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Featuring…
- New Process: Reach HMIS team through Help Desk form
- Data Quality dashboard spotlight
- Data dashboards are updated
- Updates
- PIT 2023 Timeline
- Opportunity to give HUD feedback on HMIS data elements
- A full HMIS Team! Welcome Ellie, Gaby & Makela
- Understanding HMIS data quality: Part 1 Completeness
- Reports Corner:
- Program Details Report
- From the Archive: HMIS Data Quality Report
- Excel at Excel Basics: Prior Living Situation, Program Details Report and a Simple Pivot Table
- Beginner Tip: Part 1
- Advanced Tip: Part 2
- Help Desk: How to handle a data request
- The Data & Performance Unit is hiring!
New Process: Reach us through Help Desk form
As announced in our August newsletter, we have been piloting a new Help Desk form for the last quarter. It’s time to transition to using the form for all your HMIS technical support needs. Our goal for this change is to improve and streamline the HMIS Help Desk experience for you, our dear HMIS users.
Please use the Help Desk ticket form to submit your questions and technical support requests instead of emailing the HMIS Help Desk directly. The form allows your questions to go directly to the HMIS team member who can help you best. It also prompts you to provide all the information needed for us to answer your questions.
Big thank you to all of you who have provided feedback so far. Tell us what you think of the new ticketing form by responding to question 10 in the HMIS Technical Assistance Survey. We want to know what you like, don’t like and what parts of the form are confusing.
Data Quality Dashboard Spotlight
 The Data Quality dashboard is here to help you identify what parts of your data to correct. It provides HMIS users in the Balance of State (BoS) a tool to easily monitor the completeness, accuracy, and timeliness of their data and make improvements as needed. Check out the Data Quality dashboard.
The dashboard now includes data from State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2021 Quarter 2 through SFY 2023 Quarter 1 (Oct. 1, 2020 - Sept. 30, 2022).
Data dashboards are updated
PIT 2023 Timeline
The Point-in-time (PIT) count season is starting. Information will be sent out to participating agencies as we get closer to the event, including training opportunities. While everyone is still in the planning stages, including us here at Commerce, here's a heads up on the timeline:
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Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023: PIT Count Date
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By Nov. 4, 2022: All PIT Coordinators for each county should have heard from Commerce to confirm your county’s primary contact for the PIT Count.
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Throughout Nov. 2022: PIT Count guidance from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Commerce is posted on Commerce’s PIT webpage
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2022 and Jan. 2023: Trainings on how to collect information for the PIT Count and how to enter that information into HMIS will be provided. We will send everyone a heads-up once they are available.
Please reach out to Brian Fullerton if you have any questions or concerns, especially if you have not been contacted regarding your primary contact for the count.
Opportunity to give HUD feedback
There is an opportunity to give HUD feedback on proposed changes to race, ethnicity, and gender HMIS data elements. HUD released a set of proposed changes to these important data elements and invites you to join in the collaboration to improve this process. Providing feedback is completely optional and the information provided is open-ended so that communities can share what would enrich the process as HUD considers changes to the data standards.
Keep an eye out in your inbox for more information on how to get involved.
No changes will be made to HMIS yet. This is an opportunity to gather feedback. Commerce will submit feedback to HUD on behalf of the Washington Balance of State (BoS) Continuum of Care (CoC).
A full HMIS Team! Welcome Gaby, Ellie & Makela
That’s right, the HMIS team is now fully staffed. We are all here to help. Meet Our HMIS Team (pdf) and learn more about each team member.
 HMIS team members from left to right. (top row): Joshua Fike, Ellie Parrish, Talia Scott (middle row): Jayme Khoo, Ellen Hatleberg (bottom row): Gaby Ramirez, Alicia Osborne, Maylee Stevenson
Hi, my name is Ellie Parrish. I work for the HMIS Team’s Help Desk. I grew up in southeastern Virginia, but have loved Washington since relocating here in 2018. I graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a bachelor's degree in Urban Planning and Regional Studies. I worked for a forestry organization in D.C. and most recently for a social services agency in Olympia. My time in the nonprofit sector has taught me that I'm a true data nerd. I'm excited to bring that passion and experience to the team at the Commerce and provide assistance through the HMIS Help Desk. In my free time, I play for and coach a women's rugby team, hang out with my small army of dogs, cats, and chickens, and help tend my family's tree farm in Pe Ell, WA.
