Are you unsure what to do in HMIS if a client leaves their living situation, but is still participating in your Permanent Housing project? Have you ever wondered how to reflect a client moving from unit to unit?
Fear not, because the HUD Data Standards has answers! If you work with any participating Permanent Housing project (Including PH, PSH, and RRH), please review the following excerpt from the most recent HMIS Data Standards Manual to help guide you through these potential scenarios, and more:
"If 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 'Prior Living Situation' in the new enrollment must reflect the location where the client slept the night before the new Project Start Date.' The project should 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 is not necessary to exit and re-enter them because their 'Housing Move-In Date' would still accurately reflect the day they entered permanent housing within that enrollment record.
If a client is transferred into a PSH, RRH, or other permanent housing 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 appropriate to have the 'Housing Move-In Date' reflect the original move-in, since the purpose of the date element is to distinguish between housed and homeless statuses during a single enrollment."
Section 3.20, 2024 HUD HMIS Data Standards Manual
| 
