2019 HIC & PIT January 23, 2019

What is HIC & PIT? The Housing Inventory Count (HIC) is a report on the capacity in each Continuum of Care to house persons who are homeless at a single point-in-time. The report measures the unit and bed inventory, as well as usage, of Emergency Shelter, Transitional Housing, Rapid Re- housing and Permanent Supportive Housing Programs designated to serve person who were homeless. The Point-in-Time (PIT) Count is designed to identify the number and characteristics of persons who meet the HUD definition of homelessness at one point-in-time.

Both the PIT and HIC count where people slept on the night of Date of Count Both the PIT and HIC count where people slept on the night of January 23th Wednesday January 23th Thursday January 24th Morning count Noon Afternoon Evening Midnight

County Coordinators Each county in our region has a Count Coordinator assigned who will lead in local planning for the PIT count in your county. Coordinators Count Coordinator Becker Mahube: Sara White Earth White Earth: Christina Clay L&P: Emma Moorhead Douglas WCMCA: Heather/Amber Alexandria   Grant Ottertail Mahube: Jaime/Sara Pope Stevens Traverse Wadena Wilkin L&P:

Methods for Counting HIC: HMIS Users: review HMIS & verify in Survey Monkey Non-HMIS: survey via Survey Monkey PIT: SHELTERED HMIS Users: collected in HMIS. Clean-up required Non-HMIS: Collected via Live PIT online survey PIT: UNSHETERED Online PIT Live unsheltered survey. Paper survey that is entered online at a later date Observation: included in PIT Live. CES Priority List:

CES Priority List Call persons/households on the priority list and ask where they stayed the night of January 23rd. You may contact them for up to 7 calendar days after the PIT. If the household was unsheltered on the night of the count you can either: Complete a paper survey, then enter their data into PIT LIVE, or Enter directly into PIT Live. If they are doubled up, staying in a different shelter or housing program, you should NOT complete the survey.

HIC: What beds/units to include. The HIC reports projects with beds or units dedicated to serving homeless including: Emergency Shelter and motel vouchers available and/or utilized on the night of 1/23/19. Rapid Rehousing (RRH) beds/units that are occupied on the night of 1/23/19 AND person who are enrolled in RRH, regardless of whether or not rental assistance was provided. Do NOT include households waiting for a unit who are in still in emergency shelter. Transitional Housing and Permanent Housing beds/unit available and/or utilized on 1/23/19 and: Program verifies homeless status as part of its eligibility determination. Actual program clients are predominately homeless. Primary intent of program is to serve homeless persons.

HIC: What is collected? Inventory: The number of homeless dedicated beds/units available on for night of January 23rd, except for RRH projects (who ONLY report beds/units that are occupied on 1/23 OR are receiving services and have a move-in date). Project Address: Site address for fixed site or office address for scattered site. Only zip code is collected for Victim Service providers. Overflow beds: Report the total # of overflow beds available on the night of the count. (ES only) Utilization: The number of persons in dedicated programs on the night off January 23rd, regardless of whether or not rental assistance was provided for the night of the count. Household Types: Population: Single, Family or Youth Sub-population: Number of dedicated CH, youth, and veterans beds. Funding source. Denote all federal funding sources. Housing Type: Denote whether project is: single site, multi-site, or tenant based. HMIS Utilization: Number of beds in HMIS. Permanent Housing Type: List type of PH.

HIC: Types of Permanent Housing PSH projects must: provide long-term housing to homeless households in which one member of the household has a disability, and provide supportive services (designed to meet the needs of participants) must be available. RRH projects must: provide up to 24 months of assistance, Allow the participants to hold the lease and continue leasing beyond program assistance, and Allow participants to choose their unit. OPH must provide long-term housing that is NOT otherwise considered permanent supportive housing or rapid re-housing. PH: Housing with Services projects provide long-term housing and supportive services for homeless persons, but do NOT limit eligibility to persons with a disability. PH: Housing Only projects provide long-term housing for homeless persons, but do not make supportive services available as part of the project

Point in time (PIT): Highlights If your project participates in HMIS, then you should NOT complete PIT LIVE. If 1 member identifies as CH ALL members in HH are counted as CH. Offer to VI-SPDAT ALL unsheltered persons you encounter. Offer to refer all Veterans to the VA and Veterans Registry. Doubled-up will not be counted unless they are fleeing domestic violence, unaccompanied youth in unsafe housing or persons needing to leave on the night of the count. The count will only be as strong as the effort! Data quality is essential to an accurate count. Outreach & collaboration with key partners is an essential part to assuring the count is comprehensive.

Sheltered PIT: Who to Count? Persons in dedicated shelter locations including: Emergency Sheltered: including persons staying in the following on the night of the 23rd: dedicated emergency shelter program beds hotels and motels with a vouchers/paid by another organization or entity (church, non-profit, victim service provider, county, city, etc.) Domestic violence shelters Overflow/winter shelter beds Transitionally Housed: Persons in dedicated homeless Transitional Housing beds.

Unsheltered Count

Unsheltered PIT: Who to Count? Include all persons who meet criteria of 24 CFR 578.3 of the Homeless Definition Final Rule Primary nighttime residence is a public place not designated for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings, including: Car or other vehicle Abandoned building Bus or train station Air port Building not meant for human habitation (fish house, shed, garage) Camping Outside Own housing that is either structurally unsafe or without utilities available. This does not include temporary/recent shut-offs or those in temporary repair. Note: If you encounter persons staying in a hotel on the night of the county (paid for by someone else) please report these persons on the sheltered survey tool.

