!

National Conference on Ending Homelessness

CCEH staffers attended the National Conference on Ending Homelessness in Washington, D.C. in July (along with members of many other Connecticut agencies). We’ve posted some takeaways and best practices on our blog.

• Effective Crisis Response Systems
• Building and Sustaining an Effective System of Rapid Re-housing
• TANF: A Pathway to Ending Family Homelessness
• HUD’s Family Options Study

CT Housing Coalition Annual Meeting, September 29: Save the Date! Sept. 29, 2015 is the Annual Conference of the Connecticut Housing Coalition. The day-long conference will be at the Connecticut Convention Center. This year’s theme is Housing Impacts. For more information visit the CHC website.

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