understanding the housing inventory chart for the pit count

Understanding The Housing Inventory Chart for the PIT Count

Revised 11.07.11

WHAT IS THE HOUSING INVENTORY CHART

The Housing Inventory Chart (abbreviated HIC, or eHIC for “Electronic Housing Inventory Chart”) is a master chart of homeless beds in a region or Continuum of Care. This chart is included as part of the HUD NOFA application for funding.

The Housing Inventory Chart lists all: - Emergency Shelter Programs - Transitional Housing Programs - Permanent Supportive Housing Programs - Safe Havens - HPRP Homeless Assistance Beds

The chart shows how many beds at each facility are designated for homeless individuals and/or homeless families. The chart also shows the population that is served by each program. Seasonal programs and programs with overflow or voucher beds are also listed.

INDIANA’S CONTINUA OF CARE AND REGIONAL PLANNING COUNCILSIndiana has three federally recognized Continuums of Care (COC). Marion County (Indianapolis), St. Joseph County (South Bend), and the Balance of State. IHCDA works to secure funding for the Balance of State COC.

In Indiana our Balance of State COC is broken down into 14 Local Continuums of Care.

Our Housing Inventory Chart includes homeless beds from the Balance of State.

A SNAPSHOT IN TIME

The Housing Inventory Chart is closely related to the Point In Time Count.

The Point In Time Count is a yearly one-day count of homeless clients held during the last week in January.

The next Point In Time Count will be held on January 25th, 2012.

The Housing Inventory Chart is a snapshot of what homeless providers were operating during the Point In Time Count.

January 25th, 2012

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE HIC?

IHCDA is ultimately responsible for completing and submitting the Housing Inventory Chart for the Balance of State.

However, we rely on Local Regional Planning Council (RPC’s) leaders to inform us about the programs and beds available in your area.

The Local RPC should survey all homeless programs annually during the Point In Time Count for changes or additions. The Local RPC gives this information to IHCDA who incorporates it into the NOFA application.

Local RPC

IHCDA

NOFA (Funding Application to HUD)

WHAT PROGRAMS TO INCLUDE

Definitely Include:•Emergency Shelters (ES) (will usually house someone up to 3 months)•Transitional Housing Programs for the Homeless (TH) (usually 6 to 24 months)

Possibly Include:•Prison Re-Entry Programs for homeless persons.•Substance Abuse Treatment Facilities – only beds specifically designated solely for homeless persons.•Youth Shelters – any beds specifically for homeless youth. •Residential Mental Health Programs – only beds specifically funded for homeless persons.•Programs that provide Emergency Shelter vouchers.

PROGRAMS NOT TO INCLUDE!

Do Not Include:

•Group Homes•Substance Abuse Treatment Facility of Detox Centers (unless they have specific beds funded specifically for the homeless).•Youth Shelters for Wards of the State or other Court Ordered Wards.•Hotels and Motels (except for year-round voucher beds).•Project-based public housing, unless the housing has been exclusively dedicated to serving homeless persons.•Medical facilities such as hospitals, psychiatric facilities, and nursing homes.•Juvenile detention centers or any other type of jail or prison. •HOPWA and HPRP Rental Assistance programs.•Programs that were not yet open or had already closed by January 25th. •Non-residential programs.


Special Cases

Often a program will not fit nicely into one category.

A privately funded shelter for example may not know if it’s an Emergency Shelter or a Transitional Program. You’ll have to look at their program rules or their clients’ average length of stay to determine how they should be labeled. Some programs should be split up into both ES and TH.

A program may have some beds set aside for the homeless and some beds open to anyone. Only the beds set aside for the homeless are included on the Housing Inventory Chart.


Quiz Time

Would this program be included on the HousingInventory Chart?

The Faith Love Hope Shelter has 10 beds for homeless women. They are a faith based shelter that requires women to attend chapel services each night. They do not receive any federal or state funding. They allow women to stay for as long as they want.

Yes, they should be included on the Housing Inventory Chart. Any homeless shelter regardless of funding or religious affiliation should be included.


Quiz Time


Youth Forward is a shelter for runaway and homeless youth. They have 12 beds. The majority of their clients are wards of the state. They do receive ESG funding for 3 of their beds. During the Point In Time count they did not have any homeless clients. Should they be included in the Housing Inventory Chart?

Yes, they should be included on the Housing Inventory Chart as having 3 beds for homeless youth.


