1. New User Training for Family Providers TCP Policy and Programs Team

2. Contents HMIS System Administration (pg. 3 – 4) What is an Entry/Exit Workflow? (Pg. 5) Adding a Client to HMIS(pg. 6 – 10) Adding additional Family Members to the HMIS (Pg. 11) Building a Household (Pg. 12 – 17) Adding a program entry (Pg. 18 – 24) Universal Data Elements (Pg. 25 – 26) Housing and Homeless Statuses (Pg. 27) Primary Homeless Reason (Pg. 28) Limited English Proficiency (Pg. 29) Chronic Homeless Status (Pg. 30 – 31) Veteran Questions ( Pg. 32 – 34) Disabilities, Non-Cash Benefits, Income, and Health Insurance (Pg. 35 – 39) Rapid Rehousing Questions (Pg. 40) Child Specific Questions (Pg. 41) Interim Review (Pg. 43 – 50) Exit Information (Pg. 51 – 62) Contact Information (Pg. 63) 2

3. HMIS System Administration HMIS Lead Agency Responsibilities: The Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness (TCP) is the HMIS Lead Agency for the District; it’s responsibilities include.: – Maintaining Data Quality – Generating reports for the District and Federal Government funders – Providing data to the CoC – Communicating and troubleshooting HMIS issues with the HMIS software vendor – Provide technical assistance to CHOs (Contributing HMIS Organizations) 3

4. HMIS System Administration CHO Responsibilities: The Agency Administrator is The Community Partnership’s (TCP) primary contact person for HMIS and all other data & reporting issues for your agency. This person is responsible for ensuring that providers’ data are accurately entered into the system, that all users are trained, and for communicating any system issues to TCP. The System Administrator and other members of the TCP Policy and Programs Team will contact the Agency Administrator about any HMIS or other reporting issues with the expectation that he will disseminate information to the relevant staff persons within the agency. 4

5. What is an Entry/Exit Workflow? Tracking clients in served by a given provider using Program Entry Date and Program Exit is an Entry/Exit Workflow. Programs contributing data to the DC HMIS that use an Entry/Exit Workflow include: Emergency and Temporary Shelters for Families; Temporary Shelters for Singles; Transitional Housing Programs for Families and Singles; Permanent Supportive Housing Programs for Families and Singles; and Rapid Rehousing Programs for Families and Singles. If you are unsure which program type you operate, please contact the TCP Data and Performance Measurement Team immediately. 5

6. Searching for a Client Before adding a client to the system you MUST search for them first. There are 8 fields to complete in order to search for a client Once these fields have been completed press the “Search” button 6

7. Name Data Quality Name Data Quality describes whether the name given is the same name as that would be on a government issued ID card. If a client does not give their full name, input the part of the name given and set the Name Data Quality to “Partial, Street Name, or Code Name Reported. 7

8. Social Security number and SSN Data Quality If a client only gives the last 4 digits of their Social Security number input just the last 4 digits and leave the rest of the Social security number fields blank. Additionally set the SSN Data Quality to “Approximate or partial SSN Reported (HUD)” If a client does not know their SSN or refuses to give it then leave Social Security Number blank and set SSN data quality to either “Client doesn’t know (HUD)” or “Client Refused (HUD)” respectively. 8

9. Date of Birth and DOB data Quality If a client reports only the year they were born and not the day and month, estimate the date of birth by using January 1 st and the year they reported as their date of birth. Also set the DOB data quality to “Approximate or Partial DOB Reported (HUD)” If a client does not know their Date of birth or refuses to give it then leave Date of birth blank and set DOB data quality to either “Client doesn’t know (HUD)” or “Client Refused (HUD)” respectively. 9

10. Adding a client to HMIS Once you click search, the button “Add New Client With This Information” will change from being greyed out and will now be able to be used. Click “Add New Client With This Information” and then click “Ok” when it warns you about adding the client. 10

11. Adding additional family members to HMIS To add additional clients to this family you will need to go back to Client Point and then repeat steps 4 – 8. 11

12. Navigating to the Household Tab Once you have added both clients to the system it is time to link them together as a household. You do this by navigating to the households tab. 12

