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In this issue...
The Governor's 2010-2011 Budget Proposal: 5% Cut to Homelessness and Housing Programs at DSS
Governor Rell announced her budget proposal today, continuing reductions to existing housing and homelessness programs. It does not appear that the Governor included homeless/housing services in the list of programs recommended for a 25% reduction as she had in her proposed mitigation proposal in November 2009.
However, she did include a decrease of $2.4 million (M) over the amount appropriated for the 2010-2011 by the General Assembly in last year's bi-annual budget, approximately 5% of the housing/homeless line item in the budget of the Connecticut Department of Social Services (DSS). We do not yet know the details of what might be reduced if that decrease is enacted by the legislature. The DSS line item funds housing and homelessness services, supports emergency shelters and transitional living programs, residences for persons with AIDS, eviction and foreclosure prevention, rental assistance, security deposit guarantees, homelessness prevention interventions and other programs which are vital to tens of thousands of Connecticut residents.
We speculate that the proposed cut may represent an annualized amount based upon her rescission of $2.1M in November 2009. Rell also proposes to eliminate the municipal requirement to store possessions of evicted tenants.
Governor Rell's budget did acknowledge that the Department of Social Services (DSS) anticipates caseload growth costing up to $150M for various programs due to the current economy. She also admitted that "[h]ousing prices are down; unemployment is up.mortgage foreclosures are up."
The bulk of proposed cuts to the DSS budget come at the expense of health care for low-income families. Health care and housing are critically intertwined and high rates of uninsurance as well as medical debt are stresses on family budgets, at times leading to a housing affordability crisis.
The Governor's budget is the first step in a long process scheduled to end in May. We expect the community conversations about choices to end homelessness and rebalance state revenues to continue.
The Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness has a four point legislative agenda, intended to provide solutions to prevent more families from becoming homeless, serve those who are currently homeless and maintain our state's ability to provide cost-effective services such as supportive housing through a series of revenue options. Our agenda is as follows.
- Prevent reductions in state funding for homelessness and housing services.
- Expand the number of rental assistance certificates by 100.
- Continue to create new supportive housing.
- Support increasing state revenues as part of a balanced approach to meeting the needs of state residents in the economic downturn , including evaluation and reduction of tax expenditures, closing corporate tax loopholes, delaying or canceling a reduction in the estate tax that would benefit only very wealthy persons, evaluating the state's "hidden budget" of tax breaks, and raising income taxes for high-income earners.
To view the complete agenda, please click here.
The Connecticut General Assembly's Appropriations Committee will meet to hear testimony from the community, individuals and others on the affect of the Governor's budget on housing, homelessness and other issues. Public hearings will be held in February, with one on the DSS budget including housing and homelessness on Thursday, February 11 th in the evening (time to be announced). The hearing will also deal with cuts to health care, so it is likely to be long. For more details, please see www.cga.ct.gov and click on the date, or contact the Appropriations Committee at 860-240-0390.
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Michael Bolton Foundation Contributes to CCEH
The Michael Bolton Foundation has provided a $5,000 grant to CCEH for our work around the state with ten year plans to end homelessness. Our sincere thanks to the Foundation for this very, very important investment.
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Homelessness Prevention and Re-housing Program: A Work in Progress
The first quarter of CT's new federally funded rapid re-housing and prevention program is complete and it has been anything but routine. Emerging is a level of demand for services that far exceeds the expectations of even the most jaded veteran. 2,609 HPRP eligibility screens were completed between the dates of October 1, 2009 and January 14, 2010. In the seven days between January 8th to January 14th alone 2-1-1 received 935 calls for housing and shelter. The natural confusion that comes with the implementation of a new service in a short period has some here in CT and around the country wondering if homelessness prevention, shelter diversion and rapid re-housing will ever really work.
There is no greater challenge to those on the front lines than prioritizing one bad situation over another: an unemployed family who is on the very brink of losing their housing over an employed mom and child who have lost it and are staying temporarily with relatives; a head of household on TANF and hoping to find employment or a laid off machinist who needs to relocate to another community in order to find work.
Staffing resources are already limited, and financial assistance which is the cornerstone of HPRP, is on pace to dry up long before the 2012 federal deadline to spend the funds. As of January 14, 2009, 500 households have already been served in HPRP equaling one third of a projected estimated 1,500 households who can be served in CT based upon HUD's allocation.
