Revised HMIS Data Standards: with a focus on Chronic Homeless Status and

Project Specific Data Elements

Thursday, September 31

What has been revised?

Questions to collect and measure Chronic Homeless Status (Length of Time on the Street, ES, or a Safe Haven Definition: Chronic homeless status is determined by a

client’s history of homelessness, disability status, and length of time spent on the street, in an emergency shelter or a Safe Haven.

Addition of SSVF Specific Questions: Homelessness Prevention (HP) Screening Threshold

Score VAMC Station Number

How does this impact our projects and our data?

• Chronic Homelessness: Ensure new questions are being collected from clients (i.e. add to

Intake Forms) Data should be completed and accurate for previous question

especially for “total number of months homeless prior to project entry”. If missing, data will not have been calculated for Start Date

• SSVF Specific Questions: Ensure new questions are being collected from clients (i.e. add to

Intake Forms) Questions will be added to SSVF Export in November of 2015 Questions will become a part of the Quarterly Data Quality

Assessment in January of 2016• All Questions:

Clients with an active Entry on or after October 1, 2015 will be expected to have questions entered into HMIS.

Chronic Homeless Status: Length of Time on the Streets, in an Emergency Shelter, or Safe Haven

• Chronic Homeless Status: Length of Time on Streets, in an Emergency Shelter, or Safe Haven

Client entering from the streets, shelter or safe haven (SH)

Residential projects: Enter yes, if client indicates they are entering your project and the last place they slept was the streets, ES or SH

Service projects: Enter yes, if the client indicates that they are currently residing on the streets, ES, or SH

Date started: Enter the actual or approximate date the client started staying in their homeless situation from which they entered your project

Date Started• Calculating the Date Started:

Date of last time client had a place to sleep that was not on the streets, ES, or SH

• Look Back Time and Breaks: Breaks from time on streets, ES or SH are allowed to be included in Look

Back Period to calculate the start date only Breaks can be included if the client moved continuously between the

streets, shelters, or safe havens, the date would to back as far as the first time they stayed in one of those places.

Breaks can be included if the break was under 7 nights, the look back time is not broken.

Breaks can be included if the break was 90 days or less due to an institutional stay. The look back time would include all of those days (up to 90 days) when looking back for the Start Date.

• Approximating the Date Started: Substitute date of the month with the same day of the month as project Entry.

Regardless of where the client stayed last night, enter the number of times client has been homeless in the

past three years: Never in the past three years: Client has never

been on the streets, in an ES, or SH or the last time they were in those situations was longer than three years ago.

This is the first time (One time): This is the first time the client has been on the streets, in an ES or SH.

Total number of months homeless on the street, in ES or SH in past three years

Reminders: Data collected at project Entry For those with active records on October 1, 2015, the client

should be asked the questions based on where they were prior to entry into the current project and the appropriate response recorded.

HUD strongly encourages HMIS users to just ask the client for the information and record their answer. Attempting to tie each individual’s response with definitions or documentation requirement is not the attempt of this question.

Although documentation is required by some funders for programs targeting chronic homeless persons, completing the data fields in HMIS does not require documentation. Clients’ responses are all that is required.

VA Program Specific Questions: HP Screening Score and VAMC Station Number

• Homelessness Prevention (HP) screening threshold score: Collection point: Project Entry Enter Homelessness Prevention threshold score

for each at-risk household served in the project as was calculated in the homelessness prevention screening/assessment.

VA Program Specific Questions: HP Screening Score and VAMC Station Number

• VAMC Station Number Collection Point: Project Entry Enter the VAMC Station Number of each

household. The VA will provide SSVF grantees with the station number that corresponds to their service location.

Thank you!Questions?

kschmitt@allchicago.orghmis@allchicago.org

https://www.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/HMIS-Data-Standards-Manual.pdf