Attendance: Rick Rivera (TSA); Niki Paul; Katy Manganella; Becky Casey (ECHO Staff); Natalie Metzger-Smit (LifeWorks); Dylan Shubitz (HACA); Lori Frasco (Caritas); Allyson Randall (Green Doors); Sandra Chavez (AIDS Services of Austin); Christina Diaz (HATC); Elvira Lahtrop (HACA); Quentin Rodriguez (Caritas); Melinda Cantu (SAFE Alliance)

9:30-9:35WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION Hosie Washington (Chair)

9:35-10:20General UpdatesNiki Paul/Katy Manganella

  • 2016 ECHO Workgroup Updates
  • PIT Committee-Katy M.
  • Preliminary Results:
  • Roughly 550 volunteers for unsheltered count-up from 100 in 2015
  • More strategic in team assignments-more volunteers on downtown teams
  • Roughly 20% increase in persons experiencing homelessness compared to 2015
  • 22% increase in unsheltered count
  • 815 unsheltered count-up from last year at 667
  • Could be accounted for by methodology change
  • Increase in sheltered count-added capacity in transitional housing and emergency shelter-1,382 people staying in TH or ES up from 1,165 in 2015
  • New TH project by Foundation Communities this year
  • Added capacity to Casa Marianella
  • Conducted follow-up counts at LifeWorks (youth specifically) and Travis County rural communities centers on Monday following the count
  • HMIS Committee-Katy M.
  • 2016 HIC-Due to HUD at the same time as PIT results
  • Will begin looking into the number of beds each program has to determine an inventory count
  • Timeliness of data entry/Updating Quality Assurance Plan
  • Looking at length of time between client interaction and when that data is entered into ServicePoint
  • Current standards-data may be entered up until the 5th day of the following month
  • Plan to speak with agency admins about what is realistic per program
  • Have learned from Veteran’s Initiative that accurate data is very important-goal to make it as real-time as possible
  • Proposal to change data entry timeliness to 5 days as that is the longest gap of time currently listed in the internal policies
  • Intent is to measure where we are now and make improvements in areas the needed
  • New Data Completeness Report
  • Bowman has released revised version of Data Completeness Report that pulls in other data elements that we are not currently monitoring though they are required by HUD
  • Will help provide where data is missing if there is any missing data
  • ROI for HMIS Participating Agencies-HMIS participating agency list has changed
  • Some agencies have been removed and some have been added
  • Important to use the most up-to-date ROI
  • Voices of Youth Count-Chapin Hall Research Study-Niki P
  • Travis County was contacted by Chapin Hall-implementing a nation-wide study to conduct a youth count in 28 communities across the nation
  • Travis County is the only community in Texas
  • First stakeholder meeting held last week-included new and exciting stakeholders
  • Research will serve as the foundation work for ending youth homelessness in our community
  • Chapin Hall staff will come assist with conducting a youth count in May or June
  • Conducting more in-depth research with roughly 30-40 youth
  • Would strongly like this to be youth-led and have funding for youth that participate
  • ECHO will be lead agency in partnership with multiple agencies
  • Looking to have a very diverse stakeholder group
  • HUD SNAPS program to release very competitive grant of $33M for 10 communities to apply for youth homelessness planning funds-not sure of timeframe yet but would strongly like to be included

10:20-11:00 HUD Continuum of Care Niki P. / Katy Manganella

  • NAEH Conference-HUD Q&A Updates
  • Director of SNAPS informed that HUD will be announcing Tier I and Tier II funds separately; Tier I will be announced first and Tier II will be announced later
  • 2016 CoC NOFA may be released prior to the GIW process
  • 2016 NOFA will focus on implementing system performance measures
  • Each community will be measuring their own success rather than having communities competing
  • Would like to be ahead of the game and start using our data to prepare for this change
  • Review of New Performance Score Card
  • Previous Performance Score Cards were not serving us well
  • Focusing on data completeness, project utilization, data completeness reports
  • Look at which items are still being monitored by HUD
  • Would like to move away from being a monitoring tool that only ECHO is using but rather a tool that the agencies can use
  • Need to improve our monitoring of Annual Assessments as it is a HUD requirement and we have not been monitoring this in the past
  • Coordinated Assessment section-would like to start with how many clients currently in a PSH project completed a CA before monitoring PSH projects are only accepting clients who scored in the PSH range on the VI-SPDAT
  • Require quarterly submission to ECHO but any agency is welcome to monitor themselves internally
  • Will be looking at the rolling year of score cards as oppose to only one quarterly score card; if one quarter was less successful, the other quarters will help identify a better idea of how the project is really doing on an ongoing basis
  • Next steps-Need to receive approval across the board and hold trainings for whoever would be completing this at each agency
  • Will send out draft today and accept any suggestions on this until Monday before the Membership Council on Wednesday

NEXT MEETING: April 6, 2016 9:30-11am, LifeWorks, 3700 S. 1st Street