Balance of State Continuum of Care
Information and resources for the Balance of State Continuum of Care, a funding source which serves those at risk of or experiencing homelessness in New Hampshire.
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 programs targeted to people experiencing homelessness, and allows each community to tailor their programs 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.
Balance of State Overview
The mission of the BoSCoC is to provide a coordinated and sustainable system of care to individuals, youth, and families who are experiencing homelessness or are at risk of homelessness within the BoSCoC geographical area.
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 for planning resources to HUD on behalf of the BoSCoC when funding is available. If awarded, they will administer these funds for the BoSCoC. They will also assist with advising and carrying out other HUD CoC requirements as needed.
Point in Time (PIT) Count
PIT Date: Wednesday, January 22, 2025
Institute for Community Alliances NH PIT/HIC and HMIS Knowledge Base Page
- ICA has many PIT-related resources on their website for both Non-HMIS and HMIS agencies.
- The PIT training for sheltered programs (Emergency Shelters, Safe Havens, and Transitional Housing) that enter into HMIS can be found here.
- The Google Doc demo links and printable paper copy of the PIT survey may be found here.
- The live Google Doc links will be available no earlier than Thursday 1/16/2025.
NH Point in Time Planning 2025: Google Form or Non-HMIS Session (YouTube)
- This training is for agencies serving clients that enter into HMIS for unsheltered programs (Ex: Street Outreach) or that do not enter into HMIS at all for any program.
- See the presentation slides.
NH Unsheltered Point-in-Time (PIT) Observation Count Guidance
- This PDF contains guidance on how to complete an observation count for the unsheltered PIT count. This is not required, but a resource for those that wish to include observation counts into their process.
- Balance of State CoC FY 2024 Notice of Funding Opportunity
- BoSCoC Homeless Populations and Subpopulations Reports
- BoSCoC Housing Inventory Count Reports
- Coordinated Entry
- BoSCoC Youth Homelessness Coordinated Community Plan
- NH 2020 Point-in-Time Count Map
- NH Homeless Data Hub
- 2024 Balance of State Point-in-Time Count Overview
BoSCoC Video Resources
4/8/2025
Balance of State Continuum of Care Meeting, April 8, 2025
Balance of State Continuum of Care Meeting, April 8, 2025
Balance of State Continuum of Care Meeting, April 8, 2025
Transcript of video:
data requests from law enforcement specifically ICE um but this would go
for any law enforcement so local police um county anything like that state
police um so in the New Hampshire HMIS
policy and procedure it lays out this policy about what is required if any law
enforcement does make a request for HMIS data um they would need a subpoena that
is from a judge um and then once if you get that subpoena immediately it should
come to ICA if you feel more comfortable sending it to um like Melissa or Christy
um you can do that they would still then send it to us because ICA will need to review that subpoena um we will review
the request um and what it's for um and we'll connect with the agency um if it's
your agency we would connect with you um to ask any questions that we might have
typically our questions are what is this data going to be used for like what kind
of investigation um all those types of things um if we deemed it appropriate we
would release some data typically this data um would not be client level data
like uh name because they already have all that stuff um typically what we've
seen in a subpoena is law enforcement wanting to know if someone was at a
shelter during a certain period of time um and so I can give an example of where
we did this in another community um they were doing an investigation on child
abuse um and child endangerment so they they
asked about um enrollment data for a specific program um and so after
reviewing the subpoena and um getting some more information on what this would
be used for we were able to look up if this client even had a record and if
they had any sort of enrollment in the specific program they were asking about we would not release anything that was
not being asked for so if they had an enrollment in another type of program we
would have never we wouldn't have told them about that because they weren't asking about that program um also if there are questions
being asked I actually can't see the chat i just realized that so I apologize if I'm not answering your questions
Megan i'm keeping an eye on it awesome thank you
um if there is any data to be released um and even if we do not release data we
would let the COC leadership know and the HMIS advisory committee um may
they're made aware of this request and then also ICA's decision on what can be released if anything um it is very
important to note that ICA staff cannot provide legal advice and no information
um that we provide should be conreded
as right there's um if there's any legal
questions you will need to reach out to an attorney for that um but when it
comes to a subpoena um definitely send it to us you can also have your own uh legal counsel look at
that we I say does um direct all questions yes
echoing sorry um we do direct uh all of these types of questions of legal nature
to our our agency's legal counsel so we do have access to um legal counsel to
ask these questions um I also want to let everyone know that we are looking
into the policy we already have to see what we might be able to strengthen
um in the verbiage i have spoken and consulted with um the executive director
of the Vermont Asylum Pro uh assistant project um and they were very helpful so
we I will be crafting some um verbiage with the help of of this of the that exe
executive director um they work very closely they were in Washington last week and they work very closely with our
representatives and our have their hand on the pulse of everything so um they're
it it was very helpful to talk with them um we just want to make sure that we are
doing our best to protect the data of the clients that you all
serve all right um then there's going to be data requests from non-law
enforcement so this is like the mayor or the governor or maybe there's a college
university uh professor or the um the state in I put the state because
we may be using this for for another um uh implementation but um usually the
state requests come through Melissa or Christy or one of the BHS staff so it's
slightly different for that but say if your governor or a mayor is asking for
requests those requests would come to ICA and then we would go to the COC
leadership for some approval um on like what we can release um these
requests are only aggregated data we do not send client level data out
um especially if they are not COC agencies um so like the governor's
office might be asking for the number of folks in the shelter during a specific
period of time we're only literally going to give them the number we are not going to
say you know here's the list of people we we will not do that
um so we also if there's more than you know
like if there's a lot of things they're looking for which has been happening quite recently uh a lot recently um we
work with that entity first to understand what they're requesting we we need to provide context we verbiage um
we provide edits to the verbiage that they think that they want to use um because we want to make sure the data is
being represented it appropriately um there has been times when data has been
taken off of our website and then people don't understand uh what that data is
actually saying or where it's pulling from and there's just misunderstanding
of it and it's not represented correctly um so if there's any data requests
coming from anywhere um it's a good idea to reach out to ICA
to make sure uh specifically HMIS data I should say um to make sure that one
they're getting what they want and two once they do get what they want or need
they're understanding what it is and that it's being used
appropriately it's usually one of our questions what do you need this for what is it being used for it's usually my
first question all right any questions for
those two things
i don't see any questions yet Megan and no one has their hand raised awesome thank you Christie yep
all right so some data sharing is a little bit different than um data
requests so there's kind of two types of data sharing right there's inside the HMIS and then there's data sharing that
happens outside the the HMIS so within the HMIS um this the data sharing only
happens with those agencies that enter data into the homeless management
information system um each agency signs um an HMIS partnership agre agreement um
uh I'm going to call it the agency partnership agreement because there's also the coordinated entry partnership agreement but that's different um and
this is an annual document it is where the agencies agree to follow the policy
and procedure um and make sure that they're upholding all of those policies
um we do have a list of all the agencies that do currently enter as well as those
that used to enter and may not have any programs that they enter anymore
um as well um and also there I think there is some confusion with some
agencies about um what you need to ask clients about sharing so you only need
permission to share data inside the HMIS for each client um that's where the um
HMIS part of the ROI comes in into play um you you don't need permission to
enter the data into HMIS if you um you're all required if you're an HMIS
agency to have the consumer notice available hanging up wherever clients
might be located you can have it in your office available um but when they consent to services they're consenting
to having their data collected and entered into this required database um
and even if you uh don't have federal funding or state funding and you enter into HMIS you are still required to have
that consumer notice and follow the same um policy around the data entry and
permission to share data are there any data sharing
within HMIS
um the policy and procedure manuals uh is where um all the COC's and agencies
have agreed to do open data sharing within the HMIS as well just in case someone is
wondering where the permission for open data or shared data comes
from all right so sharing data outside of HMIS
um so right now um sharing data outside
of HMIS uh you there's probably more ways to do do this that I'm not putting
in here but a really big thing that a lot of the HMIS agencies are doing is
coordinated entry so there's the coordinated entry partnership and this is very specific to obviously
coordinated entry and who can be involved in talking about clients that are on the coordinated entry prioritization list um the HMIS data
that contains client level data can't be shared with non-HMIS um partner agency so if you were to pull
that list and they're not somehow uh there's no ROI signed there's they're
not on the coordinated entry partnership agreement they should not be looking at that coordinated entry porization list
um because I believe that there is names on the New Hampshire one
um as well um only aggregated data can be shared so again this is like if you
need to send something to um a board member um you can send aggregated data
to your board member for your specific programs that's totally fine a lot of agencies do that um and you may even be
required to have a report for them um again if there is something you can't
pull because you need a custom report for that you can let us know and we will
we're happy to help um with any kind of um data requests
from your board or from your community anything like that for your specific programs
um again outside of HMIS there's other kinds of policies
that govern that a isn't necessarily involved involved in
um some of the data exchanges that happen so like if you have a client at a mental health agency and they usually
mental health agencies have an their own type of uh release of information so if
they needed to tell an agency like for PSH that um here's here's their
diagnosis that is different than HMIS that's like medical information so you
would need the ROI that the um agencies use for that type of
exchange that wouldn't come from the HMIS ROI
questions megan I'm not seeing anything and I just wanted to let everyone know that um the New Hampshire coordinated
entry partnership agreement recently went out for all agencies to resign this
is at an agencywide level um and they are due back to PHS on the 11th of
April also if you have any questions you can reach out to the help desk um and if
we can't answer it um or if it's maybe something that
um like is a twopart answer like maybe there's an HMIS part to it and a non-HMIS we can help with the HMIS and
then um help you figure out where to go for the non-HMIS part we do that all the
time oh okay looks like Eddie has a question hi good morning quick question i did I
resent the HMIS release back do I need one for every single one of my case
managers as well so Eddie are you
Oh sorry sorry eddie are you talking about the coordinated entry partnership agreement
or you talking about HMIS i think it was the coordinated entry partnership
agreement oh no that was the HMIS i'm sorry
um so there's the ROI isn't it covers your
anyone who's entering into the HMIS i'm I think I'm answering your
question there's a use there's an HMIS user agreement
um which everyone signs when they take the train the new user training and then annually for the security training um
and then each agency so the executive director or your CEO or whoever is in
charge of the agency or signs the a
um HMIS agency partnership agreement or partners yeah agency partnership
agreement yes the release of information is the client signing it for you for the
agency to release the uh release to share the data in in HMIS
okay
good i'm glad I was able to answer that
okay and just for clarification purposes I have not seen that your agency sent
the New Hampshire coordinator partnership agreement back as of yet either really yes okay is there any way
you could send me those documents because I I thought I sent something to
earlier last week okay let me double check
all right um Chrissy um do you want me to move on to the system performance
measures yes please okay i am trying to think of what the
best way to do this um because there's two ways of showing this do you want to
see the comparison between FY23 and FY24 that is actually what I sent to Melissa
so let me try and get this okay I'm going to try and get this so it is you
can see it it's very um All
right so the system performance measures um were delayed this year um they we
have been able to uh submit them to HUD um nationally they
are due April 11th um and then um but
we've already submitted so we're good to go um for the balance
estate um the system performance measures are group of seven measures um
however we only submit for six of them at this point measure six is a
prevention measure and no one in the country um submits data for that yet and
not sure if we ever will um the date range for this is October
uh to September that is a federal fiscal year um and the one we just submitted
was October 1 of 23 to September 30th of 24 um so feels like we're like a year
behind but that was the last full fiscal year that just happened
um all right so measure one length of time persons remain homeless
um this measures the number of clients active in the reporting date range
across um emergency shelter and safe haven so that is the first measure right
here in line one so if um you see E S E
E and E S NBN those are just uh different like how
emergency shelters enter their data so that's emergency shelter entry exit that
usually is a year round shelter uh because they have longer stays and then emergency shelter night by night
typically that is uh seasonal winter shelters because they don't have uh as
long of a stay um and in the bounds of estate we don't have any safe havens there may be programs called safe haven
but there are no project types with safe haven um and then underneath that you'll see
that there is emergency shelter uh safe haven and then they add transitional
housing um along so this is with along with their average and median length of
time homeless um this includes time homeless during the uh report date range
as well as prior to the report start date going back no further than the look
back uh stop date or client date of birth so whatever is later um I can try
and get actual actually better verbiage on that the reporting team is really good at that and Chartina actually is
really good at um explaining uh these as well she's had to do a lot of system
performance measure presentations um you'll notice that there's two different types of measures
in um in measure one there's 1 A and one B
um one A um really is looking at the entry exit
and the bed night dates um that are entered into the HMIS so there's nothing like extra added
in to this it's strictly just those enrollments um and for night by nights
it's looking at the bed nights that are between the start and close date then in measure B you'll also
notice that they've added permanent housing to this um it includes data from
each client's living situation response as well as time spent in permanent
housing between their start date and their housing movein date
um which typically rapid rehousing and permanent supportive housing is what is
considered PH those are the two different types um that are included in
this um so those two programs the start date is when someone is deemed eligible
and they are typically literally homeless so they might be unsheltered or they might be in an emergency shelter um
and then once they are physically housed a housing move in date is placed in and that is where their homelessness ends um
and where the calculation for this would end
so um I think one B everyone you know is probably saying
that is what you've been very average uh lengths of
time of people experiencing homelessness um I mean the same thing in in 1A
um because it's been difficult to find house housing that is affordable
um it's usually the main main reason we can't place
people um and previous FY is
the 22 to 23
uh data that we submitted last year and current FY is that 23 to 24 data just in
case you um just to confirm
that measure two is returns to homelessness for persons who exited to permanent housing
destinations um so this measure looks at uh clients
who exited uh street outreach which is the so emergency shelter transitional
housing safe haven um or permanent housing to a permanent housing
destination in the date range 2 years prior to the reporting date range that
we're currently looking into um of those clients the measure reports on how many of them return to
homelessness as indicated in the HMIS for up to two years after their initial
exit um so each category um is going to have
their own line um street outreach has a slightly different
definition of positive um exits but I believe that's using the
same exits that the rest are in this one we'd have to check on that
um that I don't actually remember uh but the first section is going to be the
current fiscal year that we just submitted and this one over here I'm
going to try and make it so you could see it but that means I have to make it smaller i'm sorry um is the previous
year trying to make it so you can see it won't let me do it
um so it looks at the total number of persons who exited to a permanent
housing destination and then you'll see each of these are going are looking at
what um when someone might have returned to homelessness after they
exited it looks
like the first two so less than 6 months and then 6
months to 12 months um are either the same um or the
percentage is just slightly increased um the return to homelessness for 13 to 24
months though um has increased um and so has u the percentage
of returns in two years um that is an increase for the current
year from the last
year that might be something that the COC wants to look at see what might be
happening there um so number of persons
experiencing homelessness what this looks at is change in point in time counts for 31 and then a change in
annual count uh this measure for the 3.2 to the change in annual counts of
sheltered homeless persons in HMIS
um so it looks like there was a decrease in those in
the annual count um for those who went into shelter
and I and then it looks like there's a slight increase in transitional housing
this could be because maybe some beds closed um this could be there's not a lot of
movement and so we're not um not a lot of people are going into
shelter because there's not a lot of movement out of shelter there could be a couple of reasons why this is
happening does anyone have any questions so far and if I don't have an answer or we
can research it for you all right measure four uh measure
four uh is an
income employment and income growth this is only looking at COC funded programs
so um rapid rehousing permissive housing is typically what this is looking
at um it's divided into six tables
capturing employment and none employment income changes for system levers and
stayers um the project types reported in this me
uh metric are same for each metric but the type of income and universe of
clients differs um and again that's only limited to COC
uh projects so the first 41
uh is looking at earned income for adult stayers during the reporting period
that's 4.2 is non-cash uh non-employment cash income for adult
stayers in the system and then um change in total income for adult stayers during
the reporting period so those first three are for those that had not have not exited during the reporting period
and then the next three are for those that have an exit during the reporting
period um again if there are questions about
you know exactly what programs are being pulled into this we can we can get that
um as well
i also just want to add that after Megan's presentation I will be going into how system performance measures tie
into all of the continuum of care projects yes
all right I'll make this bigger now that we
can have any more um graphs so measure five number of persons
who become homeless for the first time um so this measures the number of people
entering the homeless system through emergency shelter safe haven or transitional housing uh in 51 and then
in 52 it adds per one of the uh adds the two permanent housing projects
determines whether they have any prior enrollments over the past 2
years um so again this is not doesn't go back further than two years prior to the
reporting period um so if they had an enrollment
in shelter in 2020
um they that's not going to be looked at in this report um if we wanted to look
deeper into um first-time homeless we can however if
we are going to use this as a measure we do typically say you should use um what
what you're submitting to HUD because it does have an effect on the NOFO um those with no prior enrollments
