1 HMIS User Group
2 Goals Demonstrate the importance of data completeness and its impact on data quality through an exercise Demonstrate the importance of data accuracy and its impact on data quality through an exercise Review the organizational structure of HMIS through visual mapping and definitions Review the APR process using step-by-step instructions
3 Agenda Review organizational structure of HMIS and its supporting institutions Exercise on data completeness and data accuracy APR Process Review Joe Baker talk on APR process and evaluation Questions and Answers session about HMIS
4 HUD U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) – The Federal agency responsible for national policy and programs that address America's housing needs that improve and develop the Nation's communities, and enforce fair housing laws. HUD's business is helping create a decent home and suitable living environment for all Americans, and it has given America's cities a strong national voice at the Cabinet level.
5 Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA)Notice of Funding Availability – The consolidation of all of HUD`s homeless grants program into one notice of funding availability. The NOFA funds the Continuum of Care Competition.
6 Emergency Solutions GrantsEmergency Shelter Grants (ESG) – A federal grant program designed to help improve the quality of existing emergency shelters for the homeless, to make available additional shelters, to meet the costs of operating shelters, to provide essential social services to homeless individuals, and to help prevent homelessness.
7 What is a CoC The State of Colorado is organized into three geographically based Continua of Care (CoC). Each CoC is responsible for working with homeless assistance providers within their geographic area to coordinate the delivery of housing and services to homeless families, individuals, youth, and persons with disabilities. Additionally, the CoCs are responsible for implementing and managing HMIS within their community. All three Colorado CoCs have joined together to utilize the same HMIS vendor, and generally coordinate policies and procedures to ensure that HMIS operations are standard throughout Colorado. Responsible for Coordinated Assessment tools and implementation Responsible for assisting HUD in program evaluations at the local level
8 What is an HMIS Lead AgencyHMIS Lead Organization – The central organizations that will house those individuals who will be directly involved in implementing and providing operational, training, technical assistance, and technical support to participating agencies. Colorado Coalition for the Homeless is the Lead Agency for the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative (MDHI) which administers for the 7 Denver Metro Area counties Colorado Coalition for the Homeless is the Lead Agency for Balance of the State (BOS) continuum of care which administers the remainder of Colorado (excepting El Paso County). Pike’s Peak (PP) is the lead agency for El Paso County
9 MDHI Committees Employment Committee: This committee works to cultivate strong employer networks based on relationships between jobseekers who have experienced homelessness, employers in specific business sectors, and employment specialists who support these job-seekers to obtain and retain permanent employment. The Coordinating Committee: provides a forum for networking and information sharing regarding local and regional homeless initiatives. HMIS Policy Committee: The purpose of this committee: is to advise the administration of and recommend policy for the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) for the metro Denver region. Members represent the seven county Continuum of Care, and includes both HMIS users and non-users, service providers, government agencies and other interested parties. Please contact MDHI staff if you are interested in joining the HMIS Policy Committee. Governance Committee: The Governance Committee actively recruits new Board members, interviews prospective candidates, and recommends a slate of candidates to the Board for yearly elections and as vacancies arise. The Governance Committee also provides leadership and oversight of development and implementation of a CoC Governance Charter. Data Committee: The purpose of this committee is to develop a single data resource that allows all who are served to register once and to then be admitted to all services with a basic intake survey. Simple records will be available to track an individual’s trajectory through the system and to report on agency utilizations. Our vision is to establish a concept of data-centric rather than systems-centric operations to meet the goals of the CoC. Committee objectives include: increase value of data, use data to drive decision making, and inform the community.
10 BOS Committees Balance of State (BOS) Advisory BoardThe BOS Advisory Board is a board of participating agencies that act as the decision making body for the Balance of the State. One of the purposes of this board is to advise the administration of and recommend policy for the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) for the fifty six rural agencies of Colorado. Members represent the regional CoC planning groups, and include HMIS users and non-users, service providers, government agencies and other interested parties.
11 HMIS Software Vendor The company that develops the HMIS software which records and reports HMIS data. Currently Adsystech is the software vendor that has developed the Enginuity HMIS database. The vendor currently handles tickets related to Tier 3 level issues (reporting issues, user interface issues, database compliance with HMIS standards issues, reports customizations, maintaining database servers, etc.).
