AHAR 101 and AHAR Exchange 101 September 2009

Agenda 1. Introduction to the AHAR Who, what, when, where, why 2. Key AHAR Reporting Requirements Standard data outputs Common data quality issues 3. Data Collection and Submission Process 4. Data Collection Tool – AHAR Exchange 5. Questions and Answers

Introduction to the AHAR What is it? An annual report to Congress about the number and characteristics of people who use homeless residential services and their patterns of use. HUD’s emphasis on HMIS implementation and AHAR participation – AHAR participation status is a question in HUD’s CoC funding application It can be found online at: Report.pdf or

Introduction to the AHAR Who reports to the AHAR? The current AHAR can cover an entire CoC or a jurisdiction within a CoC, including the residential programs located in those areas: – 102 AHAR Sample Sites: Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) jurisdictions, which can be large cities, cities with 50,000 or more people, urban counties, and non- entitlement (or rural) areas. Some CDBG jurisdictions coincide with the geographic boundaries of CoC (e.g., large cities). – Contributing Communities: CoCs that provide CoC-wide data.

Introduction to the AHAR 2009 AHAR – Reporting Period: October 2008 – September 2009 The AHAR reporting period is a 12-month timeframe Anyone who accesses an emergency shelter or transitional housing program during the time period should be included in your AHAR Data. – Data Collection Period: October – December 2009

2009 AHAR Schedule ActivitySchedule 2009 AHAR Reporting Period EndsSeptember 30, 2009 AHAR Exchange: Webinar and Conference Call Training September 21 – October 1, 2009 Submit Complete Draft of AHAR DataNovember 15, 2009 Ongoing Review of AHAR Data by Research TeamWithin 2 days of receipt Submit Complete and Final AHAR DataDecember 15, 2009 HUD Publishes 2009 AHAR ReportJune 2010

Introduction to the AHAR What data are reported to the AHAR? 1. HMIS data: – Based on HUD’s Universal Data Elements – Limited to emergency shelters and transitional housing programs only 2. CoC Exhibit 1 data: – Housing Inventory data – Populations Chart – Subpopulations Chart

AHAR Reporting Requirements: HMIS Data HMIS data are reported in 4 program categories: 1. ES-IND: 2. ES-FAM: 3. TH-IND: 4. TH-FAM: 5. SUMMARY: all persons served in emergency shelters for individuals all persons in families served in emergency shelters all persons served in transitional housing for individuals all persons in families served in transitional housing mostly aggregates information from 4 reporting categories

AHAR Reporting Requirements (con’t.) HMIS Data: – An unduplicated count of persons within 4 program categories. – Persons should be reported in multiple program types if they were served accordingly. (AHAR Exchange is programmed to adjust for cross-over.) – Only HMIS participating programs provide data. (AHAR Exchange has built-in adjustment factors to account for non-participation.)

AHAR Reporting Requirements: CoC Data CoC Exhibit 1 Data: – Accurate bed inventory information is critical – used to calculate adjustment factor, bed utilization rates, and understand possible biases in program participation. – At present, CoC Exhibit 1 is the only source of unsheltered counts, and the reliability of street counts can vary. – Until the program-specific data elements are incorporated, the subpopulation counts are an important source of information.

AHAR Reporting Requirements for Participation To participate in the AHAR, your HMIS must be capable of: 1. Producing a one day point-in-time count, average day count, and longitudinal counts. 2. Identifying clients with multiple program use—e.g., how many people in ES-IND were also served in TH-IND. 3. Counting persons by household type—e.g., individual adult male, adult in household with children, or unaccompanied youth. 4. Generating frequencies by basic demographic characteristics. 5. Cross-tabulating total length of stays within each program- household type, by gender and age. 6. Totaling the number of households with children by program type.

