Data Quality: What Does Bed Coverage Mean?

Definition & Importance

Bed coverage is the proportion of beds serving clients at-risk of and experiencing homelessness community that participate in (contribute data to) the HMIS.

Bed coverage represents the percentage of the homeless services system that is being captured by HMIS. High bed coverage for all project types is an emphasis of the HUD TA Data Strategy, as having information about project utilization and the clients being served is necessary to understand the community and do strategic system planning. Without data in HMIS, system-wide strategic planning to better serve clients is impossible. The following HMIS Project Types contribute to bed coverage:

Standard

85% Coverage: The AK CoCs will ensure that bed coverage is as close to 100% as is possible for applicable project types, and the AK CoCs will focus improvement effort on project types with less than 85% bed coverage.

While inventory counts should be accurately recorded within the last week of each of the months of January, April, July, and October (to satisfy APR and LSA inventory accuracy), the CoC should attempt to backdate the date associated with the revised inventory to the actual date that the significant inventory change occurred. FY2024 HMIS Data Standards Manual

Additional Resources

AKHMIS Data Quality Plan