Homeless Management Information System
A Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) is a local information technology system used to collect client-level data and data on the provision of housing and services to homeless individuals and families and persons at risk of homelessness. Each Continuum of Care is responsible for selecting an HMIS software solution that complies with HUD's data collection, management, and reporting standards....*****
This means that if you are homeless and you go into a shelter or HUD housing your name and other information about you has been reported and is on some database somewhere originating with your local HUD.
READ MORE AT THE LINK and check out these links on that page:
CoC: Continuum of Care Program
RHSP: Rural Housing Stability Assistance Program
VHPD: Veterans Homelessness Prevention Demonstration Program
AND READ FROM THIS BLOG, which also appears on our side bar!
HOMELESS LAW WORDPRESS - WHERE DOES THE INFORMATION GO AND HOW IS IT USED?
Excerpt:
Every community of homeless service providers, whether it is a city or a county or a region—depending on how homeless services are organized in that area—contracts with a database vendor to create its own HMIS. Then, as a homeless person goes from one agency to the next, he or she does not have to go through the whole exhaustive intake process each time and the provider can see any facts that might help them to best serve the client and make referrals to other entities or new programs that will be relevant to that individual consumer.
You have two ways of protecting your information:
- You can refuse to answer any of the questions that you object to. Refusing to answer will not make you ineligible for the service, but it will mess-up the provider’s records and can compromise its future funding. In the unlikely event that a provider says that you are legally required to answer a particular question if you want the service, you should direct that person to page 11 of the HMIS Data Standards Manual https://www.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/HMIS-Data-Standards-Manual.pdf which specifically says that “client refused is considered a valid response.”
- You can obtain a copy of your database report and tell the provider to remove any items that you do not want to have on record.
OUR EXPERIENCE IS THAT IF YOU REFUSE TO ANSWER SUCH SURVEYS OR DATA SHEETS they will either not take you into the shelter or they will kick you out of the shelter.
Some of us have lied on these surveys in some effort to have privacy.
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