MSHMIS System Administrator Webinar:10/21/15
Please remember to enter the Audio PIN if dialing-in by telephone!
Welcome – New Users in the Meeting
NEW HOT TOPICS
Welcome to newest Staff Members: Grace Ronkaitis and Andrea Kuhn have joined the MCAH. Andrea has agreed to share her
retirement with us. As one of Detroit’s SAs, Andrea’s voice on the Statewide System has always been valued and we are grateful that her
10hrs/wk will allow that to continue. Grace is joining us full time from Grand Traverse and has been a super user on the System with
NWCAA. She brings to the team a strong agency perspective and a great analytical mind.
MCAH Help Desk Coverage: MCAH’s helpdesk will be operating with very limited staffing next week (October 27-30) while the majority of
the MCAH team are attending the Homeless Summit. Those staff who are out of the office will be checking their voicemail & emails
periodically and will get back to users as soon as they are able. When possible, please direct your questions to the appropriate MCAH
team member and wait for a response. If your issue is general and you need is immediate, you may contact the Help Desk for assistance.
2015 Policies and Procedures: You all received update of the Michigan Statewide Policies and Procedure. Some of you made
suggestions for improvement. Grayed Sections reflect changes in the Plan. The goal of the Policy was to:
 Incorporate the changes made this summer to the 2014 Data Standards
 Move the annual review onto September update schedule (to align with the HUD Grant Cycle and allow for updates reflecting
NOFA input)
 Update the Data Quality Plan reflecting what we have learned during the implementation of the 2014 / 2015 Data Standards.
Request any final amendments from the Attendees:
Vote to approve 2015 Update MSHMIS Policies and Procedures:
New MSHMIS Release of Information designed to accomplish the following: Jill Shoemaker Presents and will also do an
Overview Document.
 Support a reciprocal Release so that one signed Release covers all the parties in the Sharing Plan.
 Is HIPAA compliant removing the need for two releases. With the advent of Coordinated Care most sharing does involve
protected information. This release acknowledges that reality.
 Includes language that would allow the MSHMIS to support outreach efforts for Veterans, the chronically homeless and those that
may quality for income or housing supports from DHHS, SOAR, or MSHDA.
 Allow MCAH staff to provide case managers homeless history for CoCs recertifying their Chronically Homeless.
 The new Release must be scanned onto the Client Record.
 Looking for early implementors to roll-out the Outreach component and identify any issues . Part of this will be pilot to placement
of a sub-assessment to allow us to pull reports on those that say “yes”. Please contact Jill Shoemaker
jshoemaker@mihomeless.org to work through the implementation decisions.
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Remember that this is release is a model and will need to be adapted locally.
ServicePoint 5.12.0 Upgrade Complete. We successfully upgraded to 5.12.0 with some significant improvement to the Call Point
Interface as well as other changes: Changes you are seeing include:
CallPoint Improvements:
Updates in the 5.12 release are a culmination of multiple requests to improve the overall workflow of a Call Record. The objective
for this release version of CallPoint is focusing primarily on streamlining the Call Record intake process for call centers by providing
an improved interface layout, along with new CallPoint Provider Preferences, granting providers configurability to meet their
individual workflow requirements.
There is a short introduction podcast – please review it if your community uses this module. In addition, there is an “overview”
document that provides a snapshot of the important changes. It is important to also review the 5.12 release notes from Bowman.
2015 Assessment Revisions:
 Replacement of Chronically Homeless Questions. New Chronic questions and supporting instructions have been added to all
of the MCAH managed assessments. Questions must be asked as stated in the assessment. A MANDATORY chronically
homeless training is available on the MCAH website and was to have been completed by Oct.1st.
 Addition of DV Questions. Additional DV questions have been added to MCAH managed assessments. A new “Currently
Fleeing DV?” question has been added. Currently fleeing should be indicated as “Yes” if the Person is fleeing, or is attempting to
flee, the domestic violence situation or is afraid to return to their primary nighttime residence.
