Using Data, Setting Goals, and Defining what it means to End Homelessness
Because of Opening Doors, the focus on goal-setting and data-driven strategies to end homelessness has increased across the country. For example, we’ve seen an increased emphasis on performance measurement, documentation of outcomes, and a focus on the most effective and cost-efficient use of resources, and believe that implementation of such strategies should be even more strongly emphasized within an amended Opening Doors.
Since the launch of Opening Doors, our understanding of what works has further solidified, and we’ve seen tremendous progress. Your input is essential to the ongoing success of Opening Doors. Please share and vote for the ideas you think would have the greatest impact in an amendment to Opening Doors.
Please consider these questions when crafting your feedback and voting for the feedback you think is most valuable. And please use the Opening Doors Amendment 2014 Participation Guide for more information on what strategies are currently included in Opening Doors. Find it here: http://bit.ly/USICH2014
1. Are there additional strategies for increasing the focus on data-driven decision making and setting measurable goals that you think should be reflected in an amendment to Opening Doors?
2. How would your community/organization benefit from a greater emphasis on these issues within Opening Doors? Please explain what information would be most helpful.
3. Would including a definition on what ending homelessness means and how it should be defined benefit your community’s/organizations’ efforts, and if so, how?
4. Are there other areas of the Plan you feel would benefit from updated information or the incorporation of additional strategies?
Thank you!
8 results found
-
Evaluate Effectiveness of Targeting Tools
Document and evaluate the effectiveness of various targeting tools (e.g., SPDAT, VI, Hennepin housing barrier tool, etc.) and strategies used by communities to prioritize housing resources for individuals and families experiencing homelessness; disseminate information broadly and ensure that Coordinated Assessment systems are incorporating best practices and evidence-based tools for targeting resources
52 votes -
Ensure Coordinated Access Collaobrates with mainstream systems
Ensure that Coordinated Assessment systems are collaborating with mainstream systems (including health/behavioral health, criminal justice, VA, child welfare) to cover all access points for individuals and families experiencing homelessness and blending the use of evidence-based assessment tools and data-driven strategies (e.g., cross-system data matching, prediction models) to identify and optimally target services and housing resources for the most vulnerable
25 votes -
Better data collection on homeless children, youth and families
Homeless children, youth and families are often undercounted by HUD's Point in Time Count because they do not access shelters as frequently as other populations. There are various reasons for this. Shelters may require a family to split up if there are males in the household. Unaccompanied youth may be concerned about their safety in a shelter, as well as being exposed to authorities and being wrongfully charged with truancy or other crimes as a result of being unaccompanied. Finally, there are simply often not enough beds for all the homeless children, youth, and families in a community. Therefore, homeless…
15 votes -
Conduct experiments to decide what works
Do more multi-site experiments like the At Home/Chez Soi study in Canada or the Family Options study in the U.S. to understand what works for different groups. Without rigorous evaluation it is hard to identify "best practices."
13 votes -
Promote the use of local data to evaluate current system-level outcomes and costs and to inform reallocation strategies
Communities are beginning o understand performance measurement but most do not yet understand how to use their own information to make strategic investment decisions. Those decisions should include cost information that is not tracked in HMIS but that communities have access to. The revised Plan should make clear that local data including cost per outcome should be central to the process of planning to end homelessness, and USICH and its partners should promote this and provide tools and support for communities to do this analysis.
11 votes -
Track and target other large & special-needs populations
Older and disabled homeless make up a large--and often overlooked--segment of the "Single Adult" population. Many of the chronically homeless (and those who will stay homeless long enough to acquire that label) are in this group.
We have special programs and focus on Youth, on Families, and on Veterans, but we ignore the fact that a disabled 50 year old or a vulnerable 70 year old in poor health are NOT going to be served by the same employment programs and housing that might be appropriate for a 35 year old with low-paying job skills.
What's that old saying: if…
2 votes -
Eliminate equivocation on HIPAA's application to homeless services to enable system-wide data sharing while protecting confidentiality.
HIPAA rules are inconsistently interpreted both within and across systems serving people experiencing homelessness. By providing technical assistance in understanding the reach of HIPAA in responding to homelessness agencies can better balance both risks and positive outcomes of coordinated case planning.
1 vote -
We need better data on Rapid ReHousing and Transitional Houisng
We would like to see a more nuanced analysis of rapid rehousing and transitional housing including site based and scattered site, transition-in-place transitional housing. First, it would be helpful to understand whether HUD or the USICH thinks there is any difference between rapid rehousing and transition in place transitional housing, and, if they are different, what are the differences and what is the appropriate target population for each one. Similarly, it seems important to know under what circumstances site based transitional housing is a more appropriate intervention. The rapid rehousing studies to date seem to provide some preliminary evidence that…
1 vote