are considered to be experiencing homelessness for the first time
which just wouldn't let me oh good it is going to let me do it sort
of so you'll have your persons with the universe is looking at the persons with
entries into your emergency shelter safe haven or transitional housing um and
then uh this is going to be of the of that universe those that
um do have an enrollment in the these project types within 24 months
prior to their starting during the reporting year and then these
um are those that do not have entries
so it would be considered
new and then same thing down
here you'll see we skip number six it's not even in the report um and we go down
to measure seven successful placement from street outreach and successful placement in or retention of permanent
housing uh this measure uh this measures positive movement out of the homeless
system and is it's divided into the three tables you'll see uh movement off the streets from street outreach which
is 7A1 movement into permanent housing situations from street outreach uh
street outreach sorry emergency shelter uh safe haven transitional housing and
rapid rehousing which is 7B1 and then retention or exits to permanent housing
situation ations from permanent housing which is anything that is not rapid
rehousing so PSH um would be in
here um street outreach has a pretty
successful rate for street outreach um which is which is great
um typically with street outreach a I believe emergency shelter is
considered a successful placement um so they're going from being on the street
in the elements to being in into a place with a roof and some running water and e
and heat
um and then we have um exits to permanent destinations
um from rapid rehousing street out um emergency shelter and safe haven and
transitional housing um a little bit not as great um
but again I think this speaks to like measure one where it's just very hard to
get people into housing however it looks like your retention
rate down here
um from things like permanent supportive housing is actually pretty good or very
good um it it increased this year so
um I would say that I see this as a positive strength of your permit support
of housing
programs and are there any
questions i am not seeing any Megan okay
thanks hopefully no one fell asleep sorry
um I'm just excited about the um retention of permanent housing and so I
just want to say thank you to all of our COC and YHCP projects
um because that is amazing it is it's a it's a very difficult right
once once you finally get someone housed then you you are keeping them in housing so it's very
exciting is a hard that's hard
um they also have a data quality um section
um but that is not factored into any of the NOFO stuff I don't believe um the
the measures definitely are though um so what what usually happens every
year um or we try to do this every year with the COC leadership and the collaborative applicant um is we we walk
through these and then we see like what we try to look at the scoring that they
do and see will you get more points for these or will you not get more points
for these you know um what might some
sort of planning look like or give you know they get ideas of what we can look at for data to help with that planning
um as well so these are these are definitely used um it's not just sending
HOD some data no and I think most of the COC projects
know from the last couple of years is that when I have been sending monitoring
reports out as of late everyone is getting a very small snapshot
of looking at your system performance measures which is measure four whether
you're increasing income nonmp employment income increasing connections
to mainstream resources i also give you a snapshot of whether or not you're exiting people to
permanent housing destinations how many people you're serving so that information is all included in every
single monitoring report that is sent out from VHS it's also included when we
look at your annual performance reports every single year as we are looking at all of those measures as well within
your own projects and each project's performance affects how the balance of state is
performing um so HUD kind of I look at it as wearing different hats hud is
looking at how each project is performing but also how our continuum of care is performing as well in regards to
system performance measures yeah and the system performance
measures include all types of funding sources so
four measure four is really the only one that is strictly for COC funding um all
the rest look at anything that any of the data that's entered into HMIS so if
you have an emergency shelter that is privately funded and you enter into the HMIS that gets factored into this data
as well because you're part of the system um you know you're not you're not siloed out
yes the answers let's have a quick question about the performance measure for
somebody who goes from street homelessness into a
shelter they're there for one night is that still considered a positive performance measure um because say the
next night they decide to come back to our attachment that does not have any shelters does that turn into a negative
for us or would that considered to stay a positive even though they only stayed one night in a shelter
um well for the the street outreach um it would it only looks at that street
outreach exit it wouldn't it doesn't look at then what happened after the exit for the street outreach program
so Megan what I think you're saying is it would be two different entries like they entered into Street Outreach exited
to shelter and then they entered back into Street Outreach right and then it would just say that
you now have another this there's a client that just entered into
um permanent entered it back into your program it's not It's not going to um
I'd have to see like what specific enrollments it looks at
but yeah like if you have an exit to shelter it's not going to say "Well yes
they entered shelter but they were only there for one night and then they came back." That that's not how the report would look at
it so it wouldn't look at it as a negative measure it's just looking at the now and that day measure in a sense
yes and I can take that to the reporting team and ask them a little more about that but yeah it's not they're not it's
not programmed or that intuitive um to say like okay it's only a positive
if they don't come back to street outreach for like say an exit to permanent housing right like it it's not
looking at that they only stayed at shelter for one night for for your street outreach program cuz they're not
like related in the enrollment okay
and in reality that happens right a lot of times there's not much
you can do about it
does anyone have any other questions for Miss Megan or ICA or me
so does that kind of work the same way for shelter like I mean we get not a ton
but we get people that like for instance um move from our shelter to another
shelter why i don't know why is another shelter accepting people that are
already in shelter i don't know but um or somebody who leaves
and the situation didn't work out obviously we can't tell them no you can't leave but they'll leave um even
against our advice and then come back is that a ding
so this it's not specifically looking at your just your agency and um I don't I
don't think so i mean it's not if the exit is not to permanent housing and it's not being counted in the numbers
for for those going to permanent housing or those returning to to emergency shelter right because they weren't
permanently housed okay if they went Yeah sorry sorry man yeah
to to piggy back on that so shelterto shelter movement is not included in any system performance measures yeah adam
this is Melissa and Megan i had a question kind of related to this so what Susan's describing really seems like a
daytoday kind of thing and the system performance measures really capture more of like that big picture right so it's
not going to necessarily pick up on day-to-day fluctuations it's looking at
like the year overall this is what our entire system did is that accurate
in a sense yes yeah i mean each I mean the system as a whole is what is
measured um but if you take your entirety of your program population it
will then filter down to a smaller group of folks within that program to see how
their movement goes from say in this case shelter to housing status um it it
it really does narrow down for a lot of the measures who you're looking at and
so if you really wanted to see um how your uh the the APR the caper I think is
a better way to look at your program level data in terms of your performance there um system level data is really to
to Melissa's point how is your system doing on the whole it's a 30,000 foot
view of how your community is doing um there are some uh and I've I'm I have
very strong opinions about system performance measures um I have strong opinions about everything but I digress
um the one of the things that hasn't happened with HUD is that they haven't actually reviewed um how they measure um
system performance uh since they created these more than a decade ago um and some of them really are kind of overdue for a
tweak and a revision um and the like what they're looking at isn't
necessarily super helpful for us um and the other part of the challenge is that
the other complaint I have about them is that a lot of the measures we have really deal with external forces on your
community that are beyond the control of the COC and the agencies within the COC
to manage what happens and so that's why I go back to you know if you want to see how well your project is doing in
addressing services the people standing in front of you cber APR customer reporting is a better way to do that um
so we we we try to pull out as much of the the nuggets of beneficial information from system performance with
the very strong caveat that there are things that you know the you know
firsttime homeless folks um unless you have unlimited number of dollars for
prevention and the ability to get landlords to agree to you know work with your your clientele you're a lot of
first-time homelessness is out of your control just it's market forces that demand that that impact that um so yeah
it it it's one piece of the puzzle and not the entire puzzle itself
and that's reassuring because the caper is what we use when we look at our shelters and when we are talking about
data with them so um and then Susan I think it's important to also note and Christy I think will talk a little bit
about this when she talks about the the next thing that I always call the wrong name so I'm not even going to try um we
nobody's getting dinged because of individual client circumstances um we
can offer supports we can offer services but sometimes things happen that again are out of our control and really it's
more about like the effort your policies your practices are you doing best
practices um and then to Adam's point I think Christie will talk about this as
well um there's a reason that
um projects aren't automatically involuntarily reallocated because they're below threshold and it's because
of what Adam just said like we know that we're in an affordable housing crisis we know that people are staying in shelters
longer because there's nowhere to go all of those different things um are impacting numbers as well so um you know
if some if you are receiving a corrective action plan because you're below a threshold it's not an automatic
reallocation it's like let's talk about this and a lot of those things will be out of your control so that's just my
two cents on that as well and I'll turn it back to Christie and hi everyone i was late sorry
thank you Melissa does anyone have any more a related HMI
asked questions before I kind of diverge off into system performance and COC
projects megan was blinking but I don't think she has a
question all right so let me share my screen
so um I am going to specifically talk about um the balance estate continuum of
care's performance monitoring process this only applies currently to
continuum of care permanent housing projects very clear it does not apply to
shelter it does not apply to YHDP projects and it does not apply to any of
the coordinated entry or supportive services only projects that are funded it is only in reference to permanent
housing projects as of right now um so two things which I want to be very
clear about so I know I feel like a lot of you think we monitor too much the
balance estate continuum of care is required to monitor all of the projects within its
continuum of care that are relevant and which I just said on an annual basis so
all of UCO permanent housing projects the Bureau of Homeless Services
is required as a recipient of the grants to also annually monitor your projects
which is when I show up on your doorstep and do your program financial review and
your participant file reviews today I'm going to be talking about the balance of state's performance
monitoring reports um this is included in the balance of state reallocation policy that we
monitor each of the COC projects annually based on their performance typically these reports come
out in March or April um they are going to be coming out very shortly this week
um these details of any of these reports are made public and what we look at per
the reallocation policy of the balance estate is we are looking at those system
performance measures so specifically we look at for
scoring for performance monitoring we look at increased participant earned
income increased project participants unearned income the increased number of
participants obtaining non-cash mainstream resources those are the four
big ones in measure four from system performance measures we also look at for performance
monitoring is we look at what percentage of the grant was expended for the last
full operating year we look at data quality so we're specifically looking at the percentage
of HMIS client records um that have null or missing
values we look at the timeliness of you submitting your information into HMIS or
a comparable database which is within 5 days per the HMIS policy and then lastly
we're looking at the timeliness of your annual performance report submission to the Bureau of Housing Supports i said
the wrong name you think I would know it now it's the Bureau of Homeless Services um so we
look at those specific measures for each one of the continuum care permanent housing projects and this information
specifically comes from your NO scoring from last year
so we look at all of that and we look at the total performance score for all of those questions so for this year the
total score that a project could receive was 35 points the balance of state last year
voted uh not last year a couple years ago voted that we would take the median score and anyone who scored at the
median score or below would receive a corrective action plan
so looking at this we send out a corrective action plan every single year
a monitoring report for each project to submit a corrective action plan back to the balance state to review we are
looking for projects to say yes we are going to connect people with workforce
ready or help them connect to employment or help connect them to social security how are you going to improve those
measures for your project in order to serve your participants better in order
to maintain and sustain their permanent housing um we specifically
look for those corrective action plans and those corrective action plans are brought to the executive committee to
review i can tell you we have been doing performance monitoring reports on all of
the COC projects since 2017 so far we have not involuntarily
reallocated any of the projects and this is because of a really
strong partnership that I think we have with all of the COC projects where we're able to work with all of you to connect
to provide that technical assistance and support to work on increasing those measures taking a look at why are any of
those measures low how can we improve them i mean one of the simplest ones that we look at is whether or not you're
submitting your annual performance report on time so how can we help you make sure you're submitting that to BHS
on time um so we really look to provide that technical assistance and support so
that all of your projects can improve your scores we have high performing projects within our continuum of care
that are supporting our system performance measures helping our NOFO scores so that we can get new projects
and new funding into our community um so once we do issue those monitoring
reports again your agencies send back corrective action plans for anyone who is at the median score or lower the
executive committee looks at a variety of things um including any monitoring
findings that are outstanding or overdue any history of inadequate
financial practices how many times your program has been cited in the past what steps
that project has taken to improve their performance measures um anyone who has a
history of serving ineligible participants um and all of this information can be found in the
reallocation policy that the balance state voted
on so what we do is I bring all of this information to the executive committee
um we review all of the reports and talk about any recommendations moving forward
for the next year um and whether or not we need to start speaking with an agency
about the involuntary reallocation process or even the voluntary reallocation process um we've worked
with projects in the past where they have voluntarily reallocated some of their funding because they're not fully
expending it or looking at the project as a whole because it is not working as
it was initially intended to be designed and implemented because we all know
times change project may have been designed 20 years ago and it is just not feasible in working in the current
environment that we have so I'm going to pause there because I know people always have a ton of
questions about this process and I I want to say it's not we are working to
make sure that all of our projects within the COC are performing the best that they can and we're not looking to
come in and just take people's money away but to help support our continuum
of care so that we're serving our participants in our program to the best of our
ability let me see if there's any
questions and my chat is being funky i don't see anything
so what I will do is I will share the involuntary I will share the reallocation policy which includes both
voluntary and involuntary reallocation process for all of you um for any of the
projects that did score at the median or below you will see a monitoring report
in the next couple of weeks uh probably by the end of this week if you have any
questions please feel free to reach out to me directly but again it really ties in what Megan talked about with those
system performance measures we look at your system performance measures for all of your COC
projects through the balance of state performance monitoring at your on-site
monitorings every year and with your annual performance reports and when we do NOFO scoring so we continually look
at these measures throughout the year for all of the COC projects um and try
to figure out ways that we can help and support all of our projects and improving them and improving our overall
COC and our response to
homelessness i'm really surprised no one has questions maybe I've talked about this
enough you were very good in describing the
process thanks
Susan all right well if you have questions separately I think most of you have my email um so shoot me an email
and I will send it back over I believe to Melissa and I will be talking again
but mainly Melissa if she's ready i don't have the agenda up so I was just
hoping you would point to me when it was time um no it's okay we're I'm um my plan had
been to do just a sort of a what we know right now about
our HUD funding um as I'm sure you all are aware it's been a roller coaster uh
for a few months now um we're so for our I'm going to speak
specifically about our continuum of care projects right now so if you're not funded through the HUD continuum of care
um this is just information but it's not necessarily relevant to you um we're
currently operating under our federal fiscal year 23 awards so
um I think our first grant that ends for that cycle is
coming up at the end of May so starting at the end of May we'll start to see our grants from FY23 end we have been told
by our HUD field office that um our FY24
awards so the ones we applied for last year that we received notice about I
think it was very early January or like right before the inauguration we got
those um those announcements so we have been told that those are being processed
we have not received them yet um it's not all that unusual for us to
not have received our grant agreements yet so I think last year we started getting them May June July um sometimes
we got them after the grant had already started so I would say right now we're
we are not in a position for the coming year where I'm nervous that we won't get
the funding um what I am sort of waiting on is the actual grant agreements
um so a couple of other COC's across the country it could have been more than a couple but COC's across the country did
start receiving grant agreements a few weeks ago that had some new language in them
um some of the language was extraordinarily vague
and unclear about like what did it mean so I I don't have it in front of me but one of the things
was about not using the funding to support any DEI activities but without
an explanation of what that actually meant um and I feel like that is something that could be interpreted
differently by different people so I did send the a sample to our legal team to
review but before they even got it HUD had rescended those grant agreements um
what we're hearing is that the grant agreements that are going out now have
language about how um we cannot violate any federal anti-discrimination laws
which cool we couldn't before so that's fine um so what we're hearing is HUD is
issuing grant agreements for grants that started in January and then kind of
working their way up so again our first grant starts in June we are not quite
concerned we're really not concerned yet because it's um you know it's still early April so um FY24 we should be in
fairly decent shape um we actually received we didn't
receive any new projects in this award but every single renewal project did see
a bump in their supportive services funding chrissy is that right was that the line we think um it was like a cost
of living increase that HUD gave for the first time so um every single award will
see that their um dollar amount has gone up um I'm gonna interrupt you for a hot
second once we actually receive the grant agreements I will be reaching out
to all of the projects to de further develop your budgets with the supportive services increase
yep yep we we saw the total dollar amounts but we haven't seen the breakdown from HUD about what's in what
line item so we're just waiting for those things um and once we have them like Christy said we'll work on that with you
