Data Quality: Reasons to Pursue High Data Quality

HMIS data are used to produce an unduplicated count of persons experiencing homelessness for each Continuum of Care, to describe the extent and nature of homelessness locally, regionally, and nationally, to identify patterns of service use, and to and measure program effectiveness. This information guides homeless services policy and decision-making at the federal, state, and local levels, making it imperative that organizations ensure their HMIS data are as complete and accurate as possible. Additionally, some funders require providers to enter information in HMIS to document the work their funding is supporting.

Given the importance of HMIS data and reporting to tell us how we are doing at addressing and solving homelessness, HMIS data quality cannot be overstated. A lack of HMIS data quality means that the story the community is presenting about homelessness is not a true reflection of reality, whether that story is being told nationally, statewide, or locally.

The benefit of quality HMIS data goes beyond meeting funder requirements. System-wide HMIS data can be used to demonstrate a lack of needed services in a community, and to track the progress a community is making towards ending homelessness, both of which would be nearly impossible if organizations worked independently.

Reasons to pursue High Data Quality

Coordinated Entry

The Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) mandates every CoC to have a coordinated entry system to prioritize and serve clients based on need and vulnerability. While HUD does not require CoCs to use HMIS as part of their coordinated entry process, HMIS can support coordinated entry by leveraging an existing system and data to inform and organize a coordinated entry process. The AK CoCs both use HMIS to generate a prioritized list of clients needing services, making the quality and completeness of HMIS data critical to ensure this process accurately prioritizes clients.

Reports used in Policy Making

Federally-Mandated Participation in Annual Projects

HUD requires organizations with data in HMIS to participate in several annual system-wide reporting projects. These yearly initiatives seek to leverage the information collected in HMIS to better understand who is experiencing homelessness, what resources they are utilizing, and what interventions should receive increased investment to improve housing outcomes.

HUD and the Federal Partners also require annual reports from HMIS from funded projects, and many local and state funders require organizations to regularly submit HMIS data for review.  CoCs using HMIS data to make data-informed decisions related to funding and allocation of resources must have confidence that the data quality in HMIS is accurate to make good decisions. Not only is this relevant in the annual CoC Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) process, it is also important for state and local funding decisions.

Collectively, these are the reports that end up being used in policy making and funding decisions at the federal, state, and local levels

For information about the data  entry and reporting requirements for a specific funder, check out the HMIS Resources Page on the ICA Alaska website.

The Quarterly Data Quality Process

Reviewing data quality on a quarterly basis helps organizations prepare to submit the most accurate and complete information for HUD's annual projects and funder-required reports. Quarterly review is intended to space out the work that previously occurred only once a year, to reduce the burden placed on HMIS end users as well as improve the accuracy of HMIS data.

In addition to the Federal and Alaska Universal Data Elements that are evaluated by this quarterly review process, it is recommended that organizations run their funder-specific reports to make sure that all required information is being entered into HMIS.

Organizations Can Use HMIS Data for Program Evaluation

While many service providers utilize HMIS because of a funder mandate, the data collected can also be used for their own evaluation purposes. Organizations collect a wide variety of information, including client demographics, rent payments, current and prior living situations, and Coordinated Entry assessments, any of which can be extracted and analyzed in an HMIS report to identify needs or trends such as racial disparities or housing intervention success rates.

 Data Quality Impact on Other Organizations

Alaska's HMIS is a shared system, so one provider's poor data entry practices negatively impact the quality of every other provider’s information. It is the responsibility of each organization/provider to ensure that their end users are entering accurate and complete data in a timely manner. The HMIS lead organization, the Institute for Community Alliances (ICA), offers a number of supports for organizations/providers with data entry questions, including the AKHMIS Help Desk and Knowledge Base.