This article describes the purpose of the [HUDX-225] HMIS Data Quality Report and the HUD EVA Tool used in the monthly HMIS Health Checks. It then goes on to compare the similarities and differences of both tools.
HMIS Data Quality Report
The purpose of the [HUDX-225] HMIS Data Quality Report is to help HMIS Leads, CoCs, and service providers identify and correct data quality issues within their HMIS. This report is utilized by the STEH Compliance and Monitoring Team to ensure that projects align with HUD’s HMIS Data Standards and the community’s HMIS Benchmarks. This report also identifies issues that may affect eligibility, funding, or reporting compliance.
The [HUDX-225] HMIS Data Quality Report monitors data quality in real time. It provides a snapshot of how complete and accurate the data is for each project and tracks errors such as missing client data (specifically the UDE and PSDE), null values, or invalid responses – as well as data timeliness and consistency.
The HMIS Data Quality Report is a report in Clarity that is run by agencies for monitoring purposes through STEH Compliance. Agencies are required to document running this report in an effort to monitor monthly data quality and guide agency-level data quality improvement(s). The report gives every agency an overview of their own data, how many clients are being served, how quickly data is being entered, and what kinds of errors are present so quick corrections can be made. This allows the onus to be on each agency to regularly monitor the quality of their data and make corrections along the way.
This report captures agency outcome data including the following:
It also reports errors related to certain data points, such as Basic Client Info, Disabling Conditions, Chronic Homelessness, and more. Some of these errors are also caught by HUD’s Eva tool, but not all, and the way they are reported looks very different in each report. Here is an example of how the HMIS Data Quality Report breaks down some of these data points:
Another area covered by the HMIS Data Quality Report is “timeliness.” This section shows how quickly data was entered based on best practices. HUD’s Eva tool does not show timeliness errors.
HUD's Eva Tool - Used for HMIS Monthly Health Checks
The HUD EVA Tool (Enterprise Validation and Analysis Tool) is designed by HUD as a standardized data validation tool to help Continuums of Care (CoCs) and HMIS Leads validate and clean up system-wide HMIS data before submitting it to HUD. It plays a crucial role in ensuring that the data submitted for official HUD reports meets the technical and logical standards required.
The primary purpose of the HUD EVA tool is to validate HMIS data exports—specifically those required for federal-level reporting—to ensure accuracy, completeness, logical consistency, and compliance with HUD specifications. This report is utilized by the STEH HMIS Team to ensure that system-wide data is accepted by HUD for the Longitudinal System Analysis (LSA), System Performance Measures (SPMs), and Point in Time/Housing Inventory Count (PIT/HIC) federal reports. This report is also used by the HMIS Support team to identify trends in data quality errors and logistical inconsistencies (for example: exits before enrollments) to developing trainings and help articles to support users.
The HMIS Support team emails these to CHO’s monthly as “HMIS Health Checks” rather than requesting data corrections prior to submitting federal reports. Since these reports are sent out monthly by the HMIS Team and pull data from the year so far, errors will continue to show up for the duration of the fiscal year until they are corrected. This allows each agency an opportunity to correct their errors throughout the year rather than doing one major cleanup annually. The goal for these monthly checks is to reduce the corrections needed when important reports such as the LSA come up at the end of the year.
Below is an example of some of the error types caught by the Eva tool:
Similarities
- Purpose:
Both aim to enhance the quality and usability of HMIS data by identifying gaps, inconsistencies, or errors. - Use Cases:
Each is used to monitor and improve data quality over time. - Data Sources:
Both use HMIS-exported data based on HUD's data standards (e.g., CSVs compliant with the HUD HMIS Data Standards). - Support for Reporting:
Each tool can indirectly support HUD reporting requirements by helping ensure data is clean and reliable.
Differences
Feature | [HUDX-225] HMIS Data Quality Report | HUD EVA Tool (HMIS Health Checks) |
Primary Purpose | Monitor and correct real-time HMIS data quality | Validate data for HUD-level submissions |
Tool Type | Built-in report within HMIS software | Standalone HUD-provided application |
Data Focus | Project-level and client-level data accuracy | System-level data validation |
Common Use Cases | Spotting and fixing missing or incorrect data | Preparing for LSA, SPM, and APR submissions |
Output | Detailed list of data quality issues (e.g., null values, missing fields) | Error reports and warnings about data structure, logic, and HUD compliance |
Users | Any | HMIS System Admins and Data Analysts |
Data Source | Live HMIS system data | CSV exports formatted to HUD HMIS Data Standards |
Contact
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 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Monday-Friday (excluding holidays).
When contacting HMIS Support about a particular client, please do not send personally identifiable information (PII) such as full name, social security number, or any other information used to determine a person's identity through email. 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 personally identifying information.