Quiz Time


Life Choices Inc. is a drug treatment facility for single men. They can house up to 15 people each night and people are allowed to stay for up to 1 week. Often many of their clients are homeless, but they will take anyone regardless of their housing status. On the night of the Point In Time count they had 8 homeless men, 3 non-homeless men, and 4 empty beds. Would they be included on the Housing Inventory Chart?

Maybe. They would not be included on the Housing Inventory Chart unless they are willing to specifically designate some of their beds for homeless individuals.

LOOKING AT THE HIC

The Housing Inventory Chart starts out in a spreadsheet format. This spreadsheet is then entered by IHCDA into an online database known as the Homelessness Data Exchange (www.hudhdx.info). The HUD HDX website will be opening soon.

The Local RPCs will only need to worry about the spreadsheet version of the HIC Chart. Each Continuum will be sent a copy of the HIC containing just programs from their region.

Last year’s Housing Inventory Chart for the Balance of State can be found on our website: http://www.in.gov/ihcda/3120.htm

If you do not have Microsoft Excel, you can use free software such as Open Office or Google Spreadsheets to edit the document.

http://www.hudhxe.info/

http://www.in.gov/ihcda/3120.htm

FAMILIARIZING YOURSELF WITH THE SPREADSHEETThe Housing Inventory Chart for the PIT has two tabs at the bottom of the spreadsheet.

Each tab represents a different type of program:-Emergency Shelter Programs-Transitional Housing Programs

There are additional tabs in the master spreadsheet for listing Unmet Need and Bed Utilization.

Let’s take a look…

THE SPECIFIC ELEMENTS OF THE HIC

Each program is listed separately on its own row.

•Organization Name is the name of the Agency•Program Name is the name of the Program•County is the county that program is located in. Programs that cross county lines should use the county of their main office. •COC Region is the Local Balance of State Regional planning council, taken from slide three. •Inventory Type tells whether this is a current program “C” (meaning it existed last year also), a new program “N” (it did not exist last year), or an upcoming program “U” (it does not yet exist but has already been funded).


Target Population A & B tell what types of population are served by this program. These columns use special codes identified below.

Target Population A tells you what types of families are accepted.SF = Single Females only.SM = Single Males only.SMF = Single Males and Females only.HC = Households with ChildrenCO = Couples only, no children.SFHC = Single Females and Households with ChildrenSMHC = Single Males and Households with ChildrenSMF+HC = Singles Males and Females and Households with Children.YF = Youth Females (under 18)YM = Youth Males (under 18)YMF = Youth Males and Females (under 18)


Target Population B tells you if they serve one of the following special populations only.DV = Victims of Domestic Violence only.VET = Veterans only.HIV = HIV/AIDS populations only.

A program that serves some special populations but does not exclusively serve that population type should leave Target Population B blank.

Programs that are marked as “DV” will be excluded from any formulas regarding HMIS participation. The Violence Against Women Act of 2006 (VAWA) prohibits domestic violence programs from using HMIS.


Does this program receive McKinney-Vento Funding? If the program receives McKinney-Vento funding, such as ESG, SHP or SPC funds, this column will be marked with a “Yes”. Those programs (excluding DV) are required to submit data into HMIS.

This question will be changing in the future once the HEARTH Act is in place. The HEARTH Act will replace McKinney-Vento as the source of homeless funding. For more information on the HEARTH Act visit http://www.endhomelessness.org/content/article/detail/2574/

For programs that receive SHP and S+C funding: It is very important that the information listed on the Housing Inventory Chart matches the information submitted to HUD. If you are receiving federal funding then you can not change the number of beds without submitting a grant amendment to HUD. For programs that receive ESG funding: The number of beds and units must match your ESG Annual Report.

http://www.endhomelessness.org/content/article/detail/2574/


All Year-Round Beds & Units

The most important part of the Housing Inventory Chart is the listing of available beds in each program. This can be one of the more confusing parts of the chart for some programs.

This section of the chart does not include any seasonal programs or any overflow or voucher beds. This is only for Year-Round Beds.

This section is split into three main parts:• Beds for Households with Children• Units for Households with Children• Beds for Households without Children

ALL YEAR-ROUND BEDS & UNITS

Beds for Households Without Children.

Programs that serve only single individuals are easy to count. Simply count the number of beds that are available year-round and write down that number in the column for Beds for Household Without Children.

Seasonal Beds, Overflow Beds, and Voucher Beds are not included in the Year-Round Bed Count.

