Put Your High-Quality Data to Work Informing National Policies on Homeless Services!

Over the next 6 months, ICA will submit aggregate, de-identified data to HUD on the state of homelessness in Minnesota in two important federal reports: the Longitudinal Systems Analysis (LSA) and System Performance Measures (SPMs). These two reports put your hard data entry work to work! The LSA is the HMIS-based data used in the Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR). The AHAR is reviewed by our U.S. Congress members as they create policies and secure funding for homeless services for our entire country!

Did you know?? AHAR data from around the U.S. was used to inform House America! This is the federal government's direct response to the crisis of homelessness utilizing investments through the American Rescue Plan.

For Minnesota's data to have airtime in the AHAR, it needs to be accurate, complete, and consistent. These federal reports pull data from 10/1/2020 through 9/30/2021. If you have not participated in Minnesota's Quarterly Data Quality Process for Q4 2020, Q1 2021, and Q2 2021, take time today to ensure that your data for the last 12 months accurately represents the households your project served and that the information you entered is complete.

Make Relationship to HoH a Top Priority

One data element of particular importance is Relationship to Head of Household. Did you know if there is more than one assigned head of household, or no assigned head of household, the entire household will be excluded from the total de-identified counts for the LSA and SPMs?! Learn about addressing Relationship to HoH data quality issues in our Knowledge Base article: Relationship to Head of Household Errors.

How to Review Your Data

To review your data, we would recommend pulling the same report you use for Minnesota's Quarterly Data Quality process: MIN-01-DQR-251 - Quarterly Data Quality Monitoring report. Simply change the date prompts to include the last 4 quarters!

• Start Date: 10/1/2020

• End Date: 10/1/2021

We recommend pulling this report as an Excel file. This report can be run for multiple providers!

By ensuring high HMIS data quality for your project, you are advocating for the families and individuals you are partnering with to address a crisis. ICA is committed to helping ensure HMIS data is high quality and gets included in these important federal reports. Please reach out to our Helpdesk if you need any assistance: mnhmis@icalliances.org.