2011 Point-in-Time Homeless Count Data Entry Volunteers

Overview: Point-in-Time (PIT) Count When? Wed., January 26, 2011 – one day only Where? Regional, 14 multi-county regions Who is conducting count? Each region has one designated coordinator who is responsible for coordinating your regional count. Carry the contact information of this person on the day of the count. If questions arise, the coordinator will contact IHCDA if need be. IHCDA is overseeing the count for the state and reporting final results to HUD.

The Point In Time Process  Point In Time Coordinators helped organize the count.  Survey Volunteers go out on January 26 th and conduct the count.  At shelters a survey is filled out on everyone spending the night.  At service-based locations a survey is filled out on anyone fitting the HUD definition of homeless.  Some communities conduct a street count of homeless.

The Point In Time Process continued  The Survey Volunteers collect all the surveys on the 26 th and give them to the Point In Time Coordinator in their region.  The Point In Time Coordinator gives the surveys to the Data Entry Volunteers  Data Entry Volunteers enter the surveys into the AWARDS HMIS System or into a secure SurveyMonkey Account for DV surveys.  IHCDA oversees the Data Entry process and makes sure everything is completed by February 16 th.

Types of Surveys  Unsheltered Count  Service-Based  Street-Count  The Unsheltered Count Surveys list the location and county that the survey was collected.  Domestic Violence Shelters  The survey says “Domestic Violence” and has a special border.  Non-DV Shelters  Survey will list the Agency and the Program Name

Programs that already use HMIS  Emergency Shelter and Transitional Housing Programs that already use HMIS will not be filling out paper surveys!  Their staff should simply make sure all of their data is up-to-date and accurate in HMIS.  The data will be pulled by IHCDA.

SSOs that use HMIS  Supportive Services Only programs such as Day Shelters and Outreach Programs will need to do one of three things.  If the program can verify that all the clients who are active (have not been discharged) were seen on January 26 th then we will pull their data for them.  Alternatively IHCDA can run a script to discharge all the clients on January 25 th and clients which come in on the 26 th can be checked back in that day.  If neither of those options work then separate surveys need to be filled out on all the clients seen on the 26 th. Those surveys will be entered into a separate program by the Data Entry Volunteers.

Shelters that don’t use HMIS  All Emergency Shelter and Transitional Housing Programs that do not use HMIS will need to fill out a survey.  That survey will be entered into HMIS by the Data Entry Volunteers.  All Domestic Violence Shelters will fill out a survey.  There is a special survey to use.  Those surveys will be entered into SurveyMonkey by the Data Entry Volunteers.

Getting an HMIS Login  To get a username and password for data entry into the AWARDS HMIS System you will first need to fill out a copy of the Point In Time User Code of Ethics Form.  This form can be found at  Completed forms must be faxed to Hari Pandya by January 24 th. Fax #  Even if you already use HMIS, you will need a separate PIT Login.

Logging in to HMIS  Bookmark our website:  Click “Login to HMIS”  Enter your Username and Password and click the “Login to AWARDS” button.  Your username will start with the letters “PIT”.  If your username or password do not work, please call us right away.

Entering Surveys into HMIS Check for Duplicates First  Go to Client Lookup  Type in part of the person’s first and last name (first three letters?) and hit Continue.  Look to see if that survey has already been entered. If their name shows up and it shows them already in the program listed at the top of the survey, on the date of the Point In Time Count (1/26/11) then it’s a duplicate survey.

Copying Client Information  If a Client’s Information is already in AWARDS you can clone their information into the PIT Program.  Do a client Lookup to see how their Name and SSN were entered.  Go to Intake/Admission and enter their full first name, full last name, and exact SSN and hit Search/Create.  When you get to the Intake Form their information will have been cloned over from their previous stay.  This will save you time and prevent duplicate clients from being created!

Beginning the Intake Process  Start by going to Intake/Admission.  Make sure you select the correct program first!!  For Sheltered Programs the program name will start with “(PIT)” and then it will have the Facility Name and Program Name listed. Some Facilities have multiple Programs so select the right one! If the program you need isn’t listed, call us right away.  For Unsheltered Surveys select the program “Point In Time Region x Unsheltered Count”.  Type in the client’s full First Name, Last Name, and Social Security Number and then press “Search/Create”.

Search Results  On the next screen you will either see a link that says “Create New Application” or you will see the client’s name listed.  If the client’s name is listed, look at the admission date. If the admission date is 1/26/11 then that survey has already been entered. If it’s from 2010 or any other date, then click on the client’s name and choose “Readmit this client”.  If no name is listed, click on Create New Application.

The Intake Form  Go through the full intake form and fill out all the Required Fields (denoted with a red asterisk).  Pay very close attention to the Intake Date field. The Intake Date MUST equal 1/26/2011. If you don’t change the date the survey will not get counted! If you can’t select 1/26/2011 please call us right away.

The Intake Form  In Residential Programs (Sheltered Count) you’ll see a drop down labeled “Shelter Bed” or “Residence Unit”. Select the first Bed/Unit listed.  If this field says “No Vacancies” please contact an IHCDA staff member right away so that we can add more beds.  In the “Primary Worker” dropdown select your name as the person who entered this record into HMIS.