Programs that serve both Families and Singles are encouraged to designate some of the beds for Singles and some of the beds for Families in order to make counting simpler. Programs that intermingle family and single beds depending on demand should use the average number of individuals as their count of Single Beds and their average number of families to determine the number of family beds and units. If this data is not available, the number of individuals served during the Point In Time Count can be used.


Programs that serve families can be more difficult to count. Family programs need to differentiate between beds and units.

Units for Households With Children•Each family is counted as 1 unit. So a program that can take up to 10 families will have 10 units. •Some programs have separate rooms for each family, in which case each room equals 1 unit. Some programs put two families in each room, in which case each room equals 2 units. •Some programs can take as many families as will fit. In a situation like that the average number of families served on a given night should serve as the number of units. If that data is not available, the number of families served during the Point In Time Count will need to be used.


Beds for Households With Children•The number of beds in each unit may either be the physical number of beds or it may based on the average family size of a particular program. •The number of beds available will directly affect the utilization rate of that shelter (how many beds are full). For this reason we encourage programs to use the average family size to determine the number of family beds. A program that serves 5 families with an average family size of 3 would mark that they have 15 beds. •Programs that have a fixed number of beds for a changing number of families should put the actual number of beds and estimate the number of units. For example a program that has 20 beds and will take as many families as will fit in those 20 beds would put down “20” in the Available Family Beds column. •Programs that use the same beds for families and individuals will need to determine the average # of each type of client to determine how to fill out the chart.


Quiz Time

How many single beds, family beds, and family units would this program have?

Simple Simon Shelter has 10 bunk beds for single women, 20 bunk beds for single men, and 10 rooms for families. Each family room has 2 bunk beds.

Each bunk bed counts as two beds. So there are 60 beds for Individuals (10x2 + 20x2). There are 10 Family Units and 40 Family Beds (10x2x2).

Alternatively, if we know the average family size is 2.5 persons we could say there are 25 family beds to help provide a more accurate utilization rate.


Quiz Time


Heart to HEARTH Shelter has 10 rooms. Each room has five beds. They will allow up to five single women to stay in each room, or they will allow 1 family to stay in each room regardless of the size of the family. On average about half of the rooms are occupied by families and half of the rooms are occupied by individuals. The average size of each family is 3 persons.

Since the beds are flexible, you’ll need to use averages. On average half of the ten rooms are available for single women. 5x5 = 25 Beds for Single Women. On average half of the rooms are occupied by families. 5 Family Units, and 5x3 = 15 Family Beds.


Quiz Time


The Idunno Shelter will take as many people as they can. They never turn someone away unless they’re under the influence of alcohol or drugs. If they have to drag out mats from the closet they will do it. You ask them how many beds they have and they say “I don’t know”. You ask them how many families they usually serve and they say “I don’t know”. What do you do?

In cases where a shelter can not provide you with accurate bed counts or does not know the average # of people served on a given night, try speaking with someone else. You may need to use the number of people surveyed during the Point In Time Count.


Year-Round Beds In HMIS

The Housing Inventory Chart not only includes information about each program but it also documents which program use the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS). Furthermore, the Housing Inventory Chart is used to calculate a region’s HMIS Participation Rate by dividing the number of beds reporting into HMIS by the total number of beds in the region.

Domestic Violence Programs are excluded from participating in HMIS and their beds are not included in the calculation for the HMIS Participation Rate. However, victims of domestic violence who are staying at non-DV shelters should be included in HMIS.

A program is considered to be actively using HMIS if all of their clients are entered into the database in a regular and timely manner.

IHCDA will fill out this section of the chart.


Seasonal Beds

Seasonal beds are beds that are only available for part of the year. Usually this is a winter-program or a summer-program. The Seasonal Bed section of the Housing Inventory Chart has four columns:•Total Seasonal Beds (includes Individual and Family beds)•Number of Seasonal Beds in HMIS•Availability Start Date•Availability End Date

The start and end dates are used to calculate the percentage of the year that each bed is available. This data is then used in the Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to calculate “Equivalent Year Round Beds.” 10 seasonal beds that are available for half of the year will equal 5 equivalent year round beds in the AHAR report. The beds reported here should not be contingent upon weather conditions.


Overflow and Voucher Beds

Beds that are available only during special situations are called Overflow beds. These includes cots, mats and couches that may be used when all of the program’s regular beds are full. These overflow beds may be available year-round or seasonally. Examples of overflow beds could be mats that are pulled out when the temperature drops down considerably, or couches that are used when the director gives special permission for extra people to stay.

