Allyson Thiessen
As you all know, the AHAR (Annual Homeless Assessment Report) is the only way we really have of giving our consumers direct representation to the Federal Gov't through HUD's report to Congress. It is so important that we represent our communities fully in this report to help influence both policy and funding. It's also important to have this data locally so that we can carefully plan our own community services. It seems particularly in this time of increasingly limited resources as we use this information to direct the way we allocate those resources in order to meet the needs of the most vulnerable and do more with significantly less.
So what does this have to do with a bunch of boxes on a whiteboard in my office? Simple. See all of those red boxes? Those are red because there is too little (or too poor) HMIS data to report in those categories for those communities. That means entire communities are going without representation in some cases! Even worse, look at all the red in the first two columns. Those are our Emergency Shelter services for individuals and families. Without robust participation from both the shelters and the county Departments of Social Services we cannot collect, use and share data on the most vulnerable of all of our consumers; the literally homeless. We cannot properly plan out how to best use our own resources and we cannot look at special sub-populations like our veterans (right half of the chart) to make sure that they're receiving the best services possible to make sure their homeless tenure is as short as possible.
These are YOUR communities. There are both faith based and public entities missing from our knowledge base and thus from our planning process. You can see who does and does not participate on the quarterly reports we have been doing all year; another one will be coming your way by the end of this month. Ask your CoC representative (or us at CARES) for a copy and take a look at where the holes are then let's talk about how we might be able to fill them in. We just started a new AHAR data collection period...how many of those red boxes can we eliminate for next year?
~Allyson
| Allyson Thiessen HMIS System Administrator P: (518) 489-4130 x103 • F: (518) 489-2237 • 200 Henry Johnson Blvd, Suite 4 • Albany, NY 12210 caresny.org • crhmis.wordpress.com • facebook.com/groups/CRHMIS |
andy gilpin
Sincerely,
As you all know, the AHAR (Annual Homeless Assessment Report) is the only way we really have of giving our consumers direct representation to the Federal Gov't through HUD's report to Congress. It is so important that we represent our communities fully in this report to help influence both policy and funding. It's also important to have this data locally so that we can carefully plan our own community services. It seems particularly in this time of increasingly limited resources as we use this information to direct the way we allocate those resources in order to meet the needs of the most vulnerable and do more with significantly less.
So what does this have to do with a bunch of boxes on a whiteboard in my office? Simple. See all of those red boxes? Those are red because there is too little (or too poor) HMIS data to report in those categories for those communities. That means entire communities are going without representation in some cases! Even worse, look at all the red in the first two columns. Those are our Emergency Shelter services for individuals and families. Without robust participation from both the shelters and the county Departments of Social Services we cannot collect, use and share data on the most vulnerable of all of our consumers; the literally homeless. We cannot properly plan out how to best use our own resources and we cannot look at special sub-populations like our veterans (right half of the chart) to make sure that they're receiving the best services possible to make sure their homeless tenure is as short as possible.
These are YOUR communities. There are both faith based and public entities missing from our knowledge base and thus from our planning process. You can see who does and does not participate on the quarterly reports we have been doing all year; another one will be coming your way by the end of this month. Ask your CoC representative (or us at CARES) for a copy and take a look at where the holes are then let's talk about how we might be able to fill them in. We just started a new AHAR data collection period...how many of those red boxes can we eliminate for next year?
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~Allyson
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Allyson Thiessen HMIS System Administrator
P: (518) 489-4130 x103 • F: (518) 489-2237 • 200 Henry Johnson Blvd, Suite 4 • Albany, NY 12210
caresny.org • crhmis.wordpress.com • facebook.com/groups/CRHMIS
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Mike Finocchi
Sent from my iPhone
As you all know, the AHAR (Annual Homeless Assessment Report) is the only way we really have of giving our consumers direct representation to the Federal Gov't through HUD's report to Congress. It is so important that we represent our communities fully in this report to help influence both policy and funding. It's also important to have this data locally so that we can carefully plan our own community services. It seems particularly in this time of increasingly limited resources as we use this information to direct the way we allocate those resources in order to meet the needs of the most vulnerable and do more with significantly less.
