Homeless Management Information Systems

Last updated

Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) is a class of database applications used to confidentially aggregate data on homeless populations served in the United States. Such software applications record and store client-level information on the characteristics and service needs of homeless persons. An HMIS is typically a web-based software application that homeless assistance providers use to coordinate care, manage their operations, and better serve their clients.

HMIS implementations can encompass geographic areas ranging from a single county to an entire state. An HMIS knits together homeless assistance providers within a community and creates a more coordinated and effective housing and service delivery system.

The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and other planners and policymakers at the federal, state and local levels use aggregate HMIS data to obtain better information about the extent and nature of homelessness over time. Specifically, an HMIS can be used to produce an unduplicated count of homeless persons, understand patterns of service use, and measure the effectiveness of homeless programs.

Homeless Management Information Systems were first developed in the late 1990s in response to a mandate by Congress requiring States to collect this data as a condition of receiving federal money from HUD to serve homeless populations. The impetus behind this mandate was to reduce and eventually solve homelessness, a problem which could never be solved if it was not understood and if progress toward that goal was not tracked.

HUD mandated that each Continuum of Care (CoC) for the Homeless must implement an HMIS, but they did not require the use of a particular application, they do, however, provide specifications which all HMIS software must meet for collection and reporting of data. Some CoCs utilize locally developed or 'homegrown' software, but the majority adopted one of a number of commercially available HMIS applications. [1] In July 2004, HUD published the HMIS Data and Technical Standards [2] in the Federal Register, with the intent of standardizing collection of client and program-level data on homeless service usage among programs within a community and across all communities. In March 2010, HUD published a revision of the HMIS Data Standards, updated to incorporate data collection required for the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP), which was funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009; to align with intended changes to program-level reporting requirements; and to address feedback from CoCs requesting clarification and modification of some of the previous data elements. [3]

Most HMIS applications also serve as outcome-based systems that facilitate timely, efficient, and effective access to needed services and supports for persons who are homeless. For instance, percentage of individuals who are in permanent housing at the time they exit a program is a metric used for evaluation. Other data fields focus on developing a picture of unduplicated counts, use of specific services and the effectiveness of the local homeless assistance systems.

HUD, apparently finding HMIS to be helpful in evaluating success in different grantee jurisdictions, and in reporting to Congress, has begun a renewed emphasis on having its Continuum of Care grantees convert to HMIS. 2010–2011 awards will be affected by metrics under HMIS and so some jurisdictions are moving quickly to bring their service providers into compliance.

Related Research Articles

In telecommunication, provisioning involves the process of preparing and equipping a network to allow it to provide new services to its users. In National Security/Emergency Preparedness telecommunications services, "provisioning" equates to "initiation" and includes altering the state of an existing priority service or capability.

SCADA is a control system architecture comprising computers, networked data communications and graphical user interfaces for high-level supervision of machines and processes. It also covers sensors and other devices, such as programmable logic controllers, which interface with process plant or machinery.

Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) consists of a set of extensions to the Windows Driver Model that provides an operating system interface through which instrumented components provide information and notification. WMI is Microsoft's implementation of the Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) and Common Information Model (CIM) standards from the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Homelessness in the United States</span>

In the United States, the number of homeless people on a given night in January 2023 was more than 650,000 according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Homelessness has increased in recent years, in large part due to an increasingly severe housing shortage and rising home prices in the United States.

Section 8 of the Housing Act of 1937, often called Section 8, as repeatedly amended, authorizes the payment of rental housing assistance to private landlords on behalf of low-income households in the United States. 68% of total rental assistance in the United States goes to seniors, children, and those with disabilities. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development manages Section 8 programs.

In the context of software engineering, software quality refers to two related but distinct notions:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Office of Community Planning and Development</span>

The Community Planning and Development agency within the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) administers the grant programs that help communities plan and finance their growth and development, increase their capacity to govern, and provide shelter and services for homeless people. HUD is a national program, and HUD provides funding directly to larger cities and counties, and for smaller cities and counties, generally to state government. HUD's programs include the Community Development Block Grant Program and the HOME program.