um I have a I was going to say one pager but it's two pages so I will drop this
in the chat uh the National Alliance to End Homelessness released a summary and
I I'm throwing it in there um it's a summary of what was included in the
continuing resolution for the FY25 budget and how it um how it impacts HUD homeless
assistance grants um so kind of skimming through it the
emergency solutions grant which some of you may also have uh projects funded through that seems to have been level
funded um there's funding in there for the youth homelessness demonstration program and
then the continuum of care projects um the I'm scrolling
down they were I it's hard to for me to explain it in a way that's logical
because my brain doesn't work this way so ultimately what it works out to be and you can see it under the
implications is that there is sort of a a gap in funding for continuum of care
projects it was funded at a lower amount than previous years um the continu the
continuing resolution gives HUD the ability to repurpose funding to cover
the renewal demands um but it still leaves a shortfall so we don't know how that will impact
New Hampshire or any other COC at this point um we do know and they've funded
quite a bit um but it does look like there is the potential somewhere in in
the country for there to be um a shortfall in funding so um we'll be
paying attention to that you can look at the um the thing I just dropped in the chat um we're you know waiting to see
what information we get from HUD about this and as soon as we know anything we'll let you know
um the timing is is just sort of odd because we're it last year was the first
time we had that two-year NOVO so we're not supposed to have a NOVO this year
um but there's this sort of strange funding predicament that they're
in so we don't know how that's going to play out um I'm not sure they know how it's going to play out yet either but
for now um my focus is on getting the FY24 awards and and getting all of that
sort of out to all of you um every single one of you that has a COC
contract with us will have to do a grant amendment to align the funding with the
um the increase that we got this year so uh stay tuned for that hopefully we get
that information sooner than later so we can start that process but um like I said as soon as we know we'll let you
know um trying to think if there's anything else christy what does the agenda say that I'm talking about is
that it yes that was it okay any questions on
that
and while I have the floor I'm just going to put in um state budget wise uh
we are on step three of step five so we still have a ways to go
um at this time what the the New Hampshire House is voting on or has
voted on or I think they're voting this week I don't even know um the funding
for the emergency shelter system and the housing stabilization programs remains
intact in the house budget that is um going forward right now so that hasn't
changed that's the same as what was in the governor's budget and the same as what was in
the agency budget um that includes the prioritized needs
request that we had for the shelter funding so for anyone who has a an emergency shelter contract with us you
know that right now you have two contracts actually one is the regular emergency shelter one one is the bed
rate contract the current the way the budget is moving forward at the house those two
things will be combined and it'll be one contract instead of two um hopefully that will be easier for all involved um
if the budget does go forward as it is today all emergency shelters will have
to have a contract amendment to align the funding with what gets approved
through the uh budget process so stay tuned that is also constantly moving and
changing um it goes to the Senate next and then from the Senate it goes
to like a joint committee joint House and Senate i don't remember what it's
called um and then from there if they agree on a budget it goes to the governor for signature so um I feel like
that's a relatively positive thing considering everything else that's been in the news lately about um the state
budget so I'll pause any questions about that
okay that's all I
got right Christie what's next i'm turning it back over to you because I don't have my
agenda uh open floor so if anyone has anything they want to bring up or any
questions how are uh pit numbers looking this year
megan are you still here yes we're in the middle of
um still data cleanup for the um
nonhmis um Travis sent over all of the things that we we reviewed and we're
still going through that so that's what they look
like our goal is the end of this month uh
beginning of May um they're not going to be we don't have a due date for them what typically happens with the federal
reporting is after the LSA is submitted
that's when the system performance measures usually have their time after that's submitted and the due date ends
that's when they will let us know more about the submission and when HDX will
open for us to even be able to put data in there um we haven't heard anything
about the point in time and housing inventory chart um we probably won't in maybe we'll hear tomorrow uh not
tomorrow maybe we'll hear by the end of this month um because it the system performance
measures closes on the 11th and then we have a HUD call
um the middle of this month i have to look at the calendar um and maybe
they'll tell us um our our goal is the end of this month to have at least draft
data compiled thank you Megan brenda welcome
um this may have been discussed before I came in a few minutes late but um I wanted to see if there's any direction
around language images anything from regarding marketing or um website
content that we are being directed to um adhere to i just want to be ahead of the
curve the rose i would say
um that's the kind of thing that you should probably consult with um like
your agency's legal team with we since we don't have new grant agreements yet
from HUD we don't know what changes they're proposing um I've seen the
different drafts floating around but they they do keep changing um and I don't want to make assumptions
based on things that I'm seeing so we um have made the decision to wait until we have
actual formal guidance from HUD before we suggest any changes
is there any concern that um any of us as partners and this is just kind of what keeps me up at night why I'm asking
asking the question that because we collectively work together if there are partners who
have um um things that are not allowed I'm just
going to use language images whatever um that may not be allowed or perceived I
would not want to impact our funding for this state so that's really why I'm asking for the direction you know it's
kind of like COVID all over again i feel like I'm in this like what do I do yeah no I I completely understand that um so
I think the best way to answer that is um to remember that the state of New Hampshire is actually the recipient for
every single grant so HUD will be looking to the state of New Hampshire first um
and typically they don't look to the subreients um I say typically because
who knows you know they could change their guidance um but typically the
recipient is the one responsible for whatever they're looking for and
um sort of what we're hearing through the grapevine is that states tend to be
um more in compliance because they're more you know they're more governmental like all of our language is
pretty scripted um so that's why I'm I'm not super concerned yet the new grant
agreements do or drafts I've seen do have language about subreients can't do
this or that but we we don't have those yet so we're still operating under old
grant agreements that don't have some of the new things that have been talked about in them
melissa also looked at the balance of state governance charter as well against
some of that new language that we had seen in the grant agreements and was rescended just to double check our own
governance charter for the continuum of care um and we did a really good job I will
say writing it a couple of years ago um it's very straightforward and I think it's okay
we both
do so Melissa and I are both keeping an eye on all of that information both from
the continuum of care perspective and as the recipient of the grants and we'll keep you updated once
we know anything
and I was really looking forward to my summer off from Nofo but we'll see what happens
you better find some wood to knock on like immediately i live in a wood house
for those of you who don't know that I live in a Lincoln long house so I'm good i can see that behind you
did anyone have anything
else um something that's just related it's Freeman um related to the home ARP
leads um we're definitely reaching out to the people we were told to reach out to but I'm just noticing that you know
with these home ars some of them are kind of prohibitive to the group of people that we're uh uh serving in the
sense that um you know one of the leads we tried to pursue was uh had a $100 per
person application fee uh for adult household members and a $500 apartment
holding fee um are we uh you know able to utilize I
know obviously if someone's enrolled in my permanent supportive housing program that there are some funds that can help
deal with some of those things but um when when someone isn't and we're trying
to make a referral it's been it's been making uh it a challenge is there is
there anything um you know that we're doing to try and
um work out arrangements with these other parties that are participating in these these these home ARP openings to
kind of mitigate that because it it seems problematic uh Freeman I didn't know anything about
those issues can you send me an email so I can bring it to my next meeting with New Hampshire Housing about it oh yeah
it'd be my pleasure and then like my part two of that question is is like we've got homear we've got stability
vouchers we've got you know this kind of voucher that kind of voucher they're all just section 8 vouchers um is there any
feedback being given to like HUD or anybody that cares to say hey you know
we're all intelligent service providers give us a group of vouchers tell me how tell us how many of them need to go to
unsheltered and tell us how many of them need to go to people that are in PSH
programs but like I've got a log jam in my PSH program where the amount of money
I'm provided with every year is not enough money to serve the amount of people that we're supposed to serve and
even if that weren't the case I know that a lot of my peers are in the same position where um without a guarantee of
a voucher to give to those people that don't need to be like we're never going to make room in these supportive housing
programs um so I know like you know between moving on homear stability
vouchers it gets confusing is there any way we can work as a group towards merging these into hey here's a pile of
vouchers do you need to use five of them this way and five of them that way and and simplify this cuz it's getting
confusing um that's a HUD issue that we are not
going to resolve easily understood all right I'll discontinue complaining
and Kayla I see your uh comment as well so um if somebody can send me like Caleb if
you can email me as well in Freeman that way I can say I've heard from more than one that this is a an issue um I will
bring it to my next meeting with them which I think is on Monday
so all right anything else
i hope you're all hanging in there um like I said earlier it's been a roller coaster um I don't know about all
of you but like I go through phases where I need to read all the news and then phases where like I don't want to know anything um and you have your hand
up yeah i just have a quick question only because I've heard rumors out there and
I don't know if you guys have heard it or not but um have you heard anything about New Hampshire Housing opening up
their vouchers this month to start vouchering people again or is that just hearsay basically is what I'm guessing i
haven't heard anything but um I like I said I have a meeting there on Monday so
if I get any information I can certainly share it i know way back when the vouchers
were kind of shut down they had said they hoped it to be sometime in the spring but I haven't heard that
update and then my other question is I' I've seen this um link that you had put
into the chat um prior to this meeting so you know obviously we're all in the
unknown currently with everything that's going on nationally um and with the
renewals and what have you um what is the
implications should it come to this point where there is a shortfall and now we have almost 20,000 people who become
homeless or more what's what's that going to look like for the administration and
Yeah i don't that stuff you know yeah yeah yeah i don't know i would say
um those are good questions and concerns perhaps to raise to your federal
delegation and I will say that the groups that are out there that do advocacy around homelessness have those
statistics um of how many people this is going to impact and so that that information is
out there for the public um whether we're level funded underfunded or what
happens in the next couple couple of years and the impact it will have
i think that I always say it wrong Melissa it's the National Lowinccome Housing Coalition mhm has some great
information out there as well
and if you follow um the National Alliance to End Homelessness sorry I was
pausing for a second because I wanted to make sure I had the right one yes they um if you sign up for
their emails um they send out calls to action when things like this come up um
and they'll they'll draft a letter for you um and if
your agency allows you to do those things follow their rules i know state
employees if you're on here you are 100% allowed to do those things not from your work email and not on work time um but
feel free to send all the emails make all the phone calls you want um from your personal devices off work
hours and please conduct your work business on your work devices
that's all I've got all
right Christy anything else or are we good to wrap it up we're good to wrap it up all right
well thank you everyone i hope you all have a great day hi
1/14/2025
Balance of State Continuum of Care Meeting, January 14, 2025
Balance of State Continuum of Care Meeting, January 14, 2025
Balance of State Continuum of Care Meeting, January 14, 2025
Transcript of video:
good morning everyone welcome to the balance EST State Continuum care first
meeting of 2025 um I'm filling in from L Hatfield
this morning as she could not be here um I'm Christy shot for those of you who don't know me I am the Continuum of Care
Program administrator for the bureau um we are recording this meeting and we will send out the link to the
YouTube channel once we get it uploaded um and again if all of you can
put your name and agency in the chat as we do take attendance at each one of these
meetings um this morning we are going to go through we a presentation by The Institute for Community alliances on the
2024 point in time data um and then we'll be reviewing the 2025 point in
time planning process because it's happening really really really soon um
I'm going to turn it over to the Institute um and I will stop sharing my
screen Megan awesome can you hear me yes okay
great all
right let's see if this will work all right can you all see
that yeah all right hi everyone um my name is
Megan Maro rafter I'm with the institute for Community alliances I'm the hmis manager for New Hampshire and
Vermont um also on the call with us is Robin and Tra and you guys all know them
um and we'll hop into the 2024 point in
time if it lets me okay um so what I did um is I went
from big picture of the entire State then we're going to look at um the coc's
broken out and then we're going to look at um just the balance of State um sorry
if these are small I didn't want to have a bazillion slides for you to have to look at um if that I tried to make the
numbers as big as possible um if you have any questions let me know um but
but in the state of New Hampshire there were a total number of individuals that were uh literally homeless so that's an
emergency shelter transitional housing Safe Haven as defined by Hud and those
that were unsheltered there were 2,245 individuals and they were in
1,660 households um so I broke out um the
individuals sorry is there a question I just want to
make sure I'm answer nope okay um I broke them out in individuals and
households by each project type so you can see majority of households were in
Emergency Shelters um and individuals um then the next number would be your
unsheltered count transitional housing and Safe Haven there is only one safe
def find Safe Haven in the state of New Hampshire right now um and that is in
nashaa um so that number is very very small that's why uh compared to
everything else I believe there's only four beds in that four or five beds on
that project anyway um that is a harbor home a harbor Care
Program um and then we have uh subpopulations I tried to get all of the populations that um are looked at we
have our veterans unaccompanied youth so unaccompanied youth are individuals that
are in households that are only made up of those that are 24 years old and
younger so meaning that anyone in the household there has to be
someone um no one in the household can be 25 or older they have to be 24
younger so if there was someone who was 26 uh with a
22-year-old that would not be considered unaccompanied youth uh parenting youth so this these
these numbers uh also are all only looking at adults so 18 years and older and the parenting youth is looking at
just the youth that is doing the parenting um so usually what that is is
someone who is under the age of 24 or 25 so 24 and younger and then they have a a
child in their home that is 17 years and younger and they would be considered a parenting
youth um then we have our chronic numbers uh for the entire State we have
our domestic violence numbers we have our mental health uh and our substance
use uh these are the what HUD calls the subpopulations
are there any
questions I see that's a hand popped up I think it's
will hi Christy can you hear me yes I can oh great great good morning
um I'm just wondering looking at these uh graphics um whether we need to make some
differentiation between the pick count and the numbers in hmis as reported by
the um New Hampshire coalition to end homelessness because um it's a bit
confusing when we say to New Hampshire total homeless
individuals um because the numbers reported in hmis are over 6,000 so I
just I'm only pointing that out because it does uh I think create some confusion in in some some uh areas and uh uh at
least for me it does and I think we need to be kind of tackling this as a this is
a subpopulation of the total homeless population in New
Hampshire yes this is yes as uh this is only point in time the HUD point in
time um as uh we sorry if you you may I'm I'm wondering if you missed the
beginning um this is specifically only the point in time this is not annual data the report that they put out which
I worked with um them to put out is annual data they they use calendar data
so that's 12 month uh where this is only one day yes it's point in time but uh
just to clarify my my point is that in the graphics for example says New
Hampshire total homeless individuals and and it should probably say uh for for
pit or something is the top cut off sorry no I see the I I see the top but
in the graphic itself and the in the graphs themselves so I just it's a small
matter but I just wanted to point that point that out thank
you are there any questions about um the data how the data was collect CED I mean
we're going to the 2025 planning will go over how stuff was is going to be
collected which is basically the same as how we did it last year would there might be some minor
changes Megan I'm not seeing any questions okay thank you Christie you're welcome I also wanted to make sure that
we gave a five-year comparison um because sometimes it's hard to just look at the data uh for each for one point in
time um and giving a comparison for at least the total number of homeless for
the for that night um is is helpful um
so we did have a jump last year in 2023 um which is two years ago now um
and I believe that was because New Hampshire was using some of those uh rental assistance emergency rental
assistance for motels which were considered emergency shelter um and then
we had a jop because they weren't being used anymore after um during the 2024
point in time believe right Robin and Cha that was that's what we were um we
figured out what's that drop okay perfect um also I try really hard to
make sure that transitional housing and unsheltered were like very different
colors because the numbers are similar like they're not far apart
um and so I worked with the data team to make sure that you could see the
numbers as well um there's the emergency shelter has had
the highest fluctuation especially between 22 and
23 um Safe Haven has basically stayed the same
um because we don't really have a lot of vents there um and HUD has phased out
that type of program um we did have a slight increase in
2024 uh for the unsheltered in the state um and
then we'll see how it goes this year
I'm just pausing I want to make sure that if you have questions you have a little time to soak it soak this
in all right so these are the um 2024
point in time broken out by the coc's so you can kind of
see um the COC how the coc's compare um
and where those totals came from um the balance of State in Manchester
again don't have those Safe Haven beds so those are the little zeros and the
little gaps in there um
Nashua looks like had all adult only unsheltered
folks um and it looks like there were just looking at these numbers I'm going
to say a majority of these were adult only households for
unsheltered um because of just looking at those numbers
um which you which usually is the case um with unsheltered with those
experiencing unsheltered
homelessness and then we have the subpopulations Broken Out by
COC so we have veteran on accompanied youth parenting youth chronic DV mental
health and substance use and again these are all defined by Hud um so every each
cooc collected the same information all of the fields that were collected in
hmis and as well as outside of hmis were uniform um it is best practice to do
that when you are collecting data and wanting to report out on them that uh substance use does
include um alcohol um and drug use um they just
combine it into one category of substance use and all of these are
self-report uh for substance use Mental Health and DV uh as well as veteran um
unless they're coming uh unless they've been verified from the VA but if they're in emergency shelter transitional
housing um that is not a VA funded um and unsheltered it it is self-report and
for chronic uh the way that those questions are asked to see if someone is
chronically homeless uh that is also
self-report and then I wanted to make sure that since this was the balance of States call I wanted to make sure you
