Entry Assessment Tips

Remember - all questions on your assessment need to be answered. If an answer is already filled out, that means it has "rolled forward" from a previous assessment. You can tell how old that answer is by hovering over the colored bar next to the answer. Colors range from bright green (very new) to red (old). 

Whether the answer is green or red, you still need to ask the question to see if that answer is accurate as of your project entry date.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• No Entry Assessment
• Data Not Collected
• Relationship to Head of Household
• Demographics
• Client Contact Information
• Client’s Current Residence
• Length of Time Homeless
• HUD Verification Sections – See HUD Verification Instructions
• Household Info – See Household Data Sharing Instructions

No Entry Assessment

"No Entry Assessment" is an ERROR! It means you picked the wrong assessment or the wrong assessment type

To correct it, scroll to the top of your assessment, change the Provider or Assessment type, and then click Update. When you have the right assessment type for your provider, assessment questions will load and you will then be able to complete your assessment.

Data Not Collected

Please do not use the response option Data Not Collected! You will see this response option in many of the dropdown menus in HMIS. Selecting this response option causes reporting errors. All of the questions that appear in your assessment are required for your project. If for some reason you absolutely were not able to collect the information, leave the answer as "Select" instead of Data Not Collected.

Relationship to Head of Household

Date of Birth

• All clients must have a DOB. Clients who are missing a Full or Approximate/Partial DOB will be deleted 
  
• If client doesn’t know, you must estimate. Tip: Ask the Client for their age or age range
• Estimate should be entered as 01/01/YYYY
• DOB Data Quality
  • DOB given = Full DOB reported
  • If you have to estimate = Approximate or Partial DOB Reported

Social Security Number

• Clients are not required to give SSN, but providers are required to ask for it
• Data Quality
  • Last 4 = Approximate or partial SSN reported
  • Full SSN = Full SSN Reported
  • Client Refused = Client did not want to answer the question
  • Client Doesn't Know = Client doesn't know their SSN

Race – Additional

• If there is no additional race,  leave as –Select-
• Do not enter the same race for both race and race additional

Client Contact Information

Client contact information needs to be updated if it is more than 6 months old. If less than 6 months old but any information has changed, please end date the old contact record and add a new record with the updated information.

Fill in as much information as you have, even if it is not an official address. Remember to end date all old contact records.

Client’s Current Residence

• Where the client is sleeping, staying or living today.  
• This is not where they are receiving services

Length of Time Homeless

HUD Verification Sections – See HUD Verification Instructions

All HUD Verification tables and the related questions must be complete for every adult (ages 18+) and Head of Household (even if they are under 18) on your entry.

Children under 18 (unless the Head of Household) only need to have Disabilities and Insurance completed. If children have any income, it should be recorded on an adult's assessment.

Household Info – See Household Data Sharing Instructions

• Household size
  1. Number of people in the household
• Household Income
  1. Self-reported unless a housing program or project that requires income verification
  2. Total for the household for the month (previous 30 days)
  3. This is NOT an estimate for the year
• Level of Family income – Located on the LC website
  1. Federal Poverty Level (FPL)
• Percent of Median Family Income – Located on the LC website
  1. Area median income (AMI)