***VERY IMPORTANT!!!***
If you are using CUSTOM ASSESSMENTS within your community, you must make sure the questions are updated to reflect the changes
to the HUD data standards after moving up to version 5.12. MCAH staff will update all of our standard MCAH created and maintained
assessments, however, local communities must do the same with their custom assessments to ensure you are compliant with the new
data standards.
Michigan Data Quality Audit:
Thank you all for working very diligently on the data quality exercise that was sent out! Despite the passing of the exercise deadline, we
are asking that you continue to work on the remaining data quality fixes. We will be continuing to monitor progress and will be contacting
agencies where issues remain. This exercise is critical for the NOFA, AHAR, APR and other important statewide activities
(To Review) Data Quality Items of Concern:
o SSN Information
o Veteran Status
o Subassessment Verifications (Income, NonCash Benefits, Disability and Health Insurance)
o Domestic Violence Information
o Relationship to HoH
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Client Location
Length of Time on the Streets…..
Discharge Destination*
An area of particular concern continues to be the high percentage of ‘null’ discharge destinations across the State. As a reminder… the
‘Data Not Collected’ and ‘No Exit Interview Completed’ options have the same impact on outcome data as selecting ‘Don’t Know’. In
certain situations, it may be necessary to select these options. However, we ask that agencies make every effort to collect discharge
information from clients who are exiting their programs. Failure to do so, will significantly impact outcome data. For more information
regarding this, please see the ‘Understanding Reports – Outcome Video’ on MCAH website.
The Child Only HH report is currently broken and will be discontinued until further notice. Providers can get the Child Only HH
information off the APR Detail Report by using input controls or following the steps outlined below.
1. Run the 0631 HUD CoC APR Detail Report
2. Save a copy of the report in Excel
3. Go to the Entry/Exit Detail Tab and filter the 'Client HH Type' column so that it only shows 'HH Kids Only'.
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Please refer to the email notices that have been sent out for other report information and locations.
BOS (Balance of State) Data Quality Project Stipends: Andrea will be reviewing the data quality reports and jotting down notes
regarding areas that still have some DQ concerns. The MCAH Data Quality Review Team will meet up again on November 2 nd to review all
reports, sending follow-up emails to communities where DQ continues to be an issue. Stipend checks will go out by the end of November.
AHAR is Coming:
The 2015 AHAR reporting season is upon us. An AHAR Orientation webinar was held on October, 14th. The recording and all of the
supporting material are available on our website.
AHAR Report Updates
This year there will be several minor updates to the AHAR report. Bowman has received the needed xml code changes from HUD
and you will not be able to upload your data (or manually add your data) to the HDX until the coding changes are complete.
Expect the following changes:
1. Age Category changes = the 18 to 30 age group will be broken out into age categories of 18 to 24 and 25 to 30.
2. Zip Code of Last Permanent Residence is no longer required. You may ignore these fields, and the HDX will ignore any values in
these fields.
3. Inclusion of a CoC Location Filter. This filter/data field will not be a part of the export but rather is used to limit the dataset to
clients served by the CoC.
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4. Addition of the RHY EE type to the report for all categories.
Availability of the changes will be released via System News. The current report can still be used to begin the data
cleaning process.
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Mid December 2nd 2015 – The AHAR Draft submission (All Person AND Veteran) will be due to ABT Associates.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Due to the shortened deadline between the Draft and Final Submission, we expect the BOS Draft
AHAR Submission to be completed by Nov 20th. We are encouraging all IJs to set the same goals.
December 16th, 2015 – AHAR Final Submission (All Person AND Veteran) is Due.
What should I be doing?
Make sure you have a user account at www.hudhdx.info
Read the AHAR 2014 Guidance Documents on www.hudhdx.info. The 2014 AHAR and the 2015 should be very similar,
according the the news we have heard from Bowman at this point.
Run the AHAR Report and Begin Looking for Data Quality Issues. The AHAR report is a stock report, meaning any data
corrections made will instantly show up when the report is re-run. This will speed up the turnaround time for making changes on
the system.
Maintain contact with your ABT representative.
BOS communities: Be on the lookout for emails regarding AHAR!! Your prompt attention is necessary for another successful
AHAR submission.
AHAR Open Call-In times will be available. These sessions will be open to anybody working on AHAR related activities to
address any questions or issues that may come up. Please watch System News and our MCAH calendar for dates and times.