AHAR Reporting Requirements: New for 2009 AHAR Changes to the 2009 AHAR: Supplemental report on veterans that relies on current reporting requirements (ES-IND, ES-FAM, TH-IND, and TH-FAM) but only applied to veterans – Excludes household members other than the veterans – AHAR Exchange will be modified accordingly to allow communities to report on veterans separately from all sheltered persons – Priority will be placed on completing the regular submission process before turning to the data on veterans

AHAR Reporting Data Quality Three Key Data Quality Indicators: 1. Bed Coverage: the total number of beds in HMIS divided by the number of beds in the CoC Communities must have at least 50% HMIS bed coverage in 1 or more reporting categories 2. Bed Utilization: the number of people served on a given night divided by the number of available beds the same night HMIS participating agencies must be recording accurate entry and exit dates for all clients served during the reporting period Looking for utilization rates between 65%-105% 3. Data Completeness: a low rate of missing data across all questions HMIS participating agencies must be collecting the HUD required Universal Data Elements

Data Collection: Most Common HMIS Data Quality Issues 1.Low provider coverage: must extrapolate based on limited information. 2.Missing exit dates: produces an over-count of persons served and exceedingly high bed utilization rates. 3.Missing entry dates: produces an under-count of persons served and very low utilization rates. 4.Missing data: high percentage of missing data on certain questions (e.g., disability and veterans status).

AHAR Exchange AHAR Exchange is a web-based data collection tool for communities to report their data To access AHAR Exchange go to This site is accessible through Internet Explorer (6+), Firefox (2+) and Chrome.

Login To begin entering data, choose the login option from main menu User names and passwords for AHAR Exchange are the same as those in A site may have several users assigned to it so different community stakeholders can read and write data in the reporting categories.

Main Menu AHAR Exchange has 7 Main Menu Options: – Home, – Site Status, – My Data, – Upload, – Messages, – Users, – Files, – Reports,

Home By clicking on ‘Home’, the user will always be brought back to the AHAR Exchange Home Page. On the AHAR Exchange Home Page, you can access AHAR and general resources. – The same resources can be found under the “Annual Homeless Assessment Report” topic on HMIS.info

Site Status The Site Status page allows users to see sites and reporting categories assigned to them. This page also allows the user to see what stage the reporting category is currently in. (Ex. activated, in progress, not started, in review, confirmed, complete)

My Data The My Data page is where the AHAR 5 data should be entered. On this page you will see five reporting categories. ES-Family- Emergency Shelters for Families ES-Individual- Emergency Shelters for Individuals TH-Family- Transitional Housing for Families TH-Individual- Transitional Housing for Individuals Summary- Summary of the four reporting categories

My Data (continued) ‘Not Reporting’: Select this if you will not be reporting data for a reporting category ‘Zero Provider’: Select this if you do not have any providers within a reporting category If you choose either option, AHAR Exchange will inform your Data Collector that this reporting category was marked as such. Otherwise “Enter Data”

My Data (continued) Each reporting category has a number of features that can tell you the status of your data as well as links for you to enter, edit and view your data Additionally, if a community submitted 2008 AHAR data, they will be able to navigate to it on the My Data page. The 2008 data is read-only and available through the drop-down on the top left of the My Data or Reports page

Users The Users tab allows communities to assign multiple users to be able to read and write data in AHAR Exchange. Primary Contacts can add additional users using the “Users” menu option – Primary contact is ultimately responsible for the data – Audit log keeps track of changes to the data.

Multi-User Login Process for adding a user: – Click on the “Add Contact” button – Enter , first name, last name – By default, new contacts have “read-only” access Add “write” access, if desired

Multi-User Login Access is linked through HMIS.info All users must have an account on HMIS.info in order to access the AHAR Exchange – The primary contact will be alerted, if the new user does not have an account – A “placeholder” will be created. Once the user creates an HMIS.info account using the same address, he/she will have access to the site.

Entering Data for a Reporting Category From the My Data page the user can access the questions in each category by clicking ‘Enter Data’. Once inside each reporting category the user can navigate through the questions.

Entering Data for a Reporting Category (continued) The user also has the ability to select questions from the drop down list below each category.

Entering Data for a Reporting Category (continued) To complete the report fill in the answer to each question. To access the next question click on the ‘Save & Next’ button either below or above the question on the right side of the page. To access the previous question click on the “Save & Previous” button below or above the question on the left side of the page.

