Fields for client email addresses and phone numbers have been added to the Program Entry screen in HMIS. These fields are entirely optional and missing responses will not impact your data quality in any way. They are simply for you to use to collect client contact information if you choose to do so.

Agency Administrators will be able to pull Looks with the email and phone number fields under the “Entry Custom” section of the Data Analysis tab.

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

The HMIS Coordinated Entry Training is now available! This training provides an overview of the Coordinated Entry System in HMIS, and should be completed by access points (those completing VI-SPDATs), matchmakers (those matching households to housing opportunities), and housing providers (those with housing opportunities).  As you complete the training, we highly recommend following along in the Clarity training site to assist with your learning.  Please note that only the Family Coordinated Entry System (FCES) is currently in HMIS, so only users participating in these roles for the FCES need to complete the training at this time.

Please note that you will not be able to enroll in the HMIS Coordinated Entry Training unless you have already completed the HMIS Part 2 – Clarity HMIS Software training. Once you or any staff at your agency have completed the HMIS Coordinated Entry training, please notify the HMIS Help Desk to be given access to the correct pages in HMIS.  Please also include the role(s) the user will be fulfilling in HMIS (access point, matchmaker, or housing provider).

The Coordinated Entry Policies and Procedures test is not required to gain access to the FCES in HMIS.  Instead, users must complete the HMIS Coordinated Entry Training, as well as all trainings required to receive access to HMIS.  The CES Policies and Procedures test will continue to be used for the Individual Coordinated Entry System (ICES).

All questions, requests, and other technical support tickets related to FCES should now be entered by the Agency Administrators at your agency through the HMIS Help Desk.  The ceshelpdesk email should only be used by the ICES to request log-ins for the individual Prioritization List.

Housing Providers
The access points are currently entering all households active as of July 1^stwith a status of matched, document ready, or assessed into HMIS.  In order for HMIS to reflect that certain households are already matched to an opportunity, 211OC will enter the housing opportunities and complete the matches for those households already matched.  Please look for an email from 211OC to confirm the households that are currently matched to opportunities at your agency.  All households that are already matched to opportunities should be matched in HMIS before the next Housing Placement Match Meeting.

Moving forward, you will be responsible for entering into HMIS any new housing opportunities that need to be matched to a household through the FCES.  Therefore, housing opportunities need to be entered prior to the Housing Placement Match Meetings.  Please contact the Family Solutions Collaborative for more information.

Access Points

All data entry for matched, document ready, and assessed clients should be completed in HMIS by 11/16/18.  Data entry includes profiles, enrollments, documents, and VI-SPDATs.

Last Tuesday, September 4, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that people experiencing homelessness cannot be punished for sleeping outside in the absence of adequate alternatives. The case, Martin v. Boise (formerly Bell v. Boise), challenged Boise, Idaho’s ban on sleeping in public.

The court stated that “as long as there is no option of sleeping indoors, the government cannot criminalize indigent, homeless people for sleeping outdoors, on public property, on the false premise they had a choice in the matter.” Not only does that mean a bed must be available, but that it must be practically accessible. The court noted its concern that shelter policies such as religious or length-of-stay restrictions may make a bed practically inaccessible to a given individual.

Last week’s case builds on numerous other legal decisions, as well as the federal Department of Justice intervention at the lower level of the Bell v. Boise case. It is also consistent with the Department of Housing & Urban Development’s funding incentives in its Continuum of Care grant program to decrease criminalization, and the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness’s recently updated Federal Plan to End Homelessness.

Many cities’ initial reaction may be one of frustration — that they can no longer use these criminalizing laws to force homeless people out of public view (and often, into jail cells). But smart advocates should look to flip the script: this does not limit cities’ options, but rather opens them up.

Now, when a business or other constituent comes to a city councilor asking to “do something” about the homeless person on their corner, the councilor has the freedom to say “Well, the courts have said we can’t simply arrest that person to remove them. But you can work with me. And we can develop better alternatives that will get that person off your corner and into the housing and services they need. And that will solve the problem for both you and the person experiencing homelessness.”

Read the rest on the NAEH Blog!

Check out this great post from NAEH about solving Rapid Re-Housing challenges!

This post is part of an Alliance blog series highlighting the Rapid Re-housing Learning Collaboratives in Georgia and Maryland. Read more about Learning Collaboratives here.

For the past 11 months, the National Alliance to End Homelessness has been working with twenty-eight rapid re-housing providers in the state of Maryland to ramp up their outcomes. In Learning Collaboratives facilitated by the Alliance in partnership with the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development, providers learned how to build organizational capacity, implement strategic changes, and set strategic goals to:

• Move more people from homelessness to permanent housing
• Reduce the average length of time households are homelessness
• Implement rapid re-housing that serves individuals with high barriers to housing

By coming together to discuss their common challenges and strategies, providers can transform their practices. Their new knowledge was then immediately put to the test in the #MDHousingChallenge, a 100-day period where providers are challenged to house more people than they ever have.