{
  "id": "RL33956",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "RL33956",
  "active": false,
  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com, University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department",
  "versions": [
    {
      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 351828,
      "date": "2009-08-27",
      "retrieved": "2016-04-07T02:19:07.137356",
      "title": "Estimating the Number of People Who Are Homeless: Homeless Management Information Systems",
      "summary": "In 1998, Congress directed the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to develop a process for collecting data about homeless persons. Together with local communities, HUD began in 2001 to implement a series of Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS). Two categories of federal fund recipients are required to participate in HMIS: organizations that receive grants through the Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) program and organizations that receive HUD Homeless Assistance Grants. The HOPWA program provides housing and supportive services for persons living with HIV/AIDS, while the Homeless Assistance Grants fund transitional and permanent housing, as well as services, for homeless individuals.\nLocal jurisdictions called \u201cContinuums of Care\u201d (CoCs)\u2014typically cities, counties, or combinations of both\u2014are the entities that implement HMIS. Homeless service providers in these CoCs collect and store information about homeless individuals they serve, and the information is aggregated in computer systems at the CoC level. The data in these systems are being used by some CoCs to assess client needs and to better direct their services.\nCongress initially allocated funds for data collection regarding homeless persons in the FY2001 HUD Appropriations Act (P.L. 106-377), and has continued to allocate funds in all HUD spending bills from FY2002 through FY2009. Local communities can then apply to HUD for available funds that they may use to implement HMIS. The last time that HUD reported to Congress about the progress of HMIS (in 2007), community implementation of the data systems had increased. According to HUD, 91% of local CoCs were implementing HMIS in 2006 (compared to 72% in 2005), meaning that they had established systems into which data are entered. Because more CoCs were implementing HMIS in 2006, the percentage that were only in the planning stage had decreased from 20% in 2005 to approximately 9%. As of 2006, only 1% of CoCs were not yet planning an HMIS (compared to 7% in 2005).\nHUD released its fourth analysis of data from a sample of participating HMIS jurisdictions\u2014the fourth Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR)\u2014in July 2009. The fourth AHAR used HMIS data from a sample of 222 communities (compared to 98 in the previous AHAR) to derive a national-level estimate of the number of homeless persons from October 2007 through September 2008. The fourth AHAR is the second report in which HUD used data from an entire 12-month period to estimate the number of people who were homeless (the first and second AHARs used three months and six months, respectively). For the first time, then, an entire year\u2019s worth of data can be compared to that from the previous year. In addition to the AHAR estimates using HMIS data, local CoCs conduct point-in-time counts of homeless individuals on one day in January at least every two years. HUD has published these results as part of each AHAR.\nThis report describes the development of HMIS, reports on the continuing progress of HMIS, summarizes information released in the four AHARs, and describes previous attempts to estimate the number of people who are homeless. It will be updated as events warrant.",
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    },
    {
      "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department",
      "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc819168/",
      "id": "RL33956_2008Nov25",
      "date": "2008-11-25",
      "retrieved": "2016-03-19T13:57:26",
      "title": "Counting Homeless Persons: Homeless Management Information Systems",
      "summary": null,
      "type": "CRS Report",
      "typeId": "REPORT",
      "active": false,
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      "topics": []
    },
    {
      "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department",
      "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc820404/",
      "id": "RL33956_2007Apr11",
      "date": "2007-04-11",
      "retrieved": "2016-03-19T13:57:26",
      "title": "Counting the Homeless: Homeless Management Information Systems",
      "summary": null,
      "type": "CRS Report",
      "typeId": "REPORT",
      "active": false,
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  "topics": [
    "Appropriations",
    "Health Policy"
  ]
}