HUD Advanced Homeless Data Users Meeting

1
HUD Advanced Homeless Data Users Meeting

• The Comprehensive Usage of Data Analysis in
  Developing and Supporting the Goals of Quincy, MA
  10-Year Plan
• Matthew D. Simmonds, President of Simtech
  Solutions Inc.
• John Yazwinski, Executive Director of Father
  Bills Mainspring and Chairman of the
  Quincy-Weymouth, MA CoC

2
Community Information

• CoC Description - Quincy-Weymouth
• Point in Time Count 256 homeless persons on
  1/30/08
• General Population Count - 142,013
• Source 2000 US Census Figures

3
Overview

• It is our intent to share with others the data
  driven approach we have used to expediently
  address the issues surrounding chronic
  homelessness in our community. Using both HMIS
  and non-HMIS data we have been able to accomplish
  the following
• Identify sub-populations in great need of our
  attention
• Reduce housing and non-housing costs
• Show a demonstrable improvement in quality of
  life
• Ensure the quality of the data we are reporting
  on
• Provide the media and funding sources with
  crucial facts and figures
• Demonstrate the accomplishment of goals set in
  our 10 Year Plan
• Improve our point in time counting strategy and
  reduce turnaround to less than 1 day
• Facilitate conversations with state institutions
  to improve discharge planning
• Chart the build up of housing units and the
  corresponding decline in shelter beds

4
Measurable Outcomes fromthe 10 Year Plan

• Reduce inappropriate discharges
• Decrease cost of emergency services
• Increase housing
• Improve regional collaboration and support

5
Examining the Trends

• Over a four year period
• the shelter population of 18-24 year olds
  increased 49.
• 21-24 year olds had the highest rate of increase
  of (58.5)

2000-2001 2001-2002 2002-2003 2003-2004
6
Action Step Reduce Inappropriate Discharges

• This data was shared with the Mass. Interagency
  Council on Homelessness as well as statewide
  advocacy groups such as Mass Housing and Shelter
  Alliance.
• This research resulted in
• A change in discharge policies from statewide
  systems of care.
• A new Housing First pilot program assisting 20
  young adults aging out of state systems.

7
Action Step Reduce Inappropriate Discharges
8
Action StepDetermine Our Chronic Population

• If the client has a disability (FYes), and
  they either had 4 or more homeless episodes
  (Ggt4) OR were homeless for greater than 1 year
  (Jgt365), and are 18 years old or older (Kgt18),
  then count them as chronically homeless.
• Excel formula used to ID a difference between
  the data derived and the case manager assigned
  chronicity status
• BxIF(AND(Fx"Yes",OR(Gx"Y",Jxgt365),Kxgt18),1,0)

9
Examining the Trends

• Once we identified the chronically homeless we
  were able to pinpoint
• their bed utilization rates compared with the
  utilization rates of
• the non-chronic. Our findings were as follows
• Chronic clients served FY04 397
• Total clients served in FY04 1285
• clients that were chronic 397/1285 or 30.8
• Chronic clients served on 2/1/04 72
• Total clients served on 2/1/04 146
• clients served that were chronic 72/146 or
  49.3
• Less than one third of the total clients
• were utilizing roughly half of the bed stays!
• One of several randomly selected dates all of
  which showed similar results.

10
Action Step Decrease Cost of Emergency Services

• After identifying the issue the continuum
  moved forward with a pilot Housing First project
  and studied the before and after results to
  determine if the model was an effective one. Our
  findings were as follows
• Cost Benefit Analysis Shelter Vs. Housing
• Hard costs per client at the shelter per year
  14,600.
• Hard costs per client at Claremont House per year
  11,195. Total savings per client 3,405.

11
Action Step Decrease Cost of Emergency Services

• Cost Benefit Analysis Medical Costs
• The Claremont House study showed out of 12 women
  placed emergency room visits dropped from 22
  visits prior to housing to 11 after housing and
  inpatient stays dropped from 44 to 4.
• FROM ACTUAL BILLINGS - Dr. Barber from Quincy
  Medical stated cost savings to the community were
  roughly 60,000 or 5000 per client for the first
  year of the study alone.
• IF WE HAD TO ESTIMATE - The average cost of
  inpatient stays in the US was 1023 per day
  according to the Medical Care Cost Equation Tool
  (MCCE). According to MEPS the national average
  cost of an ER visit was 560.  Therefore based on
  these averages the total savings to the community
  were 40,964 for inpatient stays and 6160 for ER
  visits for a total savings of 47124.

12
Action Step Increase Housing

• Closed an emergency shelter due to lack of need
  and took 35 total beds offline.
• 2 years ahead of pace on the 10 year plan goal
  to build up 100-120 housing units for the
  chronically homeless with 52 new units
• Quincy beats housing goal City reports 20 drop
  in chronic homelessness (Source Patriot Ledger)

13
Action StepLeverage the Point In Time Count

• Excel tools allowed for generation of Chart K
  within 1day.
• Simple process helped persuade agencies to
  implement a successful dry run count.
• Demonstrated a decrease in the chronic population
  every year for the last four years.
• We are now seeing more vets than ever.
• Excel enables us to collect data from non-HUD
  funded agencies.
• Serves as an effective auditing tool of our HMIS
  data.
• Sharing point in time info with others around New
  England will enable a regional count and help us
  benchmark our performance with similar
  communities.

14
Action StepLeverage the Point In Time Count
Point in Time Street Count Map for January 30,
2008
Street Count Map Legend
15
Action Step Improve Regional Collaboration
Clients Served by Region July 1, 2006 June 30,
2007
16
Action Step Improve Regional Collaboration

• Application Inventory
• Initial Assessment
• HUD HMIS Data Collection Reporting
• Bed Register
• Non-Homeless Data Collection
• HUD XML and CSV Data Exchange 
• Custom Assessments
• GIS Mapping
• Agency Directory
• Referral Passing Tools
• Services Tracking
• Housing Inventory Chart Mgmt Tools
• Point In Time Counting Tools
• Advanced Reporting
• PATH Data Collection Reporting
• Data Quality Monitoring Tools Reports
• AgencyDash.com (non-HMIS)
• SHORE (HMIS)
• Both

Not Homeless
Homeless
XML
XML
XML
XML
XML
SHORE(HMIS)
AgencyDash.com(Non-HMIS)