There are two kinds of household in HMIS Clarity, the Global Household and the Program Household.

The Global HH is the household composition for client profiles, whereas

the Program HH is the group of household members who are enrolled in a project together.

The Global HH is specific for each client, this means a client could only be member of one and only one Global HH, whereas the Program Household is specific for each project enrollment.

In HMIS Clarity, the Program HH do not always coincide with the Global HH. This is because in theory it is possible to have only a subset of members of the Global HH enrolled in a specific project together. We could also have the scenario in which only the adults of the Global HH are enrolled in a certain project without their children, or we could have only one member of the Global HH enrolled alone in a project as an individual. The distinction between the Global and Program HH gives us the flexibility of determine which members of the Global HH should be enrolled in each project depending upon circumstances and project eligibility.  Also, being aware of this distinction is important when we need to remove a client from the household (See How to remove a client from the household when the client is enrolled in a project with other household members)

The following chart summarizes the differences between Global and Program HH.