Seasonal beds which are always available during specific parts of the year are not counted as overflow beds.

The number of clients served during the Point In Time count can be used to calculate the number of Overflow beds.


Overflow and Voucher Beds

Voucher beds, such as programs that give motel vouchers for homeless persons, should be counted as Overflow beds also. Hotels, motels, and campground space paid for with an emergency shelter voucher can be counted.

In general the number of vouchers recorded on the Housing Inventory Chart should match the number of vouchers being used during the most recent Point In Time Count.

POINT IN TIME COUNTSThe last two columns on the Housing Inventory Chart are related to the Point In Time Count. The Point In Time Count is a one-day count of homeless persons held during the last week in January. The numbers from the Point In Time count are reported on the Housing Inventory Chart and are used to calculate a program’s utilization rate.

The column Point In Time Homeless Count is simply the total number of people (including individuals, family members, and people staying in overflow beds) who were there on the night of January 27th.

If a shelter participated in the Statewide Homeless Count and filled out surveys on all their clients then IHCDA will be able to fill in this number. If a shelter refused to participate in the Count then the COC will be responsible for getting this number from the shelter.

The last column, Program Utilization Rate, is calculated automatically by dividing the PIT Count by the Total # of Beds.

HOMELESS ASSISTANCE BEDS

HPRP & PIT: When counting HPRP units, only count beds/units that meet all of the following conditions:- HPRP participant is in conventional housing (apartment, house, etc,) on the night of the Point In Time Count; and- HPRP participant receiving rapid re-housing assistance under HPRP (financial assistance and/or housing relocation & stabilization services); and- HPRP participant was literally homeless at HPRP program entry. In other words a client was homeless and received rapid re-housing assistance and on January 25th 2012 was in his or her own apartment or conventional housing. Their apartment will be counted in the HPRP Chart.

HPRP eligible participants who are staying in emergency shelter, transitional housing are not included in the HPRP bed count. Those beds are counted in a tab not included for purposes of the PIT.

PARTICIPATION RATES AND OVERVIEWS

At the top of each spreadsheet there is a summary table that lists how many beds are available, how many beds are designated for DV, and how many beds are reporting into HMIS. There is one table for Individual Beds and one table for Family Beds. These tables are automatically filled in and automatically calculate the HMIS Participation Rate.

HMIS Participation Rate = Number of Beds Reporting in HMIS / Total # of Beds

While shelters that receive federal funding are required to use HMIS (excluding DV), other shelters are strongly encouraged to use HMIS because it will help improve the Participation Rate for everyone.

The higher the Participation Rate is for a RPC the more points they will receive on applications for federal funding. Our goal is to increase the HMIS Participation Rate for each program type to 70% or higher.

THE NOFA APPLICATION

Each year IHCDA applies for funding from HUD for the Balance of State. The application is known colloquially as the NOFA application, which stands for the Notice Of Funding Availability. The Notice of Funding Availibility is HUD’s announcement which tells which Continuums will be receiving funding each year, thus the application we fill out to obtain funding has come to be known as the NOFA application. The application is submitted electronically through a website known as E-SNAPS. HUD scores each application and assigns it a series of points. If the application gets enough points it will meet a threshold which will award the continuum with additional money for new projects.

The Housing Inventory Chart is used by the NOFA application in several different ways. First, the HIC shows how many programs and beds are available. Second, the HIC shows how many programs use HMIS. Third, the HIC is used to calculate the Utilization Rate in the Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR).

BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER

The Housing Inventory Chart is more than just a spreadsheet of homeless programs in the state. This chart also directly affects how well we do when applying for federal funding for programs across the state. Including inaccurate information or listing non-homeless programs will hurt our application by making it look like we have more homeless beds than we really do, and by lowering our HMIS Participation Rate. This chart can and should be used by Local COCs in any homeless planning discussion. Please discuss this chart at your local continuum meetings and keep it up-to-date year round as programs change. When you submit the HIC to IHCDA please make sure it reflects the status of homeless beds available at the end of January.

For this year’s NOFA application we will need updated HIC data back from each Local COC by May 14th, 2012.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

More information about the Housing Inventory Chart, including additional Frequently Asked Questions, can be found by visiting:

http://www.hudhre.info/

For assistance in filling out your Housing Inventory Chart, or if you have any questions please contact the following IHCDA staff members:

Lori DimickHomeless Programs [email protected]

Kerrie KikendallHMIS [email protected]

http://www.hudhre.info/

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

understanding the housing inventory chart for the pit count

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