The Intake Form

 Enter the client’s full First and Last Name. If the client has a Suffix (Jr./Sr.) put that in the Suffix box.  If only initials were given, split up the initials and put them in the First Name and Last Name boxes. No periods or punctuation should be entered.  Enter the client’s full Birth Date.  If only an Age was given then please use January 1 st as their birth date, and figure out their year of birth by subtracting their age from If they are 43 years old then 2011 minus 43 equals 1968 so their estimated birthdate is 1/1/1968.

The Intake Form  Enter the client’s full Social Security Number.  If no SSN was entered on the survey please enter all 9’s in that field:  If only the last 4 digits were given, then enter xxxx where x’s represent that last four digits.  Under Social Security Number Data Quality select whether the full, partial or no social security number was given.  Enter the client’s Gender.

The Intake Form  Enter the client’s Ethnicity and Race.  Race is Multiple Choice.  If the surveyor left Ethnicity or Race blank then choose “Don’t Know”.  Enter the client’s Residence Prior to Program Entry.  For Sheltered Count surveys enter all surveys regardless of the answer to this question!  For Unsheltered Count surveys only, if they answered anything other than the first three options (Emergency Shelter, Transitional Housing or Place Not Meant For Human Habitation), the survey does not need to be entered into HMIS because the person probably is not homeless.

The Intake Form  Under Housing Type choose “Literally Homeless”.  Enter the Episodes of Homelessness and Homeless Duration.  Enter the “Individual/Family Type” based on what was entered under the “Describe your Family” question.  Make sure the gender in this question matches the client’s gender noted above.

The Intake Form  Enter the Number of Children.  Enter the Number of Adults in Household.  If there are any children then the Children’s Details questions will open up. Enter the Age Range and Gender of each child.  Scroll past all the non-required fields.

The Intake Form

 Enter the client’s Veteran Status. This question is at the bottom of the paper survey.  Under “Disabling Condition” select “Yes”, “No”, or “Don’t Know” (if the question was skipped).  If “Physical Disability,” “Developmental Disability,” “Chronic Health Condition,” “HIV/AIDS,” “Mental Health,” “Drug Abuse,” or “Alcohol Abuse” were checked off, then select “Yes” in the appropriate drop-downs, otherwise select “No”.  Select Yes or No for the Domestic Violence question also.

Unsheltered Count Forms  For Unsheltered Count forms there are two extra questions to fill out.  Put the “County” listed at the top into the field marked “County of Last Permanent Address” at the bottom of the Intake Form.  Put the “Location” listed at the top into the Emergency Contact’s “Address” Field at the bottom of the Intake Form.

Saving the Intake  When all questions have been filled in press the button at the bottom labeled either “Housing Admission” or “Process Admission.”  If you missed any required fields it will take you to the top of the form and give you a red error message telling you what fields are missing.  The information has not been saved until you sucessfully process the admission with no errors.  If everything has been saved you’ll be taken to the Client Consent Form.

After Processing the Intake  On the Client Consent Form always choose option #3 (No Sharing) and Update the Form.  After processing the Client Consent Form you will be taken to one of two places.  If this was an Individual you will be taken back to the Intake Form.  If this was a Family you will be taken to the Household And Child Form. You do not need to enter anything on this form. Just scroll to the bottom and click “Opening Menu”.

Discharging the Clients  All records need to be discharged immediately after they are entered.  If you are on the Intake Form, you should see a button at the bottom labeled “Process Discharge”. Click this button to go to the Discharge page.  If you are on the Opening Menu, click on “Discharge”, select your program and click “Process Discharge,” then select “Current Program Roster” and hit Continue. Finally select your client and hit Continue again to go to the Discharge Page.  The only field that is required is the Discharge Date. The Discharge Date should be changed to 1/26/2011! Select 1/26/2011 and then scroll to the bottom of the page and click “APPLY”.  The discharge is done and you may now return to the “Opening Menu” to start the process again.

When You Are Finished  After each survey has been entered, please put your initials at the bottom of the paper survey to denote that it’s been entered into HMIS.  Send the surveys back to the Point In Time Coordinator.  No surveys should be thrown away or destroyed until after IHCDA has verified the information (this will happen in March).  Please keep the paper surveys in a secure and locked file cabinet.

Domestic Violence Surveys  Domestic Violence Surveys can not be put into HMIS. It’s against the law.  Domestic Violence Surveys will be entered into a secure Survey Monkey account. The address and password will be sent only to Data Entry volunteers who are designated for entering DV surveys.  Each survey will be entered into Survey Monkey individually, one at a time.  Enter as much information as possible. There is no place for full name or social security number.

Wrapping It Up  ALL data entry must be complete, in HMIS and in SurveyMonkey no later than Wednesday, February 16 th. This gives you three weeks to enter all the data. Do not wait until the last minute!  If you are not done by February 9 th you will need to contact us for a Backdating Permit in order to enter the surveys.  Please Kelly Pickell, each time you finish with a full program’s census. This will allow us to check that agency off our

Wrapping It Up  Please notify Kelly Pickell and Kelli Barker after you finished all Data Entry for your region.  Our staff will verify that all programs have been represented and all data has been entered.  Once everything is verified you will be able to submit your last claim for the Point In Time Grant.

IHCDA Contact Information  Please contact our staff as soon as you run into any problems!  Kelly Pickell, HMIS Data Quality Manager Cell: Primary contact for all data entry issues.  Hari Pandya, HMIS System Administrator Cell: Primary contact to get an HMIS username.