Intake
HUD Intake Assessment
There is information that must be collected for each client at different points in their project participation; at Project Start, at Project Exit, annually (on the anniversary of their entry into the project), as well as updates when there are changes that occur before the Annual Assessment or Project Exit is due.
Questions in each assessment will expand or collapse based on the answers (e.g., if the answer is “Yes” to “Does the client currently have a physical disability?” more questions about the physical disability will appear). Assessments may also vary based on client type (e.g., head of household vs. child under 18 years old).
Intake Date
The date of the Intake is a very important field, and responses should reflect the client’s status at the time the Intake is dated for.
Dating the assessment incorrectly will prevent the assessment from being counted in reports; the system will not show it has been completed. This error can be corrected by editing the date of the Intake.
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HUD Assessment Type |
Dating convention |
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Project Start (intake) |
Date must match the client’s Project Start Date exactly |
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Update |
Any time there is a change in client circumstances |
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Annual |
Date ± 30 days of the anniversary of the Head of Household’s Project Start Date |
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Exit |
Date must match the client’s Project Exit/Dismissal Date exactly |
Relationship to Head of Household
This question, in combination with the client’s age, also helps VESTA determine which questions to show and which to hide. The response choices are the same as those for creating new Households.
Living Situation
The series of questions asked in this section depend on the project type, with potentially fewer questions asked for clients entering emergency shelters, safe havens, or street outreach projects. A flow chart of questions for all other project types can be found in Exhibit 1.
Prior Residence
“What was the client’s residence prior to project entry?” and “Length of stay in previous place” are questions meant to identify the type of residence just prior to (i.e., the night before) project entry and how long the client stayed there.
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Type |
Prior Residence |
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Homeless Situation |
Emergency shelter, including hotel or motel paid for with emergency shelter voucher |
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Place not meant for habitation (e.g., a vehicle, an abandoned building, bus/train/subway station/airport or anywhere outside) |
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Safe Haven |
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Institutional Situation |
Foster care home or foster care group home |
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Hospital or other residential non-psychiatric medical facility |
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Jail, prison or juvenile detention facility |
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Long-term care facility of nursing home |
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Psychiatric hospital or other psychiatric facility |
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Substance abuse treatment facility or detox center |
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Transitional and Permanent Housing Situation |
Hotel or motel paid for without emergency shelter voucher |
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Owned by client, no ongoing housing subsidy |
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Owned by client, with ongoing housing subsidy |
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Permanent housing (other than RRH) for formerly homeless persons (such as: a CoC project; HUD legacy programs; or HOPWA PH; does not include RRH) |
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Host home (non-crisis) |
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Rental by client, no ongoing housing subsidy |
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Rental by client, with VASH subsidy |
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Rental by client, with GPD TIP subsidy |
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Rental by client, with other ongoing housing subsidy (including RRH) |
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Residential project or halfway house with no homeless criteria |
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Staying or living in a family member’s room, apartment or house |
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Staying or living in a friend’s room, apartment or house |
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Rental by client, with Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) (tenant or project based) |
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Rental by client in a public housing unit |
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Transitional housing for homeless persons (including homeless youth) |
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Other |
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Client Doesn’t Know |
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Client Refused |
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Data not collected |
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For HUD-funded projects that provide housing for homeless persons, those that stayed in one of the locations listed in the “Transitional and Permanent Housing Situation” category the previous night generally are not eligible. Exceptions can include “Transitional housing for homeless persons” as well as those fleeing domestic violence and/or household members that have been re-united with the family.
Questions about Homelessness
Chronic homeless status is determined by a client’s history of homelessness, disability status, and the length of time spent on the street, in an emergency shelter or a Safe Haven. These data elements help identify chronically homeless persons. As with all client-level data collection, this is self-report. Intake staff should ask clients about their homeless history, including specific instances the client spent on the street, in an emergency shelter, or Safe Haven project. However, intake staff should not instruct the client on the length of time or episodes necessary to qualify as chronically homeless.
HMIS users should just ask the client for the information and simply record their answer. Attempting to tie each individual’s response with definitions or documentation requirement is not the goal of this series of questions.
Length of Stay in the Prior Living Situation
Record the length of time the client was residing in just their previous place of stay. Depending on the residence prior to project entry, “Did you stay less than 90 days?” or “Did you stay less than 7 nights?” may also be asked.
