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Background
Use this guide to understand the reports that are available to review the Orange County Continuum of Care (CoC) homeless response system. This article includes reports that are submitted to HUD, and as well as reports developed locally. Unless otherwise noted, all reports include projects that were participating in HMIS during the reporting period. All reports include aggregate data only; client identifying data is not included in any of these reports.
Housing Inventory Count (HIC)
Every year, CoC's conduct the Housing Inventory Count (HIC) Report which in intended to serve as a snapshot of a CoC's entire housing inventory by Provider Project Type. This snapshot should reflect the number of beds and units that were available on that night that are intended to serve homeless clients, whether or not the project was participating in HMIS. This report is done during the last ten days in January, and must be submitted via HUD's Homelessness Data Exchange (HDX) every Spring. HIC Data for past years is available on the CoC Housing Inventory Count Reports on the national, state and county level.
Point in Time (PIT)
The Point in Time (PIT) count is designed to serve as a record of the number of sheltered and unsheltered homeless persons in Orange County on a designated night. The PIT is done during the last 10 days of January, with the shelter count being done every year and the unsheltered count being done every other year. The sheltered count includes clients in Emergency Shelter, Transitional Housing, and Safe Haven projects, whether or not the project is participating in HMIS. CoC's are required to include a PIT report in their CoC Homeless Assistance Program application, to HUD, in order to receive funding. This count is accomplished with the collaborative effort of every agency in the CoC with assistance in gathering volunteers, helping to coordinate, or producing their reports.
In turn HUD will produce their CoC Homeless Population and Subpopulation Report on an annual basis, which is based on CoC's PIT information that is given to them. This report shares counts for sheltered and unsheltered homeless persons by household type and subpopulation, available at the national and state level, and for each CoC.
HUD does note that they conduct a very limited data quality review of the data that gets submitted by each CoC, so they advise the reader to ready cautiously as compliance can vary from each CoC. They also note that a chance in methodology can also cause a change in the homeless count between reporting periods.
Longitudinal System Analysis (LSA)
Formally known as the AHAR, this report contains data that serves to show how people experiencing homeless use their system of care. Like the System Performance Measure, this report aims to see the successes and downfalls of the entire system as a whole, not by project. This report is submitted to HUD on an annual basis via the HDX 2.0.
- To review LSA and AHA reports submitted in the past, click here.
HUD System Performance Measures
The 2009 HEARTH Act mandated that CoC's measure their performance as an entire coordinated system of homeless assistance options, as opposed to homeless assistance programs that operated independently in the community. Thus, the System Performance Measures (SPM) were created in response to this need, and they aim to encourage agencies within CoCs to work collaboratively to reach their shared goal of ending homelessness. The SPM analyze the performance of all project types as a whole and by specific projects.
The SPM includes analysis only for Safe Haven, Emergency Shelter, Transitional Housing, and Permanent Housing (including Permanent Supportive Housing, Rapid Re-Housing, and Other Permanent Housing) project types. The report does not include information on Day Shelters, Coordinated Assessment projects, and projects designated as “Other” (where homelessness is not a requirement for entry).
The System Performance Report looks at the following measures:
- Measure 1: Length of Time Persons Remain Homeless
- Measure 2: The Extent to which Persons who Exit Homelessness to Permanent Housing Destinations Return to Homelessness (Recidivism)
- Measure 3: Number of Homeless Persons
- Measure 4: Employment and Income Growth for Homeless Persons in CoC Program-funded Projects
- Measure 5: Number of persons who become homeless for the 1st time
- Measure 7: Successful Placement from Street Outreach and Successful Placement in or Retention of Permanent Housing
In addition to this being a mandated report, HUD also uses these system-level performance information as an element in their CoC Program Competition and to gauge the state of the homeless response system nationally.
- Orange County's System Performance Reports can be found here.
- More information on System Performance Measures can be found here.
Project Performance Reports
The Project Performance Reports (PPRs) are similar to the CoC Board Report and the System Performance Measures, in that they also look at measures across various project types. The project types include: Permanent Supportive Housing & Other Permanent Housing, Homeless Prevention, Transitional Housing, Rapid Re-housing, and Street Outreach. The PPRs include data from all projects that participate in HMIS, and highlight measures that HUD and the CoC have determined to be important in effectively ending homelessness for clients in Orange County. These reports are created with the goal that providers develop processes for improving performance, and share techniques among one another.
- To review Project Performance Reports for a project type, click here.
- For more information regarding the schedule of these reports, a description of each measure, and the threshold for each project type, click here.
HMIS Data Quality Report Cards
HMIS Data Quality Report Cards are published on a quarterly basis for each project, and review data completeness, data accuracy, and data timeliness.
- To review the Data Quality Report Cards, click here.
CoC Dashboard
On a quarterly basis the HMIS team publishes the CoC Dashboard, which includes demographics and performance data for Orange County as a whole. This dashboard includes all Street Outreach, Emergency Shelter, Transitional Housing, Rapid Re-Housing, Homeless Prevention, Permanent Supportive Housing, and Other Permanent Housing projects that were participating in HMIS during the reporting period.
- The Orange County CoC Dashboards are available here.