With an emergency shelter system that is overrun, and far too many eligible applicants than this fledgling system can serve, HPRP programs around the state are making critical and very difficult choices regarding whom to prioritize among the many who need assistance. Based on operational data from October 1, 2009 to January 14, 2010, prevention services, including one time financial assistance for those already housed, was provided virtually five times more frequently than re-housing and relocation services to households already facing homelessness or doubled up in very marginal situations.
At two recent peer-to-peer roundtable discussions convened by CCEH for HPRP providers, Executive Directors, Program Directors and Case Managers discussed the need for clear criteria to target clients who would be most likely to become homeless if not for HPRP assistance, and to empty out our emergency shelters this winter through rapid re-housing, creating turnover so that new families and individuals who fall through the cracks can have a roof over their head until they receive housing assistance. At the same time providers are wary of the temporary nature of HPRP assistance and want to assure that it is not substituted for longer term assistance which so many who enter our shelters really need.
CCEH will continue to monitor service usage data for HPRP, and work with state and municipal officials and service providers to provide information which will help them provide the most effective assistance through this important new program. At the behest of our national partners and local providers, we will focus data analysis, technical assistance, peer-to-peer opportunities and training on helping providers identify and serve individuals and families who would most likely become homeless without shelter diversion and rapid re-housing services.
Please check the HPRP resources page on our website to learn more about HPRP.
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Understanding and Addressing Homelessness and Domestic Violence
A report based on survey data collected from almost 3,500 survivors residing in 215 domestic violence shelters across the country found that when asked to identify their needs from a selection of 38 areas of need at entry and exit respondents chose housing as a second only to safety. In fact, 83% of survivors reported housing as a need.
When survivors were asked "What would you do without shelter?" common responses included "Be homeless and scared and confused", "Homelessness/would've gone back because of co-dependence financially", " Be at a homeless shelter or begging friends to stay with them, and putting them at risk of abuse by my ex-boyfriend". From these data, the link between domestic violence and homelessness appears clear and pervasive.
However, data coming out of the Homelessness Management Information System (HMIS) and annual CT Point in Time Count demonstrating the link between domestic violence and homelessness is remarkably different. In fact, DSS Shelter Utilization Reports report only 3% of CT's emergency shelter users in 2008 reported 'Family Violence' as a contributing factor to their homelessness. This statistic was identical in 2007 and 2006.
The large disparity in the data collected on this issue has sparked discussion between the domestic violence and homelessness shelter systems. At CCEH's Annual Training Institute in September 2009, the Coalition organized and hosted a workshop entitled Homelessness and Domestic Violence: Finding Intersections, Creating Connections that initiated a frank discussion among DV service providers, homeless service providers, a DV researcher, CCEH, and the CT Coalition Against Domestic Violence (CCADV). Participants discussed the ways in which the two shelter systems intersect, the unique needs of survivors in shelter, and the greatest sources of conflict for survivors when residing in shelters designated for homelessness. Shelter providers offered best practices and mutually beneficial protocols. Suggestions for improvements in the system included: more collaboration in data collection, creation of a standardized risk assessment tool to allow for appropriate placement determinations, mutual staff training, development of a protocol for referrals and transfers, and expanded collaboration.
Susan Campbell of the Hartford Courant, who attended the workshop, wrote about the conflict between shelter models in her October series on domestic violence, part of the Courant.com and Fox 61's ongoing blog, Overcoming Battered Lives. In her article, Sharing Shelter Services; Trying to meet the needs of the homeless and victims of domestic violence, Campbell writes, "It's rare to hear a woman in a homeless shelter speak freely about her violent past. Traditionally, homeless shelters have shied away from accepting women who are fleeing domestic violence, for fear their abusers will follow and harm staff or residents. Shelters - domestic violence and homeless - have security systems, but staff members are stretched, already.
Rarely have the two shelter groups shared services. Homeless shelter workers consider themselves concerned with the Big Picture, although by all accounts the vast majority of women in homeless shelters have a history of domestic violence.. If anything, the financial outlook for shelters in both systems is even more grim now [than before]. If they haven't already, shelters are considering cutting services or staff, said Linda Blozie, of the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
At the CCEH training, one woman who works at a homeless shelter expressed safety concerns about domestic violence victims. Shannon Lane, who was leading the discussion, said, "Shelters have to realize they are already serving the domestic violence population."
