All of the reports found within HomelesssData.com are carefully built to adhere to the most current HUD guidance. Answers to commonly asked questions that arise in meeting the reporting needs of over 2,500 projects that serve the homeless that rely upon HomelessData.com can be found below.
General FAQs
- How do I run reports in HomelessData.com?
- How can I use HomelessData.com to look at demographics and performance across projects?
- I have a project where the data is fragmented over multiple grantees and/or operating locations, what can I do?
Data Quality
Checking the data quality before running reports to be submitted to HUD is always a good idea. These FAQs provide guidance on how to run and interpret these data quality reports.
- How do I interpret the Capacity Utilization Chart on the Data Quality Scorecard
- How do I interpret the new HUD Data Quality report and the Data Quality sections of the APR?
- Why are clients that have been deleted, or exited, still showing up in my reports?
Annual Performance Report (APR) & Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report (CAPER)
The CAPER report is an annual report submission for projects receiving Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) funding from HUD and the APR is a similar report for projects receiving HUD Continuum of Care (CoC) funding.
- How do I run and submit an APR or CAPER based on the latest guidance?
- Why do questions in the APR or CAPER say that we are missing annual assessments, when we have entered them?
- Why does Q20b in the APR say that data isn’t collected if it isn’t due?
- Why is a change in client income not reflected in the APR or CAPER?
- How do I interpret “Data Issues” and “% Error Rate” in Q6A of the APR?
- Why are clients that gain a disabling condition after enrollment showing as an error count?
Housing Inventory Chart (HIC) and Point in Time (PIT)
The HIC provides details on the number of beds and units dedicated to people experiencing homelessness in your area during the night of the annual point in time (PIT) count. The PIT count reflects the number of people in emergency shelter, transitional housing, and safe haven beds on that night as well as the number of people who are living on the streets or in a place not meant for human habitation.
- What is new in the 2019 HIC?
- How do I run a Housing Inventory Chart in HomelessData.com?
- How do I run a Point In Time report in HomelessData.com?
- Why are clients not being counted on the HIC for my permanent housing project?
- Why does the Point in Time report show fewer people than are actually in the family project?
System Performance Measures (SPMs)
The HUD SPMs can be used to monitor the progress being made towards addressing homelessness in your community.
- Where can I get more information about HUD’s System Performance Measures?
- What are the steps for running and submitting System Performance Measures?
- What data is being reviewed in the SPMs and how can I prepare it?
- How do I load 3 years of data to run the System Performance Measures?
- Why does SPM 4 show significantly fewer people for the most recent fiscal year than past years?
- Why does SPM 4 show none, or fewer people than I would expect?
Longitudinal System Analysis (LSA)
This report replaces the Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) and requires complete project descriptor data including project address, bed inventory, project type, and all start and end dates.
- Are there step-by-step instructions for producing an accurate LSA report?
- Where can I find general information about the LSA?
- What are the major differences between the AHAR and the LSA?
- What projects are included in the LSA?
- What do I need to know about the Project Descriptor Elements in the LSA?
- Do I need to track Client Location in HMIS as well as all of the other universal elements?
- How do I submit the LSA to HUD?