12 HUD/Other Federal Funders (VA, SAMHSA, etc.)Creates HMIS Standards on collection and reporting Issues Grants via NOFA, ESG, (or SSVF/VASH/RHY/PATH, etc.) Evaluates programs for funding Uses HMIS data for policy, research, and publication of AHAR HUD Designates regional authority through McKinney-Vento Act. CoC applies for NOFA funding Provides Technical Assistance on HUD Standards via Sys Admin webinars and communications CoC (MDHI/BOS) Ensures that agencies are in compliance with standards and participating in HMIS Creates standards for local needs or to strengthen federal standards Coordinated Assessments Evaluates NOFA programs at the local level and sends suggestions to HUD Assesses needs of community Handles PIT and HIC counts Lead Agency (Colorado Coalition for the Homeless) Holds the contract with vendor to administer Adsystech software (Enguinity) Provides guidance toward defining federal policies, procedures, guidelines, and best practices Acts as liaison with the vendor to advocate HMIS software enhancements on behalf of partner agencies Provides initial and ongoing training for HMIS standards and systems Provides training on and monitoring of CoC quality and security standards Operates the HMIS Helpdesk CoC has a SOW Agreement with Lead Agency Work with homeless agencies to train on standards, communicate standards changes, train on data quality, generate reports, export funding CSV, troubleshoot database issues, user management, etc. Homeless agencies submits APR and funding reports. CoC monitors data quality and grades programs at local level HMIS Software Vendor (Adsystech) Develops database Fixes Tier 3 issues Maintains servers Updates software and ensures database is in compliance with HUD Homeless Agencies Provide services and housing for homeless Enters HMIS data into database Ensures Data Quality of HMIS data Generate funder reports/clean up issues in HMIS Uses HMIS data to assess programs for internal outcomes, needs, and gaps
13 Data Quality Exercise What are the three components of good data quality? Data Completeness Data Timeliness Data Accuracy Look at the exercise about data quality on your table.
14 Disabling condition Please look at the Disabling Condition Quick Reference Guide
15 Length of Stay First, look at the Detailed Length of Stay GuideNext, look at the Length of Stay Quick Reference Guide
16 Answers 1 and 2 3.) It demonstrates that missing/ data not collected data can skew the results and lead to incorrect analysis and evaluations of a programs outcomes.
17 Answers 4.) Are you Homeless (Housing Status) is selected as “Category 1- Homeless” but the Type of Residence was selected as “Staying or Living in a Friend’s Room, Apartment, or House”. This Type or Residence is inconsistent with Category 1. The category should be changed to “Category 2- Immanently Losing Housing”. Extra Credit: Veteran Status was missing (no answer selected). 5.) Disabling Condition is selected “Yes” but the health condition indicates that the client has a Physical Disability but it is NOT long-continued and indefinite duration and does NOT substantially impair ability to live independently. If this follow-up question is “No”, then Disabling Condition should also be “No”. Similarly, if the client has a Disabling Condition selected, at LEAST one disability should be selected “Yes” and with the follow-up: If yes, is long-continued and indefinite duration and substantially impair your ability to live independently?” should also be selected “Yes” as well. If the client selects “No” to the follow-up, then the health condition is not a Disabling Condition. Extra Credit: Veteran Status is missing.
18 Answers 6) The Approximate Date Started should be approximately 15 months prior to 5/31/2017 ( = 15) which would be a date of 2/31/2016. This is because Approximate Date Started counts the current episode of being continuously on streets, emergency shelter, or safe haven. However, the intake worker filled out Approximate Date Started as 3/31/2017. This is probably because they thought the Approximate Date Started is the same as Length of Stay in Prior Living. The Approximate Date Started can go back much further than the Length of Stay in Prior Living Situation if the client was continuously moving through shelters, streets, or safe havens prior to their current living situation. Also, the Number of times the client has been homeless on the streets, in ES or Safe haven in the past three years is 2 not 1 as the intake worker selected. This is because the client said there was another instance of homelessness in the last three years prior to the current episode. Finally, the Total number of months homeless on the streets, in ES, or Safe Haven in the past three years should have been 18 months NOT 15. This is because the question is asking to add together the months for ALL episodes of homelessness in the past three years, not just the current episode captured in Approximate Date Started. If we add the current episode of 15 months with the prior episode of 3 months we get a total of 18 months on the street, ES, or Safe Haven in the last three years.
19 APR Process Now, let's assume you are submitting an APR to HUD. 1. You should first go to your sub-recipients and have them generate a draft APR v5 (from the Reports module) as well as an APR v5 details report (also from the reports module) in order to identify and clean up any data quality issues keeping in mind that completeness should be around 95% and that the reports should be accurate regarding population and outcomes. 2. Once the subrecipients have sufficiently fixed the dq issues by running and re-running the reports mentioned above, they should submit the APR v5 summary reports to you for final analysis. 3. Once the reports are submission-ready, you should go to the HMIS help desk and request an APR V5 csv file. This will take days for the HMIS team to generate. Once generated, we will attach it as a zip file in an to you. 4, At this point, you should save the zip file on your computer in a place you can easily remember and access. then you will go to Sage repository and follow instructions to upload into Sage.
20 Questions for us? Questions about training and data entry process issues (Eric) Questions about helpdesk and database administration (April) Questions about client visits and getting specific help (Margie) Questions about HMIS in general (Brian)