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Hello, my name is Gaby Ramirez. I work for the HMIS Team’s Help Desk. I live in Lewis County. Since getting my bachelor’s degree in social work from George Fox University, and gaining experience working with the homeless population, my heart has been tugged to continue working in this area. My first job after college was case managing at a women and family shelter. I loved working there. I have learned a lot while working in front-line service delivery over the past 8 years. I also worked in a behavioral health facility helping connect clients to community resources, and in schools. Now that I have the opportunity to work at the state level, I am looking forward to being able to bring my past experiences in and help make a bigger impact in our communities. In my free time, I love going camping with my family and spending time at the beach, star-gazing, and playing in my community’s chamber orchestra. I have a loving husband, two amazing daughters, and a cute little Yorkie named Sunnie.
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Hi there, I’m Makela Alem (She/Her). I am the Performance Team’s racial equity performance specialist. In this role, I will be developing racial equity performance requirements and supporting housing programs in developing more culturally relevant programs, which yield equitable results. I was born, raised and currently live in Bellingham, WA where the majority of my education and work experience has been focused on direct service & DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) advocacy in my local community. My favorite quote to apply to my work is “Dreams and reality are opposites. Action synthesizes them.” I believe that in order to see equitable outcomes, we need to be bold enough to dream and daring enough to act. I’m looking forward to getting to know you all as we do this together. In my free time I enjoy going to the beach with my dog Sokka, traveling, planning themed parties, trying out a new recipe, and talking about favorite books.
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Understanding HMIS data quality
Let’s get comfy with data quality. Data Quality refers to the reliability and comprehensiveness of your community’s data. Maintaining good data quality is important for effective program evaluation. Data quality has four elements: completeness, timeliness, accuracy, and consistency.
We will be focusing on one data element each quarter, kicking off this series with data completeness.
Element 1: Completeness
Completeness of data is measured by the percentage of incomplete fields in required data elements. Learn more (pdf).
Reports Corner
Every quarter, we examine a report or reporting-related topic to help you take ownership of your data.
No dataset is perfect, but accurate data helps improve the good work already being done to help people experiencing homelessness across Washington. Good data is important, and there are reports to help get there.
Program Details Report
Learn more about the Program Details Report, why it is important, and some important things to check and resolve in your data. Read article (pdf)
From the Archive: HMIS Data Quality Report
This report is the first one you should run to check your data quality. In this article, learn more about the report, why it is important, and some important things to check and resolve in your data. Read article (pdf)
Excel at Excel Basics
Want to be a spreadsheet wizard? Here we explore the power of spreadsheets, from the basics to the advanced.
Prior Living Situation, Program Details Report and a Simple Pivot Table
Want to get a quick snapshot of the Prior Living Situation (PLS) of clients in your program(s)?
Beginner Tip: Let’s take a look at client destinations in Excel. First, we’ll look at resources, run a report and then go over some helpful calculations in this Part 1 of the PLS and pivot table tutorial.(pdf).
Advanced Tip: Building off of the Part 1 tutorial, learn how to take your to take your pivot table to the next level and even turn it into a chart in Part 2 of the PLS and pivot table tutorial (pdf).
Dear HMIS Help Desk
Running into technical issues and not sure who to call? Don’t worry — the HMIS team has your back.
How to handle a data request
One of our readers writes:
Dear HMIS team,
We’ve been pretty rad at entering data in HMIS and now we’ve got some really good homelessness data that helps us understand the situation in our community.
Lately, with homelessness being the talk in town, my local newspaper and a few other interested folks are asking me for data, what should I do?
At a loss,
Wondering in Whatcom
Dear Wondering in Whatcom,
Thanks for reaching out! First off, it’s very important that we are protecting our clients’ privacy, so client-level information must never be shared with anyone who does not already have access to your agency’s HMIS.
That said, you can point these folks to Commerce’s public dashboards and datasets. Here are a few that may be useful:
If those are not sufficient, please reach out to us in the HMIS Team through the Help Desk ticket form. We will be able to provide more guidance based on the purpose of the request.
And whenever you’re in doubt, contact us too!
Best wishes,
HMIS team
We're hiring: Performance Manager, Data & Performance Unit
The Data & Performance Unit (DPU) within Commerce’s Housing Division is responsible for data and performance management systems. The DPU supports the other Housing Division units to strengthen data collection methods, improve data quality, and optimize the performance of all state and local investments in affordable housing, homeless housing, youth homelessness and supportive housing efforts. This work includes data system management, data analysis and visualization, performance evaluation, and technical assistance and training to improve performance.
The Performance Manager supervises a team of professional staff who have the primary responsibilities of improving homeless system performance and acts as the primary business manager for DPU's Performance Evaluation and Technical Assistance section. This position oversees the performance management systems and technical assistance initiatives related to homeless plans and programs. This position manages a team of experts that includes multiple distinct specializations including adult and family homeless system performance, youth and young adult homeless system performance, coordinated entry system design and performance, addressing racial disparities in homeless services and grantee training for homeless service providers. This posting is open until filled.
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