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November 2022 HMIS Agency Admin Eblast

Good Morning,

We are providing this HMIS Agency Admin Eblast in lieu of this month’s Agency Admin meeting which has been canceled. In terms of getting credit for attendance, we will use the distribution of today’s Eblast as your proof of participation. In other words, you will all be marked down as ‘attending' the November 2022 meeting by way of this Eblast.

Q3 Housing Move-in Date Audit Exercise

The Q3 Housing Move-in Date Audit Exercise is well underway. This exercise is completed for all RRH & PSH providers on a quarterly basis. It helps to ensure accurate reporting of the total clients housed during the last quarter as well as the average length of time to housing. The information obtained during the exercise is also used to update the quarterly bed and unit inventory information in HMIS for all RRH projects.

We would like to thank those providers that successfully completed the exercise and submitted their HMD Audit reports (with comments included) by the November 15, 2022, deadline. For those of you who have not yet submitted your HMD Audit reports, this is a friendly reminder to get them in today!

Quarterly Housing Move-In Date Schedule (for future reference):

Emails generally go out during the first week of the month and providers are given approximately two weeks to review the reports, make corrections, and submit the final spreadsheets with the requested status update notes. 

Audit Exercise Completed Time Period Covered

• February for November-January reporting period
• May for February-April reporting period
• August for period of May-July reporting period
• November for August-October reporting period

Insight on the Agency Quarterly Audit Exercise

The Quarterly Agency Audit Spreadsheets for Quarter 3 covering 10/1/2021-

9/30/2022 were due November 1, 2022.  We would like to thank those providers who successfully completed this exercise by the deadline as requested.

Your cooperation and participation in this exercise is not only appreciated but is also essential in ensuring the integrity of your HMIS data. Remember, to provide accurate and relevant data to the Detroit CoC, it is imperative that the HMIS maintains an on-going process of quality improvement. This quarterly audit exercise is an important step in that direction.

Although the next quarter’s reporting period is scheduled to end on 12/31/2022, we highly recommend you focus on addressing data quality errors at least monthly. The following reports used during this quarterly exercise can be of great value in that effort: CoC-APR, Modified 0266 Head of Household Data Quality Report, Unexited Clients with Summary Tab with Max Exit Date, Discharge Summary – All Client Sub populations, Clients with Missing or Expired ROI, and Clients Location Audit Report.

For more insight on the quarterly audit exercise, refer to the training that was offered on June 30^th, 2022. You may find the materials from that training here.

Any questions on these efforts need to be addressed by contacting the help desk at hmissupport@handetroit.org

MTAN developed a version of the Case Note Audit Report that can be run for different goal classifications & types. The report also includes information on the user updating case notes.

End Users can find the Comprehensive Case Note Audit Report in SAP Business Objects > Public Folder> Michigan_live >Provider Specific>Detroit>Data Quality & Audit Reports.

The report details and prompt guidance can be found in the updated ART Report Matrix v8 document stored in the Provider Specific>Detroit folder in Business Objects.

HUD is seeking feedback on proposed changes to the Race, Ethnicity, and Gender Identity Data Elements.

Excerpts taken from information originally distributed via the HUD Exchange.

Centering Clients in Homeless Data Collection

One of the most important things one owns, regardless of whatever else happens, is one's identity. Efforts to end homelessness ultimately begin and end with the people experiencing homelessness. With strong encouragement from people with lived homeless experience, providers, and policymakers, a need was recognized to update the race, ethnicity, and gender data elements in the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS).

As part of a nationwide Technical Assistance (TA) effort, people with lived homeless experience and expertise, Continuum of Care (CoC) leadership and providers, researchers, advocates, and TA providers shared insight to help evaluate these data elements. Through feedback from this effort, HUD has released proposed changes to these important data elements for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 HMIS Data Standards and is seeking additional feedback to improve this process.

Proposed Changes to Demographic HMIS Data Elements

• Race and Ethnicity: The proposed change combines the race and ethnicity data elements into a single element and adds additional response options. It includes a follow-up question that allows people to choose additional responses, or use different language, to identify themselves. People experiencing homelessness should continue to be able to select as many response options as they desire.
• Preferred Language(s): This is a new element. The options are based on the most common languages in the United States, but there is space to enter a different preferred language to allow communities to gather that information.
• Gender: The proposed change adds additional response options and divides the gender question into two parts. The first part of the question is about preferred gender identity, and the follow-up question allows a person to identify if they have had a transgender experience. For the first part of the question, people experiencing homelessness can choose as many identities as they feel represent their gender. For the second part of the question, there should be a single response.

For more information on this effort and on the proposed changes, please refer to the HUD Exchange Community Support to Gather Feedback on Proposed Changes to the Race, Ethnicity, and Gender Identity HMIS Data Elements resource page.

Timeline:

• December 2022- HUD plans to gather feedback on these elements through the end of the calendar year.
• April 2023 - HUD will release draft data standards to Vendors.
• Summer 2023 - Final standards will be released to CoCs (TA Provided).
• October 2023 - Data standards go live in the system.

The HAND HMIS team will be holding a feedback session on Tuesday, November 22, 2022 from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm.

The purpose of this session is to hold an open-ended discussion so participants can share what would enrich the process as HUD considers changes to the data standards. We will gather responses to these proposed changes and will submit them to HUD prior to their December 2022 deadline.

We hope you can join us on Tuesday, November 22nd at 12:30 PM. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. Feel free to share this invite with community partners interested in attending.

We urge you to create a profile on the HelpDesk so that your email address and phone number will populate when you sign in and submit a ticket. Oftentimes, the wrong email address is entered in error which will prevent you from receiving communication(s) sent back from the HelpDesk. Additional advantages of creating a profile account include the ability to:

• View ‘Member Only’ Articles
• Submit tickets without the Captcha
• Track your Tickets through ‘My Area’
• Participate in Community Forums

HAND P&P Webinar (Date TBD)

HAND is currently working on updating their HMIS Policies and Procedures. The information contained in this document includes but is not limited to; the minimum standards of participation on the Michigan Statewide Homeless Management Information System (MSHMIS) as defined in the 2022 MSHMIS Operating Policies and Procedures and as identified in the HUD HMIS Lead Standards. Once the document has been completed, a HAND P&P Webinar will be scheduled to review the document with all HMIS users.

Mark Your Calendar!