A positive result of the conversation has been an effort to improve homeless data collection regarding domestic violence. CCEH and CCADV have begun working together towards collecting more pointed and accurate data on domestic survivors who are experiencing homelessness during the Point in Time Count homelessness census slated for January 27. "The collaboration is an exciting one for our agency," said Sarah Zucker, Research and Communications Coordinator at CCEH, "and one with the potential to improve the understanding of and scope of services dedicated to a prevalent shelter population. I am eager to see what kind of DV data the Point in Time Count will garner and how it will compare to the data we have seen in years past. Seeing more robust and accurately reflective data come out of the Count will be a testament to the benefits of collaboration between the two Coalitions and the two systems."
To find out more about domestic violence in CT and CCADV, please visit http://www.ctcadv.org/.
Click here to read Meeting Survivors' Needs: A Multi-State Study of Domestic Violence Shelter Experiences, Final Report.
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Frequent User Service Enhancement (FUSE): Breaking the Cycle of Homelessness and Incarceration
The Corporation for Supportive Housing in partnership with an interagency collaboration that includes DMHAS, DOC, CSSD, plus CCEH, recently launched a new supportive housing pilot that targets individuals who have repeatedly cycled between the shelters and jails in our state. The Frequent User Service Enhancement (or FUSE) Pilot will create 30 units of service-enhanced permanent supportive housing in 3 cities-Bridgeport, New Haven and Hartford-that are also the 3 largest communities of re-entry for persons leaving the correction system.
This new initiative was developed through an extensive planning process, and includes a number of key features and innovations, including:
- Housing resources that have been secured from 2 Public Housing Authorities (New Haven and Bridgeport) plus the Department of Social Services (for Hartford) will provide affordable permanent housing for FUSE participants
- Intensive services for the critical time from participant recruitment to stabilization in housing, will be provided by 3 experienced supportive housing service providers using the service enhancement funds available through FUSE
- Eligibility into FUSE is determined through a quarterly data match between HMIS and DOC to determine the highest frequency of shelter days and jail stays for the 3 sites (Bridgeport, New Haven, Hartford). Individuals identified as FUSE-eligible are then offered this new supportive housing program
While the FUSE initiative is being implemented as a pilot, it will also include a research component, which will look at such program outcomes as housing stability, recidivism, return to homelessness, and other health and quality of life outcomes. The research will be invaluable in demonstrating the impact of permanent supportive housing for individuals who have not been successfully engaged into services or housing through other means.
CCEH is pleased to be an active partner in this initiative. As administrator of the statewide HMIS system, we are managing the data match component of FUSE-a first-ever application of HMIS in the state.
- Francesca Martin, Ph.D., Associate Director, Corporation for Supportive Housing
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Remembering Bill Johnston, Former CCEH Board President
We are sad to share with you the loss of a great advocate for people experiencing homelessness and a past CCEH Board President Bill Johnston, age 72, who passed away at Gaylord Hospital in Wallingford after a long battle with respiratory illness.
Bill was Program Director for Columbus House in New Haven, leading that organization's increasingly-meaningful role in the local community from 1991 to 2006. Bill was President and Board Member of the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness; Board Member of the Hill Development Corporation; Empower New Haven; and Family Counseling of Greater New Haven. He most recently served as Board Member of the Christian Community Action Agency, Inc. and an appointed Commissioner to the City of New Haven Homelessness Commission.
Contributions in Bill's memory may be made to the Christian Community Action Agency, Inc., 168 Davenport Ave., New Haven, CT 06519 or City of New Haven Community Services Administration (CSA) on behalf of the Homelessness Commission, 165 Church St., New Haven, CT 06510 .
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Ten Year Plan Internship Program: Middlesex County
When not at home with his wife and three children or at his job at the Wheeler Clinic, Sam Agyei is a second year graduate student at the UCONN School of Social Work and an intern to the Middlesex County Coalition on Housing and Homelessness (MCCHH), the implementation arm of that county's Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness. Sam is housed and receives local supervision from Middlesex United Way staff person Ed Bonilla. Sam is one of five UCONN grad students placed within state Ten Year Plans as a result of a partnership between CCEH and UCONN School of Social Work.
