Background

The HMIS Data Standards have been established by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and other federal partners to allow for standardized data collection on homeless clients from Continuums of Care (CoCs) across the county. The collection of these data elements are required to meet HMIS participation and reporting requirements from HUD and other federal partners. Periodically, new data elements are introduced to address gaps with current data collection.

The data elements included in this article have been added or edited under the FY2024 HMIS Data Standards, and will be implemented in HMIS as of October 1st, 2023. The data elements included in this article are required for all clients served in projects that participate in HMIS. Please review each data element for specific information regarding data collection requirements. For additional information on these data elements please review the FY2024 HMIS Data Standards Manual.

HMIS Data Standards Updates 

The following data elements have been updated: 

• Translation Assisted Needed
• A&B Prior Living Situation
• Health Insurance
• Destination

C4 Translation Assisted Needed

• Project Type Applicability: All HMIS Project Types
• Data Collected About: Head of Household
  • This data element is used to understand how many clients need access to translation services, and if so, which languages are most often cited as needing translation.
• Collection Point: Project Start
• Screens in HMIS: Enrollment Screen
• Responses for "Translation Assisted Needed":
  • Arabic
  • Cantonese 
  • Farsi
  • French
  • Korean
  • Mandarin
  • Persian
  • Russian
  • Spanish
  • Ukrainian
  • Vietnamese

3.917 A&B Prior Living Situation

• A Prior Living Situation
  • Project Type Applicability: Emergency Shelter – Entry Exit, Emergency Shelter – Night-by-Night, Street Outreach, and Safe Haven
  • Data Collected About: Head of Household and Adults
  • Collection Point: Project Start
  • Screens in HMIS: Enrollment Screen
  • Update: Add dependency for permanent subsidized options
• B Prior Living Situation
  • Project Type Applicability: All HMIS Project Types
  • Data Collected About: Head of Household and Adults
  • Collection Point: Project Start
  • Screens in HMIS: Enrollment Screen
  • Update: Add dependency for permanent subsidized options

4.04 Health Insurance

• Project Type Applicability: All HMIS Project Types
• Data Collected About: All Clients
• Collection Point: Project Start, Update, Annual Assessment, and Project Exit
• Screens in HMIS: Enrollment Screen, Assessments Screen for the Enrollment, Exit Screen
• Update: Change Field 6 Response to say "Veteran's Health Administration (VHA)"

3.12 Destination

• Project Type Applicability: All HMIS Project Types
• Data Collected About: All Clients
• Collection Point: Project Exit
• Screens in HMIS: Exit Screen
• Update: Remove "or RHY Funded" from Field 101 in Appendix A. Separate Temporary and Permanent Situations into separate headers. Reorganize response options under headers. Re-number responses by adding a standard # to the beginning of each response number based on category (i.e., 1xx for homeless situations, 2xx for institutional situations, etc.). Add dependency for permanent subsidized options.