got just some graphs for your particular
um COC um I do have a five-year comparison for just your
cooc um and oh the graph didn't flip I apologize
for it was supposed to flip um it's kind of going present to past I will fix that
before um send having the PDF sent out um but again we do see that spike in
emergency shelter um with a little bit of a dip not that much but a little bit
of a dip in um unsheltered and a just a slight increase in 23 for uh
transitional housing and then for um both transitional housing and unsheltered we do see an increase in the
balance of State um with that sharp decrease in emergency
shelter um which again is due to not having the emergency rental assistance
funds that were being used for um
Motel excuse me um places where you can find data uh
BHS has their data Hub um you can find a
point in time believe I know they have point in time maps that go back want to say till 2019 maybe
2018 um they have Maps up there um and then there's also the Ia knowledge base
and the New Hampshire website for IA um where you can see some more data reports
um and if you have any questions um hmis questions or any data questions you can
reach out to the help desk uh and sha and Robin are really great at answering
your questions or we're trying to find out who should answer your questions if we are not able to answer
it anyone have any questions for Megan about the 2024 pick count
numbers when can people conducting the count have the
link well um I am actually out because my grandmother passed away on Sunday so
I was U trying to get that to you on Monday um but if you could give me a
little bit um I believe it's supposed to go out on Thursday so we're trying to get it out to you on Thursday
my hero sorry about your loss hang in there thank you she was 95 she had a a
wonderful life I just um I put a little wrench in the plans of
things you know understandably um but yeah there's
already Robin put a request in um and we're working with the reporting team to get those out so you are able to get um
resources out and um that probably something that Robin and
Cha and Mandy and Travis will be talking about as
well anyone else have any other questions for Megan and her wonderful I
team I'm going to pass it over to Rob Waters from our Bureau who's going to be
talking about pit up states by region take it away Mr
Waters thanks Christie I will do my best Travis if you're all right my friend I
will lean on you a bit I'm still recovering from whatever the heck my wife had at the end of last week um so
um as far as regions go uh the beautiful thing is that everybody has a plan
that's tailored specifically for their counties that works best for them so you know what works in um straford County
doesn't necessarily work great for Coos County which certainly doesn't work for um like chesher County so you know we
have a lot of um a lot of Outreach and a lot of uh team building and Community
Building going on in all areas um but I guess a summary of the things instead of
going into detail for every every community and every county is uh one of
the big things we talked about this year was getting the youth um workers
involved and getting the youth voice there uh so that the youth are more
comfortable the youth experiencing homelessness are more comfortable with um with being counted for the pit
because there's more familiarity with the folks that they're working with Lauren did you have a
question no so um okay thank you
um and and you know we've also been working with the veterans population for
quite a bit as well um but you know I also think that we should uh look to
some of the leads so I know I've got to look through the um through the roster
to see who's here but I know I saw Jim dhy on here so Jim uh would you mind
kicking us off and telling us since you're covering two counties where chesher and Sullivan County are standing as far as your plan
goes sure um so in chesher County um
Serenity Center is going to do a lot of the heavy lifting for us they're going to cover um the community kitchen and um
have people uh counting people that come in but also the 100 nights has a warming
shelter I don't know do we call it a shelter people can't really sleep there overnight but they can come in and get
warm overnight and I know it's supposed to be very cold it's supposed to be in the single digits so I expect they're
going to get a lot of traffic overnight and um we're hoping to get them to um do
some counting in in their space um and uh I I haven't really finalized things
with them and I'll get over there this week then as far as Sullivan County goes there is the warm welcome shelter here
in Claremont that was put together by um a couple of local churches and we're
helping them out with that operation and I feel like we're going to get more people counted that way
um but these are people who are being put right into hmis so they'll be counted uh not on the night they'll be
counted otherwise right but um so other than that I'm I'm gonna hit
the ground here and uh you know I'm trying to assemble a list of places where people
are and um you know be able to hit those sites
um the night of the uh the night of the pit count in the next day and see who I
can uh count in person and the same thing down in uh Chester County so
that's uh oh and um TLC here in in Claremont uh is going to they're going
to have a um a heepsy screening that day with gift
cards in the hopes of bringing people in on that day to and Counting while that's
going on so that's that that's probably going to be a big help um so other than
that uh uh oh and uh at the Claremont soup kitchen we're going to be there first
thing in the morning to talk to people there about that and try to get the word out that day it seems like it's
difficult for people to remember what day these things are happening so if we're there first thing in the morning maybe we can um you know sort of refresh
the word on the street about this this thing going on and uh the possibility of getting a gift card at TLC and um so
yeah so that's that's where we're at aome thanks Jim um on my screen I'll
just move South of you to Mr Freeman to Freeman what's happening in your area
good sir or areas because I know you'd be speaking probably on behalf of asena asen's not here you might be the only
person that pronounces my name right so thank you rob um oh makes an o sound
anyways uh yeah so the piit count plan
for us similar to previous years every year we try to come up with a new bright
idea um so um you know what we've been doing
the last couple of years is you know I think all of us are pretty good at working with our partner agencies and
we're all pretty good at the on the ground physical count piece we know where people are going to pop up and we
know where to look for our our humans um so we have a couple of different teams
we have a team that's doing uh conquered and Franklin and then we have a team that is um uh Laconia and and and
Belmont essentially CU that's kind of where we get our um our bang for our buck so we're able to cover the whole
whole catchment um our teams are going to be uh the conquered area are going to
be meeting in the morning at the friendly kitchen and then kind of dispersing out from there uh lonia same
thing but starting at the is Isaiah 61 Cafe uh we have uh the reason I'm pushy about
the link is because we have a QR code that we put on a flyer um and uh when we
when we uh distribute that flyer uh it it makes it a lot easier for uh
volunteers just to like scan the QR code on the flyer so that they can start their their counts and they don't have
to um necessarily refer to an email where the link was we distribute
um flyers or pamphlets that show people how to save the pit count link on the
home screen of their smartphone just again making it easier so that there's not a bunch of sheets of paper flying
around the world um and we heavily
leverage the uh reporting data from hmis
um uh you know in the past we've just literally gone through our roster reports and started phone banking um and
looking through our notes uh but we're going to uh due to some good advice that Megan's team gave us we're going to use
the current living situation status update report to kind of narrow our focus on who we phone bank to um and uh
that's that's kind of you know the day of the account we're very much out in the field and working with our partners to collect the data and making sure they
all have that QR code so that they can report and then within the reporting
window and the day after we spend a lot of time phone banking to anybody that we couldn't reach uh through the reporting
mechanism um we bring lots of gear um our team does not count uh before or
after dark um uh but it hasn't hurt us yet um so anyways that's did I miss
anything Rob any questions no all right I'll be quiet no you did you did great as always man I
appreciate it it's uh into your point yeah I mean every year it's like trying to find that next big idea that next
step that's going to take it a little bit deeper make a little bit more uh more accurate that's always what we're
striving for so I appreciate it QR code thing is really cool too I love that you guys have that idea and they using it so
thank you yeah I lied one more thing we we we created an email distribution group for welfare officers and sent out
an email to every welfare officer this year telling them they don't have to do any work just get me a list of the
people you're paying for in hotels so that I can count them for you um and honestly I want them in coordinated
entry CU there's quite a few people that that are living in hotels that aren't in coordinated entry and that seems
wrong you're always going to get a yes when you're saying it really doesn't cost you any any time or effort
right that's the salesman in you Freeman I know it all right uh I'm gonna move on
um Lauren can I pick on you for your county please sure um thank you again
very similar to Freeman um we are also working with our partners and um partner
agencies I just sent out an email about a week ago um reminding people about the
pick count so I emailed our school aison uh our PD Department our social work
depart within the social work department our hospitals so really um also getting
people to hop on the training um which is today for the unsheltered so to make sure people are educated I also reach
out to our food pantri so really trying to do a big push into straford County to get our ensure that everyone gets
counted um and then I think we're also lean on um I assume since it's been so
cold the will willin Pond will be open so working with East Coast leadership um including those folks that
are being housed or sheltered that day um or not being sheltered that they are
being turned around or turned you know because they're out of beds being outside um we are also boots on the
ground our homeless Outreach team will be out and about as well on Wednesdays
um I started like a coll collaboration Fair every Wednesday from 3:00 to 5:00 we have Red's food truck here so
providing free meals to anybody so enticing people to come and asking individuals where they're staying that
uh evening um also doing follow-ups the next few days of where they stay that uh
Wednesday night so really just trying to work as many agencies and partners with us um leaning on uh straford cap myself
um to help anybody through the process um and then I'm going to connect for I like the QR code so I'm going to reach
out to you later today um but really just not we're not as as well we're not
counting before or after dark um just to be safe and I think we've learned in the
past that in the middle of the night and after uh Afters it's not really successful and probably the safest so um
but yeah really just pushing out working collaborative across the border of straford County and you know I not that
I want our numbers to be higher but to get those numbers to be as close as as we can't for that night that
day thank you Lauren appreciate it yeah it's very very good I'm gonna slide up
to Angie Angie are you able to speak on your
preparations sure um just like what frean said same um that we're you know
working with all the different uh surrounding agencies uh town welfares uh
Leons uh within the communities that we do cover um 58 is also uh one of our
collaboration um along with several uh different churches um going to get in
touch with Sunshine soup kitchen here in town um and talk with Christine about
that and see if they'll be willing to do on their end as they lip about who comes
through their soup kitchen um and have been for many many years so it's a relationship that I'm trying to
I also touch base with the a ACM as aeny with who we have within our uh EMR of
who's claiming that they're homeless and seeing if them through and my team um and then
uh we go the day after um very small so we go out the day after to
do the count daily hours get those numbers and we also
frequent several of the uh Park and rides uh within our catchment that seems
to be a big area two here um and even uh in London
there the bus station we people who um that we do work with that tend to uh put
you're on mute I am so thank you Angie I know uh it was a
little uh choppy with the audio occasionally but I it wasn't so bad that we couldn't understand what you were saying and I remember when we met with
you guys too you were working with uh um trying like there was talk about a spaghetti dinner or something going on
during that time to try to get scheduled try to catch more people so I loved uh I loved being there for that planning
session because you had new partners in the room that really wanted to understand and then they got so hyped
about it that I felt that my hype was being matched as well so thank you Angie I'm G Slide up north to Moose
Country where they probably have 17 feet of snow and uh that's Eric Becker country so Eric uh can you speak to your
preparations up in the land of um The Abominable Snowman
absolutely uh Eric Becker coming to you live from USDA in Berlin this morning uh
our um we have take multi-tiered approach up here uh county by county
combining uh quote unquote Outreach with what we like to call inreach um as well
as some some phone banking uh fre and thank you for for giving a term for for that because I didn't know what that was
but I know what the activity is um as as far as Outreach we work really hard to
empower all of our partners from probation and parole forest and lands
welfare officers uh doctor's offices uh you know anybody that we can think of to
to reach out to the folks that they're already in touch with uh because they they are already points of contact and
with that we have some agencies across the regions that are serving as pit
stops uh to create some inreach where folks can come in and get counted and be warm and uh access some other resources
as well as getting counted um we uh like I said we we go through
all of our lists um and notes and reach back out to folks going back at least
three months as well as uh you know what we have from our various reports um and then uh I provide
logistical support to all of those folks uh throughout the day um but some of
them are also going into uh you know Friday and and Monday because they have more capacity to do that uh and they
understand still have to ask about the same point in time but it's it's neat to create a map and a calendar of of
activity um and then uh there's also some some locations that uh we'll we'll
visit uh with some some Partners as well because we we know we'll find
folks thank you Eric I really appreciate that and yeah you uh I love
how uh I'm going to maybe create a new new term non- stigmatic the work with
the uh police departments up there is um where our our peeps can see the the law
enforcement and stuff like that as helpers and um and they're not scared away I know that there's still been
times when you've been working with them where there's like a hey I really want to tell Eric something but I really don't feel comfortable with an officer
standing right there and the officers are cool with you just kind of like walking away for five minutes having that that conversation about stuff then
coming back to the complete conversation so uh beautiful Partnerships up there I
appreciate it thank you so much and uh I apologize because it's tough for me to
process everybody in the room so is there anybody that I missed that wishes to speak about their
communities um or their area's uh plan for the
pit Rober will uh over at Crossroads I just curious as to I didn't hear
anything about the Coast um and was wondering if you uh if you're working with anyone uh
outside of Crossroads house that's that working on
pit um honestly I I don't recall Travis
um is there anybody that rings a bell for you I I know we've got the cold weather program out at Crossroads house
um but I am just struggling to for my brain to like function properly
um is there anybody go ahead I think it's a great opportunity for anybody out there on the call right now that who
covers the SE Coast that is willing to jump in on a planning effort for the SE coast
region yeah I that's a that's why I'm asking the question because I'm I'm only aware of our of Crossroads you know with
our with our warming Center and and our day-to-day population but I'm not aware
of anybody that goes out and and does a account of the folks in the woods and
elsewhere and that's you know on the streets of Portsmouth and so on and so forth um so there may be a gap there
maybe not but I'm just bringing that up because uh we we need to figure it out
if if there isn't a plan in place Angie's raising their hand Angie go
ahead um I would reach out to KJ um she's the social worker there um
Adam still my P 811 Guru specialist here he was out there meeting with her
yesterday apparently she said that she's going to be working on the pit count in the Dober area so I would strongly
recommend reaching out her um because she plans on doing that in the do ER
what is my understanding so I can I can kind of speak I do kage is working with
us Angie um for the Coast the straford County area she's actually talked to her
last night about it she's kind of unfamiliar with it um uh um well I sent
an email to your team I think Sandy or Michelle Smith I think it was Michelle regarding um you know some collaboration
between us so I sent that out early last Monday or Tuesday um I mean I'm happy we don't do
Outreach in in in for smith but I'm happy to collaborate but we did send an
email to your team last week yeah yeah I I think the Gap exists not in straford
but in Rockingham sea yeah right but KJ is part of do so we're doing she's part
of the straford C right thanks Lauren thanks Angie go ahead Ellie you have your hand up hi all
I work for Waypoint um and our uh Rochester team is planning a like night
of count um no one from that group is here right now and I don't have all the details but I do know that they do have
a plan in place um Jos Bernie is the contact um and I can put his email in
the chat if anyone wants to connect directly about with him about what their plans are that' be amazing thank you
Ellie y um Robin Travis I I may uh one
of us from Crossroads house mayot may come back to you just just to follow up
in this conversation um to see if we can get something in place because I think we're
missing there's a bit of a gap uh on Rockingham Sea
Coast sure and and I would also say too like yeah definitely reach out to the team that is uh between Lauren and Angie
as well uh since there already is some plans to cover that Sea Coast Area maybe you can we still have some time you know
it's it's never too late um until it's the pits over so um there's still time
to jump in and uh get your hands in the mix and see how you can help contribute
to that and how you can support them as well um and and still nail nail down
some finer um details around that um go ahead Rachel oh hi everybody um I can do an
update around the DV um count so the Coalition um so just so everybody knows
I'm I'm Rachel with the New Hampshire Coalition against Domestic and Sexual Violence so we oversee the 12 um
domestic violence shelters in the state along with our rapid rehousing programs
and we also have other types of privately funded um transitional housing
or uh other uh streams of transitional housing programs through the office for
violence against women act so I worked with Rob and malov um to collect our
standard numbers across um across the map and then we have um all of our
shelter directors and housing Advocates attending the training today and are planning to
um really file through those numbers in those Google spreadsheets once they come out um but we are working
collaboratively with with Robin um with IC to kind of really get those numbers
going um and the general Advocates are going to track when folks come into and
walk into the crisis centers make sure they're asking those questions um and
ensure that even if they're not directly working with the shelter residents if they're coming across survivors who have
overlapping homelessness that we're counting them so that's what what we're going to
do awesome thank you it's one of the uh one of the toughest um populations to
try to snag for the point in time count too that and youth and then um folks
through the mikini vento uh program um and that's something I want to add too
um for those of you that are still tidying up some details make sure you reach out to your mcky vento liaison uh
I've been to two or three meetings in the last five months to talk about the point in time count and uh with mckin
bentazon and they've been pretty receptive to that conversation I would say in my nine or 10 years doing this
work probably the most receptive to it because there's a lot more education around it and also um DCF is ready to
jump in and help as well um in any way that they can too I met with them a couple weeks weeks ago and they'll be on
our training later some of them at least and uh who those who won't be will be watching the recording and they'll be
ready to go as well so if you're a Regal access point reach out to your uh area
dcyf um overseer if you want to call them that that's the best word I can come up with right now go ahead
Freeman yeah do you have a contact for that person I'd love to reach out to them do you know who who my human is I
don't know exactly who it is but what I could probably do is um put uh Robert
rodler email in the chat and you can utilize him as your pivot point because
he's like the the head of all of the dcyf stuff so he's the one to invited me
to the meeting so if you say this is my County who's my person he will he will direct you so I'll throw that in there
next thank you I can also send you the I found the homeless liaison um per School
per School um online last week so I can s that to you too oh yeah hit me with that
absolutely okay names are always changing so that'd be great I can I can reach out to the other schools other
than just conquered yeah conquer's pretty proactive but I
