END HOMELESSNESS ST. JOHN'S Housing First System Coordination Initiative (HFSCI) December 2014-March 2016 Investment Plan

Transcription

1 END HOMELESSNESS ST. JOHN'S Housing First System Coordination Initiative (HFSCI) December 2014-March 2016 Plan Context End Homelessness St. John's - the Community Advisory Board (CAB) for planning and investing federal Homelessness Partnering Strategy (HPS) funding in St. John's - has approved a Community Plan to End Homelessness which includes $1,099, in HPS resources allocated to a slate of system planning and coordination activities to support the community's transition to Housing First. Together these activities are called the Housing First System Coordination Initiative (HFSCI). Matching HFSCI resources to be sought under the Plan will help leverage this HPS investment. The following HPS HFSCI investment plan was approved by End Homelessness St. John's on December 9, 2014 and focuses specifically on the Community Plan's requirements from December 2014-March The table below outlines the HPS resources allocated during this timeframe from the City's HPS Community Entity (CE) Agreement 2, and HPS Community Sub-project Funding: Allocation (Apr 2014-Mar 2016) Total HPS Community Sub-project Funding $69, $69, $139, CE Agreement - CAB Community Development Worker $104, $104, $209, TOTAL - HFSCI HPS Resources $174, $174, $376, Deliverables under HFSCI (Dec 2014-Mar 2016) The Plan to End Homelessness calls for a number of measures to support a number of strategic priority areas, in particular, areas 1 System Coordination and 2 - Integrated Information & Research. The Plan outlines the following priority areas: 1. System Coordination: A coordinated approach to housing and supports following the Housing First philosophy. Organize the homeless-serving system. Implement coordinated access and assessment. 1 A further HFSCI investment plan for April 2016-March 2019 will be considered by End Homelessness St. John's during The City is contributing a further $137,395 in kind to supplement the CE Agreement between ($27,479/yr), including $84,215 in staff time, and $53,180 in administrative support. In December 2011, the St. John's CAB first requested that the City of St. John's become the HPS Community Entity to administer HPS funding and provide community development services under the Community Plan until HPS expiry in 2013 (which Council approved). In December 2013, the CAB again requested the City to perform this role when HPS was renewed for , and Council approved this request. 1

2 Develop discharge/transition planning measures. 2. Integrated Information System & Research: Integrated information system and research to support ending homelessness efforts. Implement an integrated information system. Build partnerships with the research community. 3. Housing & Supports: Developing a range of housing and supports choices to meet diverse client needs. Support measures to increase housing affordability and reduce homelessness risk. Introduce and ramp up a range of Housing First programs. Tailor supports to meet the needs of diverse groups. Support the enhancement of service quality and impact. 4. Leadership & Resources: Securing the necessary leadership and resources to support the Plan to End Homelessness. Develop the infrastructure necessary to implement the Plan. Coordinate funding to maximize impact. Champion an end to homelessness. The Community Plan implementation overview outlines the need for the following key activities: 1. Housing First system coordination framework, which includes an analysis of key program and housing components of the current system, performance measures, service standards, and alignment processes including coordinated intake and assessment tools, including acuity assessments to determine service match. 2. A homelessness information system building on the existing HIFIS system to tie together homeless serving providers. This includes data sharing protocols among key stakeholders to enable real-time information access. 3. A Point-in-Time Count to enumerate the number and characteristics of the homeless population on an ongoing basis. 4. A Research Agenda to support the Plan to End Homelessness and engage academic partners. 5. Training and capacity building for agencies and public system partners on aspects of Housing First to increase local capacity & and community engagement/public education activities to support ending homelessness. 6. Building effective discharge planning protocols with public systems (health, corrections, child, youth and family services). While activities 1-5 require work to commence immediately, item 6 can be addressed going into Year 3 ( ). 2