13. Creating a household Once on the Households tab press the “Start New Household” button 13

14. Linking family members to household After clicking the “Start New Household” button you will be taken to the screen where you will add all of the family members as well as set the type of family You can search for the family member you just created either by using their name or the Client Id number 14

15. Linking family members to household (Cont.) Once you have added all the family members they will appear at the bottom of the screen Press the “Continue” button to move to the next screen 15

16. Household Information Next you will set the Head of Household and all the family relationships. Setting the Head of Household to “Yes” will automatically change the “Relationship to Head of Household to “Self” Make sure to change the date joined household to the date they entered your program. 16

17. Household Information (Cont.) Finally set the child's relationship to the Head of Household Once you have finished setting the relationships, press the “Save & Exit” button to continue 17

18. Navigating to Entry/Exit Tab Once you have added the family to HMIS, navigate to the “Entry/Exit Tab.” 18

19. Adding a linked Program Entry Clicking on the Entry/Exit Tab will take you into the Entry/Exit Screen: Click the “Add Entry/Exit” button 19

20. Program Information After clicking the “Add Entry/Exit” button you will be prompted for the name of the program the client is entering, the entry type and the entry date. You will also need to click the checkbox next to the household type to include all the members of the family on this entry 20

21. Provider The Provider prompt will default to the name of your agency (Usually has the name of your agency followed by “Agency” in parentheses”. DO NOT FORGET to change this to the specific program the client is entering. 21

22. Entry Type For all providers except for SSVF providers, the entry type will ALWAYS be “HUD”. For SSVF providers the entry type will ALWAYS be “VA”. 22

23. Entry Date The entry date will be the date the client entered your program. If you are putting information into HMIS for clients that entered in the past make sure to use the date they entered your program and not the date you are inputting the information. You can always set the time to the standard 12:01:00 A.M. 23

24. Navigating to the District of Columbia Entry Assessment Once you have answered those 3 prompts click the “Save & Continue” button and you will be taken to the “District of Columbia Entry Assessment”. 24

25. Universal Data Elements 25

26. Universal Data Elements (Cont.) 26

27. Housing and Homeless Statuses The Questions Housing Status and Is Client Homeless are answered based on program type: Single Persons or Families living in Severe Weather Shelter, Emergency Shelter, or Temporary Shelter, Transitional Housing, or any other non-Permanent Housing situation will answer the question Is Client Homeless Yes and will indicate the Housing Status is Literally Homeless at program entry. Single Persons or Families living in Permanent Supportive Housing, the Family Housing Stabilization Program (FRSP), or the Homeward Demonstration Project will answer the question Is Client Homeless No and will indicate the Housing Status is Stably Housed at program entry. For Single Persons or Families in the Supportive Services for Veterans Program (SSVF), Housing Status at program entry is used to determine whether clients are receiving Prevention Services or Rapid Rehousing Services. All members of all families who are receiving Prevention Services must have their Housing Status set to Category 2 – At imminent risk of losing housing (HUD) and the question Is Client Homeless should be answered No. Additionally All members of all families who are receiving Rapid Rehousing Services will answer the question Is Client Homeless Yes and will indicate the Housing Status is Category 1 – Homeless (HUD) at program entry. PLEASE NOTE: Housing and Homeless Statuses must be completed for all members of all families. 27

28. Primary Homeless Reason This question must be answered for all members of all households: Response Options Include: 28

29. Limited English Proficiency This question must be answered Yes or No for all clients: Answering this question Yes indicates that a lack of fluency in English is a major barrier to stability. PLEASE NOTE: THIS QUESTION IS NOT SIMPLY ASKING WHETHER OR NOT ENGLISH IS A GIVEN PERSON’S FIRST OR PRIMARY LANGUAGE; RATHER, IT IS TRYING TO DETERMINE IF PERSON’S INABLITIY TO COMMUNICATE IN ENGLISH IS A BARRIER TO STABILITY. 29