Unsheltered PIT: Where to Count? Unsheltered PIT Count planning includes both : Outreach locations: Trained teams of 2-3 persons should identify and outreach to potential locations where persons may be sleeping on the night of the count: Rest Areas Camps Bridges Parks Walmart or other areas cars are allowed to park overnight Known locations: service and community locations where persons who are homeless are known to frequent. Volunteers or agency staff should be trained and scheduled to survey persons on January 25th, asking person where they slept on the night of the 24th. Libraries Support Services including mainstream services Food shelves Onsite meal programs Outreach sites/day programs Schools Collaboration w/ emergency/outreach providers: Police/Sheriffs departments Emergency rooms

Unsheltered Count: Online Reporting The PIT will survey persons who are homeless on the night of January 23, 2019. A statewide tool has been created in both paper and an online formats. Agencies may choose to use either when interviewing clients, but are responsible for entering the tool online. Agencies must ask ALL questions on the tool, but persons may refuse to answer. A Volunteer training will be available via a webinar.

PIT: Who NOT to Count? Do NOT include people residing: In PSH projects (including VASH) In locations no listed on the HIC (i.e. beds/units not dedicated for homeless) Temporarily with family or friends (doubled-up or couch surfing) In housing they rent or own (permanent housing) including rental housing with RRH assistance (unless the residence in considered uninhabitable) In institutions (jails, detention, foster care, hospitals, detox) In housing funded by SSVF or FHPAP Prevention funds Persons in beds NOT dedicated for persons who are homeless (DOC, institutions, treatment, etc.)

PIT: Reporting Chronic Homeless Chronic Homeless is defined as: A person who is homeless and lives in a place not meant for human habitation, a safe haven, or in an emergency shelter; and Has been homeless continuously for 1 year (living in or residing in a place not meant for human habitation, a safe haven, or in emergency shelter ) OR has had at least four separate occasions of homelessness in the last 3 years where the combined length of time homeless is at least 12 months. Has a disability Chronic Homeless Status must be collected and reported for ALL households (sheltered and unsheltered); including youth heads of households age 17 and under. Dedicated youth, veterans, and families beds experiencing CH will need to report those beds by household type.

Chronic Homeless Defintion

PIT: Veterans Veteran Definition–This subpopulation category of the PIT includes adults who have served on active duty in the Armed Forces of the United States. This does not include inactive military reserves or the National Guard unless the person was called up to active duty. Unsheltered: HUD is also requiring all CoC’s to verify veteran status. This requires collecting additional information. To help the CoC achieve this, the VA will have an outreach number to rapidly verify and link veterans to veterans services or register for Squares. Sheltered: This year the shelter sites will have to identify dedicated Veterans beds. Veterans Registry: Ask everyone who identifies a veterans to refer the person to the statewide Veterans registry. The Veterans Registry Release Form Site: http://mn.gov/mdva/resources/familyassistance/HomelessVetera nRegistry.jsp Complete a ROI.

PIT: School Based Count Schools are important partners in the PIT count. School liaisons can help identify families who are unsheltered and administer the PIT survey to ensure those families are counted.  What’s changed? All school liaisons must obtain written consent prior to survey administration to comply with FERPA.   This year, Minnesota is narrowing its focus for school-based participation. At a statewide level, we will only be collecting information on individuals and families who meet the HUD definition of “homeless.”    Unsheltered – Individuals and families “with a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings, including a car, park, abandoned building, bus or train station, airport, or camping - ground” Sheltered – Individuals and families “living in a supervised publicly or privately-operated shelter designated to provide temporary living arrangement (including congregate shelters, transitional housing, and hotels and motels paid for by charitable organizations or by federal, state, or local government programs for low-income individuals)” Note: schools use a more expansive definition of “homeless” than the definitions (above) used for the PIT count. Only children and youth meeting HUD’s unsheltered/sheltered definitions should be included in PIT count results reported to HUD.   How is this being communicated to school liaisons? MDE will be distributing this guidance through two list servs to school liaisons across the state. ICA will post this information on our PIT page. Schools may direct non-region specific information to Eric Grumdahl or Roberto Reyes at MDE.

MCBW COUNT The MN Coalition for Battered Women (MCBW) plans to administer a supplemental survey again in 2019. The supplemental survey does NOT replace the Point in Time count but is done in conjunction with the count. Domestic Violence agencies should administer both counts. MCBW will conduct a training for the supplemental count with its members prior to PIT night. CoC Coordinators/PIT Leads may attend the training and/or contact Ho Nguyen, MCBW Program Manager, for more information: hnguyen@MCBW.org.

Things to consider Type of unsheltered count: The CoC is utilizing a census (complete coverage) methodology that is consistent with HUD standards and guidance. How can the CoC reach as many unsheltered persons as possible? Un-duplicating data: HUD requires that CoCs ensure that homeless persons are only counted once. It is critical that the counting methods be coordinated to ensure that there is no double- counting. Please be sure to ask all the questions and obtain data to assure we are not duplicating or missing households.

Local PIT Planning Unsheltered: Sheltered: Clean up your data! Learn guidelines & respond to reporting deadlines. Unsheltered: Hold local PIT planning meetings Identify & Plan Sites Outreach Public Service Sites Identify & plan Volunteers Needs – Surveyors + Assessors Recruitment (online registration?) Reminders Training Inform & Thank Promote the PIT Posters Incentives? Learn & Respond to reporting deadlines.