ESP& ShelterPoint Issue:
 Previously, there was a ShelterPoint issue that made client furlough nearly impossible to manage. Entry-Exits could not be deleted
if they were tied to shelter stays, which left us with some client only households or clients with multiple entry-exits for one provider
over a short period of time. Bowman has fixed this issue; EEs are able to be deleted once again, and the furloughing addendum is
valid.
 We now have a new issue. It seems that some clients with open shelter stay service transactions had that service closed for the
following day, though they may still be in shelter. ALL shelters should run their billing reports for July, August, September, and
October to see if they may have been affected. The good news is that this does not seem to be affecting every shelter. Typically,
this can be fixed by removing the shelter stay end date if the client has not left, as the EE is untouched in most cases, but not every
page has had the same results
HMIS Certification Site
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Recently, the certification site has encountered an issue with user emails. If a new user registers, they will get an error message
stating that an error occurred while sending information email to your address. However, we have temporarily disabled the
requirement for new users to verify accounts via email, so they should be able to login without doing so. Also, any users trying to
retrieve their current password will have to call or email MCAH to do so for them until further notice. We are working to resolve this
issue and foresee a day in the near future where the website will have to come down temporarily while we upgrade. All other
functions seem to be working at this time, it is only where the site has to pull the registered user email from the database where the
problem is occurring.
Determining Youth Homelessness:
 HUD issued a new guidance document ‘Determining Homeless Status of Youth’ to help providers determine and document
homeless status for youth. The document is designed to ensure that youth are not being erroneously turned away from CoC or
ESG program housing and services. The document untilizes hypothetical scenariors to help providers understand how youth meet
HUD’s definition of homelessness and supports the work that HUD has been doing recently to help CoCs and youth providers end
homelessness.
 The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) will host a webinar on Wednesday, October 28th at 2:00 PM EDT in
which presenters will review the information provided in the guidance document, provide a brief overview of the resources available
to serve youth who meet HUD’s definition of homeless, and answer questions that providers might have related to determining and
documenting homeless status for youth. FYSB will offer a brief overview of potential resources for some of the youth who do not
meet HUD’s definition of homelessness.
To sign up for the webinar, please visit https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1658909428855385090
Youth Provider Update (Federal RHY Grantees):
 Bowman was selected as the vendor who will manage the RHY Repository. They will be working in conjunction with the American
Institutes for Research (AIR) and the National Safe Place Network (NSPN) on this project.
 In order to facilitate the data transfer they have created a modified version of SyncPoint. This version is highly streamlined to allow
RHY grantees to easily upload their data. Full training materials are currently being developed by AIR and NSPN and will be
distributed shortly.
 Similar to the SSVF process, RHY Repository grantees will run and download a report from their ServicePoint site and then log into
the modified SyncPoint site to upload the file. The following day, the grantee will receive a Data Completeness/Quality report via
email. If the report results are satisfactory no further action is needed; otherwise if not, grantees can make edits to data and
resubmit the file. Bowman will provide information soon letting us know how RHY grantees will be able to access the modified
version of SyncPoint. Note: there will be no charge for access.
 Remember, the operating year for this RHY upload is October 1, 2014 to September 30, 2015. Data for all clients served during
this time frame by all RHY project types should be included in the upload. Though RHY grantees will receive Data
Quality/Completeness reports during the upload process, we encourage grantees to start checking Data Quality and Completeness
now. Over the next several weeks the RHY repository group will release reports to assist grantees with data quality and workflow
guidance on how to ensure that referrals are entered correctly.
 A formal announcement is pending from FYSB, but as an FYI, the RHY Repository upload window will be open from November 16,
2015 to December 8, 2015.
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The VA Releases SQUARES for SSVF and other Veterans Programs
 The VA has just announced the creation of SQUARES (Status Query and Response Exchange System), which will aid veterans
service providers and housing projects with determining veteran status.