30. Chronic Homeless Status A “chronically homeless” individual is defined to mean a homeless individual with a disability who lives either in a place not meant for human habitation, a safe haven, or in an emergency shelter, or in an institutional care facility if the individual has been living in the facility for fewer than 90 days and had been living in a place not meant for human habitation, a safe haven, or in an emergency shelter immediately before entering the institutional care facility. In order to meet the “chronically homeless” definition, the individual also must have been living as described above continuously for at least 12 months OR on at least four separate occasions in the last 3 years, where the combined occasions total a length of time of at least 12 months. Each period separating the occasions must include at least 7 nights of living in a situation other than a place not meant for human habitation, in an emergency shelter, or in a safe haven. Chronically homeless families are families with adult heads of household who meet the definition of a chronically homeless individual. If there is no adult in the family, the family would still be considered chronically homeless if a minor head of household meets all the criteria of a chronically homeless individual. A chronically homeless family includes those whose composition has fluctuated while the head of household has been homeless PLEASE NOTE: There are no gradations of Chronic Homelessness. Individuals and families must meet all the criteria. Individuals and families in Transitional or Permanent Housing do not meet the criteria for Chronic Homelessness. 30

31. Chronic Homeless Status (Cont.) Chronic Homeless Status Includes 7 additional questions which are listed below. These questions help to determine chronicity 31

32. Veterans’ Questions Veteran Status: Make sure to be on the client profile, then click the pencil icon next to the client record and confirm/deny the military Veteran Question **Veteran status must be indicated for all persons in all families. 32

33. Veterans’ Questions: Sub-assessment 33 Anyone for whom you answer ‘yes’ to the question U.S. Military Veteran, you must also complete the following sub-assessment:

34. Veterans’ Questions: Sub-assessment (Cont.) 34 Make sure to confirm or deny each of the different war eras

35. Disabilities, Non-Cash Benefits, Income, and Health Insurance The following questions must be answered Yes or No for all clients: 35 Additionally the HUD Verification will need to be completed for all sub- assessments

36. Disabilities 36 For each Disability, add the disability type, determination, duration, documentation, confirmed status, current treatment status, long term status and start date Once all Disabilities have been recorded complete the HUD Verification to confirm the client has none of the other Disabilities

37. Income For each source of Income, add the income source, receiving income source “Yes”, monthly amount and start date Once all Income sources have been recorded complete the HUD Verification to confirm the client is receiving no other Income sources 37

38. Non-Cash Benefits For each source of Non-Cash Benefits, add the Non-Cash Benefit source, receiving benefit “Yes”, amount of non-cash benefit and start date Once all sources of Non-Cash Benefits have been recorded complete the HUD Verification to confirm the client is receiving no other Non-Cash Benefits 38

39. Health Insurance For each type of Health Insurance, add the Health Insurance type, covered? “Yes”, and start date Once all types of Health Insurance have been recorded complete the HUD Verification to confirm the client is receiving no other types of Health Insurance 39

40. Rapid Rehousing Questions For FRSP and SSVF providers only, if the client is already in a unit when they enter your program, then you will answer the following questions: If they are not already in a unit but move into a unit later while still in your program you will come back and update these fields to “Yes” and set the date to the actual date the client moved into that unit. 40

41. Children Specific Questions Once you have completed the assessment for the Head of Household you will need to complete it for all of the other household members. In addition to the assessment, for school age children there are a few additional questions that you need to answer 41

42. Entry/Exit Data Entry V. Once you have answered all the required fields, scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save and Exit: 42

43. What is an Interim Review? The 2014 HMIS Data Dictionary (Put out by the Federal Partners) requires both Updates and Annual Assessments. These Updates and Annual Assessments are created by using the Interim Review portion of the Interim and Follow- Up Review functionality. Updates are conducted on a periodic basis as defined by HUD or the Federal Partners. Annual Assessments are conducted no more than 30 days before or after the client’s “Anniversary Date” which is the Entry/Exit Entry Date. Each client may have any number of Updates associated with a given Entry/Exit record but only a single Annual Assessment record (select Annual Assessment from the Interim Review Type picklist) for each 365 day period of enrollment. 43

