What is HMIS?

HMIS (Homeless Management Information System) is an electronic database used to hold information on the characteristics and service needs of persons experiencing poverty and homelessness in Lane County. Various funders require projects to record data in the HMIS database in order to stay competitive for funding, and Lane County uses this data in local and state planning processes.

WellSky Community Services is a Management Information System used to record and share information among service-providers on services provided to at-risk, homeless, or near homeless clients. 

Lane County has 30 Agencies with more than 220 Projects in WellSky. 



Lane County Agencies Using WellSky

  • Alliance for Community Wellness
  • Ann's Heart
  • Arc of Lane County
  • Black Thistle
  • Carry It Forward
  • Catholic Community Services 
  • Centro Latino Americano
  • City of Eugene
  • Community Sharing of Cottage Grove
  • Community Supported Shelters
  • Connected Lane County
  • Devereux Center
  • DevNW 
  • Equitable Social Solutions
  • Eugene Mission
  • Everyone Village
  • Family for Every Child 
  • Food for Lane County
  • Homes for Good 
  • Lane County Human Services Division
  • Laurel Hill
  • Looking Glass
  • Mainstream Housing, Inc.
  • Oregon  Social Learning Center
  • Pearl Buck Center
  • Relief Nursery, Inc.
  • ShelterCare
  • Siuslaw Outreach Services
  • Sponsors, Inc
  • Springfield Eugene Tenant Association
  • Square One Villages
  • St. Vincent de Paul of Lane County - First Place Family
  • St. Vincent de Paul of Lane County - Housing Programs
  • St. Vincent de Paul of Lane County - Lindholm Center
  • Thrive Housing Network
  • Upper Willamette CDC
  • Veterans' Administration
  • White Bird Clinic

Structure of HMIS

ServicePoint has 4 Levels of Organization

  • Level 1 - Lane County - HMIS Lead Agency
  • Level 2 - Agencies in the HMIS Collaborative
    Example: Catholic Community Services
  • Level 3 - Agency Projects (Providers)
    Example: G St Oasis


Types of Users

All agency users will be able to do data entry and run most reports, but not all accounts will have the same access to an agency's information

Here are the used user types in HMIS starting with the most access


System Administrator -  Ensures database is in compliance with Federal and State funding partners. Supports participating agencies' utilization of HMIS. Provides Ad-Hoc reports

Agency Admin - The point person for your agency. Agency Admin are designated to be the first person that can assist their own agency's user. Reporting and ensuring data quality is part of their responsibilities. 

Case Manager I, II, III - Case managers are able to run reports, create & edit client records, enter services. 




Lane County HMIS Policies and Procedures

Agencies who use WellSky Community Services have agreed to following the HMIS Policies and Procedures.

 

Terms and Definitions

Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) – HUD’s annual report to Congress on the nature and extent of homelessness nationwide.

Annual Performance Report (APR) – A reporting tool that HUD uses to track program progress and accomplishments of HUD homeless assistance and HPRP Programs on an annual basis. Formerly known as the Annual Progress Report.

By-Name List – A real-time catalog of the names of existing clients within the homeless prevention system, the By-Name List is an important tool for coordinated entry as it supplements other tools used to track homelessness (such as the Point-in-Time count), aids in assessing existing clients’ needs, and helps in tracking individuals’ entry into and exit out of the homeless prevention system.

Client - An individual seeking services, also referred to as Participant and Consumer.

The Collaborative - Any agency that has signed the agency participation agreement is a part of the collaborative.

Continuum of Care (CoC) - A local body comprised of various stakeholders invested in ending homelessness in Chicago.

Coordinated Entry System – Coordinated Entry System serves as a front door to connect people facing homelessness to housing and supports in an accessible, equitable, transparent manner. This allows all partners in the Lane County Continuum of Care to collaborate to improve access and outcomes for people without permanent housing while delivering trauma informed services

Data Quality Benchmarks – Quantitative measures used to assess the validity and reliability of the data. These include measures for timeliness, completeness and accuracy. Data Quality Monitoring Plan -- A set of procedures that outlines a regular, on-going process for analyzing and reporting on the reliability and validity of the data entered into the HMIS at both the program and aggregate system levels. A data quality monitoring plan is the primary tool for tracking and generating information necessary to identify areas for data quality improvement.

Data Quality Plan – A community-level document that facilitates the ability of a CoC to achieve statistically valid and reliable data. A data quality plan is generally developed by the HMIS Lead Agency with input from community stakeholders, and is formally adopted by the CoC. At a minimum, the plan should:

  • Identify the responsibilities of all parties within the CoC that affect data quality.
  • Establish specific data quality benchmarks for timeliness, completeness, and accuracy. 
  • Describe the procedures that the HMIS Lead Agency will take to implement the plan and monitor progress to meet data quality benchmarks.
  • Establish a timeframe for implementing the plan to monitor the quality of data on a regular basis.

Data Quality Standards – A national framework for ensuring that every Continuum of Care can achieve good quality HMIS data. It is anticipated that HUD will propose Data Quality Standards that 1) establishes administrative requirements and, 2) sets baseline data quality benchmarks for timeliness, completeness, and accuracy.

Disclosure of Data - The release, sharing, transfer, provision of access to, or divulging of personally identifiable information to an organization outside the HMIS participating agency holding the information or outside the HMIS Lead.

Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS) - A Homeless Management Information System (HMIS)is the information system designated by a local Continuum of Care (CoC)to comply with the requirements of CoC Program interim rule 24 CFR 578. It is a locally-administered data system used to record and analyze client, service and housing data for individuals and families who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.

