EVA Flags: Number of Months Homeless Can Be Determined

EVA Flags: Number of Months Homeless Can Be Determined

Number of Months Homeless Can Be Determined

Why this happens: This warning appears when the Housing History/Chronic Homelessness sub-assessment is incomplete or contains conflicting information. CMIS cannot calculate or confirm the client’s total months of homelessness when one or more responses prevent the system from completing the calculation.

Examples:

This warning most often occurs for one of the following reasons:

o   The response to “Number of Times Homeless in the Past Three Years” is marked as “Data Not Collected”, “Client Doesn’t Know”, or “Client Refused” so CMIS cannot determine the exact number of months.

o   An “Approximate Date Homelessness Started” was entered, but the total number of months field was left blank, marked as “Data Not Collected”, “Client Doesn’t Know”, or “Client Refused”.

How to fix this:

1.  Open the client’s profile. For PATH enrollments, switch to Enter Data As (EDA) mode. This is not required to fix errors or warnings for other project enrollments.

2.  For shelter enrollments, backdate manually within the entry assessment; for all other project types, use backdate mode and set the system date to the project start date. Then go to the Entry/Exit tab.

3.  Click the pencil icon next to the project entry assessment.

4.  Scroll to the HUD Housing History/Chronic Homelessness section.

5.  Review the following fields to confirm they form a logical timeline:

a.  Prior Living Situation

b.  Length of Stay in Previous Place

c.  Approximate Start Date of This Episode of Homelessness

d.  Number of Times Homeless in the Last Three Years



e.  Update the “Total Number of Months Homeless in the Past Three Years” field to reflect the combined total from all homelessness episodes during the last three years.                             

                               i.  What qualifies as a break when calculating months?

a.  7+ nights in temporary housing, such as staying with friends or family, a self-paid hotel, or a rental.

b.  90+ days in an institution, such as jail, a hospital, or rehab.

c.  Note: moving between the streets and emergency shelters does NOT count as a break.

                              ii.  What qualifies as an episode?          

a.  One Episode: continuous homelessness with no valid breaks.

b.  Multiple Episodes: each return to homelessness after a valid break counts as a separate episode.



6.  Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save & Exit.