 SQUARES is designed to give community-based providers accessing the CoC-based Homeless Management Information System
(HMIS) the ability to instantaneously determine Veteran status, allowing them to quickly engage homeless Veterans in appropriate
VA services. The ability to identify if someone is a Veteran is an essential first step that can lead to housing, benefits, health and
mental health services. While SQUARES, by itself, cannot be used to establish eligibility for VA services, it should help facilitate
access and coordination of services. To use SQUARES, community providers must register through the HMIS Homeless
Repository database. Instructions on how to register and use SQUARES is attached and can be found on the Announcement tab of
the SSVF’s webpage at http://www.va.gov/homeless/ssvf/index.asp.
 The VA is encouraging all SSVF providers to register their users on the system as soon as possible. Also, we want to encourage
coordinated assessment/central intake communities, HARAs, and other centralized housing agencies with access to resources for
veterans to register case managers and eligibility specialists to use SQUARES as it will greatly help the process of determining
veteran status.
NOFA Update: You are all working on the NOFA. This is especially intense. Your descriptions of how you are solving homelessness
and responding to the new System’s Measures can be “data driven” even though the formal roll-out of System’s Measures by the
Vendors has been deferred until January 1: In addition to Bowman Reports and our existing suite of Outcome Reports we have
designed two new reports that may help you discuss Recidivism to Shelter or TH for your PH programs and Length of time Homeless. Be
sure to include a qualifier that states: While we are not able to accomplish a replication of the analytics that Bowman will publish
in January, we have preliminary information that aligns with our State Objectives and uses many of the same fields planned for
the formal System’s Measures Reports in early 2016. The two new reports are: Shanna present the Statewide Data run for
10/1/2014 to 10/1/2015.
 LOS to Housing – Time Homeless Measure: Located in the New NOFA folder on ART, this report is a modification of one or our
standing LOS Reports to filter it only for those discharged to housing. Sub-population runs were added.
 Recidivism to Shelter: Located in the new NOFA 2015 folder on ART, this report was developed to track reentries into shelter or
TH from a PH Program. It was developed for a local RRH study and is somewhat complex to run. This report is not designed
for tracking Shelter to Shelter Recidivism. Please use the existing Outcome Report for that. Follow the following
instructions:
 Select the “target programs” through 3 optional filters, by CoC and program type or by selecting a list of specific
programs. The CoC prompt looks at the old CoC field so make sure you have updated that if you plan to use the CoC
prompt:
 There is also an optional Shelter filter where you can enter a Reporting Group (if you are only interested in recidivism to a
specific list of shelters). If you leave the filter blank it will report on any shelter you have visibility rights to.
 There are two versions of the Report in the NOFA Folder – one for SAI (includes client detail) and one for SAII runs (does
not include individual client detail).
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If you want to look Statewide, please ask one of the SAII to run the report for you. We have found a significant amount of
cross jurisdiction sheltering and would recommend this run based on our test runs.
Tab 1 provides the report parameters:
Recidivism to Shelter for Target Program Clients:
Total admitted to Target Programs in Period:
1275
Total With Pre or Post Sheltering History (Matches):
420
Total Projects Included:
14
Total Shelters with Post Care Re-entries:
51
Shelter Provider Grp:
Optional Prompt not selected
Target Start Date:
1/1/2012 12:00:00 AM
Target End Date:
12/31/2014 12:00:00 AM
End Date for Sheltering (Opt.):
Optional Prompt not selected
Targets may be selected by filtering CoC Codes and/or Program
Types Or by entering a Provider List
Target CoC Code (Opt):
Sample CoC(s)
Taget Program Type Code (Opt.)
PH - Rapid Re-Housing (HUD)
Target Program List (opt.):
Optional Prompt not selected
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Tab 2 provides Total Clients, Recidivism Rate and sheltering history for those clients that evidenced post PH program sheltering and
overall for all “shared clients (served by shelters pre or post).
Recidivism Rate:
Total Target Clients
1275
127 9.96%
Total Clients Entering
Shelter Post Care:
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Total
Sheltering
Events
(Average:)
2.62
All Shared
Shelter
Clients (Pre
& Post):
419
Total
Sheltering
Events
(Average:)
1.98
Open Meeting to discuss strategies for using existing Reporting to support your application. See Registration Link below.
This will be an interactive session so please call in so that we may leave participants un-muted.