HMIS Data Quality – Refers to the reliability and validity of client-level data. HMIS data
quality can be measured by the extent to which the client data in the system reflects actual
information in the real world.

HMIS Lead - Administers HMIS on behalf of Lane County Continuum of Care, and is governed by the Poverty and Homelessness  Board. 

Participating Agency - Agencies that access HMIS and have signed the HMIS Agency Participation Agreement.

Personally Identifiable Information (PII) - Information collected in HMIS. This includes information that identifies, either directly or indirectly, a specific individual.

Program Specific Data Elements (PDEs) – Program Specific Data Elements differ from the Universal Data Elements in that no one project must collect every single element in this section. Which data elements are required is dictated by the reporting requirements set forth by each Federal partner for each of their programs. A Partner may require all of the fields or response categories in a data element or may specify which of the fields or response categories are required for their report.

Project Descriptor Data Elements (PDDE) – Project Descriptor Data Elements (PDDE) are completed within the HMIS for each project that is able to enter data into the HMIS. The PDDEs include information used to identify each organization using the HMIS and all of the projects associated with an organization.

Universal Data Elements (UDEs) – HMIS Universal Data Elements are elements required to be collected by all projects participating in HMIS, regardless of funding source. UDE’s establish the baseline data collection requirements for all contributing CoC projects. They are the basis for producing unduplicated estimates of the number of persons experiencing homelessness, accessing services from homeless assistance projects, basic demographic characteristics of persons experiencing homeless, and patterns of service use, including information on shelter stays and homelessness over time.

Use of Data - The sharing, application, utilization, examination, or analysis of personally identifiable information within a HMIS participating agency or within the HMIS Lead.

 

Acronyms

ATHF........................ City of Eugene’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund

AMI........................... Area Median Income

APR.......................... HUD’s Annual Performance Report

BCC.......................... LC Board of County Commissioners

CAA.......................... Community Action Agency

CAPER..................... Consolidated Annual Performance Evaluation Report

CARES..................... Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act

CDBG....................... Eugene and Springfield’s Community Development Block Grant

CDBG-CV................ Eugene and Springfield’s Community Development Block Grant - COVID-19 edition

CE............................ Coordinated Entry system to prioritize housing for homeless persons based on vulnerability

CNA ......................... Community Needs Assessment

CoC.......................... HUD Continuum of Care designation OR-500 Lane County/Eugene/Springfield

CSBG....................... Community Services Block Grant

CSBG-CV................ Community Services Block Grant - COVID-19 edition

CSC.......................... Community Service Center

CE............................ Coordinated Entry

CRF ......................... Coronavirus Relief Fund, part of the federal CARES Act

CV............................ Coronavirus

CVRRP.................... COVID-19 Rent Relief Program

CWL......................... Central Wait List

CY............................ Calendar Year (Jan to Dec)

DAC.......................... Homeless Day Access Center

DFR.......................... Document Recording Fee

DV............................ Domestic Violence

ECCP....................... EWEB Customer Care Plus

EHA.......................... Emergency Housing Account

ERA.......................... OHCS Elderly Rent Assistance

ERA.......................... US Department of Treasury’s Emergency Rent Assistance – COVID19 edition

ES............................. Emergency Shelter

ESG.......................... Emergency Solutions Grant

ESG-CV................... Emergency Solutions Grant– COVID19 edition

FDA.......................... Front Door Assessment for Coordinated Entry

FFY........................... Federal Fiscal Year (Oct to Sept)

FPL........................... Federal Poverty Level

FUSE........................ Frequent Users System Engagement (high utilizers)

FY............................. Fiscal Year (July to June)

GY............................ Grant Year

HIC .......................... Housing Inventory Chart (homeless housing)

HHS.......................... LC Health & Human Services Department

HMIS........................ Homeless Management Information System – WellSky/ServicePoint

HP or HPP............... Homeless Prevention Program

HSP.......................... Housing Stabilization Program

HUD......................... Housing and Urban Development

HTBA........................ Home Tenant-Based Assistance

LC-ERR.................... Lane County’s ERA project

LIHEAP.................... Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program

LIRHF....................... Low Income Rental Housing Fund

LSA........................... Longitudinal System Analysis

NPI........................... National Performance Indicators

OEA.......................... Oregon Energy Assistance

OERA....................... Oregon’s ERA project

OHA......................... Oregon Health Authority

OHCS....................... Oregon Housing and Community Services

OPUS....................... OHCS’ OPUS Management Information System

PDCA....................... Plan, Do, Check, Act (process model)

PH............................ Permanent Housing

PHA.......................... Public Housing Authority (Homes for Good)

PIT............................ Point in Time (PIT Homeless Count)

PSH.......................... Permanent Supportive Housing for Formerly Homeless Persons

PY............................. Program Year

RGP......................... OHCS’ Rent Guarantee Program

RHY.......................... Runaway and Homeless Youth

ROMA...................... Results Oriented Management Act

RRH......................... Rapid Re-Housing

SHAP....................... State Homeless Assistance Program

SO............................ Street Outreach Program

SPM......................... System Performance Measures (HUD)

SPRF........................ Strengthening, Preserving & Reunifying Families

SSO.......................... Supportive Services Only (not housing except one time payments, shelter or outreach)

SSVF........................ Supportive Services for Veteran Families

STARR..................... Supporting Tenants Accessing Rental Relief

TH............................. Transitional Housing for Homeless Persons

USICH...................... US Interagency Council on Homelessness

VASH....................... HUD-Veteran Administration Supported Housing (section 8 for Veteran household)

WX............................ Weatherization