HIC: Inventory & PIT Count How To Guide

HIC: Inventory & PIT Count How To Guide

What is the Housing Inventory Count?

The purpose of the Housing Inventory Count (HIC) is to track the availability of homeless assistance programs available in Delaware. To do so, Housing Alliance Delaware (the CoC and CMIS Lead Agency) must confirm the number of beds and units (or inventory) available for program(s) on the night of the Point in Time Count (PIT).



Between the HIC and the PIT, Delaware can accurately report the state's capacity in addressing homelessness, as well as gaps in services that exist in Delaware's homeless response system.


Inventory information is needed for the following project types:

  • Emergency Shelter (ES)
  • Transitional Housing (TH)
  • Permanent Housing
  • Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH)
  • Other Permanent Housing (OPH)
  • OPH - Housing Only
  • OPH - Housing with Services
  • Rapid Re-Housing (RRH)
  • RRH - Housing with or without services
  • Joint TH/RRH

What Information is Needed for the Housing Inventory Count?

Most information needed for the HIC is provided to Housing Alliance Delaware when we set up projects for programs in CMIS. Housing Alliance Delaware would need to make sure that all of this information is correct (if we put placeholders during project setup), and updates to the program based on how they operated on the night of the Point in Time Count.

The information that Housing Alliance Delaware typically needs to review for the Housing Inventory Count includes: 

  • ORGANIZATIONAL BACKGROUND:

    • When did the program start operating?
    • Is the program located in one (single site) or more locations (scattered site)?
    • Does the program serve a specific sub-population, such as Domestic Violence (DV) survivors or HIV-positive clients?

  • FUNDING SOURCE(S):

    • Does Housing Alliance Delaware know the main funding source of each of your programs' operations?
    • We would also need Grant/Contract ID numbers, and grant start and end dates, if applicable.

  • BED AND UNIT INVENTORY:

    • The inventory is the number of beds/units based on the maximum number of persons who can be housed on a given night. Generally speaking, this should be the number of beds and units the grantee proposed to serve in the grant application, unless there has been a change in funding or an approved modification to change the duration or amount of assistance.
    • How many beds and units were available as of the night of the PIT?
      • Beds account for individual spaces available for a client to occupy for the purpose of receiving shelter. Units account for the number of rooms or housing units available to accommodate clients or households while they receive services.
      • Inventories will need to be separated by Household Type (adults only, adults with children, or children only) and bed dedication for specific sub-populations (DV, chronically homeless, youth).
      • Are these beds available all year, seasonally (during specific months, or sporadically (depending on need)?
      • Was there any special implementation of providing shelter/services to clients through this program this year (for example, were hotel vouchers provided when the program is usually a shelter program?)
      • Are there any beds/units that are Under Development and will become available in the next year?

  • PIT COUNT:

    • The number of clients sheltered (ES, TH) or housed (RRH, OPH/PH, PSH) on the night of the Point in Time Count.
      • Information on how PIT Counts for housed clients is provided later in this document.

Common Mistakes in the HIC (or FAQs)

Difference between reporting ES/TH/PSH/OPH inventories and RRH inventories

  1. Programs that provide shelter or residential services to clients (which includes Emergency Shelter or Transitional Housing) provide inventories based on the number of units and beds available for clients to occupy on the night of the Point in Time Count.
  2. Permanent Supportive Housing other Permanent Housing programs provide inventories based on the number of units (typically aligned with households) and beds (per client) that clients were housed by as of the night of the Point in Time Count.
    1. CoC-funded programs have inventories set by a grant, which are expected to be fully (or almost fully) utilized.
  3. Rapid Rehousing programs provide inventories based on the number of units (typically aligned with households) and beds (per client) based on the maximum number of persons who can be housed on a given night. This is typically provided by a grant, as opposed to the visible availability or beds/units available for that service/program.

Programs that serve multiple household types (ex., Singles AND Families)

Separate bed and unit inventories must be submitted per household type served. Therefore, Housing Alliance Delaware will need to know how many beds (and units, if available) are available for single clients, and how many beds/units are available for families.

ES/TH: Programs that provide cribs

Cribs are not counted as beds; therefore, they would not be included in a program's inventory.

ES/TH: Programs that have no fixed count on beds/units, as household types fluctuate based on client need

For programs that do not have set inventories because their programs work to fit the needs of the clients who are referred to their programs, HUD states that inventories can be determined based on:
      1) average utilization rates during the year, or
      2) how the program is being used on the night of the Point in Time Count.

Programs that will base their inventories on how the program was used on the night of the Point in Time Count must wait for Housing Alliance Delaware to complete PIT data entry prior to submitting their inventory, so the data source can be reconciled with final numbers submitted to HUD.

TH-RRH: Reporting Inventories for Joint TH/RRH Programs

Joint TH-RRH programs must submit two inventories: one for the TH component of the program, and another for RRH.
  1. TH - report the number of units and beds available for use on the night of the PIT.
  2. RRH - report the number of units and beds available on the night of the PIT.
    1. See the section below about how to report PIT Counts for the RRH component.


RRH/PSH/OPH: How to Report PIT/HIC Count (or Occupied Bed Inventory)

Occupied beds/units in Permanent Housing projects, including Permanent Supportive and Rapid Rehousing programs, are based on the number of clients that are 1) actively enrolled in a RRH program, and 2) housed in permanent housing as of the night of the PIT. Occupied PH beds/units are information collected and submitted for the Point in Time Count and Housing Inventory Count.
      In CMIS, clients that are housed as of the night of the PIT are determined in CMIS by having a Housing Move-In Date (HMID) entered through an Interim within a client's profile.
      If no active client has been housed through the program as of the night of the Point in Time Count, the PIT Count for that project will be zero (0) beds.

HOW TO PULL RRH HIC INFORMATION IN CMIS:

Before pulling RRH inventories for the HIC or PIT numbers for PSH/OPH in CMIS, ensure that all of your clients have been 1) enrolled into the applicable project(s), and 2) all clients housed have a HMID entered in the profile through an Interim.

On CMIS, run a CoC APR for the project. The Start and End Date of the report should match the night of the Point in Time Count.

Occupied Beds: Locate Metric 7a - Number of Persons Served
      Per household type, report the number located in the row labeled, "For PSH and RRH - the total persons served who moved into housing".
      Example: Based on the screenshot below, this project would report 8 AO (Adults Only) beds and 58 AC (Adults with Children) beds, totaling 66 clients housed for the PIT.       


Total Units: Locate Metric 8a - Number of Households Served
      Per household type, report the number located in the row labeled, "For PSH and RRH - the total persons served who moved into housing".     
      Example: Based on the screenshot below, this project would report 4 AO (Adults Only) units and 16 AC (Adults with Children) units, totaling 20 units housing clients.    




RRH Inventories, PIT Counts, and Utilization Rates (based on PIT Counts over Inventory information) will be reconciled and confirmation may be needed from the operating Agency prior to PIT and HIC Submission.

Inventory Update Form


Updates to any program's inventory can be provided to Housing Alliance Delaware at any time using the Inventory Update Form.

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