Orange County HMIS

Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG) recipients and subrecipients have quickly scaled up rapid re-housing (RRH) and targeted prevention efforts, including repositioning existing staff, adding new staff, and/or rapidly refilling vacated positions due to COVID-19. New staff may not have received in-depth training on the best practices that promote successful outcomes for people experiencing homelessness.

Each of the new Onboarding Toolkits provides a series of informational training videos and resources to orient and train new or transitioning staff who serve as Grant Administrators, Program Directors, RRH Supervisors, and RRH Case Managers. Many videos have brief knowledge check questions at the end to reinforce learning.

View Onboarding Toolkits!

The Rapid Re-Housing Project Performance and the Goals and Outcomes Reports for 3/1/21 – 2/28/22 have been posted!

Click here to view the reports.

We are hiring for an HMIS Data Analyst! Please see the job posting to apply.

Every year, HUD submits an Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to the US Congress. The AHAR is a national-level report that provides information about homeless service providers, people and households experiencing homelessness, and various characteristics of that population. It informs strategic planning for federal, state, and local initiatives designed to prevent and end homelessness. The LSA report is produced from each CoC’s Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), and is compiled to create the AHAR report to Congress.

Check out the LSA Report FY 2021 here.

The Permanent Supportive Housing & Other Permanent Housing Project Performance Report and the Goals and Outcomes reports for 2/1/21 – 1/31/22 have been posted!

Click here to view the reports.

Check out the new Orange County CoC Dashboard here

Registration is now open for the fourth cohort of the HMIS Data Analytics On-Demand Course. The goal of this immersive course is to provide a conceptual and practical framework for ad hoc reporting utilizing HMIS data. This self-paced course is open to anyone in your community who is interested in analyzing, interpreting, and communicating HMIS data. This is an introductory level course and might be a good fit for newer members of your HMIS team or someone looking to brush up on their data skills. Participants are not expected to have high-level technical or statistical skills; only basic knowledge of the following is needed:

• HMIS data standards
• How to pull an HMIS comma-separated value (CSV) file set (unless the participant has access to someone who can pull HMIS reports for them)
• How to enter data into Excel and navigate within it

The data analytics course will equip participants with the skills to create a data brief highlighting trends to engage communities to drive insights into action. A combination of content, hands-on skill-building, and recommended resources are provided to help a basic data user build skills and knowledge necessary to be an advanced data professional while providing opportunities for ongoing professional development and learning. Participants will have eight weeks to complete six course modules at their own pace. Course participants will also receive a certificate upon completion of all six modules.

The HMIS Policies and Procedures has been updated to include the appeals process for agencies that are denied access to HMIS by the Agency Access Working Group. The new policy is included below for reference.

Agencies that are denied access to HMIS by the Agency Access Working Group may request an appeal. The purpose of the appeal is to ensure the integrity of the review process for the agency’s application. Appeals must be submitted to the HMIS Help Desk.

Upon receipt of the request, the HMIS Lead will complete the Agency Access Process Review, and determine whether the review process was followed appropriately. If all steps of the review process were followed, the decision by the Agency Access Working Group stands. If all steps in the review process were not followed, a sub-set of the Policies, Procedures, and Standards Committee will provide a secondary review and make a final determination regarding the agency’s application. This decision cannot be appealed, but agencies denied access to HMIS may re-apply in the future if they can effectively address the reasons their initial application was denied.

Orange County’s HUD CoC System Performance Measures have been published! Check out the report here.

The Q4 2021 HMIS Data Report Cards have been published! Review your agency’s data here!

These report cards look at the main components of Data Quality: Data Completeness, Data Accuracy, and Data Timeliness.

The first tab of the Report Cards assesses the Data Completeness and Data Accuracy of the Universal Data Elements for each project in our system, and for all our system as a whole. This tab includes:

• The Percentage of enrollments that fall into the following data response categories: Valid Responses, Don’t know/Refused, Data not Collected, Missing Response, and Data Issues The Average Data Completeness Score by project: This is a unique indicator of data completeness for each project.
• The Average Data Completeness Score by project: This is a unique indicator of data completeness for each project.

The second tab of the Report Cards assesses the Data Timeliness of each project of our system. This tab shows the percentage of enrollments that fall into the following length of time categories: 0-3 days, 4-7 days, 16-30 days, and more than 31 days.

If you have any questions, please enter a ticket to the HMIS Help Desk.