don't think I've ever heard from anybody else it's a tough lift every year um
like I said I just I feel like we've done a lot of really good work the last couple years coming out of the pandemic to really educate about um important the
point in time count is and I think that that's showing so um is there anybody else that wishes to
share questions anything like that Rob this is Cindy from domestic
violence coordinated entry just for that population we also re my team reaches out to everyone that we have that's
unsheltered to try and keep track of them that day as well thank you
Cindy right and anybody
else I'm going to turn it back over to the amazing Christy
shot thanks Rob um I the only other thing we had
left on the agenda which I think you pretty much just covered was the 2025 pit um point in time planning um Mandy I
don't know if you have anything you wanted to add no I think it so BHS has been on
kind of a road show with the region to talk about the community plans and I think what's so important to take away
is you all are the experts in your communities like we've been out to help with some of the HUD RGS and what it
looks like uh and thank you to IC for being on the road with us to talk about the data side of that um but man have we
just learned and saw so much going on on the ground because of the relationships
and the partners you all are building um and to hear your share ing the logos and
the one pager in your community meetings um getting on the same page with the date when data is collected when
Outreach is happening it's just I feel like this year is going to be better than ever you know with all the positive
connections that you all have shared here so just thank you all for your work I know it's not an easy lift and uh but
it is one of the most important things that we do because of the uh the Congressional look at these numbers
while we know hmis is required by Hud the point in time is still the number that is looked at for that budget so
thank you thank you thank you all um and just another plug in the chat I put the registration link for this afternoon's
training that is the Google link so that is anybody Under the Sun who is not a
emergency shelter transitional housing provider that enters into hmis so anyone
that is your Outreach welfare directors police departments Community providers
anyone that will be doing an unsheltered count a shelter provider who does not enter into hmis or really any other
provider if you have any questions uh let us know otherwise that was all I
have all right uh so from the bureau standpoint we don't have any big things
happening right now um that we need to report on I don't know if anyone else within the balance state has any news
that they want to share with the entire membership at all chrisy could I just touch on hmis
pit real quick you can thank you um we did our hmis training yesterday for the
point in time um it was recorded we did not see as many people on there as we
were expecting to see so uh if you are a person who thinks oh I've done this the
last three years in a row I know exactly what the report looks like and it's good to go it's different this year so the report looks different how we're doing
it is totally different so um we just wanted to put that out there that um we
did do the training yesterday it was recorded I already have it on the knowledge base so you can access it and
it will be coming out um this Thursday in the newsletter as well the link to that but it's already posted up on the
knowledge based which I'll put the link in the chat here for you um we have our timeline and all of our pit documents
and guides up on our knowledge base as well so if you need that um it's there
uh but we just wanted to make sure that people if you weren't uh if you didn't attend the training yesterday that you
do watch the recording because it is not the same as how we've done it in previous years so um timelines and
things like that are looking pretty similar to how we've done it but the report itself um is not the same and
we're going to be having agencies pull their own report this year which is also a new fun surprise that we've never done
before so um if you have any questions reach out to us at the help desk look out for the newsletter this Thursday and
and watch that that recorded training that's it thank
you thank you Robin anyone else have any updates or any news to share at all with the
community uh the only two big pieces of news that I have is that um we had two
new projects start um as of October 1st within the
Continuum of Care um one of them was it's now Thrive but used to be the
crisis center of central New Hampshire's domestic violence rapid rehousing project um The Other Well actually
there's three um conquer community and homelessness permanent Supportive Housing project started and straford
County caps domestic violence rapid rehousing project started as well um so we're very happy to have some more
opportunities for housing within our Continuum of Care we have not heard anything back from HUD
yet about the FY 2024 Awards or the um
Continuum of Care builds notice of Opp notice of funding opportunity either um
so we're anxiously awaiting to see what the awards will be for both of those applications that the balance of State
submitted if no one has anything else I will give you back an hour and 10
minutes um we will be posting the recording and sending out the link to
the website where you can all view it um and we look forward to seeing you in
March thank you all for coming
5/14/2024
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
3/12/2024
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
11/20/2024
Utilizing Data to Promote an Effective Housing Focused Coordinated Homeless Response
Utilizing Data to Promote an Effective Housing Focused Coordinated Homeless Response
Utilizing Data to Promote an Effective Housing Focused Coordinated Homeless Response
Transcript of video:
of a virtual session from the series that we started a number of months ago we've been together off and on now for a
better part of the year so uh I'm excited to cap this out uh we will be
reconvening in person after the new year we'll get that scheduled I'll talk about that in a moment um today's topic is
using data to promote an equitable and effective housing response and as we all
know this series uh I think many of you know me uh my name is Doug Tetro with the technical assistance collaborative
we are one of the TA providers that supports uh the federal government States coc's and sort of all things
ending homelessness and I've had the pleasure to work with the state of New Hampshire uh over the years and even
more pleasure as I always say to actually be working with New Hampshire because I live here in the man in Manchester uh and oftentimes I'm I'm
working with communities in other parts of the country so it's nice to do work at home uh good to see you all uh
actually ran into a few folks this weekend um uh which was nice to see faces outside of Zoom uh so this is the
arc that we've been building now that's coming uh toward a close over this past
number of months beginning in April uh focused on housing first as as our
general or kind of overarching theme uh throughout the year uh with different
caveats and carve outs around that topic over time and just want to recall
everyone's attention to where we started and where we are are now uh we started with that basic introduction around what
housing Focus systems look like what housing first is and isn't we then spent
some time around system level practices with coordinated entry and general coordination of resources then we moved
into more program or project type specific discussions with a session that focused on Outreach and shelter design
followed by rapid rehousing and permanent Supportive Housing design and you can see slot uh four there uh was
meant to be an in-person training that we were going to conduct last week focused on Direct Care uh really sort of
targeted a Frontline staff to start to dig in to some of the core skill sets that people use when working within a
housing first environment we did postpone that uh we'll be connecting uh with uh leadership and with Christie
around rescheduling that for the new year I believe and and hopefully we'll be able to get in person for that I
would encourage you to be considering if you are a program manager or director on the line uh to consider
your case management teams your Outreach teams the folks that are working directly with clients for that imperson training once we get that scheduled and
today we're going to sort of land This Plane talking about data uh and how we
can think about data to promote both Equity but also in terms of uh holding
ourselves and each other accountable to housing first principles or housing focused principles uh in our in our
projects and across uh the community I will say uh going into this session
that I'm not a data scientist or statistician I don't provide very
indepth hmis and there may be folks on this line today that are more uh fluent in or
ingrained in data practices so we're not going to get into data entry and the ins
and outs of how to work in hmis or what reports to run this is really meant to bring some of these Concepts together
and talk about uh how data is used but also what are the core questions that we
want to answer and how do we think about going about answering those questions as we evaluate our own commitments toward
housing focused practices housing first practices uh as well as promoting Equity
across the state across the balance of State uh is part of our overall mission so that is our our job today so you can
see here uh we've got this agenda I am hoping we have this scheduled here for 90 minutes I'm hoping to give at least
you know 15 20 minutes at the end uh to pause and answer questions not just
about today's presentation but also about anything that we've talked about
over this past six months acknowledging that you know a lot of the concepts that I present on with you all and I've said
this before may be sort of utopian or may be uh overly simplistic in terms of
the real world and the and the realities that you all are dealing with and frankly are going to deal with uh for
quite some time and certainly uh will be heightened in the holiday season as we know both in our personal lives as well
as the way in which we work with clients and support them through what are often very difficult times so uh uh I welcome
you all to share uh those realities and to talk through those and and in many instances when folks do share those
realities it is not me or or Christy or leadership that have the best Solutions it's your counterparts and your peers on
the call so leverage those peers and counterparts you can use the chat um it is difficult for me to monit chat while
I'm also speaking so uh if anybody would like to interrupt uh no harm no foul
feel free to do so Christy you can interrupt me as well um but we'll talk a little bit about housing first and data
uh some of the key questions we look to answer at different levels uh and then we'll transition into a little bit more focus on Equity I think though across uh
these discussions really in any sort of exploration of what you're trying to learn about your programs uh some of the
very same principles apply so we're going to Nest them in housing first and Equity but you could take these same
ideas and kind of transpose them into other domains that you might be curious about with your own programs with your
own staff and within the systems that you work with so uh if you haven't already please put your name where
you're from uh for attendance purposes you can put your pronouns or other identities if you choose and then I put
stick season or mud season because I'm I'm torn on this uh I I would have said mud season because that indicates to me
gardening season which is a big part of my life in the spring but but then I've been you know we do quite a bit of
hiking I was out in the woods this last week or two and I got a St six sck season with a little bit of a sunset
happening and that that sun cutting through the trees is tough to beat so I'm I'm torn on it uh but if you all
want to put in what your favorite season is uh just to get the chat livened up uh feel free to do so so I'm going to jump
right in here um and we are going to start with the slides there's two or three slides we've used in almost every
session as redefining or making sure we have a Baseline on what housing first is
um for those of you who may not have been at previous sessions or still uh need that reminder and you can see those
definitions here housing first or housing focused practices is an approach that is centered on the belief that
everyone can achieve stability through housing so the idea being that permanent
housing creates the foundation for people uh that they need in order to
stabilize other other parts of their life uh and that housing is that sort of
basic human right that we all are trying to provide for the clients that we work within and uh our goal is to quickly
connect people who are in that housing crisis who are experiencing homelessness or perhaps about to experience
homelessness with permanent housing interventions that don't have preconditions um on that housing uh uh
for folks uh to be able to enter so things like income or sobriety or treatment we've talked at length off and
on through this series about The Balancing Act between committing to housing first while understanding that
there are certain uh requirements uh either by funders or by landlords uh
that we need to continue to meet and so we don't go in depth here today on this but we've said before housing first is
not housing only and the idea of housing first is not that we're providing
providing housing interventions absent the Supportive Services and the other type connections people need to be able
to maintain that housing in some semblance of a safe manner we understand
that some people will have safety issues in housing but our our goal is to use that permanent housing intervention as a
way to help them build a foundation either to recover from those unsafe situations or practice those different
uh uh uh things more safely whether it be substance use or mental health or supporting other family reconnections or
employment or income uh that that base uh being uh the the housing that they
live in and then connecting and continuing to connect people with the supports that they need to maintain that
stability and resolve that crisis in previous sessions we've talked about the crisis of homelessness the stress and
Trauma associated with people who are living outside or in sheltered situations the the neighbors that we
have outside our doors right now who don't have a place to put their head tonight or today may not know where their next meal is or if they're going
to be assaulted or or a victim today uh that crisis is what we're trying to
solve and we use that housing situation as a way to solve that so there are different levels that we can think about
this from and today in the data discussion we'll kind of look at this from both of the levels that we've talked about before one side being on
the program side in terms of how do we ensure that our projects continue to focus on housing as a main driver of
stability for people while removing barriers and access to Services thinking about the ways in which our services are
person centered and self-determined based on the goals that the client or the individual or the family brings to
us I've talked uh in these sessions about U my personal examples around goal setting uh with myself and my family and
I think many others have been able to relate to that or at least I've heard they have in terms of others transposing
goals on us and whether that is a reasonable way in which we're able to achieve things that other people are
striving for US versus what we strive to do ourselves allowing then those goals
to drive choice and and those voluntary services so at the project level we are really partnering with people to end
their homelessness and leaning into empowering them to help us understand what goals they want to pursue that will
lead them in toward uh a stable housing situation even if that stability perhaps
looks different than the stability that we would advocate for or the ways in which that stability is achieved is
different than the approach that we might take as professionals or as service providers or support support systems at the system level we also need
to support some of these Concepts uh and maybe reinforce them uh in different
ways so allowing programs to adapt to clients and this could be in written standards at the coordinated entry level
and in creating the breathing room that Rapid rehousing or psh projects need to
be able to e and Flow In Flex to meet the needs of an emerging or evolving clientele at the local level making sure
that our systems are client ready that our for our process from assessment to referral to document Readiness to uh
prioritization and and housing uh placement are all streamlined and
userfriendly both for you at the project level at the system level for for management as well as at the client or
individual level and continuing to ensure that we can be rapidly intervening uh when folks are able to uh
move toward a housing situation and then today's Focus allow uh continues to Pivot toward those data
uh and Equity practices and actually I think um this word driven in the very last bullet of the slide should be
changed it's my own slide I recognize that uh but data I think it's really data informed is is a better way to to
talk about this we want to use data both quantitative and qualitative to be able
to understand the way our practices are are are turning into outcomes but we
also have to understand that um we live in a messy world we work in a messy field human beings are messy and that
the pure data that we are uh reviewing especially in a quantitative data sense is not always the full story and so we
want to be uh informed by the data inputs that we are are trying to pull in
to understand how they can breed better outcomes while also understanding that there's going to need to be Flex to that
so when we think about the questions we're looking to explore and there's a lot on this slide recognizing that um
but some of the primary drivers right that the the piece that we are most interested in from a system level when
it comes to housing first when it comes to equity when it comes to coordinated entry are are the individuals and
families and I might just use those interchangeably today so don't get caught off guard with that based on a population you serve are the individuals
or families with the highest barriers and greatest level of vulnerability the primary target for our housing and
services and this means are we effectively targeting those folks that have indicators that would encaps ol at
that priority so those who have the longest time homeless those may be chronically homeless and that might be
the formal HUD definition or an informal uh sort of uh uh carveout definition
that you use to capture those who may be uh long-term episodically homeless or have been homeless for longer periods of
time but don't uh meet specific Federal definitions are we looking for individuals who otherwise have not yet
been successful in other housing and homeless programs or those that are currently living on the street or
unsheltered locations or those with significant housing barriers and there's a role that the system led by in this
case the Continuum of Care with leadership through the balance of state and all of you can play in reinforcing
that that question and our ability to get to that question and that is everything from your coordinated entry
policies that prioritize individuals and families with those barriers it is creating Mutual accountability in case
conferencing and referral protocols to ensure that as those individuals are uh
being prioritized that they're actually being enrolled and served appropriately in programs because it's great if we
have an awesome prioritization policy and the the the sickest most vulnerable
uh people in our communities are those rising to the top of that list in that referral system but if we are not then
enrolling them or delivering the services or allowing those enrollments
uh to occur without those arbitrary barriers then we're falling flat as a system in our ability to actually House
people and there's other functions that the COC plays and by this I don't just refer to Christy and her team at the
state but you as a Continuum of Care you as an interested Universe of people who want to end homelessness can create
accountability in your noo are we ensuring that those projects that are scoring well uh for uh your either bonus
Awards or for Renewal awards are also uh being held accountable to housing first princip principles and there are ways
that we've talked with the state about doing that and other continuums in terms of using data around referrals and
enrollment and and negative exits to say if you don't meet certain thresholds and your ability to work with the folks that
are prioritized for your programs then we can't score you we're not willing to score you as highly as other projects
that are willing to take those risks and to work with those folks that are most in need at this moment in time uh for
our support to exit homelessness so at the system level we have our big question and we have certain data
indicators that are available to us via hmis VIA byy name list via qualitative
feedback loops that allow us to translate those into our roles around coordinated entry accountability project
design and Project funding and at the program level we continue to to flex
that down so do does your program adhere to those housing first PR principles in a way that gives you about the ability
to flex the approaches that you're using to meet evolving needs and I think that Flex piece is really
important um and I you know I don't know the status of this with the providers on the call here but I do hear a lot of
projects out there in other spaces of the work that I do that have designed projects that work really well 10 years
ago and don't yet reflect updated promising practice or even more
importantly updated policy considerations the VA is a really good example of this where their programs
have evolved significantly over over the past 12 years not only in the messaging now we're housing first now we're Equity
informed now we're data driven but actually in what you can and cannot do with your dollars right uh there are VA
programs that can do things with their money today that they couldn't do 12 months ago and couldn't do five years
ago and and it's similar for HUD as new projects come online that we saw during
covid response and some of the lingering resources there ESG that had some variation to it uh during the covid
response and other ible funding sources and projects that that failed or
struggled to adapt to the evolving client needs and an evolving uh sort of
