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Center for Social Policy
McCormack Graduate School 
University of Massachusetts Boston
100 Morrissey Blvd.
Boston, MA 02125-3393
Phone: (617) 287 5550
Fax: (617) 287 5544

Homeless Management Information Systems

The Center for Social Policy is an acknowledged national authority on Homeless Management Information Systems (HMISs). HMISs are computerized data collection applications designed to capture client-level information over time on the characteristics and service needs of men, women, and children experiencing homelessness. An HMIS may be an off-the-shelf product, a vendor-developed database application, or a community’s homegrown software system. HMISs are designed to aggregate client-level data to generate an unduplicated count of clients served within a community’s system of homeless services – often referred to as the Continuum of Care (CoC). HMISs can also cover a statewide or regional area, and include several CoCs. For those included in an unduplicated count, the HMIS can provide data on client characteristics and service utilization.


2007 HUD New England Regional HMIS Conference--Making the Data Count

On May 14, 2007, The Center for Social Policy, NERHMIS, Cloudburst, and Abt convened the 2007 New England Regional HMIS Conference at UMass Boston. The presentations and materials from this conference are found at the following links:
Click for Conference Presentations
Click for Conference Website

If you cite any sections of the above presentations, please accurately cite the appropriate authors listed on respective title page.

-- Thank you.

2006 HUD New England Regional HMIS Conference

On April 10, 2006, The Center for Social Policy convened a New England Regional HMIS Conference at UMass Boston. The presentations and materials from this conference are linked below.

If you cite any sections of the above presentations, please accurately cite the appropriate authors listed on respective title page.

-- Thank you.

NERHMIS Consumer Involvement Page

The website is designed to be one-stop shopping where visitors to the website can find both written materials on the benefits, challenges, and history of consumer involvement (CI) with HMIS as well as practical tools to engage the community, consumers, and HMIS implementers, on this issue, and links to other consumer involvement and HMIS related sites. something you want to write

The intended audience for this website is anyone interested in HMIS, homeless consumer involvement, and/or those interested in ending homelessness. This includes homeless consumers, HMIS project planners, Continuum of Care representatives, federal, state, and local government officials, researchers, and advocates for homeless people.


View Page

Journal Articles

Managing project expectations in human services information systems implementations: The case of homeless management information systems (October 2005)
See Publications page.

National Technical Assistance

Through contracts with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), CSP has conducted trainings and provided technical assistance across the country on HMIS and has produced the following materials to assist communities implementing an HMIS:

New England Regional Technical Assistance

CSP has been the HUD Regional Technical Assistance for HMIS for the New Rngland Region since 2001. As part of that TA, CSP develops trainings, papers, regional conferences, and provides phone and on-site support to assist the implementation of effective HMIS projects through New England. CSP works to help communities meet HUD requirements as well as benefit homeless people and communities addressing homelessness. The Center works closely with the New England Regional HMIS organization, a group of HMIS implementers in each of the New England States.

DTA and Other HMIS Solutions in Massachusetts

CSP is providing information on the HMIS currently under development by the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA). CSP has gathered information through ongoing discussions with DTA as well as at several forums hosted by DTA around the state. We also provideinformation on other HMIS solutions currently operating in Massachusetts, and the extent to which their system will be able to interact with DTA's sytstem for statewide reporting. We surveyed these providers via email. View Page

Local Implementations and Technical Assistance

In addition to its national work, CSP has been deeply involved in several local HMIS implementations.

Connection Service Partnership through Technology (CSP Tech) Massachusetts

CSP is the lead organization implementing the Massachusetts state-wide HMIS implementation. Learn More

Los Angeles County HMIS

CSP is helping Los Angeles County to implement its HMIS. CSP's role includes facilitation of local community processes in order to develop a shared vision and plan of action.

Safe Harbors, Seattle and King County, Washington State

CSP worked with Seattle and King County regions of Washington State to design and implement a homeless services information management system, Safe Harbors. This extensive project entails working closely with a broad group of local stakeholders to:

  • articulate community needs, vision, and mission for the system;
  • assess current technological resource capacities;
  • provide information on detailed system requirements and economic feasibility;
  • recommend technical infrastructure, including privacy protection and access to data policies;
  • design decision, coordination, and evaluation structures; and
  • develop an implementation strategy

Evaluations

IMPACT – Information Management, Public Access, Community Transformation, Lake County, Illinois

The Planning Department in Lake County, Illinois received a Department of Labor TIIAP grant to implement the IMPACT project. The goals of the IMPACT project are “to improve access to and delivery of human services for low-income residents, strengthen community planning and resource allocation, and enhance understanding of data on homelessness can be gathered and aggregated on local and national levels to accurately capture the scope of the problem and the effectiveness of efforts to ameliorate it.” IMPACT utilizes the Internet, Interactive Voice Response, Geographic Information System interfaces, touch-screen kiosks, and interactive multi-media centers to implement a an HMIS with a state of the art information and referral system. CSP was commissioned to produce a series of evaluation reports of the IMPACT project.
Year One Report (September 2001)
Year Two Report (December 2002)
Final Report (August 2004)

Publications and Other Materials

Technical Guidelines for Unduplicating and De-identifying HMIS Client Records  (August 2005)
Translating HMIS data into an unduplicated count is not simple. Obtaining an unduplicated count while allowing specialized providers to submit de-identified data is especially challenging. This paper specifies a multi-field approach to unduplication that flexibly and accurately accounts for the possibility of missing or inaccurate information. The paper also proposes a method of de-identification based on hashing, which strongly conceals client personal information. The unduplication method can be applied to de-identified data as well as identifiable data. The guidelines contain both explanatory information of interest to a nontechnical audience as well as technical specifications for software developers and database administrators.

