Report to
the Continuum of Care Steering Committee
A. History of HMIS in
From 1990 to
2001, the Columbus & Franklin County Homeless Management Information System
(HMIS) was operated by FirstLINK under agreement with the Community Shelter
Board (CSB). During that time the
function of the HMIS was to primarily provide statistical information to the
Community Shelter Board. For a variety of reasons related to the design and age
of the system, many agencies developed their own tracking systems to manage
their day-to-day information needs, although information managed by FirstLINK
was often used as a cross-check with these internal systems.
In early 2000,
the Community Shelter Board began a planning process to develop recommendations
for a new management information system to support the delivery of homeless
services and housing in
Based on the work
of the planning committee, ServicePoint by Bowman Internet Systems was selected
as the recommended software application.
ServicePoint is a web-based product designed for social service agencies
and communities to allow them to manage client information and resource data. It was chosen following a comparative analysis
with other available HMIS products. The
local HMIS conversion to ServicePoint occurred on
B. 2001 HMIS Application to HUD
In 2001 the
Community Shelter Board submitted an application to the U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development for $128,316 to support the HMIS upgrade. The total project cost was $309,867 for the
three year period beginning in 2002, with additional funds provided through the
Rebuilding Lives Funder Collaborative, Seimer Family Foundation, and the
Community Shelter Board. Funds have been
used to purchase ServicePoint, convert FirstLINK data into the new system, and
to hire a System Administrator responsible for training end user personnel,
providing management oversight and technical assistance to system users. The 2001 project plan outlined in the HUD application
included HUD funding for only the HMIS System Administrator. Additional user training and oversight at the
agency level was to be provided by agency site administrators. A renewal funding request to HUD for HMIS is
being developed for the 2004 consolidated application.
C. 2003-04 HMIS Status
·
Current System: Bowman
Internet Systems ServicePoint 2.05
·
CSB HMIS Budget:
System Administrator: 48,365 0.8 FTE System Administrator
Bowman Expenses: 43,000 contract, customization, other
training/support
User Training: 1,800 meals,
space, related expenses
Other CSB Staff Costs: 12,230 0.1
FTE Program Director & Front Office Assist.
TOTAL: $105,395
Revenue: HUD SHP: $50,000
Other
CSB: $55,395
·
HMIS Participating Agencies, Programs and
Users:
|
Prevention |
|
|
Gladden
Community House |
Homelessness Prevention
Program |
|
LSS-Faith
Mission/Faith Housing |
Homelessness
Prevention Program |
|
Permanent Supportive Housing |
|
|
Community
Housing Network |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Safe Haven |
|
|
Scattered Site
(ended |
|
|
|
Commons at
Grant |
|
Southeast, Inc. |
Scattered Site |
|
Volunteers of |
Scattered Site (ended
|
|
YMCA |
Sunshine
Terrace |
|
Permanent
Supportive Housing at 40 W. Long Street |
|
|
Shelter, Housing Services, Direct Housing |
|
|
Catholic Social
Services |
Family Housing
Collaborative |
|
Barbara Bonner
Family Shelter |
|
|
Barbara Bonner
Family Shelter-Housing Resource Specialist |
|
|
LSS-Faith
Mission/Faith Housing |
|
|
|
|
|
Faith |
|
|
Faith |
|
|
Faith |
|
|
Faith |
|
|
Faith |
|
|
|
|
|
Friends of the
Homeless |
Men's Emergency
Shelter |
|
Men’s |
|
|
Men’s Emergency
Shelter-Housing Resource Specialist |
|
|
Rebecca’s Place |
|
|
Rebecca's
Place-Transition |
|
|
Rebecca's |
|
|
Homeless
Families Foundation |
Family Shelter |
|
Jewish Family
Services |
Family Housing
Collaborative |
|
Maryhaven |
|
|
Outreach |
|
|
Salvation Army |
Family Housing
Collaborative |
|
Volunteers of |
Family Shelter |
|
Men's Shelter |
|
|
YWCA |
Interfaith
Hospitality Network |
|
Interfaith
Hospitality Network-Housing Resource Specialist |
|
|
Interfaith
Hospitality Network-Direct Housing |
|
|
WINGS |
|
Total Current Users: 102 (126 licenses issued)
·
HMIS Management at System and Program Levels
System Level (CSB)
Staff:
0.8 FTE System Administrator
0.1 FTE Program Director
0.1 FTE Front Office Assistant
Responsibilities:
HMIS policies and procedures development
and oversight; individual and group site administrator training and technical
assistance; group user training; system and program level report generation for
funders, evaluation, and research; quality assurance monitoring and compliance;
system error reporting, resolution and maintenance with Bowman Internet Systems.
Program Level
Staff:
1 Site Administrator and 1 back-up Site
Administrator at each agency
Responsibilities:
HMIS policies and procedures
implementation; individual and group user training and supervision; adherence
to quality assurance standards; report generation for agency/program use.
