NOTE: These topics are subject to change

Innovative Accelerator Program

During the last Homeless Conference, the Center for Medicaid Services announced a Technical Assistance grant to Montana designed to bring the state's Medicaid and Housing programs together to explore providing more tenancy supports for those most vulnerable and homeless. Learn what the working groups are doing and how one of the early outcomes is the MT Health Care Foundation funded Interdepartmental Housing Improvement Plan.

Problem-Solving Strategies – Diverting from Homelessness

Continuing to build and strengthen strategies such as diversion and rapid-exit practices are critical in a state where the housing opportunities are not enough to help everyone trying to access housing. Diversion has proven effective in Montana and elsewhere to reducing the in-flow and conserving the resources for those who have no other alternatives. Learn the core components of diversion and rapid exit practices and how communities are putting them into practice.

Coordinated Entry System (CES) – Ongoing Implementation in MT

CES implementation is still a work in progress and will continue to be for some time. Hear from practitioners what difference CES is making in communities, what works well and what doesn't and explore how it can be made even more effective in the future

FUSE Communities

The Montana Health Care Foundation has implemented the Corporation for Supportive Housing organization's Frequent Users System Engagement (FUSE) program in five communities and is adding two more this year. FUSE community leaders will describe how they used data from HMIS, hospitals, law enforcement, emergency services and more to identify the individuals who are using those services the most, how much they were costing the community and how they are working to quickly house those individuals. Hear what they have learned from visiting Permanent Supportive Housing facilities in Denver and Boise.

Youth Action Board (YAB)

The MT CoC's application for the $3.4m Youth Homeless Demonstration Project grant was successful, in part, due to the creation of a YAB in the winter of 2019. Turnover and geographic challenges have eroded some of those initial gains and the YAB is in rebuilding mode. Here from YAB youth, the National Network for Youth and others about how you can be a part of the YAB and its critical role in determining policies to address homelessness experienced by youth.

Housing Navigators

In a highly competitive rental housing market, landlords are more likely to rent to candidates with good rental and credit histories or renters willing to pay cash up front. Even with a guaranteed rental voucher, a homeless individual or family is up against overwhelming competition. Housing Navigators can make a difference. Hear from navigators about what they do, how it is making a difference and how more navigators can be created in your community.

HMIS

The Homeless Management Information System is a client-level database required of some, voluntary for others but a growing tool for all. Time to celebrate achievements since launching in fall of 2018 and hear about still-to-be surmounted challenges.

Implementing the Foster Youth to Independence Initiative

Youth homelessness too often has roots in histories of child welfare and foster homes. Last year, HUD announced the Foster Youth to Independence Initiative (FYI) to target housing assistance to this group. The MT DPHHS and several local housing authorities are poised to begin using this new resource. Learn how they are implementing FYI and how their efforts can inform work in other parts of the state.

Making Rapid Re-Housing Work for Individual Adults and Families

Three federally funded Rapid Re-housing programs exist in Montana to help to navigate the challenges associated with rapidly re-housing individuals, including those with no steady income or employment history, criminal justice involvement, treatment needs, service connections, fixed incomes, and living in challenging housing markets. Two are HUD programs, the CoC and the Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) and the third is the VA Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF). Hear how these programs operate today and join in the discussion to explore what innovative practices might help to optimize their use even more.

Private Sector Partnerships that Build Support for Solutions to Homelessness

Private partners can spearhead broad changes in how localities respond to homelessness and citing homeless programs and supportive housing. Hear how community-based United Ways have become private sector leaders building philanthropy, public-private partnerships, local support and reducing barriers for solutions to homelessness in several Montana communities.

Mental Health Challenges for Individual Adults Experiencing Homelessness

Every individual adult experiencing homelessness has their own unique history and circumstances but many face mental and behavioral health challenges. Hear from a panel of individuals with lived experiences about the challenges they face and from providers who have struggled, in the face of budget cuts, to partner with others to address the clinical and therapeutic needs of their clients.

Benefitting from the Expertise of People with Lived Experience?

The perspective of those with lived experiences of homelessness can have an enormous impact on improving homeless services. Explore how people with lived experience can influence program design, systems, policy, and research. Examine how we can better engage and support individuals with lived experience in a way that honors their time and avoids tokenizing them.

Coordinated Community Response to Youth Homelessness: Lessons from YHDP

The Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program (YHDP) is creating a groundswell among communities that want to adopt proven systemic approaches for youth experiencing homelessness. Learn about Montana's YHDP $3.4 m grant, their Coordinated Community Plan and the Request for Proposals.

Schools, Education and Homeless Youth

Did you know that schools are responsible to provide the transportation necessary to ensure a youth can attend the school of their choice? Did you know all CoC grantees are required to provide for a designated education liaison to ensure families are guaranteed access to schools and education? Did you know that Montana's Office of Public Instruction is a national leader in supporting homeless youth? Hear from a panel of educators about innovative efforts to ensure homeless youth graduate from high school and access ongoing educational opportunities.

Coordinating with Domestic Violence

How do communities integrate domestic violence into the homeless service system, including coordinated entry and HMIS? How are survivors prioritized for housing interventions? This panel will examine what is working and where further progress is needed to streamline survivors' access to the help each system has to offer.

Partnerships for Ending Homelessness: Prioritizing Employment

Continuums of Care (CoCs) are evaluated on their success in increasing people's employment and income and recent Notices of Funding Availability (grants competition) have prioritized employment. Learn how local job services and CoCs are working to ensure that priority is met in their communities. Learn how some agencies provide resume writing, preparing for an interview, clothes closets and job coaching. Join in a brainstorming session about other innovative approaches, e.g. small social enterprises, employer engagement strategies and unconditional cash transfers.

Montana's Homeless Survey – An Analyses

The Montana CoC has been conducting a statewide survey of homeless since 2005, but the 2020 survey conducted on January 30^th is the first one to receive an expert's analyses. Hear Dr. Jack Brielle of the University of Hawaii unpack the survey results for a better understanding of Montana's homeless challenge.

CoC Performance Review

Montana's homeless system is a network of emergency shelters, transitional housing, rapid rehousing, permanent supportive housing and a variety of different service providers. Today, a growing number of those programs are using the Homeless Management Information System to enter client level data and the MT CoC uses eight HUD prescribed Performance System Measures to track how well we are doing to make homeless rare, brief and a one-time only experience. Learn what the performance data is showing and enter into a discussion about action steps to improve on them—a necessity if the CoC is to ever win new grant funds for new projects.

Outreach

Outreach is a crucial part of an effective systemic response to homelessness, especially among individual adults. Montana's vast and rural landscape imposes special challenges in organizing outreach services to maximize geographic coverage, avoid duplication of effort, and create meaningful connections that result in more people getting connected to the housing they need? Explore what efforts are in place and where the greatest needs remain to be addressed.