On the night before did you stay on the streets, in an Emergency Shelter, or a Safe Haven?
If the client was in transitional of permanent housing for less than 7 nights, indicate if their living situation immediately prior to entering the transitional or permanent housing was on the streets, in an emergency shelter, or a safe haven.
Approximate date homelessness started
Have the client look back to the date of the last time the client had a place to sleep that was not on the streets, emergency shelter, or a Safe Haven and enter that date.
Number of times the client has been homeless in the past three years
Regardless of where the client stayed last night, enter the number of times the client has been homeless on the streets, in ES, or SH in the past three years including today. (Note – if this is the first time the client has been homeless in the past three years then the response is ‘one time’).
“The streets” is being used as short-hand for any place unfit for human habitation (a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings, including a car, park, abandoned building, bus or train station, airport, or camping ground).
Total number of months the client has been homeless in the past three years
Record the total number of months the client was homeless and living or residing in a place not meant for human habitation, an emergency shelter, and/or Safe Haven in the past three years. (The number of cumulative, but not necessarily consecutive months spent homeless.) Any single day or part of a month spent homeless should be counted as one month.
Continuum of Care Code
Continuum Code - HUD-assigned CoC Codes for this Project's Location and HUD-assigned CoC code for the client’s location have to do with identifying the geographic region in which the client is receiving shelter/housing for homeless persons. The HUD-assigned CoC code for the client’s location question must be updated any time the information changes (e.g., if the client moves).
What is a CoC?
A Continuum of Care (CoC) is a regional or local planning body that coordinates housing and services funding for homeless families and individuals, and it is organized by geographic region. In Massachusetts there are 15 different CoCs and each one has a distinct CoC Code to identify it.
What exactly is this question asking for?
VESTA will pre-fill the CoC code assigned to the geographic area of the project. If a client changes residence during the course of a project stay and moves into a different CoC, the CoC code must be updated.
Housing Move-In Date
Housing Move-In Date must be completed for all clients who have moved into housing. “Move-in”
means a lease arrangement has been made, the client has a key or entry ability to the unit and that the
client has physically slept in the unit. If there is a gap caused by the housing search process, for example, a client may be accepted into a PH on October 9th, 2021 but a suitable unit was not available for move-in until November 15th. Their Project Start date would be 10/9/2021 and their Housing Move-In Date would be 11/15/2021.
For purposes of the Housing Inventory Count and other point-in-time reporting, households with a Project Start Date which do not have a Housing Move-In Date at the point in time of the report must be excluded from counts of persons in permanent housing.
In the event that the client vacates a housing situation and the project stops paying rental assistance, staff should exit the client from the project with an accurate Project Exit Date and Destination and create a new Project Start Date in a second enrollment for the client on the same or following day. The project would continue working with the client until a new unit is found, at which point a new housing move-in date would be recorded on the second project record. This will ensure that the client’s history of housing is preserved.
If the client moves directly from one unit into another unit, with no days of homelessness in between, it would not be necessary to exit and re-enter them, because their housing move-in date would still accurately reflect the day they entered permanent housing according to that enrollment record.
In the event a client is transferred into a PSH or RRH project having already moved into a permanent housing unit, the client’s Project Start Date and Housing Move-in Date will be the same date. It is not necessary or appropriate to have the Housing Move-in Date reflect the original move-in, since the purpose of the data element is to distinguish between housed and homeless statuses during a single enrollment.
Resources FY 2022
HUD Data Standards Tutorial: A resource that provides specific guidance about individual questions in a fast and easy format. No user account / login required.
https://www.hudexchange.info/programs/hmis/hmis-data-standards/
HUD HMIS Data Standards
https://www.hudexchange.info/resource/3824/hmis-data-dictionary/
Program-Specific HMIS Data Manuals
https://www.hudexchange.info/programs/hmis/federal-partner-participation/
Massachusetts CoC Map
https://www.mass.gov/doc/continuum-of-care-service-areas/download
Massachusetts Balance of State Continuum of Care Programs: A description of CoC programs as well as instructions to apply for Balance of State CoC projects
https://www.mass.gov/service-details/continuum-of-care-programs-coc