So what does this have to do with a bunch of boxes on a whiteboard in my office? Simple. See all of those red boxes? Those are red because there is too little (or too poor) HMIS data to report in those categories for those communities. That means entire communities are going without representation in some cases! Even worse, look at all the red in the first two columns. Those are our Emergency Shelter services for individuals and families. Without robust participation from both the shelters and the county Departments of Social Services we cannot collect, use and share data on the most vulnerable of all of our consumers; the literally homeless. We cannot properly plan out how to best use our own resources and we cannot look at special sub-populations like our veterans (right half of the chart) to make sure that they're receiving the best services possible to make sure their homeless tenure is as short as possible.
These are YOUR communities. There are both faith based and public entities missing from our knowledge base and thus from our planning process. You can see who does and does not participate on the quarterly reports we have been doing all year; another one will be coming your way by the end of this month. Ask your CoC representative (or us at CARES) for a copy and take a look at where the holes are then let's talk about how we might be able to fill them in. We just started a new AHAR data collection period...how many of those red boxes can we eliminate for next year?
<image005.jpg>
~Allyson
<image006.png>
Allyson Thiessen HMIS System Administrator
P: (518) 489-4130 x103 • F: (518) 489-2237 • 200 Henry Johnson Blvd, Suite 4 • Albany, NY 12210
caresny.org • crhmis.wordpress.com • facebook.com/groups/CRHMIS
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You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CARES Regional HMIS" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cares-regional-...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
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Florence Ohle
Allyson,
Can’t read all of your headings…. Greene County does not have a homeless shelter (only DV which is not in HMIS), can’t read the other red boxes.
Please advise.
Florence
Florence Ohle
Executive Director
Community Action of Greene County, Inc.
7856 Rt. 9W
Catskill, NY 12414
Creating Opportunities, Fighting Poverty, Changing Lives
--
Allyson Thiessen
Hi Everyone
I am overwhelmingly pleased with this response and how everyone has stepped up to better understand the image. I sent out the excel version earlier this morning and am also attaching it to this thread as well for reference. You will also find and image version at the bottom.
An explanation as well:
This reports on housing programs only, and does not yet include Rapid Re-Housing.
When I set up the report, the first thing I have to do is 4 point in time housing utilization questions (quarterly) for each housing type and configuration. The types are: Emergency, Transitional and Permanent Housing. The configurations are Individuals and Households with Children (families).
If the number of people I report in program on those days doesn’t match well with the HIC (Housing Inventory Chart, submitted to HUD in the spring by your CoC) bed counts, I have to give an explanation. This means explaining if the HIC was wrong, explaining if there were beds closed during part of the year and re-doing the inventory while also available bed nights and explaining/calculating for renting up or doubling up in rooms and units. This, honestly, takes longer than any other part of the report for me.
If we do not have a minimum of 50% coverage in any of the tables, then we aren’t able to submit it. Here are our primary coverage obstacles;
· Many of our counties, especially the rural ones, have limited or no emergency shelter programs, however as NY is a right to shelter state, it is known that the slack is taken up by DSS. If the DSS in ANY county does not participate in the HMIS, then we are unlikely to be able to count ES-FAM for this report. Additionally, we need communication with the Departments of Social Services to see how many bed nights singles occupied if the singles shelters are at or over capacity at the points in time, to make sure that there aren’t a large number of singles not being counted. This can be very difficult information to get, particularly with the reporting period having just ended on Sept 30th.
· HUD VASH makes up a huge chunk of our ES beds in some communities, even when the vouchers aren’t actually used in that area. We have to count them against our bed coverage, however, and at this point I don’t think any of them are going into the HMIS.
· The other primary obstacle we have is getting participation from large faith based organizations. In many of our more urban communities these organizations account for more than half (if not all of) the single shelter beds and many of the transitional and permanent beds as well. Additionally, these often serve the hardest to reach populations and so our count of chronically homeless and homeless vets tends to be very low in communities where these organizations exist but do not submit data.
There are many, many reasons that the above agencies do not participate, from ease of access to technology to philosophical differences and everything in between, but we really need this data to have a complete picture of homelessness in our community and region.
So… what can we do to start changing this for the better? Those of you who are reading/watching this are the ones who are in the database and working in your communities… it’s a preaching to the choir type of situation and I realize that. However, you are also the ones who have relationships with the non-participatory agencies and have roles of leadership within your communities.
This is one of the places where a data committee will come in. Some of you already have one or are forming one and making sure you get complete data in the HMIS is a big part of that committee’s roll, but it’s not just making sure the participating agencies are giving complete data, but that all agencies who are listed on the HIC (except DV) are in that database.