3 Proposed HFSCI Allocation ( ) HPS funds have been allocated to fund the CAB's Community Entity role, which includes the Community Development worker position and associated costs for a total of $209, over 2 years ($104,596.40/year). In addition, the Community Plan's HFSCI Community Sub-project funding provides a further $139, over 2 years ($69,759.85/year) to fund additional HFSCI activities. HPS requires the use of these funds towards the following main purposes: To reduce homelessness through a Housing First approach. To ensure coordination of resources and leveraging. To improve data collection and use. It is important to note that the role of the Community Development worker fully aligns with the goals of the Plan and HPS regarding system coordination, Housing First readiness, and improving data and information sharing. However, additional support will be needed moving forward to operationalize the Plan in a number of areas. This is the purpose of the HFSCI resource. Recommendation for the Governance & Administration of the HFSCI This investment plan is tied to a recommendation which End Homelessness St. John's approved on December 9, 2014 that the CE (City of St. John's Community Service Department) be engaged to administer the HFSCI in-kind rather than putting these funds out for Call for Proposals (CFP) as a whole. The rationale for this is that the CE is already undertaking the CAB's administration of HPS funds under the CAB's guidance; thus, having another party coordinating the HFSCI would be redundant and cost additional administrative funds for little value added. This approved recommendation and rationale is posted on the City's website in lieu of a CFP. A number of activities are recommended in this investment plan for the approved use of the HFSCI's HPS Community Sub-project funds. Note that on a go-forward basis, the CE will present a final description and breakdown for each of these items for End Homelessness St. John's Executive Committee approval as their scope becomes finalized. Over the course of implementation, the CE and CAB/Executive Committee may make adjustments to the allocations while maintaining the overall investment in system coordination activities to respond to emerging opportunities. For example, a larger than expected matching contribution may allow HPS funds in a particular line item to be re-allocated to another priority activity. 3

4 Proposed Activities under the HFSCI Activity 1. Housing First System Coordination Framework $30, Total ($15,000/yr) Purpose The development of this framework involves consultation with community, research on best practices and the development of a summative report based on findings. The process will be used to document current practices in the homeless serving sector to support the development of a coordinated system and highlight key gaps in programming and services, as well as current referral and prioritization processes, eligibility and funding. Performance indicators and service standards will be included in the work, along with implementation actions regarding coordinated intake and acuity assessments and prioritization processes. Research will need to be undertaken to identify and assess evidence-based acuity assessment options for the community. Further, means of delivering coordinated intake will have to be scoped out in light of the St. John s homeless serving system needs. An implementation plan must be developed to roll out coordinated intake and assessment and resources to deliver training and transition support to diverse services will be required for successful implementation. The use of data and information systems will be assessed as well. Knowledge of and experience delivering Housing First will be examined, along with interest in moving programming in this direction. The end product will include a comprehensive service map which can be used in later system coordination activities, including coordinated intake, information management system development, and the homeless count. The final framework will also highlight areas where additional capacity building may be required to transition the community to Housing First and recommend a course of action to this end. Implementation options for this activity include launching a CFP to an external researcher/consultant to fully undertake the project or undertaking some of the work inhouse (Community Development worker) with additional consultant support. The $30,000 budget for this activity would include the consultation costs, consultant time, meeting costs, and report development and dissemination. 2. Homelessness Information System $30, Total ($15,000/yr) The aims of a coordinated information system are to enable the sharing of information for the purposes of coordinating care, whilst enabling the tracking of individuals through the homeless serving system to develop more effective interventions longitudinally. St. John s has implemented HIFIS in some of its services already and there is willingness in the community to expand on this implementation further. However, to enable this, the current system must be expanded across more services, which may or may not receive HPS funds. The system must also be aligned with the coordinated intake and assessment processes (see Activity 2) and must be implemented across the homeless serving system, rather than in emergency shelter or transitional housing. For example, new Housing First programs must be accommodated to enable information tracking and referrals on the system. 4

