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Data Elements: 3.10 Project Start Date
Data Element
The recorded month, day, and year of each client's project start. The Project Start Date indicates a client is now being assisted by the project.
The 3.10 Project Start Date for each project type is as follows:
Street Outreach: Date of first contact with the client.
Emergency Shelter: Night the client first stayed in the shelter. Night by night shelters will have a project start date and will allow clients to re-enter as necessary without “exiting” and “restarting” for each stay for a specified period.
Safe Haven and Transitional Housing: Date the client moves into the residential project (i.e., first night in residence).
Permanent Housing, including Rapid Re-Housing: Date the client was admitted into the project. To be admitted indicates the following factors have been met:
- Information provided by the client or from the referral indicates they meet the criteria for admission;
- The client has indicated they want to be housed in this project;
- The client can access services and housing through the project. The expectation is the project has a housing opening (on-site, site-based, or scattered-site subsidy) or expects to have one in a reasonably short amount of time.
Data Element Type
3.10 Project Start Date is a Universal Data Element (HUD).
Collection Point
3.10 Project Start Date is collected at project entry and is entered when a client record is created in HMIS (Homeless Management Information Systems).
Why It Matters
The Project Start Date is necessary to calculate and report on time spent participating in a project, and for accurate client counts at a point in time. This data element affects all Federal System Performance Measures (SPMs).
Data Quality
The Data Completeness Report will flag as an error if the Project Start Date was entered before the actual date had occurred. The Client Active in Period Report flags this as an error when a client has more than one enrollment on the same day.
Verify if accurate; if it is not, update the Project Start Date to the accurate date in the Project Start Assessment. Changing the date may change the information valid on that date – review entire Entry record after the date is changed to ensure all data are accurate as of the new date.