Introduction to Homeless Management
Information Systems (HMIS)
Prepared by Abt Associates for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Overview
• What is HMIS?
• Benefits of HMIS
• Pros and Cons of HMIS
• History of HMIS
• HMIS is a Tool, Not the Goal
• Sample Local HMIS Initiatives
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What is HMIS?
Homeless Management Information System
• A Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) is a
computerized data collection tool specifically designed to
capture client-level, system-wide information over time on
the characteristics and services needs of men, women,
and children experiencing homelessness.
• HMISs are typically web-based software applications that
local homeless communities implement to enter and share
client-level data across agencies about homeless persons
served in shelters or other homeless service agencies.
• HMIS allows the aggregation of client-level data across
homeless service agencies to generate unduplicated
counts and service patterns of clients served.
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What is HMIS?
Homeless Management Information System
• An HMIS is either a vendor developed or a community’s
locally developed software system that records and stores
information on homeless clients served
• HUD’s National Data and Technical Standards establish
baseline standards for participation, data collection,
privacy and security
• Implementation of HMIS is a requirement for receipt of
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
McKinney-Vento funding
Please Review HMIS Terms and
Acronyms Handout
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What is HMIS?
Homeless Management Information System
• HMIS records and stores:
– Client Intake
• Demographics
• Basic assessment of needs
• Bed utilization
– Service Tracking
• Services delivered by a provider
• Services received by clients
• Gaps in the homeless services in a community.
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What is HMIS?
Homeless Management Information System
• Case Management
– Ability to plan, schedule, and follow-up on
delivery of services
– Ability to track changes in clients over time
– Ability to monitor and measure performance goals and
outcomes
• Information and Referral (I & R)
– Database of available resources
– Online referrals
– Electronic submission of applications for benefits and
eligibility determination.
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Triangle of Benefits of HMIS
Homeless
Men
Women and
Children
Homeless
Service Providers
CoC
Coordinators,
Policy Makers,
Government
Officials
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Benefits for Homeless Men, Women, and
Children
• Decrease in duplicate intakes and assessments
• Streamlined referrals
• Coordinated case management
• Mainstream benefit eligibility and/or determination
• Professional development through involvement in
planning process
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Benefits for Homeless Service Providers
• Improve agency effectiveness through tracking client
outcomes
• Coordinate services, internally among agency programs,
and externally with other providers
• Prepare financial and programmatic reports for funders,
boards, and other stakeholders
• Inform program design decisions
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Benefits for Community Coordinators, Policy
Makers, and Government Officials
• Increase the understanding of the local extent and scope
of homelessness
• Facilitate an unduplicated count of persons experiencing
homelessness
• Identify service gaps (i.e. are the services available
meeting the needs of clients)
• Inform systems design and policy decisions
• Develop a forum for addressing community-wide issues
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Pros and Cons of HMIS vs. Traditional Methods
Why is HMIS a better alternative than point in time counts or
aggregate service provider reports for gathering communitywide information on homelessness?
• Method: Point in Time Counts
– Count everyone who is homeless on one night
– Pro: Unduplicated number of people on the street or in
shelter in one night, includes those not served by homeless
programs
– Con: No information on whether those people were
homeless for one night or all year. Under-represents those
that move in and out of the system throughout a time
period.
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Pros and Cons of HMIS vs. Traditional Methods
• Method: Summation of aggregate reports from funded
agencies
– Each program generates aggregate data about persons
served over a time period (i.e. a year)
– Pro: Broader information about population served
throughout all programs
– Con: Duplicated counts, the same people are counted by
multiple programs; limited understanding of patterns of
service use or total population size.
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Why HMIS Over Other Methods?
