Balance of State Continuum of Care

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

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