Enhancing HMIS Data Quality  (July 2005)
Achieving the goals of HMIS requires quality data. This paper describes program and system level strategies to improve data quality. Separate chapters provide information and tips for front-line and data entry staff, program directors, CoC and implementation-level HMIS managers and administrators, and software providers. An accompanying PowerPoint training template is available at www.HMIS.Info. This presentation can be adapted for local data quality trainings. The appendices include valuable resources, such as a sample data collection form, a list of validation checks for particular fields, and sample data quality reports. To view "Enhancing HMIS Data Quality" and the accompanying data quality training template

HMIS XML Schema Package  (March 2005)
The authoritative version of this package can be found on the Data Integration and XML Schema page at www.hmis.info.

CSP produced for HUD an HMIS XML schema, which includes all the data elements in HUD's HMIS Final Regulations. The schema achieves economies of scale by relieving communities and vendors of the burden of developing many separate specifications and solutions for the same need. It also provides a software-neutral alternative to propietary standards of HMIS solution providers. The package consists of multiple parts:
  • A rationale for the schema, including an overview of the process and a description and explanation of the model.
  • A description of the steps involved beyond creation of a data standard, including development of communication protocols and documentation of responsibilities.
  • An XML schema document (XSD)
  • Document Type Definition (DTD) document. Some legacy systems cannot work with an XSD. We have included a DTD for compatibility with those systems.
  • A sample, valid XML document with dummy data.
  • An Entity-Relationship Diagram (ERD), which represents a logical model of a relational database that closely approximates the XML Schema document. The ERD will help people more familiar with relational modeling to understand the schema. It can also be used as a template for an aggregate database.
  • Sample code for importing XML data in this schema to a SQL Server database that matches the ERD.
HMIS Project Management: Topics and Tools  (January 2005)
This paper assists HMIS project managers by describing the primary tasks associated with overseeing HMIS operations and providing numerous sample documents to assist with these tasks. This document provids an overall picture of HMIS management followed by more detailed descriptions of specific tasks. The core chapters are described below.
  • Overview of HMIS Management Tasks outlines the overall tasks that need to be managed as part of operating an HMIS.
  • Staffing Models for HMIS Management describes staff roles and overall staffing models that have been used around the country to manage the broad array of HMIS management tasks.
  • Managing Project Operations provides additional information on a subset of the project operations tasks, including managing the project plan, policies and procedures, agency management, and software provider relations.
  • Managing the HMIS Community provides additional information on the community management tasks, including communicating with stakeholders; working with HMIS committees, working groups, user groups, and homeless consumers; as well as maintaining relationships with the other HMIS implementers and the broader local community.
  • Appendices: Samples and Resources includes numerous sample documents to illustrate the points discussed in this document. The documents can also be used as templates to simplify the process of developing forms for your community.

HMIS Integration Strategies and Solutions  (September 2003)
This paper highlights Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) integration strategies and solutions that communities can use to address local data integration challenges to help them meet the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD’s) requirement to have an HMIS by 2004. Communities are challenged to integrate data from multiple systems for the purpose of generating a more complete picture of the extent of homelessness and the demographics and needs of persons served within their jurisdictions.

Electronic HMIS Consumer Guide (May 2003)

The Electronic HMIS Consumer Guide, developed under contract with the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development, is an interactive software application that allows Continua to review vendors and software in light of the Continuum's needs and to prepare an HMIS cost estimate.

For questions, please e-mail ehmis@umb.edu

Consumer Guide to Homeless Management Information Systems (January 2003)
The Consumer Guide, commissioned under a subcontract with Aspen Systems Corporation in partnership with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, contains an in-depth review of 11 HMIS software solutions. It discusses the range of technical, functional, and other considerations involved in software selection and examines each solution in light of these considerations. Communities' operational needs, system requirements, technical capabilities, and financial resources vary. The document provides useful information to assist readers during the HMIS selection process; however, each community's own needs will serve as the lens through which to read this document. Readers should use this guide to understand the range of products that are available and to narrow their search to those systems that have features and performance consistent with local requirements. The guide should not be used exclusively to select a system. It does not contain an exhaustive review of all HMIS software applications and does not endorse or recommend specific solutions.

Archive
Homeless Management Information Systems: An In-Depth Look (January 2001)

Client-Level Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) Data APR Reporting and Uses of Data: Issues and Options (October 2002)
HUD requested analytic assistance for assessing the feasibility of HUD receiving client-level data in the Annual Progress Report (APR) process. This Issues Paper provides guidance to prepare HUD to meet congressional expectations and to fulfill its own plan as explained in the Department’s August 2001 Report to Congress: HUD’s Strategy for Homeless Data Collection, Analysis and Reporting. The Issues Paper introduces topics and raises questions for HUD to consider in making policy about the HMIS data: its potential uses, holders and users. The central question we provide guidance on is:  How will HMIS client-level data, generated from communities across the country, be handled for national-level analytical and reporting purposes? Project Summary
Due to the sensitive nature of this report, only a project summary is provided

Homeless Management Information Systems: Implementation Guide (September 2002)

This guide, commissioned under a subcontract with Aspen Systems Corporation in partnership with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, presents a set of steps to implementing a Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) – from planning through implementation. The Implementation Guide is designed in a step-by-step format beginning with an overview, which defines an HMIS, describes the benefits in relation to functional options, and introduces privacy, security, and consumer involvement issues. Throughout the document, suggested exercises and examples guide system design and community decision-making.

Archive
Homeless Service Tracking System Implementation Guide (October 1999)

HMIS Cost Estimation Guidelines: Cost Framework and Submission Recommendations(January 2002)

The document presents a framework that describes HMIS cost categories and items. The document also presents recommendations on how to collect cost estimation data.
 

 
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