Rationale
To determine the start of each client's period of participation with a project. All projects need this data element for reporting time spent participating in the project. Paired with the Housing Move-In Date, it becomes possible to determine the length of time from project start to housing placement for all PH clients, including those in RRH projects.
Data Entry Instructions
Record the month, day, and year of each client's project start. The Project Start Date indicates a client initial assistance by the project.
For each client's enrollment in a project, there must only be one Project Start Date. Any errors in entering the date should be corrected as soon as possible.
Note: If the client's data has changed since the enrollment (income, non-cash benefits, health insurance etc.) do not edit the enrollment, rather complete a 'Status Update Assessment' available on the program's 'ASSESSMENTS' tab.
Each individual client in a household will have their own Project Start Date. If a new client is added to a household after the original household members' start dates, the new client's start date should reflect the actual day that client started the project. If this client is a newborn baby, the Project Start Date would reflect the date the project started providing housing or services to the newborn, consistent with the responses for project types identified below, which may be any date on or after the baby's date of birth.
Different project types use Project Start Date differently, to address the difference in meaning associated with “starting” residential, service, and permanent housing projects. See the descriptions below for more information.
Street Outreach
Street Outreach staff will document encounters with people living in unsheltered locations in accordance with the CoC Street Outreach Homeless Verification Policy using the Current Living Situation assessment in HMIS. Project Start date should be the date of first contact with the client. Clients are exited from street outreach projects on the day the client is permanently housed or after 45 days of no contact with an outreach worker. Clients may also be exited from street outreach when the client enters a services-enriched emergency shelter. Outreach programs should not exit clients solely based on entering Winter Shelter or other non-services-enriched shelters.
Emergency Shelter
Project Start date should be the night the client first stayed in the shelter. There are two types of Emergency Shelter set ups in HMIS: Night-by-Night and Intake/Exit.
Night-by-Night shelter staff will log each night a client presents for shelter in HMIS. Clients are automatically exited from the program the day following the last bed night after 7 consecutive nights without a bed night.
Intake/Exit shelter staff will exit a client from the program the day after the last night a client slept in the shelter.
Safe Haven and Transitional Housing
Project Start date should be the first day the client moves into the residential project. There is no Housing Move-In Date in Transitional Housing projects. Transitional Housing/Safe Haven staff will exit a client from the program the day after the last night a client slept in the residential project.
Permanent Housing (PSH, RRH, and Diversion/Prevention with Rental Assistance)
Project Start date should be the date the client was admitted to the project. To be admitted indicates the following factors have been met:
- Information provided by Coordinated Entry indicates the criteria for admission have been met.
- The client has indicated a desire to be housed in this project.
- The client can access services and housing through the project. The expectation is the project has a housing opening (on-site, site-based, or scattered site subsidy) or expects to have one in a reasonably short amount of time.
- Basic eligibility criteria have been confirmed by housing project staff.
A permanent housing program documents a client’s permanent housing status in HMIS by entering a Housing Move-In Date on the enrollment screen when all three of the following criteria are met:
- The client has signed a lease on a unit,
- The client has means to access the unit (most often by possession of a key or access code), and
- The client has physically stayed in the unit overnight.
The permanent housing provider should communicate with the shelter/outreach staff when these criteria are met, and to confirm the client has exited the shelter to make sure data entered into HMIS is accurate and complete.
When a Household Loses Their Permanent Housing
In the event that the client vacates a permanent housing situation and the housing provider stops paying rental assistance and it is determined that the client continues to need housing support from the program, 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 subsequent enrollment for the client on the same or following day. When a new unit is found, a new housing move-in date would be recorded on the subsequent project record. This will ensure that HMIS will accurately always reflect the housing status of the client. Both the housing provider and shelter/outreach case manager (if applicable) should be involved in assisting client in finding a new housing unit in a timely manner.
If the client moves directly from one unit into another unit, with no days of homelessness in between, it is not necessary to exit and re-enter, because their housing move-in date would still accurately reflect the duration of permanent housing according to that enrollment record. New intake documentation such as a new Coordinated Entry match email, intake documentation and disability verification are not needed. The original intake documentation must be maintained in the files.
Items to note:
- If a household was chronic at original enrollment, their chronic status is maintained in the new enrollment.
- New enrollment does not reset a client’s time in RRH. Only 24 months of combined rental assistance may be received between the consecutive enrollments.
- Annual Assessments in HMIS must be completed in line with new enrollment.
Services Only, Day Shelter, Shelter Diversion/Eviction Prevention, & Coordinated Entry
Date the client first began working with the project and generally received the first provision of service.
More Resources
For more detailed and the most up-to-date information regarding HUD required HMIS Program Data Elements, please find the Data Standards Manual here: HMIS Data Standards - HUD Exchange.
Contact Us
If you need help, or wish to offer suggestions or feedback, please contact the Cincinnati/Hamilton County HMIS support team at HMISsupport@end-homelessness.org or by calling 513-263-2790 9:00am - 3:00pm Monday-Friday (excluding holidays).
When contacting HMIS Support about a particular client, please do not send sensitive personally identifiable information (Sensitive PII) through email, such as full name, social security number, or any other information used to determine a person's identification. Instead, please send the Clarity Unique Identifier found on the client's Clarity Profile page. You can use the messaging system in Clarity if you need to send sensitive personally identifying information.