Orange County HMIS

We are pleased to announce the upcoming HUD Innovations in Ending Homelessness Roundtable Series. This series is a continuation of the Rapid Rehousing Roundtable Discussion Series, which included panel discussions from system leaders, program staff, and people with lived experience of homelessness, to discuss challenges, lessons learned, and innovative new approaches to rapid rehousing. This new series will move beyond the specific focus of rapid rehousing and focus on innovative strategies and interventions that provide the most effective, equitable responses to homelessness at the individual and system levels. The first session, The State of Homelessness in 2024, is taking place on March 14, 2024. Save the date!

Objectives

• Explore practices to respond to the current challenges from the increase in homelessness
• Highlight communities implementing Housing First and decreasing barriers to housing
• Using person-centered practices to examine the threat that criminalization poses to preventing and ending homelessness
• Find innovative ways to create a system that ends homelessness with housing as the focus
• Discover services and supports needed after rehousing, the importance of partnerships outside of the homeless services system, and how to engage in broader housing affordability conversations
• Provide practical, specific steps communities can take to incorporate the values and philosophies essential to a person-centered homelessness response

Audience

This series is intended for front-line staff, program directors, system leaders, and funders.

Schedule and Joining Instructions

Participants do not need to register in advance. It is strongly recommended that you join each webinar 15 minutes prior to the start time (12:45 PM EDT).

Title	Date and Time	Joining Link
The State of Homelessness in 2024	1:00 PM – 2:30 PM EDT	Join the Webinar
Housing First: Still the Right Way to End Homelessness	April 4, 2024 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM EDT	Join the Webinar
Criminalization: An Emerging Threat to Ending Homelessness	May 2, 2024 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM EDT	Save the Date
Housing-Focused Interventions Across the Continuum	June 6, 2024 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM EDT	Save the Date
Staying Housed	July 11, 2024 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM EDT	Save the Date
The Person-Centered CoC	August 8, 2024 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM EDT	Save the Date

Contact

2024 HUD Innovations in Ending Homelessness Roundtable Series Registrar | trainings@hudexchange.info

New resources to assist communities in training workers to take a client-centered and trauma-informed approach to data collection are now available. The FY 2024 HMIS Data and Technical Standards provided first-time guidance on how data collection should be approached: “Communities [should also] employ a person-centered approach to the review and use of the HMIS Data Manual with a clear foundational understanding of racial trauma and trauma-informed practices, cultural humility, and a person first, data-informed perspective.”

Immerse Yourself in this Virtual Reality Experience

The Client-Centered Data Collection Approach: Virtual Reality Series resources help support this directive.

Five Virtual Reality (VR) videos provide an immersion experience to increase empathy. The immersion, accessible through any smartphone, provides a first-person view into trauma-informed approaches to data collection.

Before engaging with the VR videos, we recommend that you start with the Facilitator’s Guide which provides helpful information to support the use of the VR videos as part of a group training curriculum. Additionally, there is a brief Human-Centered Approach to Intake video which provides helpful context and reviews why identifying questions, such as those about race and gender, might be stressful to answer and suggests strategies that minimize or eliminate potential frustration or disenfranchisement at the point of intake.

View the Resource Collection

Last year, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) 2022 Foundations for Continuum of Care (CoC) and Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG) Webinar Series provided detailed, foundational knowledge about implementing VAWA and survivor-centered housing practices. VAWA and Survivor Housing Community Conversations will continue in 2024 through a series of discussions about successfully implementing VAWA and survivor-centered housing at the system, project, and human levels. Each conversation will feature a diverse panel of system leaders, project staff, and people with lived experiences from both the homelessness response and victim services worlds. The first session in this series, Building System-Wide Partnerships Between Housing and Victim Service Providers (VSPs), will take place on March 21, 2024, from 1:00 – 2:30 PM EDT. Save the date!

Objectives

• Learn about VAWA housing provisions that apply to CoC and ESG program recipients as outlined in the VAWA letter to CoC/ESG program recipients
• Engage practitioners and experts about best practices in survivor-focused housing
• Explore diverse range of VAWA and survivor housing implementations from communities across the country
• Discover new ways to reach compliance with VAWA requirements and improve survivor-focused housing practices

Audience

This series is intended for CoC and ESG recipients and staff, including but not limited to CoC and ESG leadership, program managers, direct staff, and people with lived experience of homelessness. This series is also intended for victim services leadership, VSPs, and survivors.