condition uh on the ground of who needs those Services as well as how their funding could serve those people are the
ones who have struggled to be successful so do our projects use those
flexibilities and make sure that we're continuing especially on the psh side uh to to really focus on those most
vulnerable longest term homeless individuals and families without delay psh is our most uh robust line of
defense or offense against homelessness for those folks who are suffering the most today and if you operate a psh
project you are committing to understanding that that is the population that you're you're serving
and that may not have been true 10 years ago or 15 or 20 years ago what may also not have been true 10 or 15 years ago is
that the clients that presented as most vulnerable or most uh in in you know
suffering the most today had a different profile a different demographic a different set of barriers we know in New
Hampshire and other parts of the country the opioid crisis is a great example that 15 20 years ago those folks that uh
we were seeing who were on the street or in sheltered situations had a different set of vulnerabilities or barriers than
we're seeing now in our communities similar with rapid rehousing we have to take those leaps uh from a housing P
first persp perspective and an equity perspective to make sure that we are then catching those folks that may be
appropriate for psh but PS is not available immediately for them and so rather than them lingering in the street
we have to adjust our rapid rehousing response to meet those needs rapid rehousing is not a you know just a a
check writing program right there is a deep and and flexible service package that's both allowable and encouraged for
Rapid rehousing programs and in my view you can design rapid rehousing programs that look very much like psh only
there's a greater time limit but you can do a lot within the time that you have given the flexibilities at least from
the federal side and even some State resources in certain parts of the country that allow you not only to do
three months and you're writing the checks and you're you're becoming sort of an eviction prevention program once somebody is housed but actually infusing
a deeper level of Case Management Services and that comes down to program and budget design right it comes down to
the way in which you Orient your staff and hire your staff further down and we've talked about this at length in
other sessions as the others around you know are your our Emergency Shelters actively allowing individuals with those
challenges including folks who are actively using or under Mental Health crisis those are the people the folks
that traditionally our country has said no to that are the ones that are most in need of our support right now and do we
use our limited transitional housing portfolios to create choice-based flexible linkages to coordinated entry
there is a a home for transitional housing in a housing first environment
there is a home for sober living and sober environments in a housing first environment but that home is based on
the choice of the individuals that are being served that they want to pursue perhaps the rules or the the structures
that that transitional housing setting has in place or the expectations that are come along with a sober living
environment both on yourself and the folks that you may be living in a communal or or roommate situation where
there's a commitment into sobriety or recovery to some degree but are we able to create a system where those folks who
are actively pursuing recovery or other types of goals that may require some of that interim period that we have those
resources available while those who are unwilling or unable at this point in time or may never be willing or able to
pursue those types of goals also have a place to go and also are prioritized for the limited resources that we have
understanding that there are always going to be at least right now more people who need our help than we have uh
help to provide and so we have to look for those who are suffering the most and have the greatest level of vulnerability
and those are done through things like your policies and procedures active staff training one of which will come up
uh later uh in early 2025 around trauma informed care and giving our staff the
tools they need to be able to effectively work with people who are in harmful situations unsafe situations who
may otherwise need a different type of support things like motivational interview understanding how harm reduction uh can
can meet the needs of of a tency while also helping people become healthier or more safe in the way in which they
approach their life conflict resolution to work with landlords and tenants who uh may not be getting along right
coordination with those landlords and tenants to resolve disputes all of these types of policies and practices are just
good practice but they are nested in a housing focused uh way so our data
indicates here um I've put in sort of uh the the Topline bullet but the question
we're really asking is is the sub bullet here so are we accepting the target group and the priority group of our
community and of our project when we accept them are we responding quickly to make sure that we're connecting to that
individual or family when the referral is made as that connection is happening are we limiting the unnecessary delays
and enrollment that can happen and that also includes ensuring lean documentation requ requirements I know
that's come up a number of times in these calls like we want to move faster uh but the documentation requirements
are too heavy and I've asked you all to scrutinize are those documentation requirements something that the federal
government or the state requires you to do or are they programmatically required uh documentation expectations that are
arbitrary that don't actually lead to getting people housed Andor don't need to be happening at the time of
enrollment there was somebody on a call excuse me in our first or second session that said you know why is our our intake
packet 25 pages long and I said well that's your fault right and I don't mean you personally but that's a program
decision there's no federal program where an intake packet is 25 pages long and if your intake packet is 25 pages
long you can be do every everything right in housing first uh but I would argue that you still have things to work
on including looking for ways to streamline that enrollment how can we quickly get people connected to the
services that they've been referred into or that we're engaged with so then we can connect that service to them and
begin to build that relationship that we talked about in sessions 1 two and three in particular around that that uh uh
sort of breaking down the barrier and power structures between ourselves and the client we can't do that until we
have created a system that allows people to enroll in projects quickly as we're enrolling them in real time are we then
supporting without prerequisite that active housing navigation and then
moving toward uh that hous in placement uh and keeping an eye on whether or not
we are successfully housing those with the greatest level of barriers or maybe those from other marginalized groups that have historically been um uh uh
denied housing uh and we talked quite a bit about Equity I think in session three or four and around the history of
equity and why uh while we may be doing everything right our systems around us
uh whether we be landlord markets or employment markets or the criminal justice system lead to marginalized
groups often having a harder time accessing permanent housing on their own and thinking about our role in that from
a housing navigation perspective so these timelines that you can see are are sequential and they should be happening
quickly and that's part of our housing First Response as folks are housed are we ensuring that the uh that the
services we're offering are flexible that the're responsive to those clients needs that they're flexing as I mentioned uh to be uh to take away that
rigidity of the housing plan and really have it reflect the goals that people are self-determined helping create and
then keeping people enrolled in projects and and uh and house except in the most
extreme circumstances so uh uh these questions right are the are the core and
we can look at at the data points right sort of out of order on the slide but the data points that help us do that are
uh uh the the folks being referred uh being enrolled how long is it taking
from that referral to the first contact with the client once we contact the client how long does it take us to
enroll them once once H enrolled what's that lease up timeline uh once leased up
are the services varying over time and are there variations in what that lease up process looks like based on different
client characteristics and if so what do we need to adjust to overcome those uh uh disparities or those differences are
we offering um a a robust set of services for all of the clients that we're working with and do they differ
based on demographics or client needs what are the rates of negative negative exits from our projects so if exiting
more people proportionally in your project than your counterpart projects or that we might expect is it because
you're uh you're exiting folks for negative exits that are unwarranted or arbitrary or do not uh ultimately solve
anyone's problems other than our own in terms of our own sort of uh uh uh self
or preconceived notions about what people should be achieving or are you a provider that is actually housing some
of the folks with the greatest and highest level of barriers that very top
echel Doug we lost your
audio hey Doug you're on mute sorry about that I must hit when
did I go stay on mute Christie about a minute ago all right so you can see this
question sorry about that I must have hit the space bar this the annoying part of teams um uh but the the questions
here are really help us drive uh whether or not we're meeting the the kind of core expectations at the P at the
program and system level for housing first practices and each of these are
important in helping us understand whether we're meeting our obligations in coordinated entry and whether we're meeting the obligations that we have
toward people so I won't repeat some of the things that I may have been on mute but it's a way to set us up so with that
uh we also have HUD system perform measures so the previous slide were were my questions our questions to be
considering at the program and system level that help us understand from a timeline perspective from a service
responsiveness perspective from a housing perspective whether or not the things that we're doing likely align
with housing first and Equitable principles we can also Nest this in in in HUD system performance measures which
you're held accountable to as a Continuum and which have an effect on the resources that come into your and my
and our community here in the state of New Hampshire so a lot of what I just uh talked about
and the Nexus between these questions and actual program design or system decisions also translate into the HUD
system performance measur so the length of time individuals and families remain homeless are we moving quickly to House
people and and while the housing market and the populations may be challenging are we seeing progress in uh shortening
the length of time individuals and families remain homeless of those uh who
are uh uh uh leave homelessness or coming back into homelessness which may
be a direct reflection on our ability to flex those resources as I mentioned in a way that meets the needs of clients in
housing and also is a reflection of the way our negative exit policies work and whether or not we are exiting folks from
programs back into homelessness or or whatnot uh uh arbitrarily or if they're
evicted then they're exited from our projects which shouldn't equal each other if somebody's evicted that doesn't mean they have to leave our project um
except in certain situations with with certain types of vouchers um uh overall are we seeing those folks uh come down
are we seeing the number of people uh uh who are homeless coming down over time
are we linking people to income and job growth and this one I think is important of uh on both sides of our housing first
equation as well as our Equity equation with income growth because the Assumption from the basic line is in
order to meet this system performance measure we then need to make sure that we're serving people who have potential
for income growth and job growth I think that is true in the sense that we have a
responsibility to work with people to maximize their income there is no world
right now where income is not important in housing uh uh stabilization particularly for non- psh projects that
don't have fixed income levels or have a sunset period of rent on rental assistance on the other side of the coin
this is also saying we can House people with with very limited employment and income knowing that our service packages
are going to help them grow that so we are going to House people with the lowest levels of income with zero income
uh and support them with our projects rental assistance and voucher systems as we grow their income so there is not a
disincentive in this particular performance measure to cream out those without income uh and in fact those who
have very limited or no income give us an opportunity to meet this performance measure by linking our housing servic is
to also looking at opportunities for income growth either via benefits for those who can't work or uh and and
certainly more ideally for those who are willing and able to work uh through employment or a combination of both uh
that then translates the success and reducing the number of individuals who become homeless this is more in the
diversion side of the of the of the plate in those services are we able to place people directly from Street
Outreach I think this is a really important component right now coming out of the grants past Supreme Court decision I know we've seen it in parts
of this state where there is this renewed sense of criminalization of homelessness uh I don't know that it's
gone that far but we're in New Hampshire there are some indicators there uh and displacement issues that are happening
uh in other parts of this country that I work with they are arresting homeless people for being homeless right now and
the ability for those communities to respond is being able to do that direct placement from Street Outreach into
housing settings uh with maybe very short term stays in in transitional safe Haven emergency shelter stays and things
like that so the point here is that our system performance measures that we're held accountable to with HUD as well as
the core questions from a practice point of view at the both the program and system level all point to a very similar
sort of nature of the work that we're trying to achieve are we focused on the types of services and connections that
we need in order to focus to to house and provide services to the most the people with the most vulnerabilities and
barriers in our system are we quickly moving to connect those people to services that they're willing to take
are we working with them in a way that helps them uh determine the types of goals and housing needs that they have
and then using our navigation services to get some toward those housing opportunities and then creating stabilization packages that Flex in a
way that allow us to provide that that overall service that is going to connect them both to mainstream permanent
housing community- based uh uh Support Services family friends all of those different things that surround all of us
in our lives to stabilize us and then retain that housing over time by being
uh very uh uh cautious in how we exit people from programs for infractions or
rule breaking that are either arbitrary or exceed or go above and beyond anything other than basic safety
protocol uh or maybe federal or state funding requirements that is kind of the core of our work so we can also
translate that and those similar Concepts into sort of an equity base in
the next number of slides he's going to talk about data and Equity uh in a way that is transferable for everything that
we do but we haven't really dug in on the equity side too much in this series we've talked about its importance we've
shown the the graph with the fence and the and the individuals standing there and showing different points where they
may be able to reach over that fence different starting points kind of the the common language but we haven't
really talked about equity in from a data perspective and how that helps us Advance our systems and why that's
important and the reason that we lead with equity and and I I I continue to
and I've said this before and it may be controversial I think Equity became the buzzword of the homeless systems coming
through covid where during the covid-19 Public Health crisis it was clear and
apparent very quickly that there are Equity uh there were um inequitable disparities in systems across Health
Care Systems when we looked at the ways in which folks were responding to co covid-19 infection the way in which our
Shelter Systems were able to respond to those even in terms of the vaccine roll out and some of those same things then
came into the homeless crisis response system as if it was this New Concept that had never been addressed before
that all of a sudden in 2020 all of our systems were inequitable and we
gravitated in the federal response and even at the state level to everything being about equity and I and I think
there are positives and negatives to that the positive being that we lifted up realities that existed for a very
long time that were difficult to talk about and difficult to define or put vocabulary and ideas around in a
coherent way the the other side of that is that I think we actually lost ground
in talking about Equitable systems as a system and how that applies in the
larger context of the work that we do and we sort of got ourselves into this finite sort of narrow version of the
discussion where everything was gravitating towards slides like this that we're you know we're going to talk about landlords and housing first and
then we're going to do like this little section on Equity because we need to infuse it somewhere in order for us to meet uh the public discourse and then
we're going to come back to the other topics and in my view Equity is is a much bigger and and broader sort of set
of standards and uh uh uh you know things that we're striving for that go
beyond just thinking about it within a racial Equity standpoint or or what not the reality is that we do have
disparities in our systems and the reality is that the system that you're all working in that the work that you
have do every day is often delivered in a way that is trying to meet the needs
of various demographics and making those flexible sort of uh uh uh service
packages available to meet the unique needs of households right to to ensure
that the best housing plan starts off blank and is and is determined in partnership with an empowered client who
was helping to determine their goals that to me is the essence of equity but we recognize that many other systems of
care in this country do have inequitable outcomes and disparities and that we often become the catchall for those
inequitable systems and we can look at all the research and all of that but I think it's you know we can talk about
it's self-apparent right that there are racial inequities in this country and
that transcends into our own State and that may be in the way our education systems work there is uh it is true that
our more urban environments in this state for instance of New Hampshire are also those environments where we have
the greatest level of of sort of racial um uh uh disparity but also where we
have the greatest proportion of racially diverse people and those environments are also where uh if we look at the
school systems the the schools in Manchester generally are rated more poorly than in our our nonurban
environments in those schools are are generally rated better than the Manchester School District where my kids
go to school and those school systems are disproportionally more black and brown than the other school systems it's
not a a difficult uh uh ledge to go on to say that that we can see in our
communities that there are differences across the outcomes of the different systems of care the same with child
welfare or the way that we have food available to folks you could do that with inoc City I'll use Manchester as as
an example this is is actually getting better now in the city but if you look at the way supermarkets are organized in
the city of Manchester the access to healthy food and uh uh affordable
healthy food is much greater on the outer parts of the city that are more predominantly white than the inner parts
of the city that are more predominantly black and brown those are self-apparent ways that we can relate to uh the
inequities that then lead into longer term areas poverty that may lead into uh
longer term um situations of of of instability so so leading with Equity is
not just the right side of your screen it's the right thing to do we all want to sing Kumbaya and be hunky dory or use
the buzzword of the day I'm sort of tired of the buz words buzzword of the day I think it's really about
recognizing that we are that system that is often catching the inequities of
other systems and then we then in effect have a responsibility to consider that in the way that the services that were
designed designing are going to help try to overcome that it's it's sort of one of those things where we are making up
for in many cases other systems of care that have failed different groups whether it be race racial groups gender
uh household type if we think about single parents with children uh we know uh around sexual orientation and gender
identity there's a lot of disparity there and discrimination in those domains uh disabling conditions
especially around employment and housing access there's a lot of different ways that Equity come into it and we can use
different types of data to uh to talk about this and uh the one I'm I'm still
on I hit the button okay um one of the things that and the reason it's the first slide that I think we often lose
sight of is the qualitative data side of the house so whenever we talk about data and I'm going to talk about this stuff
in a few minutes it is about the numbers and the spreadsheet and the and and you know the COC report and the APR and all
of these things those numbers and reports and analytics and all of that
are very very important but they are not the whole story and they shouldn't be misrepresented as the whole story our
qualitative data and our ability to seek feedback loops internally with our teams
with the people we serve with the other providers who are on this call with uh our community are are often just as are
