It is Time for California’s 44 Continuums of Care (CoCs) and State of California to Mutually Advance Data Collection, Distribution, and Technology to Help Solve Homelessness

While We Await the
Creation of a State-wide Homeless Data Integration System
There are Decisions That 44 CoCs and State Can Make Together
Now to Obtain Local, Regional and State-wide Desired Data

• Incorporating mutually beneficial questions into 2021 CoC Point-in-Time Count Surveys for people experiencing homelessness to obtain local, regional and state-wide desired data including questions that would help estimate the impact of the 2019-2020 coronavirus pandemic on local, regional, and state-wide homelessness;
• Incorporating mutually beneficial questions into each CoCs Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) to obtain local, regional and state-wide desired data including questions that would help estimate the impact of the 2019-2020 coronavirus pandemic on local, regional, and state-wide homelessness;
• Incorporating mutually beneficial questions into each CoCs Coordinated Entry System (CES) to obtain local, regional and state-wide desired data including questions that would help estimate the impact of the 2019-2020 coronavirus pandemic on local, regional, and state-wide homelessness;
• Soliciting mutually beneficial input from CoCs for the creation of a state-wide Homeless Data Integration System.

Incorporating Mutually Beneficial Questions into 2021 CoC Point-in-Time Count Surveys to Obtain Local, Regional, and State-wide Desired Data including Impact of Coronavirus Pandemic

As part of their Point-in-Time (PIT) count requirements, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires CoCs to submit subpopulation information for families, individuals, adults with HIV/AIDS, serious mental illness, substance use disorder, survivors of domestic violence, unaccompanied youth under age 18, veterans, and youth age 18 – 24.

CoCs often add their own questions to gather locally desired data.

CoCs and state offices, councils, and agencies that focus on homelessness could include mutually beneficial questions to PIT count surveys to obtain local, regional, and state-wide desired data. Some CoCs have included questions about justice systems and others on chronic health conditions including life-threatening condition type of questions. Others have included questions about natural disasters to help determine how many persons became homeless as a result of a natural disaster such as a wildfire.

Including questions in the 2021 CoC homeless PIT count surveys to help estimate the impact of the 2019-2020 coronavirus pandemic on local, regional, and state-wide homelessness would be mutually beneficial.

Why it is important to include mutually beneficial questions in 2021 CoC homeless PIT count surveys

To include mutually beneficial questions in CoC 2021 PIT count surveys is important because all 44 California CoCs are required by HUD to complete a sheltered and unsheltered count during the last 10 days of January in odd-number years. HUD only requires a sheltered count during even-number years. As a result, only about half of California’s 44 CoCs choose to complete an unsheltered count during even-number years.

As described by HUD,

The Point-in-Time (PIT) count is a count of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness on a single night in January. HUD requires that Continuums of Care conduct an annual count of people experiencing homelessness who are sheltered in emergency shelter, transitional housing, and Safe Havens on a single night. Continuums of Care also must conduct a count of unsheltered people experiencing homelessness every other year (odd numbered years). Each count is planned, coordinated, and carried out locally.

Homeless counts and surveys help establish the extent of homelessness within CoC jurisdictions, which helps local policymakers and service providers track progress toward solving local homelessness by comparing odd-numbered year counts and surveys. Comparison of PIT counts can reveal changing trends in the number and characteristics of homeless persons in a given area.

Click here to see a map that compares the 2017 homeless count with the 2019 homeless count for each CoC.

Including mutually beneficial questions in 2021 CoC homeless PIT count surveys could help estimate the impact of the 2019-2020 coronavirus pandemic on local, regional, and state-wide homelessness. For example, such questions may include, Have you been tested for the COVID-19 virus? and if so, did you test positive? Other mutually agreed upon questions could be included.

Incorporating Mutually Beneficial Questions in Homeless Management Information Systems to Obtain Local, Regional, and State-wide Desired Data including Impact of Coronavirus Pandemic

Each CoC collects, stores, and analyzes longitudinal personal-level information about persons who access the homeless service system within their entire region through their Homeless Management Information System (HMIS). Data collection, as outlined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) includes

• universal data elements that support the unique identification of each person served (e.g., gender) and universal project stay elements that include prior living situation, project start date, project exit date, destination at exit for purposes of tracking and outcome measurement, and housing move-in date;
• program specific data elements that focus on income and sources, non-cash benefits, health insurance, physical disability, developmental disability, chronic health condition, HIV/AIDS, mental health problems, substance abuse, domestic violence, current living situation, date of engagement in project services, bed-night utilization, coordinated entry assessment, and coordinated entry key referral and placement events;
• Federal partner program elements that include data element fields and responses regarding Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) Program, Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness (PATH) Program, Runaway and Homeless Youth Program, Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) Program, and the Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) Program;
• Metadata elements that include an information date, project identifier, enrollment identifier, user identifier, personal identifier, and household identifier.

