February Newsletter

February 2018

Dear friends,

Many, many thanks to all of you who pitched in over the last week on the 2018 Point-in-Time and Youth Counts! These annual counts provide critically important information on how we are doing in our efforts to end homelessness.

Results of these most recent one-night counts will be available in May. Meantime, there’s good reason to believe that positive trends for our PIT count will continue: over the full year of 2017, a total of 9,478 people experienced homelessness in CT. This number represents a fifth straight year of decline, and a 33% decrease in annual homelessness since just 2012.

We are moving the needle towards ending homelessness in CT, even as other states experience rising numbers. We know how hard you are working to coordinate efforts and use every resource wisely. Your work is paying off.

With all this in mind, please make sure to mark your calendar for Advocacy Days March 7 and March 8 (please read more below) – we need your voice to tell the story of our successful efforts, and the need to maintain our resources so that we can maintain momentum.

Lisa Tepper Bates

Executive Director

2018 Homeless Counts - A Success!

This past week, we held the 2018 Point-in-time Count and the Youth Count! Both counts were extremely successful and we are grateful for all the help we received from hundreds of volunteers across the state.

The Point-In-Time Count engaged more than 70 agencies and more than 300 volunteers from across the state. The Youth Count engaged another 400 volunteers. Together, the efforts of all of these volunteers will give us important information on the scope of homelessness in our state. Final results from the counts will be available in May.

Your Help Needed to Expand be homeful Shelter Diversion Funding for Families

It’s official! The be homeful for the holidays campaign raised $60,000 for the be homeful project, which provides emergency financial assistance funds accessible by frontline staff to help divert families to housing solutions at the front door of shelter. We were thrilled by these results, which allowed us to open the fund to providers across the state. We are eager to work with our CAN partners to put the diversion funds raised so far to good use!

While the funds we have raised so far this year are a good start, we know that you can do much more work to divert families from homelessness, if you have more resources. CCEH is continuously looking for ways to help generate additional family shelter diversion funds, and we have created some tools to make it easy for your CAN to fundraise for be homeful. With "Paddington 2" out in theaters, this is the perfect time to step up our efforts, but we need your help! Moneyraised by your CAN will benefit your CAN’s be homeful fund.

Please contact Madeline Ravich at [email protected] or click here to learn more about the ways that you, your agency, and your CAN partners can get involved to help!

Thank you for being homeful!

Puerto Rico Evacuees

Together with DOH and 211, CCEH continues to participate in the statewide Hurricane Relief Evacuee Support Planning Work Group. We continue to stress that our homeless emergency shelters do not have excess shelter capacity, particularly in the winter, nor do we have the disaster case management capacity to respond to the specific needs of evacuees.

We continue to work towards a special disaster response that can meet the needs of these evacuees, without forcing them to seek assistance through the homeless system. FEMA Temporary Shelter Assistance (TSA), which covers the cost of hotel for evacuees in Connecticut without any housing options, is available until March 20. However, not all families currently hoteled are guaranteed continued eligibility.

If a Puerto Rican evacuee household seeks assistance in your CAN/at your agency:

Call 211 and press 5 for hurricane evacuee assistance.
Make sure these households register with FEMA at www.disasterassistance.gov or FEMA Assistance Line at 1-800-621-3362. Help seek placement in hotel under the TSA program if possible. Contact FEMA with CT address and check on status of application. Appeal any denial.
Access the 211 Resource Guide for Evacuees, available in Spanish and English online here.

Gearing Up for Connecticut’s 2018 Legislative Session. Make Your Voice Heard!

The state legislature convenes February 7 to begin making adjustments to the budget passed in FY 2017. The projected budget deficit is and legislators are currently meeting to figure out how to close the gap.

CCEH will be working together with you and the Partnership for Strong Communities to highlight the success of investments to end homelessness in your communities and across the state — arguing with your help to protect these resources serving those in most need.

We need your help to preserve funding for housing and homelessness services and supports.

Here’s What You Can Do:

Mark your calendar for March 7 & March 8 for the 2018 Homelessness and Housing Advocacy Days , when advocates representing each of the 8 CAN regions meet with legislators and make our case to preserve, protect, and defend the resources you need to do this important work. Click here for more information and for the CAN schedule for Advocacy Days.

Budget and Appropriations Webinar

Advocacy Days Preparation Webinar

Thanks again for your commitment to ending homelessness in Connecticut. Together we are making a difference!!

If you have any questions please contact Sarah Fox at [email protected] or Liz Roberts at [email protected] .

New Tool to Assess Safety Issues with

Doubled -Up Families and Individuals

CT Shelter Diversion efforts prioritize diverting families and individuals to other housing solutions at their first contact with the homelessness response system. Often, this involves helping them to preserve their current housing situation or assisting them to make alternative housing arrangements. Doubling-up is often economical, culturally appropriate and realistic. But not all doubled-up arrangements are safe for individuals or especially children.

Partners in the Reaching Home Families with Children Working Group offer “pointers” through the Safely Doubled-Up Tip Sheet tool that can guide your conversation to help clients evaluate the safety of their doubled-up situation.

Please click here to access the tool; click here for the webinar training on how to best use the tool with clients.

We're Hiring!

Program Development Coordinator Position Open

The Connecticut Coalition To End Homelessness is hiring for the Program Development Coordinator Position.

The Program Development Coordinator provides critical coordination and planning around major project and events, press, marketing, social media, and donor engagement. With dual-reporting lines to the Deputy Director and Development Advisor, this position plays an important role in moving new initiatives forward and creating momentum for ending homelessness across the state. View the full job description here and apply here.

Research Analyst

CCEH is looking to hire an additional member for the CCEH research team! As a member of the research time you would be responsible for wide variety of tasks related to data collection and analysis, including through CT-HMIS, relating to programs that serve people experiencing homelessness in Connecticut. View the full description and apply here