more important in giving us ideas on how we can uh better formulate our program
so part of quality data is trying to think about how we ask those questions
and how we collect information relative to those questions in previous sessions and in the in-person session one of the
things that we talk about is there may be information that you're trying to get some from somebody that is really
difficult for them to disclose we talked about the shame of disclosing our deepest darkest secrets and the stress
that people and the trauma that folks are experiencing when they come to us the way in which we explore the those
types of questions that give us then the data the answers the indicators that allow us to be planful and
service-minded with that individual uh at the centerpiece uh uh it relies on our
ability to ask questions in a way that is that is going to provide answers that
are true and that are uh genuine and that give us real insights into how we
can support those housing plans and we can't do that unless we are qualitatively understanding the best
approach to un to to asking those questions so that may be discussions with focus groups it should and must be
uh both from Huds requirements in limited circumstances and in good practice in all circumstances informed
by people with individuals uh and families who have lived experience folks who have been homeless in the past folks
from marginalized groups folks that are uh uh homeless now or in programs that
are being served now those are our key asset in understanding the qualitative feedback loop of how our programs are
working working and the questions that we need to ask ourselves and our and other clients in order to give them the
best shot at stability and the best experience possible we want to Center that lived experience at its core and
that lived experience term is also a buzzword that I think has been you has
been sort of used in a way that has diminished the real value right there's this term you know uh nothing for us
without us and I think it's really important that we Embrace that idea not just the buzzword but the idea that if
we're going to be planful around how we deliver homeless services to human beings we need those human beings to
help us design those Services because oftentimes we're designing services for human beings and there is a disconnect
between what we're trying to achieve with our programs because we had a great idea and we have a big heart and we got
a grant to what the folks on the ground who are actually experiencing and suffering need from us and we have to
adapt to that we can't do that with quantitative data loan we have to do that with that qualitative feedback loop
so that could be surveys the observations the ability to to document uh review documents that might be where
where you as a program director or even Christy's team at the state or the COC monitoring experience are we beyond the
data are we seeing through documentation that even though you have more negative
exits there are different a different there's a different characteristic to the case files that we're looking at the
services you're providing are necessarily more robust because the clientele that you're focused on or the
tenants that you're supporting have a different set of needs than the other provider and how do we account for that
not only in what their prioritization score was based on their exit rate but in conversation with you right when
coordinated entry was developed there was this pendulum and I've talked about this that swung so far to one side where
everything was spreadsheets right we're going to assess everybody apply numbering and scoring to them sort our
spreadsheet and pretend we understand human beings fortunately and I think the state of New Hampshire r large uh to
include all of you on the line have done this really well uh and other states are frankly catching up sort of is that
pendulum has started to reenter across the country where uh when coordinate was released we sort of pulled out all of
that professional experience that qualitative feedback loop that ability to think more critically about what's
happening beyond the numbers and it and it put us in a place where we were trying to be too rigid with how we
understood our systems to be and our programs to operate now we've brought that back to counterbalance where we
have that qualitative data the document reviews the lived experience coalitions the folks who are working in programs
creating feedback up to management through their directors through their grants with the Continuum as a whole
with the COC board while the COC board and other partners are also reviewing
the their data as to whether you're meeting Huds expectations the state expectations but also some of these
practices and we can come to a more holistic solution or at least conclusion
about what things are happening but qualitative data aside we still need to measure stuff right I mean if nothing
else you have to measure it because you're required to by your funding sources whether that be the federal you
know HUD my my ssvf and VA friends on the line whether that be VA and your you
know monthly repository reports and your race Equity report and those types of things on the HUD side it could be your
aprs your lsas uh you know all of these different uh reports that are uh that
that you all are submitting which I do not provide Ta on uh sort of deliberately and admittedly um but we do
need to to measure things right we have to think about Beyond just what we're required are there measurable ways that
we can compare uh different types of uh program environments different types of clients different types of outcomes that
is useful to us one of the downsides of data I think management and the push
around data in some spaces is that there are mandates or expectations around data management that aren't useful to you so
to the extent that it's above and beyond what your funders require we want to look at data that is useful to you right
so whether it be via hmis whether it be within your own programs whether it be
uh supplemented by name list process that might pull in other data points um but you know thinking about the the sort
of quintessential F you know who what where when and why of the types of data
we're collecting and how that then uh and whether that then translates to something that's useful for us so
they're both example right and there's an uh both examples and there's an example here but I'm G to uh just give
you one that I think is really instructive I've used it before if you've heard it I apologize but I think it's a it's a great pairing of these two
concepts between quantitative and qualitative data at the project level that is not over complicating
homelessness so there was a rapid rehousing provider again I've used this before so I apologize but I think it's
it's good who uh was providing Services uh uh generally to individuals
experiencing homelessness and they were uh you know seemingly providing the same
level of service uh or you know adapting those Services based on the needs of the client kind of doing everything that
I've talked about for the past six months with you all and they were adapting all those good things right uh
and what they saw in their quantitative data was uh over time they saw that uh
between two cohorts uh one being adult White men and another being adult black
men that after exit the African-American cohort or black cohort was reiv was
coming back into homelessness at higher rates than uh their white counterparts
were and in their data so their data indicated something was wrong that was the quantitative side of the house that
gave them an indication that something was happening where even though their services looked on paper to be generally
Equitable to be generally robust for both groups regardless race that uh uh
men of color or African-American men in particular were coming back into homelessness not sustaining their housing uh uh in higher rates than their
white counterparts so they Ed that quantitative data to do more exploration and in their quantitative data their
numbers they couldn't find the explanation so they started a qualitative data process which is just a
a fancy Doug Tetro ta way of saying they started to have conversations and they started talking with the folks in their
programs they started talking with some of their specializ service groups like their their employment Navigator and and
and benefit Navigators and what they realized in that is that while on paper these two groups had very similar
outcomes when it came to their income and Health Care Connections and other indicators that we use for for exiting
cases right we want to look at you know are they making enough money to sustain their housing if not do we get them into the voucher look at whether or not
they're connected to healthcare like those other stabilizing factors to surround people as they're leaving our rapid rehousing programs realized that
while like the rates of employment and income were similar for both counterparts that program exit the
duration of those uh employment outcomes was shorter for black men than it was
for white men at program exit so their their employment was more precarious was more in its infancy it had less teeth to
it uh than it did for their white counterparts uh for other reasons that
you know I think they made some general conclusions about but they couldn't you know prove or demonstrate you know the
the general conclusion was taking longer to get those folks employed and therefore when they exited at similar
rates over similar timelines with similar employment uh status that employment wasn't necessarily as as
solid and therefore uh uh uh was you know folks were losing employment they weren't supported by the project anymore
recidivating back into homelessness so they use quantitative data to understand
that they were having different outcomes among racial groups they used part of that along with qualitative discussions
in internally and with their clients to understand why that was happening and then they made a simple program adjustment they started doing an extra
layer of program exit policy where there was more of a of a sort of case conference internal discussion around
whether or not an individual was you know quote unquote ready to be exited from the program based on uh not just
what they could see in an APR or in a quick data run but based on the actual conditions of their tency their
employment their income and other connections and what that and the and the sort of the the the robustness or
the hardness of those conditions in that person's life and in doing that over
time what they saw was not only uh did their African-American cohorts rates
continue to improve but so did the rates of their white counterparts so everybody
won in this case it's a concept called Target universalism which uh I think is is again an over complicated term uh for
what it means but what it really means is can we look at our program adjustments not just to address the
disparity in one group but how can we address it where the whole tide is riding right the the the ship Rises with
the tide and so they put this extra layer of ex uh case conferencing at Exit uh with management and with teams they
put extra consideration into the sort of hardness of these Services folks were involved in and they saw their overall
outcomes improve both as a full cohort but also with that group that had
disparities at the front end this is not complicated this didn't take years it didn't take uh a data scientist or your
hmis team to come and run all sorts of reports it was self-evident that there was uh folks from one racial group doing
more poorly than another at program exit they asked some questions they had some discussions over the course of a period
of time they made some basic adjustments to their program and everybody was better off for it they then had to make
those same adjustments to their program design because if you start to scrutinize case exiting you also start to realize maybe you're underserving
some folks maybe you're not keeping folks enrolled quite long enough maybe they are going to need more financial assistance than you've been used to in
order to produce those better outcomes so you have to adjust those projections and budgeting right it transcends from
that system from your hmis and data from those conversations and qualitative feedback loops locally all the way down
into your Finance team understanding that or your Grant manager understanding that you know you would pitch serving 40
people this year but it's probably going to be 38 because you're realizing the subsidy packages that you had projected
are not enough to bring the successful outcomes you're looking for and rather than serve more people poorly you're
going to limit that number of people just a little bit more so that you could serve those people that you are serving
uh much better so those are very simple examples and I think every one of you could look at your programs and probably
recognize whether it be across gender or race or age or disability or family
status or whatever the the disparity or the group or the identity may be that
there may be areas within your programs that just require simple fixes we don't
need years long discussions and data runs and analytics to understand that there are some folks that are not doing
as well as others that we can make some some general guesses at why that's true
and make some program adjustments to try to adjust it and if it doesn't work we make the adjustment again so that that
sort of notion that stagnation in our programs leads to stagnation in our
outcomes and the way that we understand that stagnation in our outcomes is both through quantitative data what are the
numbers telling us and as importantly and often forgotten that qualitative feedback loop that gives us an
opportunity to really dig deep and explore use professional develop uh professional understanding and those
lived experience to better understand the programs that we're designing programs that we're implementing the
programs that we want to improve so we use both of those um and there are different ways to think about uh uh
access uh across data right and this is within an equity lens but you can think about this uh in any lens that you'd
like we applied it here as sort of the topic of this uh final uh training but but you can transpose this across you
know housing first Equity uh uh any number of lenses but thinking about how
we access information what the output is of that information what what are we
trying to then uh uh translate that into and then what is the outcome of the
information and what we're trying to achieve and outputs and outcomes are very different and I think it's important even if you don't care about
data at all it's not your job it's not what you do to understand that just because we see uh for instance as an
output the number or type of services that are being delivered as an indicator
of success those types of indicators don't tell us anything about whether we're be
being successful those outputs the types and depth and breadth of services we
provide as an output from a data perspective should then inform the outcome which is whether or not people
are stably and permanently housed so just because you deliver more services doesn't mean you're actually creating
better outcomes and it doesn't actually mean that just because you're you're scaling up services for somebody who's
in crisis doesn't mean the outcomes are going to improve if those services are either misplaced mistimed or
inappropriate for the situation so the way we Access Data the outputs that help us inform whether outcomes are being met
are all important factors and when we think about access we have to start thinking about and this is both from a a
numbers perspective but also from the qualitative perspective what are what Universe of people are seeking those
Services what is the workflow and how we understand the needs of those people
where do we build that workflow in and how do we create consistency and so this is a slide that that sort of uh puts
that into uh a little bit of part you know par Lance but you know we talk about this if we bring it back down to
the direct service level from a from d at what are the ways in which we engage
with people at the front end of our system what is that Universe of people who are seeking services or in crisis
who we're engaging with what are the what's the data set what do we want to understand from that person in order to
understand how do we order the conversation in previous sessions we talked about slowing things down and
opening conversation and allowing trust building what do that work flow look like what environment do we do that and
then how do we create a consistent approach to that so that we can begin to interrogate the the data system that
we're looking at and and the and the system that we're looking at so this is one example that we may want to get to
we have this total population within the population total in say the state of New
Hampshire of that population um that we're looking at we're looking at folks that may be lower income or in poverty
or who have some sort of indicator of housing instability and as we think about Equity but you could apply this to
housing first uh you can apply Equity to folks with criminal histories Equity with substance use it's all the it's you
know that word is not just confined to race and gender it it is a broader context that we can apply that to uh of
that Universe we want to better understand are there racial disparities or gender disparities and we can break
that down further within a racial group uh is there a gender within that group
who is more or less likely to become homeless or need a different type of service and so uh the veteran space is a
good one here um and I use this example again uh and and this sort of I think
maybe um breaks down some of the ickiness we feel about uh racial Equity just being focused on on on uh uh folks
of color you know in the veteran space what we are seeing right now is a younger uh cohort of white women who are
becoming homeless so the bell curve on the veteran space has always been that it was always middle-age sort of white
men and African-American men uh who were were were our veteran homeless population but you know as a general
rule based on the data that bell curve is switching now where those younger populations are growing and in
particular younger women and we're also seeing an older cohort on the other side of that inverse bell curve and so if we
want to better understand what is happening in that space this gives us the ability to do that we can say within
the total population we are seeing a growing number of lowincome or housing unstable veterans within that let's
apply uh uh age instead of race we can say we know there's a younger cohort of
veterans that are coming up and now we're seeing a a disproportionately larger number of women or female veterans who are homeless as as uh
compared to uh those uh veterans that we saw in the past and how do we adapt our
services right for anyone working in the VA space uh we know that the VA is
trying to catch up to the fact that they're now serving women that they never served before that the 50-year-old Vietnam veteran is no longer necessarily
the primary driver of the Health Care system on the VA side or some of the housing systems or they are now a
smaller subset of that system so what does that mean for adapting our services well in the VA space and in in this
space we can we can apply that to Youth and Young adults rapid rehousing for young adults is a different animal or or
a set of conditions than rapid rehousing for somebody who's 40 years old who went through an income or health or family
crisis who need 6 months 3 months 9 months 12 months of help to get back on their feet who have had a lease in their
name before who have been employed before who need to overcome some major life crisis to get back in housing
that's different than an 18-year-old you know transgender female who uh was kicked out of their family's home ended
up in a foster system for six months aged out of that has never out a lease and is showing up at the front door rapid rehousing looks different for
those two different groups the same as the Health Care and housing interventions for a young female veteran
uh looks different than the system I'm sorry the service and Healthcare and housing interventions that we're going
to apply to a 65-year-old Vietnam veteran who is now going to Elder phases and needing geriatric care so as things
evolve we look at the universe of what we're trying to understand and we can distill it into different subparts not
to create more identity politics we have plenty of that but to create smart
decision-making protocol that give us an opportunity to make adjustments to the services we provide so that we can meet
the emerging needs and we're not stuck a decade or two decades ago so as we think
about our data uh both quantitatively and qualitatively we have to make sure that the things that we're asking are
understandable that it's a comfortable session that the interview uh interviewers are doing active listening
which is part of our uh our cohort uh for inperson that was cancelled last week it would be a little more relevant
if we had had that um do you as a practitioner understand what it is
you're trying to understand about the person and what that's going to inform in their housing plan and do they
understand what the intent of the data that's being collected is for as well so it could be the intent is I need to get
you enrolled with the hmis basic you know Universal basic data elements or it could be the intent is I want to get to
know you in a way that helps me help uh uh Empower you to shape The Narrative of
your housing plan moving forward both of those reasons for understanding data are valid right we need to we need the
basics to Ro people but we also want to understand what people's motivations
what their fears are what it is they want to achieve in order to develop the housing plan but we both have to
understand that so data as I said at the very front and I am not an hmis provider
I am not a statistician I like to think about data as a broader holistic
discussion around how do we communicate with people in a way that gives us the feedback loops both in the numbers and
qualitatively that allow us to build both our Direct Services with that client our projects and our systems in a
way that is best responding to the needs in the community there are other considerations uh uh from a from an
equity perspective that are important here and this is not just uh racial Equity this again I I want to get us out
of the sense that Equity is just about targeting a racial group um there's been enough emphasis there there's enough
training in that space that's not the space that we're training on today but do the people collecting the data share
identities with the people providing the data that's actually um a a newer sort of set of questions that have come up in