SA NOFA Discussion on opportunities to use Data
Join us for a webinar on Oct 26, 2015 at 2:00 PM EDT.
Register now!
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6293589534219498498
Issues with ART: Bowman has been experiencing some issues with ART. Reports are continuing to run and using all available
bandwith. After much labor they have identified the problem. However we can expect to continue to experience some interruptions until
they can put a fix in place. Other ART news:
 Issues with the 0625 CoC APR and the 0631 CoC APR Detail Report: Bowman continues to work on this issue and we will
continue to insure that you have a usable version available to you.
 The 0633 HMIS APR is also experiencing some difficulties. If you run the report and “new clients” do not calculate please ask
Elizabeth to run this for you. egrahm@mihomeless.ort 517-853-3895.
 An issue was also identified with the 0635 2015 NOFA CoC Application Section 2D report. It is showing missing destination
information for clients that have legitimate destination responses given. Bowman is currently investigating this problem.
 Some of the issues we are having with ART relate the use of Java with today’s browsers. This may result in a need to migrate to
an alternative version ART. Part of the 6.0 roll-out is a strategy to overcome this. Bowman has committed to have a robust
reporting tool. This will be a year in the making and we have been assured that we will have a robust and hopefully improved ART
at the end of it.
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Pulling questions from ART: We have determined that a substantial reason that we have problems with running, mapping and building
reports in ART are duplicative and just too many questions. We are adding a new SOW that removes from ART any field that has not
been updated (with client data) since 4/1/2015 on the ClientPoint Side. We do understand in a few instances that you may need to run
historical data. Please call our office and we will help you resolve the issue.
Coming Conferences of Interest:
 Michigan Summit to End Homelessness in Livonia, Michigan 10-28 through 10-30: If you are going to be there look us up at the
Summit.
 Night at the Museum: Please come to MCAH’s 25th Anniversary on October 27 from 5 to 7pm at the Detroit Historical Museum
(5401 Woodward Ave, Detroit 48202).
Register for the MCAH Mailing Lists:
MCAH is using a brand new mailing list management tool to help us communicate better with you all. If you, or a co-worker you know,
would like to sign up to receive communication from one of our various mailing lists, you can do so by clicking the appropriate link below:
Michigan Statewide System Administrator’s Meeting Mailing List:
http://eepurl.com/bvmzNv
Michigan Balance of State Users and Agency Administrator’s Meeting Mailing List:
http://eepurl.com/bwokOr
FOLLOW UP ON PREVIOUS AGENDA ITEMS:
Documenting Veterans Programs in the System: Shanna update or move below:
We are trying to compile a list of all the veteran projects statewide that are entering information on HMIS. Unfortunately, a number of
veteran projects are not easily identified on the system due to missing provider page information. As such, we ask that those agencies
operating veteran projects (other than SSVF) email Shanna Cherubini (scherubini@mihomeless.org) the provider page ID
number(s) for inclusion on the list. This information will be used for statewide reporting and outcome benchmarking purposes.
Google Chrome No Longer Works with ART Ad HOC Licenses:
Google has released version 45.x of their Google Chrome browser. This version no longer supports the use of the Java plug-in for ART
adhoc users. We currently recommend that ART adhoc users switch to either Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer for using "Edit Report" in
ART. Please be aware that the workaround for enabling Java in Google Chrome does not work with version 45.x and above.
Coverage Exercise for Michigan. Calculating the correct coverage is critical for properly estimating the total number of
homeless in Michigan. Last year we realized that the flow of clients through local systems has been impacted by the existence
of HARAs and that at least some of the old coverage estimates were too low. MCAH Staff have developed a new Coverage Exercise
tool to assist communities with better understanding how clients are flowing and also the real coverage for the community. That is, many
clients that are enrolled in non-participating homeless service providers (such as your DV Provider or the small religious shelters) are also
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receiving services through the HARAs, therefore they are being picked up by the system (even though on the PIT count they are included
in the nonparticipating count). The Coverage Exercise not only accounts for this but will give HARA’s a tool to identify where outreach
efforts may make sense. We would like the Exercise conducted at least 1 time prior to 12/31/2015. If framed carefully before hand, it
should be fairly easy to complete even in the larger communities. If, for some reason, the initial sample date proves to be nonrepresentative, CoCs should conduct this for a couple of dates and average. It important that we get it right. If you believe that you will
have problems getting participation from your local DV, MSHDA requires CoC participation from their DV grants. They have agreed to put
out a notice as needed. Basic Procedures:
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CoC set’s a count date (PIT). It can be 1 day or a week for very small places where the clients don’t overlap. All counts
reflect only those persons served in both participating and non-participating residential programs on that PIT.