I want to continue this conversation in a more targeted way, so I will be e-mailing each one of you who replied below in answer to your specific questions. I would love to be invited to CoC, Board and Data Committee meetings, to roundtable discussions with non-participatory providers in your area and anything else where my experience in HMIS implementation could be of assistance; just call or e-mail me!
Thank you again for this fantastic response and I will keep this chart up to date and re-post occasionally so everyone can keep track of progress in their own community!
~Allyson
Emergency Shelter Individual | Emergency Shelter Family | Transitional Housing Individual | Transitional Housing Family | Perm. Housing Individual | Perm. Housing Family | Summary | Emergency Shelter Individual Vet | Emergency Shelter Family Vet | Transitional Housing Individual Vet | Transitional Housing Family Vet | Perm. Housing Individual Vet | Perm. Housing Family Vet | Summary Vet | |||||
502-Auburn/Cayuga |
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503-Albany |
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506-Fulton/Montgomery/Schoharie |
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507-Schenectady |
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512-Troy |
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| This is for all of Rensselaer County | |||
512-Rensselaer (sample site) |
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| This is for Rensselaer County EXCEPT the City of Troy | |||
516-Clinton |
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519-Columbia-Greene |
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520-Franklin-Essex |
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522-Jefferson/Lewis/St. Lawrence |
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523-Glens Falls/Saratoga Springs/Saratoga, Washington, Warren, Hamilton |
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602 Newburgh/Middletown/Orange County |
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608-Kingston/Ulster |
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| Table complete | |||||||||||||||||
| No providers of that housing type in community | |||||||||||||||||
| Less than 50% bed coverage by HMIS | |||||||||||||||||
| Waiting for data cleanup to proceed | |||||||||||||||||
Allyson Thiessen HMIS System Administrator; CARES, Inc. |
P: (518) 489-4130 x103 • F: (518) 489-2237 • 200 Henry Johnson Blvd, Suite 4 • Albany, NY 12210 |
From: cares-reg...@googlegroups.com [mailto:cares-reg...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Florence Ohle
Sent: Wednesday, October 16, 2013 8:57 AM
To: cares-reg...@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE:
Allyson,
Allyson Thiessen
Hi Andy!
I’d love to continue this discussion. Saratoga County is not represented for any emergency shelter because of the lack of participation of the four DSS agencies in your CoC. Without that data, we cannot fill in the tables for either individual or family shelter even with CAPTAIN and Wait House participating. The same issue is in Fulton/Montgomery/Schoharie; Montgomery County DSS and Interfath’s shelter participate, but the other two DSS agencies do not, causing too large a gap in data to submit to HUD on the AHAR.
Any assistance or guidance you can give would be greatly appreciated! You know how to reach me. J
Allyson Thiessen HMIS System Administrator; CARES, Inc. |
Cheryl Stevens
I know, this is probably a very silly question, but if the box is not filled in with any color other than white, what does this mean? By the way, thank you for creating the excel chart for all of us. It really does provide a visual picture of what needs to be accomplished.
Cheryl Stevens
Good morning Allyson,
I understand what the red boxes mean, but I am unclear on what the blue, white, black and orange boxes mean. I also cannot see what is written on the tops of the grid boxes.
It is wonderful though to see a visual of what needs to be worked on.
Thank you
Cheryl
From: cares-reg...@googlegroups.com [mailto:cares-reg...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Allyson Thiessen
Sent: Tuesday, October 15, 2013 6:31 PM
To: 'cares-reg...@googlegroups.com'
Subject:
As you all know, the AHAR (Annual Homeless Assessment Report) is the only way we really have of giving our consumers direct representation to the Federal Gov't through HUD's report to Congress. It is so important that we represent our communities fully in this report to help influence both policy and funding. It's also important to have this data locally so that we can carefully plan our own community services. It seems particularly in this time of increasingly limited resources as we use this information to direct the way we allocate those resources in order to meet the needs of the most vulnerable and do more with significantly less.
--
Allyson Thiessen
Hi Cheryl
Red means that there isn’t enough HMIS participation (50%) in the CoC to submit data for that program type
Blue means there are no programs of that type in the CoC
Orange means I have questions out or am waiting for data corrections before I can proceed
White means I haven’t gotten anywhere on the tables yet.
J
Allyson Thiessen
My pleasure, that’s what this group is all about!