Summary of Approaches
Method
Patterns of
Generates
Entering and
Unduplicated
Exiting
Counts
Homelessness
In-Depth
Information
on Clients
and Needs
One Night Count
Yes
No
No
Service Provider
Reports
No
No
Yes
HMIS
Yes
Yes
Yes
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History of HMIS
• 1980 – early 1990s: Big cities with large homeless
populations pioneer the use of computer-based tracking
systems
• 2001: Congress directs HUD to develop an unduplicated
count of the homeless; HUD requires all McKinney-Vento
funded homeless grantees to implement HMIS
• 2004: Final HMIS Data and Technical Standards are
published
• 2005: First National Annual Homeless Assessment
Report
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HMIS Congressional Directive
• In 2001, Congress directed HUD on the need for data and
analysis on the extent of homelessness and the
effectiveness of the McKinney-Vento Act Programs
including:
– Developing unduplicated counts of clients served at the
local level;
– Analyzing patterns of use of people entering and exiting the
homeless assistance system; and
– Evaluating the effectiveness of these systems.
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HMIS Data and Technical Standards Final Notice
• HMIS Data and Technical Standards Final Notice was
published by HUD in 2004
• Sets the expectation for participation and data collection
for providers of homeless services
• Defines universal and program-specific data elements
• Prioritizes HMIS implementation by program type
• Sets baseline privacy and security requirements
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HMIS is a Tool, Not the Goal
• What questions can HMIS help to answer:
– At the local level?
– At the national level?
• How are communities implementing HMIS at the local
level?
– Background
– Uses of Data
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What Questions Can HMIS Answer for Local
Communities?
• How many people are homeless on the streets and in the
service system?
• How many are chronically or episodically homeless?
• What are the characteristics and service needs of those
served?
• Which programs are most effective at reducing and
ending homelessness?
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What Questions Can HMIS Answer for the
Nation?
• How many people are homeless in the United States?
• Who is homeless?
• Where do people receive shelter and services and where
did they live before homelessness?
• What are the patterns of homeless residential program
use?
• What is the nation’s capacity for housing homeless people
and how much is utilized?
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HMIS Will Inform the Development of HUD’s
Annual Homeless Assessment Report
What is the AHAR?
– It is an annual report to Congress about the number and
characteristics of people who use homeless residential
services and their patterns of use.
– The AHAR is HUD’s initial strategy to respond to the
Congressional Directive.
– The first AHAR will include basic demographic and
intake/exit data on people who used emergency shelters
and transitional housing during 2005.
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Sample Local HMIS Initiatives
• Kansas City Metropolitan Area
• Ramsey County, Minnesota
• City of Spokane, Washington
• Washington, D.C.
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Mid America Assistance Collation (MAACLink)
- Background
• Implementation:
– 5 County implementation across Missouri/Kansas state
borders
– Began entering data in 1994
– 140 + agencies on board including emergency assistance,
food pantries, emergency shelters, transitional housing,
supportive service providers
• Funding:
– Anticipated cost: $600,000/year
– Funding from foundations, program fees, corporate grants,
United Way, individuals, and religious organizations
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MAACLink Uses HMIS Data to:
• Maximize funds for emergency assistance programs;
• Target resources to areas of need;
• Measure program outcomes;
• Advocate on behalf of low income and homeless persons;
• Fulfill reporting requirements.
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MAACLink Publishes Annual Statistical Report
• Every year Mid American Assistance Coalition publishes
an annual statistical report that has found:
– Information and referral hotline received 17,885 telephone
calls for emergency assistance in 2004;
– 80% of emergency assistance services were provided to
residents in 20 metro zip codes in 2004;
– 7,896 homeless households received emergency
assistance in 2003; and
– 136,809 bed nights were provided to 6,766 individuals in
2003.
• MAACLinks Statistical Reports can be downloaded at
http://www.maaclink.org/publications.htm
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Minnesota HMIS - Background
• Established in 1991 in the city of St. Paul / Ramsey
County. Developed from one of the nation’s first HMIS
projects.
• Statewide collaborative of the 13 Continua of Care
administered by Wilder Research Center and governed by
a diverse group of homeless service providers
• On any given night nearly 9,000 Minnesotans are
homeless
• The number of homeless families in
Minnesota more than tripled between
1991 and 2003.
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Minnesota HMIS - Ramsey County Data
• Data submitted by 6 emergency shelters; analyzed over 13 years.