·
Data Collected
The following data elements are required to be
entered by each program participating in HMIS for clients served:
·
Client name
|
·
Entry
date |
·
Gross
monthly income amount at intake |
·
Client SSN
|
·
Veteran
status |
·
Exit
date |
|
·
Client
birth date |
·
Education level
|
·
Reason
for leaving |
·
Client gender
|
·
Disabled
or handicapped |
· Destination |
·
Client race
|
·
Employment
status |
·
General area
exit
|
|
·
Client
Hispanic/Latino |
·
Homeless
status |
·
Gross monthly
income amount at exit
|
|
·
Household
relationship |
·
Type
of previous housing |
·
Gross
monthly income amount at exit |
|
·
Family
status |
·
Primary
reason for crisis |
·
Date
of need (DCA programs) |
|
·
Family
member names |
·
Secondary
reason for crisis |
·
Need
type (DCA programs) |
|
·
Family
member birth dates |
·
Previous
zip code |
·
Referral
(DCA programs) |
|
·
Family
member SSN |
·
Previous
general area |
·
Service
cost (DCA programs) |
|
·
Family
member gender |
·
Financial resources at intake
|
·
Need
status (DCA programs) |
|
·
Head
of household |
·
Gross monthly
income amount at intake
|
|
Per HMIS policy, data is to be entered for all
clients served in a given month by the fourth business day of the following
month.
·
Quality Assurance
In order to ensure data quality, CSB produces and
disseminates monthly, quarterly and semi-annual quality assurance reports to
agencies participating in HMIS for each program. Agencies are responsible for entering the
above data for 95% of all clients within each data element. Quality assurance monitoring also includes
examining other indicators to measure data accuracy and completeness, including
unusual changes in numbers served compared to prior periods and whether
erroneous data was entered or otherwise appears in a program report (e.g.
single adults appearing in a family only program).
The quality assurance monitoring and remediation
process is both exhaustive and time intensive at the system and program level. This is due in part to the lack of ‘edit
checks’ in ServicePoint, which prevent users from entering erroneous or
incomplete date, as well as user inexperience with data systems and regular
turnover that leads to inconsistent data entry practices. CSB continues to work with agencies to
develop program level quality assurance processes. All agencies have dramatically improved the
accuracy and completeness of data entered since the initial conversion to
ServicePoint in 2001.
·
Client Confidentiality
Clients served by agencies participating in HMIS are
asked to sign releases for both the collection and release of information to
CSB and other HMIS participating agencies.
Such consent is optional, as clients have the right to refuse their
permission for the collection or release information while still receiving
services. When this occurs the client is
entered as ‘anonymous’ in HMIS and provided a system generated identification
number. Agencies are responsible for
fully informing clients of their rights and to following agency specific
policies and procedures regarding client confidentiality.
·
Data Reports
CSB routinely runs monthly, quarterly and semi-annual
reports from HMIS on individual programs for quality assurance purposes, as
noted above. Data is also generated for
funder reports, program evaluation, and planning purposes. However, due to the software limitations of ServicePoint
2.05, CSB has had to manually generate system level reports. This has proven to be inefficient for regular
system reporting, evaluation, and planning purposes. CSB is very dissatisfied with ServicePoint’s
reporting capabilities and has been challenged to develop regular, alternative
means of producing system level data reports due to both software and resource
limitations.
·
HUD Standards and Proposed Requirements
On
·
HMIS Upgrade Planning
CSB intends to
upgrade from ServicePoint 2.05 and is in the initial planning stages of this
process. CSB and HMIS participating
agencies recognize that the current HMIS lacks sufficient data entry and
reporting functionality to fully meet our local needs. Bowman Internet Services has also developed
and implemented the next generation of ServicePoint (3.02), while at the same
time other HMIS products have emerged that may also be compatible with our
needs. CSB is working to secure technical
assistance resources through HUD in order to fully activate our planning
efforts. The planning process will be
deliberative and thorough, taking into account what we have learned since 2001
regarding data entry, quality assurance, reporting, training, and agency staff
and technical capacities. CSB intends to
work closely with agency site administrators, who have agreed to serve in an
advisory capacity in the planning process.
The product chosen for the upgrade will have to be fully compliant with
HUD standards. The goal is to complete
the upgrade in CSB’s next fiscal year.
As part of our
preliminary HMIS upgrade planning CSB has begun and examination of internal
staffing and resources needed for both the current HMIS and an upgraded HMIS
with expanded coverage of local agencies and programs. It is abundantly clear that the current HMIS
is under-resourced with respect to staff assistance for functions such as
training and technical assistance, quality assurance, reporting and other
related tasks. Current HMIS staffing
also prohibits the expansion of HMIS to other agencies in the Continuum of
Care.
CSB received the attached
information regarding HMIS projects in other urban communities in order to
better discern appropriate and adequate staffing levels.
|
Jurisdiction |
Project Type |
Avg. Annual Cost |
Budget
Break Down |
Total
FTE |
FTE Break Down |
||||
|
Equipment |
Software |
Service |
Personnel |
Operation |
|||||
|
|
MacLINK Non-web |
$61,500 |
6% |
5% |
34% |
54% |
- |
5.10 |
2.0 TA/Training 1.0 Admin 1.0 Programming 1.1 Project
Management |
|
|
ROSIE Non-web Vendor hosted |
$448,870 |
- |
22% |
- |
78% |
- |
1.1 |
0.1 Project
Management 1.0 TA/Training |
|
| |||||||||