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Takeaways from #CAEH24

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So long, Ottawa! Here are my highlights for the year:

  1. @Geoffrey Messier, as always, had a really accessible presentation about why you shouldn't spend lots of money on a fancy AI model, when humans are awesome, and it's not that hard to do the same thing in an Excel spreadsheet. You can actually watch a recording of his presentation, and he recorded a tutorial about building a spreadsheet that would predict who will become chronically homeless, too.

  2. Blue Door, a homeless-serving organi…

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Takeaways from #CAEH23

And that's a wrap on #CAEH23. Here's the highlights of what I learned this year:

  1. The proportion of people experiencing chronic homelessness, nationally, rose from 60% of respondents in 2018 to 70% of respondents in 2020-2022, according to national PIT Count data. @Sajidul Quayum Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV-nY6n8p28 
  2. Every $1 investment in indigenous housing annually results in a 740% social return on investment @Margaret Pfoh Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DypXY3gdB7Y 

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Takeaways from #CAEH22

And that's a wrap on #CAEH22. It was so great to see so many faces that have only been Zoom personalities for the past three years.

  1. We need to get better at getting out of the way of indigenous-led housing programs that are doing a great job @Celest Hayward @Fran Hunt-Jinnouchi
  2. New Zealand is dealing with many of the same challenges we are in Canada @Ali Hamlin-Paenga
  3. We can't just bulldoze an encampment and assume that'll solve the problem. We've got to work on understanding the root cause…

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HIFIS 4 Deployment Options in British Columbia

Communities in British Columbia have been caught between a rock and a hard place, HIFIS-wise, with BC Housing holding a provincial license but only utilizing it for their own funded programs, and Designated Communities now being required under Reaching Home to adopt HIFIS and Coordinated Access locally.

ACRE Consulting was hired by Employment and Skills Development Canada (now Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada) to identify viable options for HIFIS deployment across British Columbia, …

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My Initial Thoughts on the Ontario HPP Program

As of April 1, 2022, Ontario communities now have new funding requirements through the HPP program. There's a lot to take in here, so many communities are rightly concerned about what this means for them. In particular, those using HIFIS are wondering how they should start recording data so that they can pull it out at the end of the year.

I'm afraid that I don't have all the answers yet, but since so many people are thinking about this right now, I thought it would be good to start a discussio…

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Simple Training Time Calculator

When delivering just-in-time training - that is, trying to train all your new users before a HIFIS 4 launch, it can be a bit confusing to try to figure out how to schedule everything.

Luckily, there's a simple way to get yourself a rough idea of how long you need to spend training your staff. We've put together a calculator where you can put in your requirements and find out how much time you need. Note that this gets you a very, very rough idea! Just a place to start.



Calculate Now

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