Schedule and Joining Instructions

Participants do not need to register in advance. It is strongly recommended that participants join the webinar 15 minutes prior to the start time (12:45 PM EDT).

Title	Date	Join Link
Building System-Wide Partnership Between Housing and Victim Service Providers	March 21, 2024 1:00 – 2:30 PM EDT	Join the Webinar
Building a Better Emergency Transfer Plan	April 18, 2024 1:00 – 2:30 PM EDT	Save the Date
HMIS and Data-Sharing for Victim Services Providers and Survivors	May 16, 2024 1:00 – 2:30 PM EDT	Save the Date
Coordinated Entry and Housing Problem-Solving for Survivors	June 27, 2024 1:00 – 2:30 PM EDT	Save the Date

Contact

VAWA and Survivor Housing Community Conversations Registrar | trainings@hudexchange.info

The Street Outreach Project Performance Report and the Goals and Outcomes reports for 12/01/22 – 11/30/23 have been published!

Click here to view the reports.

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

New 2022 Continuum of Care (CoC) Performance Profile Reports are now available on HUD Exchange. These CoC Performance Profile Reports provide a snapshot of a CoC’s performance in addressing homelessness using performance indicators such as the length of time persons have been homeless, returns to homelessness over time, and exits to permanent housing.

The CoC Performance Profile Reports:

• Compile data as of 2022 from the Point-in-Time (PIT) count, Housing Inventory Count (HIC), System Performance Measures (SPM), and CoC Program Competition
• Provide graphic representations of data
• Summarize data by years in tables

Each report includes funding information from HUD’s CoC Program, Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG) Program, and Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program (YHDP).

Consistent with HUD’s Office of Special Needs Assistance Programs (SNAPS) Data Strategy & Usability, HUD continues to look for ways to empower you to use data to tell the story of your CoC’s efforts to end homelessness. This report is an additional tool to help you evaluate your own work and communicate your efforts to others.

According to a Addressing Homelessness Among Older Adults: Final Report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the number of older adults at risk of and currently experiencing homelessness has increased rapidly in recent years, and these individuals have unique needs compared to other populations experiencing homelessness. This report specifically finds that accessing a Supplemental Security Income (SSI)/Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) Outreach, Access, and Recovery (SOAR) Provider “can help older adults obtain SSI/SSDI benefits, providing a sustainable source of income and other critical assistance.” On February 27, 2024, at 3:00 PM EST, HHS is hosting a webinar which will address the growing population of older adults with disabilities who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness and the specific challenges they face. Participants will hear from innovative programs and learn about Social Security Administration rules and regulations specific to older adults. Presenters will also explain how older adults may face inequities at the intersection of age and other identities. The webinar will include a discussion with a SOAR beneficiary who will share their experience accessing Social Security benefits and other assistance.

Register for the Webinar

In anticipation of implementing CES for Survivors, the Office of Care Coordination has partnered with Homebase to provide training and technical advice. Homebase will be providing a training on the new Pre-Assessment Tool (see attached). All CES access points are strongly encouraged to attend the CES Pre-Assessment Tool training to help urgently connect survivors fleeing inter-personal violence connect with victim service providers and CES for Survivors (see attached presentation to learn more about CES for Survivors). 

What:  CES Pre-Assessment Tool

When:  Thursday, February 1, 2024 at 9 AM to 10:30 AM

Where:  Virtual

Who:  CES Access Points

Meeting Information:

Meeting Link:  Join WebEx Meeting

Meeting Number:  2633 401 7395

Password:  92701

The HMIS Helpdesk Team will be hosting Office Hours for questions related to the 2024 HIC and Sheltered PIT. Please submit your questions to the HMIS Helpdesk to help our HMIS Helpdesk Team prepare to share additional clarifying information.

The training materials are available in the 2024 HIC and Sheltered PIT article.

Office Hours: Wednesday, January 31st at 11am

• Meeting link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88479073256
• Meeting ID: 884 7907 3256

Please note the following due dates for the HIC and Sheltered PIT process:

• January 22nd: Night of the Count
• January 24th: Agencies complete data entry in HMIS or comparable database
• January 26th: 211OC sends all agencies HIC Forms, and sends HMIS participating agencies PIT data
• February 7th: Agencies submit final HIC Forms and PIT data to 211OC

Thank you for your participation in this important process. If you have any questions please reach out to the HMIS Help Desk for assistance.

Check out the new Orange County CoC Dashboard here.