1. VA HEALTH CARE FOR HOMELESS VETERANS PROGRAM & community Continuum of care collaboration
Brian Sangutei
Supervisor
Health Care for Homeless Veterans Program
Richmond VAMC, Virginia

2. coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress working together is success -Henry ford

4. VA and HUD Commitment
•The Five-Year Plan to Eliminate Homelessness among Veterans called for coordinated, collaborative efforts with community partners, including local, state and federal government agencies.
In 2009, Secretary Eric Shinseki announced the Five Year Plan to End Homelessness among Veterans.
Seeks to better coordinate our resources, improve collaboration, create new programs, and enhance research and policy to end the indignity of Veteran homelessness.

5. Achieving the Goal of Ending Veteran Homelessness
1. The community has identified all veterans experiencing homelessness.
2. The community provides shelter immediately to any veteran experiencing unsheltered homelessness who wants it.
3. The community only provides service-intensive transitional housing in limited instances.
4.The community has capacity to assist veterans to swiftly move into permanent housing.
5. The community has resources, plans, and system capacity in place should any veteran become homeless, or be at risk of homelessness in the future.

6. First Lady Michelle Obama announces Mayors’ Challenge to End Veteran Homelessness
June 4, 2014

8. Greater Richmond continuum of care
GRCoC coordinates homeless services and homelessness prevention across the City of Richmond, and the counties of Charles City, Chesterfield, Goochland, Hanover (including the town of Ashland), Henrico, New Kent, and Powhatan

9. Timeline
1997: Richmond organizations came together to form a Continuum of Care (CoC)
2013: The CoC board was created for more formal oversight of the various organizations
2014: Beginning of efforts to implement a coordinated system for Veterans to access Housing assistance, and other resources
2015: Commonwealth of Virginia publicly declared a statewide end to Veteran homelessness.

10. Successes Following Housing First principles
Developed improvement/acceleration strategies aimed at removing bottlenecks

11. Coordinated Entry System
Coordinated community outreach to identify and assess homeless veterans using common assessment tool

12. Transitional Housing*
Diversion
Housing Crisis
Unsheltered
or Sheltered*
self-resolve
Permanent Housing
rapid exit
Rapid Re-Housing
Transitional Housing*
Permanent Supportive Housing

13. Development of by-name lists of veterans experiencing homelessness

14. Holding CoC Case Conferencing meetings

15. Ongoing Review and Use of data to INFORM DECISIONS
Data sharing among all community providers and VAMC’s to have one list of homeless veterans prioritized based on vulnerability

16. VETERANS WORKGROUP

17. CONTINUOUS LEARNING
Community Solutions, Built for Zero, ERPI TA for VA Staff

18. communication
Allows for Increased coordination among providers has streamlined processes to place veterans in housing

19. RESOURCES
Connecting to mainstream resources and employment opportunities

20. Buy-in and Commitment from leaders

21. Challenges
DATA Systems used by the CoC vs the VAMC (HMIS/HCIS vs HOMES)
High evictions Rates
Staffing & funding
VAMC staff unable to enter data into HMIS

24. contact Brian Sangutei Health Care for Homeless Veterans Program
Richmond VAMC, Virginia