VA Programs in HMIS:HMIS System Administrators

Training on Project Set-Up.

All content has been approved by:

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Office of Special Needs Assistance Programs

and

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Purpose

The training is one of a 4 part series designed to provide HMIS System Administrators and HMIS Lead Agency Staff an understanding of project set-up for different HMIS Federal Partner Programs including:

• The funding program and component as they relate to HMIS Project Types

• What Program Specific Data Elements collection requirements for different program components.

• Special data collection issues and FAQ’s

• Reporting overview and timeframe

Programs covered in this lesson:

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

• Comprehensive Work Therapy/Transitional Residence (CWT/TR)

• Grant and Per Diem (GPD)

• Healthcare for Homeless Veterans Contract Emergency

Residential Services (HCHV/CERS)

• Healthcare for Homeless Veterans Contract Safe Haven

(HCHV/SH)

• Mental Health Residential Rehabilitation Treatment Program –

Domiciliary Care for Homeless Veterans (VADOM)

• Supportive Services for Veterans Families (SSVF)

Resources

• HMIS Program Specific Manuals are available on the HUD Exchange for each of the HMIS Federal Partner Programs:• HUD CoC Program

• HUD ESG Program

• HUD HOPWA Program

• HHS RHY Program

• HHS PATH Program

• VA Programs

• Information about HMIS is located HMIS Section on the HUD Exchange

• Program information can be found at the Homeless Section of the VA Website

Submitting Questions

• Due to the high volume of participants, all participants will

be muted through the presentation.

• Questions can be posted at any time during the webinar

via the “Questions” pane of the Go-to-Meeting.

• All questions that we do not have time to respond to

should be submitted via the Ask A Question on the HUD

Exchange – selecting HMIS in Step 2

Set-up process

Organization ID

Project ID CoC Code

Project Typing

Method of Tracking ES

Federal Partner Funding Source

Bed & Unit Inventory

Organizational & Project ID’s

•2.1 Organizational Identifier

• Legal Name of the Organization &

system generated ID

•2.3 The CoC Code

• Use the CoC codes based on the

location the project operates in.

Organizational & Project ID’s (cont.)

2.2 The Project Name - Name of the

Project & system generated IDVA Program HMIS Project Name

Prefix

Compensated Work Therapy – Transitional Residence

CWT/TR

Grant and Per Diem GPD

HCHV Contract Emergency Residential Services

HCHV/CERS

HCHV Community Contract Safe Haven HCHV/SH

Mental Health Residential Rehabilitation

Treatment Program – Domiciliary Care for Homeless Veterans

VADOM

Supportive Services for Veteran Families SSVF

2.4 HMIS Project Type –

for the VA Programs

VA Program Component HMIS Project Type

CWT – Transitional Residence Transitional Housing

Grant and Per Diem Transitional Housing

HCHV Contract Emergency Residential Services

Emergency Shelter

HCHV Community Contract Safe Haven Safe Haven

Mental Health Residential Rehabilitation Treatment Program – Domiciliary Care for Homeless Veterans

Emergency Shelter

Supportive Services for Veteran Families Homelessness PreventionRapid Re-Housing(two separate projects)

2.5 Method of Tracking ES

The Entry/Exit (E/E) method

• This method is used for all HCHV Contract Emergency Residential Services

• The method requires an entry, a continuous stay, and an exit.

• The length of stay will be calculated based on the number of nights between project entry and project exit and performance will include changes between project entry and project exit data collection stages.

2.6 Federal Partner Funding Sources

Select:

• Compensated Work Therapy Transitional Residence

• VA: Grant and Per Diem Program

• VA: Community Contract Emergency Housing

• VA: Community Contract Safe Haven Program

• VA: Domiciliary Care

• VA: Supportive Services for Veteran Families

The grant identifier for a VA project must be the

grant/contract number of the project.

System administrators must be aware that grant numbers

and dates will change annually and must be updated prior

to any transfer of data.

