De-Identified Participants - Coordinated Entry Referrals

Lane County Coordinated Entry is committed to expanding access to housing for survivors of domestic violence. To support this, Lane County has developed a system that prioritizes confidentiality and safety. Survivors accessing Coordinated Entry are only asked to provide minimal information necessary for prioritization. When a survivor is matched to a housing program, the provider may receive an HMIS ID without any identifying client information. This approach helps protect the survivor’s privacy while still allowing them to be considered for housing opportunities.

Below are the steps housing providers should follow to contact the participant and complete the enrollment process:

• De-identified referrals will come with a designated contact from the Victim Service Provider (VSP). The housing program shall contact the VSP and the VSP shall put the survivor in contact with the housing program with appropriate Release of Information (ROI).

• Once eligibility and interest of the housing program has been established, the housing program shall work with the survivor to determine their comfortability in being entered into the Homeless Information Management System (HMIS):
  1. If the household does not have concerns with their information being entered into HMIS, the household provider shall read the Privacy Script and enter the participant into their program. Housing provider shall search for the client’s information in HMIS. If the client is already in HMIS, enroll them in your program under this record that contains the participant’s identifying information. If they are not already in the system, create a new client, following the usual HMIS rules and then enroll them in your project.
  2. If a household is comfortable with their information being entered into HMIS but does not wish for it to be shared with other providers, the agency’s HMIS Agency Administrator shall proceed with a Limited Visibility Request.
  3. If the household has safety concerns and declines to have their information entered into HMIS entirely, the housing program must utilize the De-Identified HMIS ID to complete the program enrollment. This option is only appropriate when the household has explicitly opted out of HMIS data entry. This option is only appropriate when the household has explicitly opted out of HMIS data entry for reasons of safety related to domestic violence. 

• Housing program shall save documentation of the de-identified referral from the Coordinated Entry System in their client files for compliance. This documentation must include the date.