COSCDA Conference 2012 Washington, DC Karen DeBlasio, HUD March 13, 2012 Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS)

OVERVIEW HMIS and HEARTH What is HMIS? Benefits of HMIS HMIS Requirements under HEARTH Data Collection Requirements HMIS Data Quality 2

HMIS and HEARTH December 9, Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS) Requirements Proposed Rule published February 7, Public comment period closed Spring HMIS Data Standards Notice published Summer HMIS Governance, Security, Technical, and Data Quality Notices published 3

What is HMIS? A Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) is a locally administered, electronic data collection system that stores longitudinal person-level information about persons who access the homeless service system. Every Continuum of Care (CoC) is required to implement a HMIS to comply with HUD’s data collection, management and reporting standards. 4

Benefits of HMIS Homeless Persons – Streamlined referrals – Coordinated intake and assessment – Coordinated case management Case Manager – Case Planning – Managing client progress – Assistance with eligibility determination – Simplified reporting 5

Benefits of HMIS (cont’d) Programmatic – Tracking client outcomes – Coordination of services (internal/external) – Simplified reporting for funders, boards, and stakeholders – Information for informing program design Systemic – Identification of service gaps, extent of homelessness – Measuring HEARTH performance measures 6

Requirements The HEARTH Act makes HMIS participation a statutory requirement for Emergency Solutions Grants and CoC recipients and sub recipients. Emergency Shelter Grant recipients and sub recipients are not currently required to participate in HMIS, but may start participating now to prepare for future required HMIS participation. 7

Requirements (cont’d) HMIS must be able to produce an unduplicated counts of persons experiencing homelessness in CoC VAWA victim services providers are not permitted to use HMIS; they must use a comparable database 8

Requirements (cont’d) CoC must identify HMIS Lead HMIS lead must develop policies and procedures around data quality, data standards, technical issues, and security and confidentiality 9

Duties of HMIS Lead- Under HEARTH Developing written policies and procedures- including security & data quality plans Executing agreements with all contributing homeless organizations Serving as applicant to HUD for any HMIS grants that will cover the CoC geo area Monitor all contributing homeless organizations for compliance 10

HMIS Data Standards Data standards establish uniform definitions for the types of information to be collected and protocols for when data are collected and from whom. The March 2010 Revised Data Standards can be downloaded from the HUDHRE Draft 2012 Data Standards will be out this spring for public comment 11

HMIS Data Standards- Universal Data Elements Name Social Security Number Date of Birth Race Ethnicity Gender Veteran Status Disabling Condition 12

Universal Data Elements (cont’d) Residence prior to provider program entry Housing Status Provider Program Entry Date Provider Program Exit Date Destination Personal Identification Number Household Identification Number 13

HMIS Data Standards- Program Specific Data Elements Examples: – Zip code of last permanent address – Income – Employment Status – Disability Other program-specific data elements developed in collaboration with Federal partners 14

HMIS Data Quality The following four data collection and data entry standards will ensure higher data quality: 1. Timeliness and Frequency of Data Entry 2. Data Completeness 3. Data Accuracy 4. Data Consistency 15

For more Information… 16