Continuum of Care

Portland Continuum of Care Wednesday, June 22, 2016 Meeting Minutes Jeff Tardif City of Portland, Health & Human Services Dept., Social Services Division Aaron Geyer City of Portland, Health & Human Services Dept., Social Services Division Adam Harr City of Portland, Health & Human Services Dept., Social Services Division David MacLean City of Portland, Health & Human Services Dept., Social Services Division Vickey Rand Community Housing of Maine Ginny Dill Shalom House Cindy Namer Maine State Housing Authority Wendi DuBois The Opportunity Alliance Jon Bradley Preble Street Cullen Ryan Community Housing of Maine Chet Barnes DHHS Brian Townsend Amistad Monique Gordon Department of Veterans Affairs I. Introductions Aaron started the meeting and asked everyone to introduce themselves. II. Collaborative Applicant Transition Cindy summarized the transition from the City of Portland as collaborative applicant to Maine State Housing Authority. MSHA has taken over the roles in HDX and esnaps and will take over the CA responsibilities for CoC meetings, including sending out agendas and taking minutes. Adam will send the CoC mailing list to Cindy and her team. Cindy stated that the NOFA is expected next week or the week after. III. HUD System Performance Measures Cindy presented system performance measures that she expects to become program benchmarks. There are 7 categories of metrics that will be entered into HDX from HMIS that HUD is working on a function that will automatically import data from HDX into esnaps. Jon asked how data on unsheltered individuals would be captured in the performance measures, specifically in data collection. Jon said that his staff does collect data, citing the unsheltered reports given at Emergency Shelter Assessment Committee meetings. Chet said that he only has unidentifiable information and identification numbers that would need to be matched with names from the data Preble Street collects on unsheltered people. Cindy suggested using a model similar to the VA’s “one list.” Chet said that we will be more effective if we identify people, who they are and where they are. Partners that don’t have an HMIS license can track their numbers; if they have a larger population an HMIS license may make sense. Jon asked why Florence House’s safe haven beds are counted as safe haven beds when they were counted as permanent supportive housing when the grant was first awarded. Vickey said that the safe haven beds have about a $30,000 line item on the Florence House budget, making the reallocation process necessary to change the beds from SH to PSH. IV. CT and MA CoC Policy Briefs to HUD Cullen read the MA policy brief explaining the MA CoCs’ grievances with the NOFA process, specifically how the cumbersome data reporting requirements and annual applications for funding take resources away from serving clients. He read the brief’s recommendations which largely suggested multiyear funding cycles and modified data reporting requirements. Cullen made a motion that the PCoC signs onto the letter to. MOTION PASSED unanimously. V. Definition of Chronically Homeless Vickey announced that the MCoC passed a motion that expanded eligibility for Shelter Plus Care. She described an issue where the narrow definition of chronically homeless and the associated requirement for SPC has led to situations where there are no people who meet the chronic definition. This means there are vouchers available and people who are chronically homeless but lack documentation to prove so, leaving vouchers on the table while people languish in homelessness. Vickey asked that the PCoC make the same motion as the MCoC, as it would let more people with the next highest bednights access the resource and get housed when there are available vouchers but no eligible individuals. Jon said that vulnerability should be considered, as the chronically homeless definition does not completely capture who needs to be housed first. Everyone agreed, but Ginny and Chet explained that projects in this funding cycle are boxed into considering chronically homeless for prioritization. Ginny stated that the coordinated entry and VISPDAT should make it easier to make vulnerability an eligibility element in future funding cycles. She then suggested that to prioritize more vulnerable clients, an organization could limit the number of applications for SPC from a large group to the two most vulnerable people that would still be appropriate for the program; when an organization sends many applications, their clients compete with each other. Cullen made a motion that the PCoC asks to house the next highest LTS when no chronically homeless individuals are available to apply. MOTION PASSED unanimously. VI. MCoC Merger Motion Vickey stated that the MCoC passed a motion to identify different areas of discussion of the merger of the Maine CoCs. The goal is to weigh the pros and cons of the merger. The PCoC came to a consensus to wait to pass a similar motion until after the NOFA comes out. VII. Location Dave announced that this is the last meeting the group can meet in the RS conference room as the Social Services division loses the space as of July first. The next meeting location is TBD, but will accommodate members’ summer schedules by holding the next meeting on Friday, July 15, at 11:00 am. VIII. New BRAP Application Ginny announced that there is a new BRAP application that has several changes people should pay attention to.