5 Currently NL Statistics provides support on the data collection and reporting side for the HIFIS implementation. However, certain privacy protocols in place prevent the CAB and CE along with key housing and supports partners to access critical information needed to move implementation forward. These areas must be addressed. To this end, the following action items are recommended: 1. Assess current implementation and HIFIS capacity to expand to meet Plan goals; 2. Develop an implementation plan for expansion; 3. Develop data sharing protocols to support system coordination; 4. Provide ongoing technical assistance to expand implementation and ongoing use of data for decision making to support the Plan. It is highly recommended that these activities be supported through additional investment for staff time dedicated to this activity. The location of the staff may be at the NL Statistics Agency or the CE/CAB. Technical assistance may be needed on the privacy side or information system management though this expertise can be brought in as needed. 3. Research Agenda None anticipated to be developed through in-kind. The development of a Research Agenda to engage academic partners and guide research activities to support the Plan will be an important aspect of system coordination. To this end, a research symposium will be organizing bringing together key stakeholders to develop common priorities moving forward. This will also summarise work to date on homelessness and priority projects moving forward. The resulting Agenda will be used to help prioritize research funds and leverage in-kind research from academic and community based partners. Initial priority projects will also be funded as per Agenda priorities along with knowledge dissemination activities to support building a network of local research support for the Plan. The coordination of the Symposium can be done internally by staff. Facilitation and report preparation can be done with academic partners. It is anticipated this work can be done inhouse (Community Development worker) and with in-kind support. 4. Point-in-Time Count $21, Total The purpose of the homeless count is to develop local capacity to understand the homeless population and examine trends over time. We aim to align our count with national methods put forth by the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness this reduces the burden of methods development, though local tailoring will be needed. The coordination of the count is best done locally, with technical assistance provided as needed. The Count supplies and training/implementation costs are estimated based on other community costs Regina, Edmonton, Calgary at $60K with the in-kind contribution of volunteers and donations is target of $40K. The local coordination of the Count would be best done by a key staff, while technical assistance on methods, data analysis and report writing can leverage expert researchers. Cost of materials for the Count is estimated based on similar communities budgets. 5

6 5. Training & Engagement $23, Total ($11,500/yr) The development and coordination of training and capacity building activities for the Homeless-Serving sector can enhance capacity for service delivery under Housing First, transitioning to system planning, adopting enhanced service standards and safety protocols, as well as using data in decision making, etc. A slate of training opportunities for the sector will be delivered in a coordinated fashion moving forward leveraging local expertise or bringing in technical experts as needed. A coordinating staff would develop the training agenda and coordinate sessions and trainers based on community needs. The Plan calls for the active engagement of the public in ending homelessness. This will require strategic community engagement effort with appropriate communications and events. Capacity to develop such an engagement plan with diverse communities and stakeholders can leverage resources, particularly landlords and the faith community, to support Housing First. Diverse training opportunities would be organized by staff who have access to a budget to fund meeting costs, trainer fees, etc. Community engagement/public education activities can be undertaken based on needs moving forward. These would be organized by staff who would need to have a budget to fund materials, meeting costs, advertising, media activities, etc. 6. CAB Community Action $23, Total ($11,500/yr) St. John's CAB agencies have historically had access to HPS funds to develop additional community engagement, training, and public events aligned with the goals of previous Community Plans. We recommend funds be allocated to this end to enable agencies to continue to lead this important work on the ground going forward. Funds would be needed for convening/planning, bringing speakers in for knowledge mobilization activities, and other related costs. The CAB Community Action Fund enables community agencies to apply for small amounts to support events/training that align with Plan goals, typically less than $2,000/activity. 7. CAB Meetings This small fund of $6,000 per year is needed to cover basic expenses for shared work and meetings. This would include items like event venue fees, A/V equipment rental, secretarial support for meetings of the CAB and its Advisory Teams, as well as special meetings, accommodation for visiting speakers/trainers, etc. $12, Total Total from HFSCI proposed over 2014/15 and 2015/16: $139, Please note: Hospitality/catering costs are not eligible uses for HPS funding and cannot be included in this HPS HFSCI investment plan. However, the CAB & CE should explore how best to meet these needs through other sources. 6