Estimating the Number of Homeless Veterans: An Approach from the AHAR Larry Buron July 14, 2015

Abt Associates | pg 2 Overview  What is the AHAR?  Where Do the Data Come From?  How Are the Data Collected?  At What Geographic Level Are Data Collected?  Advantages and Shortcomings with the Data  Estimates of Sheltered Homeless Veterans  Profile of Sheltered Homeless Veterans

Abt Associates | pg 3 What is the AHAR?  The A NNUAL H OMELESS A SSESSMENT R EPORT (or AHAR) is a report to the U.S. Congress on the extent and nature of homelessness in America.  Provides one-time and one-year estimates of people who use the shelter system.  It is released in two parts: –Part I uses the most recent Point-in-Time counts. –Part II uses HMIS data from the past 12- months.  Separate estimates of veterans experiencing homelessness began in 2009

Abt Associates | pg 4 Where Do the Data Come From?  (HMIS): Homeless Management Information Systems: electronic, administrative databases operated at the local level and used primarily for case management purposes.  Participation among homeless service providers in HMIS can vary across Continuums of Care (CoC), but is typically above 75 percent.  Contains standardized data in accordance with federal HMIS Data Standards, allowing for apples-to- apples comparisons throughout the U.S.

Abt Associates | pg 5 How Are the Data Collected?  Data are submitted in SIX HOUSEHOLD - PROJECT TYPE REPORTING CATEGORIES : –ES-FAM (i.e., families in emergency shelters) –ES-IND –TH-FAM –TH-IND –PSH-FAM –PSH-IND  Aggregate data are submitted in prescribed reporting tables via an online web portal.  Data are reviewed thoroughly for quality, with hundreds of built- in data-quality checks and a team of 25+ data collectors.

Abt Associates | pg 6 At What Geographic Level Are Data Collected?  Data are collected from two types of geographies: 1.S AMPLE SITES : these are Community Development Block Grant jurisdictions, which are the building blocks of CoCs. 2.C ONTRIBUTING COMMUNITIES : these can be either entire CoCs, or the balance of a CoC once the sample site(s) are removed.  102 sample sites.  396 CoCs submitted useable data to the 2014 AHAR.

Abt Associates | pg 7 How Are Data Adjusted?  Two levels of statistical adjustments: –W ITHIN SAMPLE SITES / CONTRIBUTING COMMUNITIES : because some homeless service providers do not participate in HMIS, we extrapolate within the site to produce a full enumeration. –N ATIONAL WEIGHTING : to produce the national estimate of homelessness, we weight the data accordingly based on the inventory of beds within16 strata (4 CDBG-type by 4 Census regions) for each reporting category.  Separate estimates are produced for total homeless population and subpopulations (e.g., individuals, persons in families, and veterans).

Abt Associates | pg 8 Advantages and Shortcomings  Advantages: –One-year estimates provides a LONG - TERM UNDERSTANDING of shelter use. –R ICH SET OF DATA to understand demographic characteristics and service-use patterns. –Estimates are based on a very THOROUGH DATA - CLEANING process.  Shortcomings: –Estimates do not account for people who NEVER USE A SHELTER project during a 12-month period. –D OMESTIC VIOLENCE providers are prohibited from participating in HMIS in accordance with VAWA. –Difficult to produce estimates at SMALLER GEOGRAPHIC LEVELS.

Abt Associates | pg 9 Estimates of Sheltered Homeless Veterans  149,635 Veterans used shelter in 2009  139,857 Veterans used shelter in 2013  6.5% decrease since 2009  1.3% increase from 2012 to 2013

Abt Associates | pg 10 Profile of Sheltered Homeless Veterans  98% alone  91% male  43% age  50% white, non-Hispanic  54% have a disability  76% live in a city  50% were already homeless  Spends 20 nights in shelter

Larry Buron, PhD Principle Associate Claudia Solari, PhD AHAR Project Director