2.7 Bed & Unit Inventory

Projects which are typed:

• Emergency Shelter

• Transitional Housing

Must complete the bed and unit inventory information.

This information should match the information provided by

the CoC for the Housing Inventory Count.

All project types collect all

Universal Data Elements

• Name

• Social Security Number

• Date of Birth

• Race

• Ethnicity

• Gender

• Veteran Status

• Disabling Condition

• Residence Prior to Program Entry

• Project Entry Date

• Project Exit Date

• Destination

• Relationship to Head of Household

• Client Location

• Length of Time on the Streets

Note on Households:

Universal Data Elements

• To be able to identify each client as a unique individual in a household the HMIS will automatically generate a Personal ID on each client and then group that client with the other persons in the project with them by a Household ID.

• It is important that whatever search methodology your system uses to help users connect the client with an existing record in the system for the same client is emphasized in all trainings for new users.

• Users must enter what the relationship is of the person you are entering data on to the rest of the household.

Program Specific

In the 2014 Data Dictionary and Data Manual there are

instructions about which programs and components collect

which program specific data elements.

The VA Program Specific section contain lists of elements

required for SSVF.

If your system has the ability to turn on and off element

fields it is critical that you make sure the settings for the

collection of program specific data elements are correct

based on the project type and funding source.

Veteran Specific Elements

The SSVF project – both Prevention and RRH HMIS

Project Types must collect:

• 4.41 Veteran Information

• 4.42 Percent of AMI

• This is not a calculation from income and sources but from the VA

Annual Income Worksheet.

• 4.43 Last Permanent Address

RRH – Residential Move in Date

There are two acceptable methods of collecting data on RRH clients prior to their moving into housing.

Method 1: Residential Move In Date (Element 4.17)

Method 2: Pre Entry Project (HMIS Project Type: Services Only)

It is critical for counting participants in housing that one of these are used to indicate the date the household moved into RRH housing. If the client never moves in then no residential move in date is used.

Data collection stages

• Record Creation – when an element has one and only

one value (e.g. name)

• Project Entry –

• residential projects (except RRH) = date of move in

• street outreach = date of first contact

• Service projects = date of first service/intake/assessment

• Update – when an element changes (e.g. income) with

the information date identifying the date the data is

collected or was relevant.

Data collection stages

• Annual Assessment – For all clients in project for one

year, each year thereafter.

• The annual assessment is to be recorded no more than 30 days

before or after the anniversary of the client’s Project Entry Date,

regardless of the date of the most recent ‘update’. Information

must be accurate as of the Information Date.

• Information must be recorded as an Annual Assessment or will

not be reported in future APR’s or Performance Measures.

• Project exit – date of exit

A note on HUD-VASH

• HUD-VASH data may be entered into your HMIS if locally

you have someone to enter it other than VA staff.

• For the VAMC to participate in providing information about

a particular Veteran household, there must be a release of

information (ROI) signed by the Veteran to allow

information sharing between VAMCs and CoCs.

• Release of Information (ROI) VA Form 10-5345

HUD-VASH Data

• If you are entering HUD-VASH Data

The intake date in HOMES does not correspond to the Project Entry

Date in HMIS. You will need to obtain the actual date of “move into

housing” for project entry in HMIS.

Missing information – a HOMES export is going to be missing the

following: family information, update and assessment

information. HUD and VA are in continuing discussions on what

other HUD-VASH data can be made available

Data Reporting

• SSVF requires a data transfer using HMIS CSV 4.0.

• Vendors have been provided a tool to assess that their

CSV 4.0 is correctly programmed which most have used

and address their issues.

• The issue of data quality is the current focus of the

transfer and your project may receive back information

DQ issues that must be addressed.

Questions?

Information on VA Homeless programs can be found at the Homeless

Section of the VA Website

HUD will assist with specific HMIS questions through the AAQ Portal (be

sure you identify it is an HMIS question)