44. The 2 types of Interim Reviews Update –These data elements represent information that is either collected at multiple points during project enrollment in order to track changes over time (e.g., Income and Sources) or is entered to record project activities as they occur (e.g., Services Provided). Annual Assessment – This is a specialized subset of the ‘update’ collection point. The annual assessment must be recorded no more than 30 days before or after the anniversary of the client’s Project Entry Date, regardless of the date of the most recent ‘update’ or ‘annual assessment.’ There must be only one record for each ‘annual assessment’ within the 60-day period surrounding the anniversary of the client’s Project Entry Date. Regardless of whether the responses have changed since project entry or the previous annual assessment, a new record must be created for each subsequent annual assessment 44

45. Navigating to Interims After clicking the “Save &Exit” button you will be taken back to the “Entry/Exit” tab. Click on the paper icon underneath Interims 45

46. Adding Interim Review Click the “Add Interim Review” button on the next screen to add the Interim Review. 46

47. Interim Review Information After clicking the “Add Interim Review” button you will be taken to the next prompt where you will set the type of Interim review and the date of the interim review. Click “Save & Continue”. 47

48. Updates To complete an update you will set the Interim Review type to Update (Pg. 35) and follow the steps to get to the interim review page. Once in the Interim Review Screen you can update any Income, Non-Cash Benefits, Disabilities, or Health Insurance that may have changed. 48

49. Annual Assessment To complete an Annual Assessment you will set the Interim Review type to Annual Assessment (Pg. 35) and follow the steps to get to the interim review page. Once in the Interim Review Screen you can update any Income, Non-Cash Benefits, Disabilities, or Health Insurance that may have changed. If nothing has changed you can scroll to the bottom of the page and click the “Save & Exit” button. 49

50. Interim Review 50

51. Adding an Exit Once a client has exited your program you will need to give them a program Exit. This is also done on the “Entry/Exit Tab” by clicking the pencil icon next to “Exit Date”: 51

52. Exit Information This will take you to the Exit Data prompts Make sure to click the checkbox next to the household type to include all of the family members 52

53. Exit Date Set the exit date to the date the client left your program and the time to the standard 12:01:00 A.M. 53

54. Exit Reason for Leaving Next set the reason the client is leaving your program 54

55. Exit Destination Next Set the exit Destination. The destinations with “(VW)” next to them are specific to Virginia Williams. 55

56. Exit Notes As part of the new HMIS data standards it is REQUIRED to put the program and funding source that the client is exiting to in the exit notes. If you do not have this information then record that this information is not available in the exit notes. When you have finished adding the exit notes click the “Save & Continue” button to move to the exit assessment 56

57. Exit Assessment The Exit assessment is similar to the Update and Annual Assessment in that you can update the same fields if anything changes the day the client leaves your program 57

58. Exit Specific Questions In addition to updating any changes at exit you will need to complete the last few exit specific questions at the bottom of the assessment. 58

59. Assessment Disposition The Assessment Disposition questions refers to whether or not the client is being referred to a specific type of program 59

60. Housing Assessment at Exit: Moved into new unit For the Housing Assessment question, if the client moved into a new housing unit through your program then you will respond to the question with “Moved to new Housing Unit” and you will answer the “If Moved to new housing unit, Subsidy Information. 60

61. Housing Assessment at Exit: Able to maintain housing at entry For the Housing Assessment question, if the client moved into a new housing unit prior to entering your program and was able to maintain that housing when they leave your program, then you will respond to the question with “Able to maintain the housing they had at project entry” and you will answer the “If Able to maintain housing at entry, Subsidy Information.” 61

62. Entry/Exit Data Entry V. Once you have answered all the required fields, scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save and Exit: 62

63. Contact information TCP Data and Performance Measurement Team: Tom Fredericksen: tfredericksen@community-partnership.orgtfredericksen@community-partnership.org Stephen Halliburton: shalliburton@community-partnership.orgshalliburton@community-partnership.org David Tweedie: dtweedie@community-partnership.orgdtweedie@community-partnership.org TCP Program Staff Jose Lucio: jlucio@community-partnership.orgjlucio@community-partnership.org Candyce Coates: ccoates@community-partnership.orgccoates@community-partnership.org 63