recent years but it's really important and I think I you know you can put yourself in this position if you are
from a specific racial group or age group or gender and you're an Outreach
provider or you're an intake specialist you're a case manager and you are working with people that have completely
different racial gender age religious identities than you do that is not to
say that you can't provide really great services but are inherent downfalls or shortcomings of
your ability to connect with people am I the best person to connect with uh an
older African-American woman in the community who has experienced multiple bouts of trauma in their life uh
including Trauma from white men like me uh and now is living in downtown Manchester or conquered or up in
Plymouth or in any area of this state is am I the one who is going to create the
most meaningful connection with that individual and be able to provide the safety that they need in order for them
to open up and be empowered to share how we can end their housing crisis maybe maybe I am the best one uh but it's more
likely than not that there are other people on this call uh and I point here because your your my screen your face is
over here for those off camera uh those on this call or those in your your projects or in your in your uh staff are
better to connect with that elderly African-American woman than I am now maybe you don't have the opport to do
that not it's not true that you all have the budgets that you need to just hire people from all these different diverse
backgrounds all the time so you can meet every little niche that may be out there but thinking about how we pair Staffing
so that we have people of varying types of identities represented in in in the work that we do
and that may be across racial lines religious lines gender lines family composition is a mother with uh two
children who's a who's a single mother uh is somebody else who has been homeless or in a crisis and has also
been a single parent with children uh a better way to respond or connect them in
a pure environment than somebody who's a professional Outreach worker maybe maybe that's pairing that are we making sure
that those traumas that people have experienced and and most certainly are experiencing now are accounted for in
the way that we communicate that we're asking the questions and and approaching these conversations in a way that tries
to reduce ret traumatizing ing people and give people an opportunity to breathe for a minute right to d-stress
as we talked about a couple of sessions ago to to recognize that that trauma uh
is part of the package that has led toward their housing instability and can
we do that in locations and in settings that feel safe that feel confidential that ensure that we're we're overcoming
language barriers or or other types of barriers are we limiting data collection to what's actually needed at that time
and this is what we talked about in two or three around uh infusing diversion practice and making sure that
we're not inundating people with everything about their history the minute we meet them so that we can put the in in a computer and type notes on
our laptop and then give them the bed for the night and put them on a list somewhere and I'm not saying that any of you are proponents of that approach but
that is an easy approach to fall into because of our Liber our our limited labor hour right and the requirements we
have on us so can we use data in a way that is iterative that Progressive that
builds on itself so that we're understanding the things we need to know now to keep you safe we're understanding
the things that we need to know now to help deescalate that stress and Trauma and then we're continuing to understand
more to help develop that housing plan that stability plan that exit and sustainability plan over time um so
there are different ways to think about that right and these are some of the ways that we talked about earlier in these slides uh but if we think about uh
data that we want to interrogate at the system level the these timelines the types of
services the length of times across the types of engagements the way referrals are made the way that those are mediated
once that referral are made all of those are indicators not only of our commitment to equity or housing first or
housing Focus practices or any other term that some ta provider like me came up with over complicate homelessness but
in fact are really getting down to the root of what we're trying to do and that's deliver high quality services
trying to save lives and we can examine our ability to save those lives using
these types of different uh uh data interrogation and looking at uh what is
our overall performance what's in the system who's obtaining the goals that we're trying to achieve what are the
unsuccessful outcomes that are happening within the system that we're working in whether it's the entire population
whether it's subpopulations whether it's certain program types whether it's your city your town your county your project whatever it may be of those who are not
successful who's returning and recidivating into homelessness or exiting our program and then how do we
re-evaluate the goals right and this slide is set up from a system perspective um but you can do this at
the project level you can do at the client level what the the you know what are the number of services we're providing to this client uh are those
Services uh being successful which services are being uh not being used by the client or were not successful in
delivering to the client what services are then being dropped off or otherwise being ignored and how do we read adjust
the service plan to better meet the needs and realities of those particular clients so whether you apply it at the system level or the client level it's a
very similar cycle I know you know there's a couple square peg round hole things there that I just said but generally speaking you know what is the
goal we're trying to achieve what's the universe with with in which we're trying to understand it right in this moment
individual project project type system Community where do we what sort of
information do we need to understand that problem what other information tells us what's not working and how do
we readjust goals and readjust approaches to meet the needs that we have so we want to make sure we're
weighing the impact of that data and not ignoring those smaller variations that
may be out there in New Hampshire if we go to race Equity the variations may be very small we are a predominantly white
state so our variations across racial groups in the state of New Hampshire are not going to be or or hopefully
shouldn't be significantly large numbers that they're jumping on Pages at us in some situations a small cohort may be
very uh uh predominantly under or over represented in in a particular outcome but they may be hard to spot on the
spreadsheet of the graph because they start as a small cohort but proportionately if that cohort is seeing worse or better
outcomes than others in any sort of significant way then we know that it's there is something that is worth
adjusting or embracing in the services that we're doing so when we use percentages or averages or big
statements that say everybody or everyone or I heard or they said we often can uh disregard in that way
unintentionally the most marginalized groups I think uh youth uh in particular
fall into this space uh uh uh and then even further if we look at transgender
youth that is a space where that that cohort can be very very small in a state
like like ours uh uh if even fully represent presented um but the outcomes
for that group may have be disproportionately worse because of the way our programs are designed I'm not and I don't know your data I'm not
suggesting that's true but those types of cohorts uh that uh really do need more attention but because they're
marginal on the graph don't necessarily get that attention so thinking about where significance actually matters it
may not be statistically significant for it to be qualitatively significant to
how we uh to design our programs and that's where that quantitative and qualitative balance comes in so we think
about equity in these different spaces right there's the recognition of our community that that
we are acknowledging uh that these disparities exist that we are trying to overcome them just either based on the
science or based on our good nature that we recognize that there are some people who are having a harder time than others
and sometimes and many times that harder time as a result of certain characteristics racial gender gender
identity religion age disability whatever it may be and that we're trying
to create diversity in our you our leadership in decision- making to overcome that that we're bringing those
voices that are most impacted uh to the table I'll bring up youth again I think uh Franklin New Hampshire is a leader in
this space to some degree I've heard really good things about some of the yhdp work and this active proactive uh
empowerment of uh young adults and youth in the state of New Hampshire to inform how these projects are design and now
whether or not that's what you wanted to do or it was forced On You by the yhdp program regulations is frankly not that
important at this point because we've seen the results I've been in some of those focus groups the ones that you
know all much better than I do where we've heard from Youth and Young adults who have been in your programs are in
your programs and their feedback has directly translated to changes we changed the cord entry policies and uh
scoring mechanism to address concerns that some of those folks had wouldn't have known had we not had those
conversations so thinking about those folks that are impacted and then making sure that we're giving those folks uh uh
uh the ability to Advocate and and that we're advocating for those folks to be at the table and thinking about the ways
we can support them when there may be push back right and I and I know there's allies uh quote unquote allies within
this network that makes sure that where there's a marginalized group you are then advocating with leadership you
advocate at with me I'll use myself as an example last year when we working on coordinated entry you came to to me and
others at the state and said something is wrong here we need to have a conversation we need to push back to
leadership right not that I'm in a leadership position in the community I just come in from from the outside in this professional setting but push back
to leadership to try to overcome changes so and I just skipped to the last one I apologize um so we may see that and and
what we often see is sort of these different responses Equity so for those of you who who are who are hesitant to
embrace like the equity language right or the the buzzwords of the day I don't
care what language you use but I do think it's important that we recognize some of the sort of reactions that we
have often and recognize that regardless of the trigger words that are out there that get played in the media and
everybody gets hyperfocused on some Niche thing like Equity or housing first and that doesn't work or you know we
don't believe in that um that there is there are uh uh telltale signs of when
conversations happen uh that Equity is involved right folks might think we don't have people of color in the system
or our GE geography is predominantly white which is true in New Hampshire or we know that white men are the ones who
don't have access right so that kind of pushed back to this to this overall narrative around it or that we can't
prioritize this because we have other priorities we already looked and there's no disparities um you know we don't
operate like that we don't treat people differently on the basis of color of their skin that idea of color blindness
which which uh is actually not a useful uh sort of way to think about Equity so
as we think about the push back that we do Eng we do encounter that we may feel that I feel in my personal life
sometimes around some of these issues and professional life um we have to recognize that if we're going to have
that push back or be defensive about the way these conversations happen or not believe it that we have to then look at
the data we have to understand what's real and what's not not just in our limited lens in view but as a system and
as projects you may not think disparities exist because they don't uh they're not the folks walking in your door but it may be that they're not
walking in your door because the project you have set up is not welcoming to that particular group or that you have not
yet discovered the way in which to outreach and inreach to that group of that particular um uh uh you know grp uh
identity right um there's an example in a city outside of New Hampshire that I've worked with a larger city that has
a significant uh Chinese popul and uh in their homeless data they show that the
number of folks who are uh identifying as Asian descent are very very low as compared to the overall number of people
living in the city in their census uh that number is very low in their homeless population and so so they said
great we don't have that disparity we are we are overcompensating on the equity front uh with folks who are AAS
descent um we don't have any work to do there and what they discovered over time was it wasn't that folks asion descent
were not homeless it's that they didn't know how to find them because in their culture there was a different family
Dynamic and a different Dynamic of uh Community response when people were falling on hard times so what they ended
up with were more people who were doubled up or in unsanitary or unsafe situations with family where you had
very small units with many many family members which definitionally on homelessness we won't get into doubled
up and prevention and Rapid rehousing but as a general rule what they discovered is there were people suffering in that community that they
didn't know about because they didn't address or account for the cultural and
historic underpinnings of that community that led them that group of people to be
less visible or less visible to the system that they were working in so they did more proactive Outreach within these
areas where uh where uh folks lived and within the uh business community that uh
worked with those folks or were represented by those folks and they actually identified that there was a whole cohort of people of Asia descent
that were uh really in crisis that needed Services some of it homeless Services quote unquote some of it other
housing mainstream housing and some of it just other types of connections to the community that they wouldn't have been able to access had they not
adjusted their Outreach and inreach to address the fact that those cultural norms existed so that's an example
across an ethnic or or a racial line that uh uh is particular to that City and our city we may have the same thing
I'm French Canadian I know the west side of man Chester as all the French Canadians there may and I don't know if it's this extreme for for that group but
you know there may be cultural norms in that group that lead us to a place where we have more trouble accessing that
group maybe our church Outreach isn't hitting the three or four French Canadian churches on the west side of Manchester and therefore we're missing
some group of people that are relying on that Community Norm uh for help when we could be uh trying to support that or to
connect them more fully to it so one of the concepts that has come out of this
is around race Equity analysis and we're not going to get into this deeply uh we're very limited on time um but
thinking about the way uh you know you can apply this to a gender analysis you can apply this to anything else that you
have data on is how we can think about uh uh different analysis so who's
included in that data the data we're collecting what the story is behind the data the strategies that we're going to
employ to overcome what we've learned what that impact is and that we're trying to learn our ability to
re-evaluate whether what we're trying to achieve is happening and then refining again again that goes back to that
example I mentioned of Rapid rehousing refining our programs refining those touch points making those adjustments
within our federal and state funding uh allowability to overcome those so we can
identify who who we're trying to do that with why that's happening what we can do
to make it better what we're going to how we're going to know if it's better right so we can't start testing things unless we know what is we're trying to
test and what that test is going to tell us and and how do we make changes moving forward and that could be very simple
case conferencing and exit planning to make sure that our rapid rehousing clients are set up for success or if we
have to give them another month six weeks eight weeks of assistance to get them to that point where that stability exists and these slides will go out and
I know I'm moving quickly because I do want to make sure we have some time uh there are some other data tools just want to highlight uh or or or whatnot
these are uh accessible either to uh many of you or to the to your balance of
State Partners uh either at the state or with your hmis team uh there's Stella which allows us to project uh using um
uh historical data and assumptions uh different impacts that different types of uh changes to our system would have
on different racial groups this is specific around race we also have uh newer Tools around uh what's called Eva
data analysis which allows you to uh uh break that down uh uh both into um
intersecting as well as exclusionary groups those are Concepts we're not going to get into but gives you greater
granularity to the data that you're using these are all produced by Hud and provided uh free uh uh to COC should
they be uh meeting their reporting obligations to HUD uh uh on that annual cycle um also gives uh some indications
that are similar to your APR that talk about project starts and ends uh versus the uh Equity tool that's most based on
a calendar year um this is the race and ethnicity cooc analysis that gives you
some snapshot opportunities um around where your populations are of all people
uh what are the different subpopulations within them and how do they interact with your programs are there differences
between race and ethnic groups in terms of their progression from homelessness to referral to uh Services housing and
so on uh and and that is where I was hoping to give 15 minutes here we've got nine minutes I wanted to pause um this
is the end of our uh virtual series we are going to come back together in Jan
anuary or February we're going to talk about schedules later uh for an in-person that will dive more deeply
into uh motivational interviewing skills active listening trauma informed care sort of a a 101 2011 on those topics in
in a in kind of a one day time free for Direct Care staff uh to include hopefully uh quite a bit of discussion
so that we can share each other's ideas uh rather than just hearing me uh because 90 minutes I think is quite
enough uh but we will together for that inperson training for uh six or seven hours full day and go from there so I
have not been able to look at the chat I'm going to pull down the slides and uh welcome uh uh if Christy or anyone else
on the line wants to bring up any questions in the chat or if there's anybody else that would like to open up
questions concerns or other interest they may have on any of the topics that we discussed over the past six months
so so I'm not seeing any questions in the chat
Mandy you and I can talk on Friday um just any if you want to raise
your hand or speak
up they're a quiet group today Doug it's a lot of Doug talking it's I
understand getting a lot in on all
right all right if anyone has any questions afterwards or something comes to mind please feel free to reach out to
me and email me um I will be sending out the slides for this training um as soon as I get them from
Doug and I just want to say thank you so much Doug and yes we will be working on rescheduling that in-person training for
some time in either January or February I don't want to um intersect with the
pit count um so we're trying to be aware of that as well come on yeah yeah I
forgot about not forgot about but didn't account for that so absolutely want to account for the pit count and all of the
other things that you have to do um uh uh as well I I will say unless there's
questions um uh you know I I I've a knowledged this multiple times but you
know um I know some of this feels utopian I know some of it's high level I know some of it's the TA speak and I
really just want to re acknowledge like the hard work that you all are doing across this state I see it you know I
live here which is a great benefit to me I don't get to see the work as well in other communities I hear about it more
but I see it here and um and I know uh and have first sort of a person
experience of the of the challenges you all face and I and I want to acknowledge that and I also just want to acknowledge
again that we're coming into a season that is very very difficult in the clients that you support but as importantly it's often very difficult on
you all and your staff who are trying to serve those folks uh through what are often traumatic uh stressful times in
the holidays so um you know we'll we'll talk again down the road and uh but I I
really do wish you all a really uh uh happy and healthy and and and um uh uh
you know um great holiday season and Thanksgiving and the holidays coming up in the new year um I know uh many folks
get to take lots of time off and you know uh kind of uh maybe just stress out with their family instead of their work
but for many of you in your teams this becomes the most stressful time both both personally but also professionally
so just want to say thank you to all of you for the work that you do here in the community that I work in in Manchester or live in and in the work you do across
the state it's not unnoticed and even though we present slides and use ta and federal speak it is not meant to um
belittle the the very real world that you all are working in right now and the challenges that you face so thank you
all I'm thankful for you that's part of my Thanksgiving um and and every time I work with folks across the country I I
have to remind myself how much harder your work is than mine and just acknowledge that as part of my own vulnerability so I appreciate appreciate
all of you uh for being here and putting time into
this thank you everyone and we will let you know when that inperson training
gets scheduled and I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful holiday next
week thank you
6/20/2024
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
5/15/2024
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
4/17/2024
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