September 2019 Agency Admin Meeting

Date: Thursday, September 5th, 2019
Time: 2:00PM– 3:30PM
Place: Sobrato Conference Center
600 Valley Way, Milpitas, CA 95035 Room 6

Agency Admin. Lead and/or Representative in Attendance:

Slides from the presentation are here:

Please use this link to download the slide deck.

Agenda

• COC |  Coordinated Assessment | UPLIFT Updates
• ROI Compliance Update
• HMIS Newsletter
• HUD 2020 Data Standards
• Reminders
• Next Month’s Meeting

CoC / Coordinated Assessment / UPLIFT

CoC UPDATES

• CoC NOFA

  CoC NOFA process is winding down.  The local competition is underway with the preliminary ranked list distributed to applicants last Friday.  We are currently in the appeal period. 

  There will be a Post Appeals NOFA Committee meeting next Tuesday, September 10, 1-2:30pm at Excite Credit Union (next to OSH).  Then the priority list will go to the CoC Board for approval.

  The CoC Consolidated Application will be posted to OSH’s website by 9/25 for public comment.  It will be submitted to HUD by 9/30.

• Community Plan to End Homelessness 2020-2025

  As we come to the end of the 2015-2020 Community Plan to End homelessness, the CoC is in the process of developing the next 5-year plan.

  We have convened stakeholder groups, are organizing focus groups to include people with lived experience, and there will be three community-wide forums on October 2^nd, 3^rd, and 10^th.  If you would like more information about the community plan, contact Kathryn.

• Community Plan Forums

  • 10/2 South County from 6pm-8pm at Community Solutions
  • 10/3 Central County from 6pm-8pm at Roosevelt Community Center
  • 10/10 North County from 6pm-8pm at SVCF

• Upcoming Meetings

  Coordinated Assessment Work Group

  Thursday, 9/12, 1:00-2:30pm at THT Boardroom

• As of now we are out of UPLIFT passes

• You can start requesting UPLIFT passes for the next quarter starting September 13^th.

  • Reminder to all providers: Before making your request, check your client’s HMIS ROI (Release of Information) to ensure it is valid
  • If client did not consent to have a photo posted, DO NOT upload a photo of the client
  • All 5 pages of the ROI must be uploaded for ROI to be valid
  • Requests with Invalid ROIs will not be processed, and client will be deleted from the UPLIFT Program.
  • Remember to email the UPLIFT email address, once a correction is made to prevent delays

ROI Compliance Update

Thanks to Everyone who responded so quickly and fixed the issues or spoke with staff

Moving forward this will be a quarterly review we will carry out to ensure compliance with Client consent policies

• Ran the ROI Compliance report in HMIS – [SCC-104-AD] ROI Compliance Report

• Looked at users who made the most data entries for clients with no ROI

• Emailed Agency Amin. Leads (regarding non-compliance)

• Asked for expired ROIs to be uploaded for clients

• Users reminded of the protocol

HMIS Newsletter

Will be sent out monthly to all HMIS users

August 2019 Newsletter included:

• Data Standards Changes Coming to HMIS

• HMIS in the Community: Performance Management Work Group

• Report Improvements and Updates

• Report Spotlight: 

• Using [GNRL-103] Service Census report to Review Daily Attendance

• Upcoming Events

• Bitfocus id Hiring!

Web link to the newsletter

HUD 2020 Data Standards

Every year HUD updates the data elements that agencies participating in HMIS are required to collect. Some of these changes will impact how users enter data into HMIS, so we want to highlight a few of these changes, which will be going into effect October 1, 2019.

The following is a list of the data elements that will be impacted:

1. Disabling Condition
2. Prior Living Situation and Exit Destination
3. Housing Move-in Date

Changes for PATH Programs

PATH programs will be required to collect a client’s domestic violence status at project entry. This field will be added to the enrollment screen.

Changes for SSVF Programs

SSVF programs will be required to collect a client’s domestic violence status at project entry. This field will be added to the enrollment screen. Additionally, new services will appear under the  SSVF Services Provided & SSVF Financial Assistance categories.