Supportive housing is a combination of housing and services intended as a cost-effective way to help people live more stable, productive lives, and is an active "community services and funding" stream across the United States. It was developed by different professional academics and US governmental departments that supported housing. Supportive housing is widely believed to work well for those who face the most complex challenges—individuals and families confronted with homelessness and who also have very low incomes and/or serious, persistent issues that may include substance use disorders, mental health, HIV/AIDS, chronic illness, diverse disabilities or other serious challenges to stable housing.

A dedicated hosting service, dedicated server, or managed hosting service is a type of Internet hosting in which the client leases an entire server not shared with anyone else. This is more flexible than shared hosting, as organizations have full control over the server(s), including choice of operating system, hardware, etc.

Software as a service is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. SaaS is also known as on-demand software, web-based software, or web-hosted software.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">McKinney–Vento Homeless Assistance Act</span> Federal law in the United States

The McKinney–Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 1987 is a United States federal law that provides federal money for homeless shelter programs. It was the first significant federal legislative response to homelessness, and was passed by the 100th United States Congress and signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on July 22, 1987. The act has been reauthorized several times over the years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canadian Institute for Health Information</span>

The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) is an independent, not-for-profit organization that provides essential information on Canada’s health systems and the health of Canadians. CIHI provides comparable and actionable data and information that are used to accelerate improvements in health care, health system performance and population health across Canada.

Mobile device management (MDM) is the administration of mobile devices, such as smartphones, tablet computers, and laptops. MDM is usually implemented with the use of a third-party product that has management features for particular vendors of mobile devices. Though closely related to Enterprise Mobility Management and Unified Endpoint Management, MDM differs slightly from both: unlike MDM, EMM includes mobile information management, BYOD, mobile application management and mobile content management, whereas UEM provides device management for endpoints like desktops, printers, IoT devices, and wearables as well.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act of 1996</span> United States law

The Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act of 1996 (NAHASDA) simplifies and reorganizes the system of providing housing assistance to federally recognized Native American tribes to help improve their housing and other infrastructure. It reduced the regulatory strictures that burdened tribes and essentially provided for block grants so that they could apply funds to building or renovating housing as they saw fit. This was in line with other federal programs that recognized the sovereignty of tribes and allowed them to manage the funds according to their own priorities. A new program division was established at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that combined several previous programs into one block grant program committed to the goal of tribal housing. The legislation has been reauthorized and amended several times since its passage.

Perhaps the most accurate and current data on homelessness in the United States is reported annually by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in the Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress (AHAR). The AHAR report relies on data from two sources: single-night, point-in-time counts of both sheltered and unsheltered homeless populations reported on the Continuum of Care applications to HUD; and counts of the sheltered homeless population over a full year provided by a sample of communities based on data in their local Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS).

The Vulnerability Index is a survey and analysis methodology for "identifying and prioritizing the street homeless population for housing according to the fragility of their health". It is a pragmatic methodology based on concern and inquiry into the reasons for recurring fatalities of homeless living in the outdoor urban context. It was developed by Jim O'Connell of Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program.

Launch Housing is a secular Melbourne-based community organisation that delivers homelessness services and housing supports to disadvantaged Victorians.

Homeless veterans are persons who have served in the armed forces who are homeless or living without access to secure and appropriate accommodation.

Home health care software sometimes referred to as home care software or home health software falls under the broad category of health care information technology (HIT). HIT is “the application of information processing involving both computer hardware and software that deals with the storage, retrieval, sharing, and use of health care information, data, and knowledge for communication and decision making” Home health software is designed specifically for companies employing home health providers, as well as government entities who track payments to home health care providers.

Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) was established by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in 2011 to create public-private partnerships to rapidly re-house homeless Veteran families and prevent homelessness for very low-income Veterans at imminent risk due to a housing crisis. SSVF has been led since its inception by John Kuhn, the previous VA National Director of Homeless Evaluation.

References

  1. ↑ "HMIS Software Vendors". HMIS.info Website Online. Archived from the original on July 24, 2008. Retrieved December 8, 2012.
  2. ↑ "Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS); Data and Technical Standards Final Notice". Federal Register Online. 2004. Retrieved December 8, 2012.
  3. ↑ "Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS) Data Standards Revised Notice" (PDF). HUD Homelessness Resource Exchange Online. 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 27, 2010. Retrieved December 8, 2012.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.