Including questions in HMIS to help estimate the impact of the 2019-2020 coronavirus pandemic on local, regional, and state-wide homelessness would be mutually beneficial. A COVID data element section could be created that would include COVID symptoms, test referrals and results, and quarantine dates and outcome. Including such questions should be done as soon as possible. Analyzing the responses to COVID data elements in relationship to the responses regarding universal data elements, program specific elements, and universal stay elements would help gauge the impact of the 2019-2020 coronavirus pandemic on local, regional, and state-wide homelessness.

Why it is important to include mutually beneficial questions to estimate the impact of the 2019-2020 coronavirus pandemic on local, regional, and state-wide homelessness as soon as possible

Under the State of California’s Project Roomkey initiative, extensive efforts have been made to prevent the spread of the coronavirus among persons experiencing homelessness by securing thousands of hotel/motel units. Persons living in congregate facilities who need isolation as they await COVID-19 test results, those who have tested positive for the virus, and persons who are at highest risk due to age or underlying medical conditions that put them at higher risk of severe illness are being prioritized for the units.

Stays in hotel/motel units are temporary. Identifying those persons who were living in congregate facilities who needed isolation, who tested positive for the virus, and persons who are at highest risk due to age and/or underlying medical conditions in HMIS is a priority. Obtaining additional pertinent information prior to persons leaving the hotel/motel units would help housing and services providers that participate in HMIS continue to meet their needs as they move through local, regional, and state homelessness housing and services systems of care.

Incorporating Mutually Beneficial Questions in Coordinated Entry Systems to Obtain Local, Regional, and State-wide Desired Data including Impact of Coronavirus Pandemic

Incorporating mutually beneficial questions into each CoCs Coordinated Entry System (CES) would help estimate the impact of the 2019-2020 coronavirus pandemic on local, regional, and state-wide homelessness. Such questions could include COVID symptoms, test referrals and results, and quarantine dates and outcome.

Coordinated entry is a process developed to ensure that all people experiencing a housing crisis have fair and equal access and are quickly identified, assessed for, referred, and connected to housing and assistance based on their strengths and needs, as noted by HUD. The CES is generally used and supported by multiple agencies and typically spans an extended period of time. Thus, CoCs often set up a CE project in HMIS for all relevant agencies to access.

HUD recently finalized a set of CES data elements in order to standardize data collection for core components of CES, which are access, assessment, referral, and household prioritization. These elements are the result of several months of collaboration with key stakeholders to learn from communities’ experiences implementing and refining CE data collection and determining precisely what data is needed to effectively manage and evaluate the effectiveness of CE, as noted by HUD.

Incorporating mutually beneficial questions into the wide-range of CES questions would provide data that could show how quickly coordinated entry systems were able to stably house persons living in congregate facilities and who need isolation as they await COVID-19 test results, those who tested positive for the virus, and persons who are at highest risk due to age or underlying medical conditions that put them at higher risk of severe illness. This information would likely inform strategies to improve housing and services responses in times of crisis and reveal gaps in system resources.

Soliciting mutually beneficial input from CoCs for the creation of a state-wide Homeless Data Integration System (HDIS)

The Homeless Data Integration System (HDIS)

will be a technology solution that allows the State of California to access and compile standardized homelessness data collected by individual Continuums of Care (CoC’s) in order to make data-driven policy decisions aimed at preventing and ending homelessness in California as noted in the HDIS procurement solicitation request.

Also noted is that the HDIS

will pull the client data required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) from each CoC’s Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) into a de-identified database of homeless client service activity. It is envisioned that HDIS will also pull client data from state systems to provide a more holistic picture of state and locally provided services.

and

HDIS will be a rich repository of data that can be used to give policy makers, service providers, and funders a better understanding of homelessness in California. Analysis of statewide data will allow for improved planning and resource allocation, enabling state and local providers to more effectively address the needs of individuals and families that are at-risk of or currently experiencing homelessness.

The request for bids was published on April 3, 2020 and end date for submissions is November 30, 2020. The bid notes that the solicitation is seeking

solutions to create a statewide integrated data system to collect and integrate specific data from each HMIS administered by the CoCs, with the ultimate goal of matching data on homelessness to programs impacting homeless recipients of state programs and the HDIS will be built on broadly used cloud services to collect data throughout the State and store such data within a single repository for analysis and reporting purposes.

Solicitation from 44 CoCs regarding the creation of the HDIS is critical in order to ensure local compliance with HUD’s data collection, management, and reporting standards. HUD has produced numerous resources to help ensure CoC compliance that included data standard manuals; trainings, templates and tools; and sample policies and procedures. The lessons learned by 44 CoCs over the years is invaluable and there should be ample time and opportunities to share the lessons with appropriate State of California offices, councils, agencies, and departments.