Changes for RHY Programs–Sexual Orientation

Although RHY programs already collect sexual orientation at client enrollment, this field will now be required for YHDP (Youth Homelessness Demonstration Project) projects as well. Additionally, this field will include a new option of “Other,” (as well as a text box for further information) that can be used when a client does not identify with any of the listed options.

 We may be reaching out to you to update this information if applicable, for clients who are active in RHY projects on October 1.

Changes for VA Programs

Employment Status

VA: GPD programs will be required to collect a client’s employment status at enrollment and exit. This field will display on enrollment and exit screens.

VAMC Station Number

VA:GPD, VA: Contract Residential Services, and VA: Community Contract Safe Haven programs will start collecting VAMC Station Number on the new VA System Enrollment screen.

Current Living Situation

One big change this year is the introduction of Current Living Situation Assessments. 

Beginning October 1st, a  Current Living Situation Assessment needs to be completed at each client encounter (including at client enrollment), for clients enrolled in Outreach, Night-by-Night Emergency Shelter and Services Only programs. 

The Current Living Situation Assessment will replace Contact services which are used to document housed status during each client interaction-all historic Contact service data will be mapped to Current Living Situation assessments

The Bitfocus System Administration team will reach out to agencies to review their data and recommend changes as needed. 

If interested in inquiring more about these changes, please join us at one of the following webinars. *Please note the same information will be provided in the three sessions.

Monday, September 10th 4:00pm-4:30pm 

Wednesday, September 11th 11:00am-11:30am

Friday, September 13th 12:30pm-1:00pm

Reminders

HMIS Enhancements

• Current Feature Enhancements in Place
  • Aged into Adulthood Notification at Program Exit
  • Filter by Type on History Tab
  • Reduce missing queue referrals by making “Refer to Queue” step more visible and unavoidable
  • Community Queue and House clients cross-check
• Coming Soon!
  • Project Type Code listed in Active Programs
  • Require and rename “Denied Message” filed on Referral: Edit Screen
  • Add Warning for Recent Assessment

Partner Agency Privacy & Data Sharing

• The Agency will not alter or overwrite information entered by a Partner Agency with the exception of basic demographic information if that data has not been entered or was found to be incorrect.

• Agencies use the information in SCC HMIS to: improve housing and services quality; identify patterns and monitor trends over time; conduct needs assessments and prioritize services for certain homeless and low-income subpopulations; enhance inter-agency coordination; and monitor and report on the delivery, impact, and quality of housing and services.

• The Agency will not share assigned passwords and access codes for the SCC HMIS with any Partner Agency or other entity or individual.

• The Agency will utilize the SCC HMIS as part of the CoC’s Coordinated Assessment system in accordance with the CoC’s Policies and Procedures. Use of SCC HMIS for Coordinated Assessment includes, but is not limited to, entering data from the triage assessment survey recommended by the County in order to place clients into the community queue for prioritization in housing programs, and accepting referrals for clients from the community queue.

Changes to Meeting Structure

TIME: 2:00PM-3:30PM

LOCATION: These will vary, please check your email and calendar for updates and/or changes

ATTENDANCE: 7/11 Required in Person Meetings

SCC Virtual Suggestion Box

We value your opinion and insight. Please share with us your suggestions by using our new SCC Virtual Suggestion Box. You can access it by using the link above or directly from the HMIS Support page under the CONTACT tab and scrolling to Virtual Suggestion Box option.

Next Agency Admin Meeting

Meeting Location: PLEASE NOTE LOCATION & TIME CHANGE

When: Thursday, October 3rd, 2019

Time: 2:00pm – 3:30pm

Meeting Location:

Berger Auditorium San Jose

1555 Berger Dr, Bvld #2 San Jose, CA 95112 (Berger Auditorium)

Dates and locations for 2019 meetings are listed on the OSH website:

https://www.sccgov.org/sites/osh/continuumofcare/osh-events/pages/home.aspx

Bitfocus Contact Information

Bitfocus System Administration Team: scc-admin@bitfocus.com 

Janel Fletcher (janelf@bitfocus.com )

Alison Wilson (alisonw@bitfocus.com )

Lesly Soto (leslys@bitfocus.com )

Support Team: sccsupport@bitfocus.com