Along with twice monthly seminars at UCONN that examine the Ten Year Plan model Sam has taken on local assignments during his twenty-hour weekly work in Middletown including: researching and compiling information for local fact sheets about homelessness in the region; taking minutes for committees; researching data related to housing development in Middlesex County, and organizing a group of local men and women who have experienced homelessness. The LEAD group as the consumer group have come to be called since graduating from the Leadership, Empowerment, Advocacy, Development Training program provided by CCEH, meet with Sam on a regular basis to explore ways in which their intimate knowledge of homelessness can enhance the work of the Ten Year Plan. Recently Sam organized LEAD members to speak at the recent annual memorial service to honor homeless individuals who have lost their lives. They will speak at a Legislative Breakfast hosted by the MCCHH on February 2nd in Middletown.
One of Sam's goals is to develop a sustainable consumer group that will fully participate in the committees within the Ten Year Plan. Following in the path of the noble history of community organizing Sam notes that his commitment is to create systems change.
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Danbury Project Homeless Connect 2009
 
The Greater Danbury Continuum of Care and the City of Danbury Housing Partnership held its third annual Project Homeless Connect on December 11, 2009, at Western Connecticut State University. Over 40 agencies were available to provide needed services including medical, dental, vision, employment and benefits services and much more. Walsh Catering donated their services and provided a hot breakfast and lunch to all participants. There were many sponsors for this year's event including the City of Danbury, Danbury Housing Partnership, The United Way, Western Connecticut State University, Walsh Catering, Wal-Mart, Crystal Rock, New Hope Baptist Church and many more contributors. There were many donations of coats, clothing and footwear. There were over 65 volunteers assisting with client registration and client support throughout the day.
Project Homeless Connect served over 200 people, 92 received vision checks, 100 received medical services including blood pressure screenings, blood glucose screenings and flu shots, 65 received dental services including dental exams and cleanings, over 180 gift bags were given out including clothing, coats, shoes etc. The event was a huge success with many of the people who attended received needed services. Many thanks to the Greater Danbury Continuum of Care Project Homeless Committee for their continued commitment and planning for this event. Also, many thanks to our project sponsors and contributors for making this a true community event.
- Milena Sangut of the Western Connecticut Mental Health Network
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Healing the Generations: The 2nd Annual Family Violence Child Trauma Conference
Helping Children and Families Who Live with Overwhelming Circumstances: Early Intervention and Prevention by the Whole Community
Most people bounce back from stress, crises, and trauma and experience success if provided with interventions that mitigate risk factors and improve resiliency. This conference will bring attention to the role of resiliency and optimism in recovery for young children exposed to trauma. It will raise awareness of the health implications of exposure to violence and other traumatic stress for children and their families. The benefits of early intervention and prevention will be highlighted. Families and communities can provide powerful antidotes to adverse childhood experiences when hope and connections are strengthened.
The Healing the Generations conference offers caregivers, family members and professionals from child and family service agencies, state and local community partners, faith communities, schools, universities and colleges the opportunity to network and share trauma related programming and resources. Applied research and effective collaborative strategies will be presented. Up to 12 Continuing Education Credits will be available through the Women's Consortium for MFT, LPC, NASW, CCB.
Conference objectives for the 2010 Healing the Generations Conference include:
- Increasing knowledge of how family violence and child trauma affect health trends; specifically, how the effects of violence and trauma emerge as health issues and how trauma and violence are key factors influencing the health status of our children and their families,
- Increasing knowledge of factors that promote resilience following traumatic and adverse experiences,
- Increasing knowledge about early intervention and prevention strategies,
- Increasing knowledge of current trauma and violence theory, research, and interventions
- Increasing knowledge of effective trauma treatment practices derived from evidence-based research, including programs addressing diverse populations
- Increasing knowledge of collaborative trauma-informed care
- Learning how trauma has an impact on health, education, and policy.
- Developing a network of colleagues and potential partners for initiating or expanding trauma-focused initiatives,
- Exploring activities that support work/life balance, secondary trauma prevention and stress management.
Presenters from Connecticut and across the nation will gather at Foxwoods Resorts and Casino to share knowledge about healing that can occur when appropriate trauma informed services are available to the children in our communities. The conference will be held Thursday March 25th and Friday March 26th, 2010. For more information, and to register, please visit our website: www.cliffordbeers.org.
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