• In 2003, 4,215 individuals used emergency shelter in Ramsey
County, a 20% increase from 2002
• 60% were single men; 14% single women; 25% individuals in
families
• 2/5 of the children served in families were under the age of 4
• Trend in 2003 was toward more frequent and shorter stays driven
in part by the conversion of a 150-bed winter shelter to a yearround shelter
• An additional 1,129 women exited domestic violence shelters in
2003
http://www.wilder.org/fileadmin/user_upload/research/RamseyCountyShelter13th_04.pdf
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City of Spokane - Background
• Begun in 1995, the Spokane Human Services Department
collaborated with organizations from the Spokane Homeless
Coalition to implement a homeless information system
• The system was designed to:
1. Achieve an unduplicated count of homeless
individuals and households living in the City of
Spokane,
2. Understand the needs of the homeless population,
3. Improve communication among homeless providers.
• City of Spokane uses the HMIS to respond to a wide variety of
public policy needs, as well as planning, reporting, and
evaluation at both the provider and the government levels
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City of Spokane - Data
• In 2004, 7294 unduplicated persons were homeless
• Homeless families with children represent slightly less than
20% of overall homeless population and earn on average
$546/month
• Homeless households with children increased 10% from 2001
to 2004
• More than 1 out of every 4 homeless household with children
reported domestic violence as a reason for homelessness
• 1 of every 3 homeless adult reported a disability
• 10% of the homeless adult population were Veterans
http://www.spokanehomeless.org/uploads/documents/forms/Documents/2005_Continuum_of_Care_Plan_2005.pdf
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Washington, D.C. - Background
• Beginning in 1999 and administered by the Community
Partnership the D.C. HMIS has over 300 users, 5,000
clients entered, and over 200 active programs.
• The Community Partnership has worked to utilize data
generated through HMIS to analyze and measure
outcomes across the D.C. homeless system.
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Washington, D.C. – Use of Data
• In 2005 the Community Partnership generated data
through HMIS to measure performance of programs
seeking renewals for their HUD grants.
• Data generated included: occupancy, income, and
destination measures.
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Washington D.C. – Data Collection and Outcome
Measurement
• Occupancy - tracked entry and exit dates. It illustrated
how a program was being utilized and whether clients
were remaining in the program for the required period.
– Calculation: Number of client occupied bed night/ Number of total
bed nights in period
• Income - tracked and captured a series of cash and noncash benefits. Both were weighted equally.
–
–
–
–
Cash benefits = TANF or Social Security.
Non-cash benefits = food stamps or subsidy vouchers.
A bonus point was given when a person obtained employment.
Calculation: Change in the number of income sources for a client
after entry / total clients served
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Washington D.C. – Data Collection and Outcome
Measurement
• Destination - a list of destinations after a client left a
program. This was an attribute of the success of the
program.
– Calculation: Positive destination / total destination
• Length of Stay (LOS) - tracked in lieu of Destination for
Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) Programs using
entry and exit dates.
– The goal of PSH is stability in permanent housing.
– If a client was enrolled in a program and able to
successfully remain in it for six months or more they
obtained a point.
– Calculation: LOS > 6 months / number of clients in program
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Washington D.C. – Data Collection and Outcome
Measurement
• Homeless Services Programs were also taken into
account. Since the outcome goals for these programs
were different, a different assessment was conducted.
• Street Outreach - an assessment that tracked their
services transactions according to the needs of the
chronically homeless.
– Outreach work is unique
– Engagements and services were tracked to determine:
• How many clients received services from duplicate
organizations; and
• How many clients moved on to emergency shelter.
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Summary of Key Issues
• All recipients of McKinney-Vento funding are required to
participate in an HMIS.
• HMIS Benefits all stakeholders:
– Consumers
– Providers
– CoC, Policy Makers, and Government Officials
• HMIS does more than just collect data.
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Additional Information About HMIS is Available
• HMIS Related Info:
– www.hud.gov/office/cpd/homeless/hmis/index.cfm
– www.hmis.info
• HMIS Data and Technical Standards Final Notice:
– http://www.hud.gov/offices/cpd/homeless/hmis/standard
s/index.cfm
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