Data Entry: How to Record Prior Living Situation

Determine Type of Residence

When collecting data about a persons Prior Living Situation, start by asking, Where did you stay last night? This question must be answered with a specific selection within one of the four categories of living situations.

Length of stay in prior living situation

After the person provides a response to where they were staying, ask them, How long were you staying there? If they tell you they stayed in Emergency Shelter for 3 nights and camped before that for 4 days, then the answer to the question How long were you staying there? is 3 nights. Camping is a Place Not Meant for Habitation, so Emergency Shelter and camping are different types of homeless situations. The persons Prior Living Situation is Emergency Shelter, and the length of time they have been in that type of homeless situation is 3 nights.

Imagine a situation where a person tells you they stayed in a car for 3 nights, and before that they camped for 4 days. The car and the camp both count as Places Not Meant for Habitation, so this person has been staying in a Place Not Meant for Habitation for 7 nights. If a person was continuously staying in several places that are all the same type of homelessness (like a car, a tent, and an abandoned building), add them together for this question. However, Emergency Shelter is a different type of homeless situation.

Approximate date this episode of homelessness started

The next question, Approximate Date Current Episode of Homelessness Started, is asking when this current episode of homelessness began. First, determine if the person is currently in a homeless situation. If they are currently in a homeless situation, you need to determine when this episode of homelessness started, which is the same date as the last day they left a break in homelessness. A good question to ask is, When was the last time you lived in a house or apartment, even if it was someone else's? You will likely need to help the person build a timeline of living situations to determine when their last break in homelessness occurred.

(Regardless of where they stayed last night), number of times the client has been on the streets, in ES, or SH in the past three years including today

Next, using the persons timeline of prior living situations, determine how many episodes of homelessness - with breaks in between - the person has had in the past three years. If they are currently experiencing homelessness, the answer includes the current episode of homelessness. If a person experiences any breaks in homelessness over the past three years, you must count each episode of homelessness as separate times.

If a person is experiencing homelessness for the first time today, the answer is one time.

If a person has been experiencing homelessness without a break for 3 continuous years, the answer is also one time.

Total number of months homeless on the street, in ES, or SH in the past three years

After determining how many times a person experienced homelessness in the past 3 years, it is likely that you will be able to use their timeline of prior living situations to identify how many months they experienced homelessness in the past 3 years.

If a person experiences homelessness even for one day during a month, that month counts.

Imagine putting a check mark on each calendar day that a person has experienced homelessness. It does not matter if one day or all the days in a month are checked, that counts as one month.

If a person has been experiencing homelessness for a total of 4 days that span the end of one month and the beginning of the next month, that counts as two months.

Video

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