A master form is completed that lists all the participating organizations or projects and the known non-participating
organizations or Projects. You can use your HIC for this. However, if there is a project that serves homeless clients that
do not overlap with the residential programs (such as a street outreach), please include them on the chart.
A copy of the master form is provided to each Homeless Services Agency (participating and non-participating) and they
complete the row of values that is specific to them.
For participating agencies, the director simply provides a total count of those served on the PIT divided by those entered
into the HMIS and those not. For most participating projects 100% of the clients are entered into the System.
For non-participating Homeless Service Agencies (ES, TH, PSH, RRH) the program interviews those clients active on that
PIT and determines if (1) they have been referred & connected to the HARA during the current calendar year (2015) or (2)
if they were served by another participating agency during the calendar year (2015).
The form is returned to the CoC designated representative.
Instructions for calculation are provided on the form and the designated CoC representative compiles the data and
completes the calculation.
The CoC submits the new coverage rate to MCAH with an explanation of any adaptation they did in arriving at the
percentage. Elizabeth egraham@mihomeless.org will be collecting the information and updating our master coverage
chart for the count.
Updating Privacy Training Annually During 2014 we alert the local SA if we had users that failed the Quiz. Some of those users have
still not responded. At this point they will need to repeat the training and should be redirected to the Certification Module on our Website.
In addition to the basic Privacy Update, we are now requiring users to repeat a series of short refreshers on configuring Visibility on
Assessments (all SA and Agency Administrator Access levels), Securing the Client Record (all users) and using the Un-named Record (All
Users). That is Privacy Update:
 Privacy Update (1 hr) – All Users
 Securing the Client Record (19 min)- All Users
 Creating Un-named Records (6 min) – All Users
 Establishing Visibility (21 min) – System Administrators and Agency Administrators
A refresher of key components of sharing data through the System:
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When it comes to visibility and security of client records in HMIS, we need to remember it is a two-step process. The first step it to
establish the default visibility on each agency provider page and the second is to ensure that when staff enter clients they add an ROI
(to “turn on” internal sharing) and adjust security on the individual record (to “turn off” or “limit” external sharing) based on the
clients that say “no” to sharing data.
Closing Inactive Pages: If the pages are no longer being used then we are asking that you rename the provider pages so that they start
with “XXXClosed” followed by the year of the last program exit as reflected in the ‘Max Exit Date’ column. For example, the Max Exit Date
listed for a provider is 1/14/2010, the provider page should have “XXXClosed2010 - ” at the beginning. This will help us to know which
provider pages should be included in various reporting groups when we run statewide reports. It also helps us to identify which providers
have exited their clients. A Report is available in ART >Data Quality Folder>“Unexited Client Report” (if you are using this report,
remember that PH or PSH programs may have very long stays, so please be aware of this when you circle with the provider to determine if
the program no longer exists).
BOS (Balance of State) Stipend holders may now start invoicing for the 2015/16 Grant year and we can begin to reimburse.
Please spend these dollars down prior to 12/31/2015 unless otherwise approved. We are encouraging all Option 2 communities with
stipend dollars to begin submitting receipts and requests to Gloria (gpecora@mihomeless.org) as money is spent down, to minimize the
annual “year-end” scramble for closing out the grants. It looks like we will be able to add some funds for local SA activities, please contact
Barb if you are struggling and/or have a special project you would like to complete.
Additional Partner Community Issues:
HMIS Sys Admin Webinars occur the 3rd Wednesday of each month. Please mark your calendars.
Next meeting: November 18, 2015 at 1:00 pm via GoToWebinar.
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