Data Entry: When and How to Create A Household

Before creating a Household

Creating a household gives the user the ability to create an Entry/Exit record including all household members and assign services to a group of people. Households are created with one person designated as the Head of Household. When other members are added to the household, they are identified by their relationship to the Head of Household. Households are not created for single clients.

Before creating a household in HMIS, ask:

Is this a single client? If yes, do not create a household!
Has a group of persons (2 or more) presented together as a household or family unit to receive a service together and/or are being provided a service together? If yes, create a household.
Is there already a household created in HMIS?
If not, then create a new household.
If yes, use the existing household.

Creating a Household

This overview assumes the reader has successfully completed the training on how to enter a household in HMIS, entered EDA (Enter Data As) mode, backdated appropriately, and has searched for the client and have either identified an existing client with a Client Record ID over 500000 or have added a new client to the system. Review a walkthrough of the process here. If the user has not successfully completed these trainings, please contact the AKHMIS Help Desk and request the Household workflow training.

While in the Head of Household's record, navigate to the Households tab.
Click Search Existing Households first, and if there is no existing household, click Start New Household.
Add members to the household, then click Continue.
Complete Household Information fields.
Select Yes for the Head of Household and No for all other household members.
Select the Relationship to Head of Household for all members of the household.
Navigate to the tab the organization uses to record Entry/Exit and open the Entry Assessment. Confirm all information is entered for the head of household.
Toggle to the additional household member names.
Complete the Entry Assessment by answering all of the questions for each household member.
Click Save & Exit when completed.

Things to Keep in Mind

A household is a single individual or a group of persons who apply together for assistance and who live together in one dwelling unit, or,
A household for persons who are not housed, but who would live together in one dwelling unit if they were housed.
There must be one Head of Household for each enrollment.
There cannot be more than one Head of Household in any Entry/Exit record.
The term Head of Household does not mean leader of the house.
If the household is composed of adults and children, an adult must be indicated as the Head of Household.
Where two or more people under the age of 18 present at a project together (where none of the people presenting are the child of the client being served by a project), each person should be entered as their own record in their own household. It is important to create separate records for people under 18 who present together to better understand homelessness among youth.
Do not create a new household if you do not have to!

Special Consideration

Shared Custody

Every family is different. Every experience is different and sometimes, that doesn't fit nicely into standard HMIS instructions. Recent guidance from HUD provides additional information about how to record shared custody families in HMIS.

Projects should use their own discretion for documenting households in these situations.
In general, children of custodial parents who may have regular (e.g. weekend, every other week, etc.) but not full-time custody of the child should be entered into HMIS in residential projects if they are living with the parent during their stay.
Maintain documentation, for monitoring purposes, in the adult clients' case files indicating that they have shared custody and why the decision was made in HMIS.
- In addition to your own project reporting, ICA may ask you for this information if discrepancies arise during federal reporting.
If you are seeing errors or issues in reporting, provide additional information via a reporting comment if possible or reach out to the Help Desk for additional assistance.