State of the HMIS 2018: A Letter from the Director

Dear HMIS Users and Stakeholders,

Last month we celebrated ICA’s second anniversary here in Minnesota. In light of this milestone and in keeping with the precedent set last year, I thought it appropriate to again take stock of where we are and where we’re going.

We at ICA come to work every day because we believe in the ability of HMIS to evaluate and elevate our collective efforts to end homelessness. We believe that HMIS data can help guide us as a state to better insights about what is working, what isn’t, and what changes can be made. We also know that HMIS has not lived up to this promise in the past, and we’re doggedly determined to change that.

The work of turning around Minnesota’s HMIS requires many delicate balances, not least of which involves balancing the need to build up our infrastructure with the imperative to produce new and innovative things. To that end, we’ve implemented processes to ensure quality Helpdesk responses to our current users, and we’ve added new users by bringing Housing Support into HMIS. We’ve spent hundreds of hours testing and cleaning up existing reports, like the Coordinated Entry Priority Lists, and hundreds more building, testing, and documenting new ones, like the Core report. We’ve embarked on a major Agency Check-In project to identify and address partner agencies’ challenges and needs, and we’ve implemented several pilot projects to track new initiatives. Striking the right balance between these two types of work is key; we can’t take shortcuts if we are to move forward in a way that is structurally sound.

Another of these balances involves managing the needs of our many and varied stakeholders. As we’re deepening our relationships with CoCs, state and tribal partners, and partner agencies, we’re finding that the demand for HMIS is higher than it has ever been. We’re thrilled that you’re starting to see the promise of the system, and we’re working hard to build processes that ensure we prioritize these needs transparently and objectively. ICA has implemented a project management framework, which has positioned us to scope out, manage, and for the first time share a dynamic portfolio of our active projects. In partnership with the Policy & Prioritization Committee of the HMIS Governing Board, we’re beta testing a prioritization tool to score individual requests and are looking at how we can set system-level priorities in a way that will create more transparency, accountability, and alignment. We know this is a work in progress and we invite your involvement to help make these efforts as strong as they can be.

We do this foundation-building and priority-setting work to help us navigate what’s ahead. We are still awaiting software upgrades that promise to make data entry more intuitive and improve our reporting capabilities, but in the meantime we continue to better utilize the tools at our disposal. We will be continuing to improve the quality of our written instructions, re-envision our data quality process, and re-think our approach to training. We will continue working on Coordinated Entry by adding components to the process and publishing a Monitoring report that will help us better understand how these systems are functioning. We will continue building high-quality reports that are smartly designed and thoroughly tested. We know there is no small task ahead and know that this kind of progress takes time, but we remain committed to righting the ship.

To close, I’d like to reiterate a commitment we made to you in 2016. That is what you can expect from ICA:

• Accountability

• Collaboration

• HMIS Expertise

• Localized Support

• Responsiveness

• Transparency

• Above all, a deep and enduring commitment to making HMIS work

Now, as before, I will say that if you ever feel that we are not abiding by this list, please email me right away at demetri.vincze@icalliances.org.

Thank you for all that you’ve done to help make HMIS what it is today. We are honored to partner with you in this critical effort to prevent and end homelessness in Minnesota.

Sincerely,

Demetri Vincze
Minnesota HMIS Project Director