Love Your Data HMIS Quarterly Newsletter - Feb. 2023

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Love Your Data

februrary 2023

Featuring…

  • HUD Community Feedback Project spotlight
  • Updates: Latest Golden available and PIT County data entry deadline
  • Data dashboards are updated
  • Data Quality Check: Element 2 Timeliness
  • Reports corner: Program Funding Source Financial Detail
  • Excel at Excel Basics: Dealing with Dates after running a report
  • Help Desk: unique IDs can be copied from HMIS

HUD Community Feedback Project spotlight

Graphic suggesting feedback

Commerce hosted virtual listening sessions and conducted an online survey throughout December 2022 to gather feedback regarding HUD’s proposed changes to the HMIS data standards. HUD’s proposed data element changes relate to race, ethnicity, preferred language, and gender identity.

In total, 18 people participated in the listening sessions, two exclusive to participants with lived homelessness experience. The survey was available in English, Chinese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese. In total, 238 people completed the English survey, and the Russian and Tagalog surveys had one response each.

Based on the feedback received, there was a generally positive response to the proposed changes and some recommendations for improvement. A summary report of the feedback was submitted to HUD. Special thanks to all of you who participated in the project!


Updates

The latest Golden for State Fiscal Year 2022 is now available

The Homeless Housing Project Expenditure Report, also known as the Golden, combines expenditure data from funding sources (federal, state and local) with Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) data to produce a comprehensive report that links expenditures with outcomes across Washington State. The SFY 2022 Golden spreadsheet is now available on Commerce’s website under the ‘2022 Report Documents’ heading. Past years of this report are also available.

PIT Count data entry deadline

The Point-in-time (PIT) count was conducted on Jan. 26, 2023. PIT data entry for Balance of State (BoS) counties is due Feb. 28, 2023. Full results will be shared and posted in early May. Please reach out to Brian Fullerton if you have any questions.


Data dashboards are updated

decorative image of a laptop computer

 Quarterly dashboards now include data for the second quarter of SFY 2023 (Oct. 1 through Dec. 31, 2022):

Check out all available dashboards on the Data and Performance Unit | Housing Division page.


Data Quality Check

Element 2: Timeliness

Let’s get comfy with data quality. Data quality has four elements: completeness, timeliness, accuracy, and consistency. We are focusing on one data element each quarter.

Timeliness is the degree to which the data is collected and available when needed. It is measured by the time between the event's occurrence and when it is entered into HMIS. Keep reading to learn more (Box .pdf)


Reports Corner 

Program Funding Source Financial Detail Report

clip art of a clipboard

Every quarter, we examine a report or reporting-related topic to help you take ownership of your data.

The [EXPS-103] Program Funding Source Financial Detail Report returns a detailed list of expense service records based on enrollment. Learn more about the report, why it is important, and some essential things to check in the [EXPS-103] report article.


Excel at Excel Basics

Dealing with dates after running a report

Want to be a spreadsheet wizard? Here we explore the power of spreadsheets, from the basics to the advanced.

Have you ever had difficulty sorting a report by a date column and not knowing what to do? Learn tips about date fields and some simple date calculations in the Dealing with Dates tutorial (Box .pdf).


Dear HMIS Help Desk

Running into technical issues and not sure who to call? Don’t worry — the HMIS team has your back.

One of our readers writes:

Dear HMIS team,

There’s got to be an easier way. I type out client unique identifiers often, whether it’s letting my team members know who is ready for an annual assessment, to clean up data errors, or when filling out an HMIS Help Desk Ticket Form. No matter how careful I am, I always seem to miss a number here or there.

Tell me there’s a hack that can help me!

At a loss,

All Typed Out in Klickitat

 

Dear All Typed Out in Klickitat,

Thank you for your question. There is, in fact, a better way!

When on a client’s record in HMIS, the client’s unique identifier appears on the right side of the ‘Profile’ tab. This code can be copied, similarly to copying a word in a Word document.

  1. Highlight the unique identifier code.
  2. Right-click on the highlighted text and select Copy from the drop-down window next to it. Instead of this last step, you can use ‘Ctrl’ + ‘C’ on your keyboard.
  3. Go to the email or Word document; click the location where you would like to insert the text, and then hit ‘Ctrl’ + ‘V’ on your keyboard to paste the code.

Voila! You have the UID ready to use. Best of all, you know it’s correct.

Quick reminder, be careful of what client data you put in emails, documents and spreadsheets. Do not share any personally identifiable information (PII) in this way. Also, if you need a more extensive list of UIDs, such as a list of all active clients, don’t copy down the client UIDs individually. Consider running an HMIS report instead.

Best wishes,

HMIS team


How are we doing?

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions for future content, contact ellen.hatleberg@commerce.wa.gov.

That is all from us for now. Have a great quarter and don’t forget to love your data!