Entering Data for a Reporting Category (continued) Additional information about each question and footnotes are below the question in the ‘Help’ Box

On Screen Validation If a mistake is made, you will be alerted by an error message. However, this will not stop you from accessing the rest of the questions in a reporting category. Errors will be noted by an error alert on an individual page and by the validation report.

Validation Report After you finish the last question and click ‘Save’ you will be brought to the validation report for the category. The validation report will indicate if the data is valid or if there are any errors within the report.

Submitting Your Data After you have entered your data and corrected any errors, choose ‘Submit for Review’ from the My Data page. The data for that reporting category will then be sent to your AHAR Data Collector for review.

Confirming Data After data has been submitted and reviewed and all reporting categories are complete, the ‘Confirm Data’ button becomes active. All data must be confirmed by December 15 th.

Overall Workflow When you ‘Set: Not Reporting’ or ‘Set: Zero Provider’, the category status is immediately changed to “In Review” If you are entering data, the status is changed to “In Progress.” You have the option to “Submit for Review” at any time. Note: Options for Summary category depend on other categories. – E.g. If there is at least one category reporting, then you cannot mark the status as “Zero Provider” AHAR Data Collector reviews the data: – If your data needs additional work, then the status will be changed back to “In Progress.” You will be able to make any necessary changes. – If your data are good, the AHAR Data Collector will mark the category as “Complete” Once data for all five reporting categories is complete, you will be able to “Confirm” that the data best represents your community.

Veterans Only In 2009, communities will be submitting separate data for veterans Veteran data is due after “All Persons” Data – Veterans categories are not activated until communities submit their “All Persons” Data – Draft Veteran data is due February 1 st – Final Veteran data is due March 1 st

Veterans Only Access Veterans reporting through Site Status or drop- down on My Data screen The “Veterans Only” logo on the top right reminds you which type of report you are working on Messages and data input labels all specify the reporting type

AHAR Exchange Reports The reports option on AHAR Exchange allows you to access various reports on the data for your community. Some reports are for use during the AHAR data collection process, while others are for general community use.

AHAR Exchange Reports (con’t.) Data Summary: This report will be generated by the Summary reporting category. The Data Summary report provides an overview of your AHAR data and is used to finalize your data. Extrapolated Counts: For jurisdictions with < 100% bed coverage, provides homeless counts that include estimates for providers not participating in HMIS. Demographics Report: Provides the percentage of persons in each demographic category. Prior Living Situation: Shows and categorizes the prior living situations of homeless people counted in the AHAR data. Length of Stay: Breaks down the amount of time each person used shelter during the AHAR reporting period. Long Term Stay: Presents demographic data on those who used ES for more than 180 days and compares to the entire homeless population.

Other AHAR Exchange Features XML Upload Built-in data validation Send messages to AHAR Data Collection Team Additional reports for local/community use

Additional Features Application Security Features (in accordance with HUD guidelines) Time out after 15 minutes of inactivity Lockout after 3 successive failed logins Change password every 45 days Data Stored in a Secure, Professional Hosting Environment Redundant Hard drives Nightly Backups Intensive Physical Security, (e.g., 24/7 Surveillance) Section 508 Compliance (accessible to the visually impaired)

The Sandbox Feature A special feature of AHAR Exchange is the AHAR Exchange Sandbox. The Sandbox is a “dummy” AHAR site which was designed for public viewing and testing the AHAR data collection screens and for generating and testing upload files To access the Sandbox site go to sandbox.hmis.info/.sandbox.hmis.info/ Communities may use Sandbox year round to monitor AHAR data quality

Resources – 2009 AHAR Schedule ActivitySchedule 2009 AHAR Reporting Period EndsSeptember 30, 2009 AHAR Exchange: Webinar and Conference Call Training September 21 – October 1, 2009 Submit Complete Draft of AHAR DataNovember 15, 2009 Ongoing Review of AHAR Data by Research TeamWithin 2 days of receipt Submit Complete and Final AHAR DataDecember 15, 2009 HUD Publishes 2009 AHAR ReportJune 2010

Conclusion Questions or comments: AHAR Team at: Submit question through “Ask the Expert” on: