Background

When enrolling Head of Households and Adults in your program, you will be asked to enter a value for the client's Approximate Date Homelessness Started, which represents the start date of the client's most recent experience of homelessness.

Approximate Date Homelessness Started Field

• Project Type Applicability: All Programs - All Components
• Data Collected About: Head of Household and Adults 
  • To identify the type of living situation and length of stay in that situation just prior to project start for all adults and heads of households. This data element is to be used with other information to identify whether a client appears to meet the criteria for chronic homelessness at various points of enrollment (i.e., at the point of project entry, at a point during a project enrollment, or at any point over the course of a specified reporting period.
• Collection Point: Project Start
• Screens in HMIS: Enrollment Screen 

Review the video below for more background on this field, and guidance in determining an accurate value for this field.