Definitions

To better understand the data, you must first define the data.

General Terms

  • Individual or family who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. Including places not meant for human habitation, shelters, and hotels/motels designated as temporary shelters.

  • Chronic homelessness is used to describe people who have experienced homelessness for at least a year — or repeatedly (4+ times within 3 years)— while struggling with a disabling condition such as a serious mental illness, substance use disorder, or physical disability.

  • Housing First is an approach to quickly and successfully connect individuals and families experiencing homelessness to permanent housing without preconditions and barriers to entry, such as sobriety, treatment, or service participation requirements. Supportive services are offered to maximize housing stability and prevent returns to homelessness as opposed to addressing predetermined treatment goals prior to permanent housing entry.

Project Types

The different project types in HMIS are intended to capture information about people in different living situations. Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with the different project types available in HMIS.

  • Homeless Prevention

    Offers services and/or financial assistance necessary to keep people in housing and to prevent them from moving into an emergency shelter or place not meant for human habitation.

  • Street Outreach

    Offers services to people experiencing unsheltered homelessness, connecting them with emergency shelter and providing information about coordinated entry and other housing resources in the community.

  • Coordinated Entry

    Administers the CoC’s coordinated processes for the assessment and referral of individuals and families seeking housing or services, including use of a comprehensive and standardized assessment.

  • Emergency Shelter

    Offers temporary overnight lodging to persons experiencing homelessness. Different shelters provide lodging for different populations (Individuals, families, etc.). Requirements and limitations may vary by shelter project.

Permanent Housing

  • Offers permanent housing and supportive services to assist persons experiencing homelessness who have a disabling condition (either individuals with disabilities or families in which one adults or child has a disability) to live independently.

  • Provides housing relocation and stabilization services and short-to-medium term rental assistance as necessary to help individuals or families experiencing homelessness move as quickly as possible into permanent housing and achieve stability in that housing.

  • Offers permanent housing for persons or families wo are experiencing homelessness (with or without supportive services). Generally, have less eligibility requirements than PSH.

Temporary Housing

  • Provides temporary lodging and is designed to facilitate the movement of individuals and families experiencing homelessness into permanent housing within a specified period of time, but no longer than 24 months.

  • Offers supportive housing that serves hard to reach persons experiencing homelessness with severe mental illness who came from the streets and have been unwilling to participate in supportive services.

Supportive Services

  • Offers daytime facilities and services (no lodging) for persons experiencing homelessness, at-risk of experiencing homelessness, or just accessing amenities offered at the building.

  • Offers only stand-alone supportive services (other than outreach & coordinated entry) to address the special needs of participants (such as childcare, employment assistance, and transportation services). Participants served by this project type may not be experiencing homelessness.

Household Types

  • Households with only adults 25+ years of age

  • Households with at least one adult 25+ years of age & at least one child under the age of 18.

  • Households with members 24 years of age and younger; includes unaccompanied youth, parenting youth, & minors under the age of 18 (without a parent/guardian).

  • Households with members missing dates of birth in ways that prevent assigning another household type.

Additional Definitions

BIPOC Status (filter)

Allows you to view breakdowns on person who identified as Black, Indigenous, and/or a Person of Color (BIPOC) during their enrollment into COHMIS.

Enrollment Indicates Homelessness (filter)

Since different project types in HMIS are intended to capture information about people in different living situations, the COHMIS Leads developed additional calculations to help determine whether an enrollment associated with a person indicates an episode of homelessness was occurring. In the following dashboards, the 'Enrollment Indicates Homelessness' filter can be applied to limit results to only display persons matching these criteria.

Project Enrollment Exit Date

Indicates the end of a person's participation with the project they are enrolled in.

Unsheltered Homelessness

Describes individuals living in places not meant for human habitation, such as streets, vehicles, parks, or abandoned buildings.

COHMIS Participating Provider

Any provider that enters data into COHMIS. Providers that receive homeless service funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Department of Health and Human Services (DHS), or the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) have requirements to use the HMIS selected by their local CoC. Providers funded by state and local governments in Colorado also may have requirements to use COHMIS, while other providers choose to use our system due to the care coordination opportunities it provides.

Exit Outcome

At the time persons are exited from their enrollments in COHMIS, providers are instructed to capture the Destination, or living situation, they are staying in at the time of their Project Exit Date. This Destination value is one of the major indicators HUD uses to gauge programmatic success, with Destinations to 'Housed' living situations being viewed as successful and exits to 'Unhoused' Destinations or 'Missing Data' Destinations being viewed as unsuccessful.

Last Enrollment in System (filter)

Allows you to view breakdowns on person who received their last project enrollment in COHMIS. Please note having a ‘Yes’ value for this filter only means this is the person’s last enrollment in COHMIS and not necessarily that they are experiencing homelessness, housing instability, or have been permanently housed.

First Enrollment in System (filter)

Allows you to view breakdowns on persons who received their first project enrollment in COHMIS. Please note having a 'Yes' value for this filter only means the person is new to COHMIS and not necessarily that they are experiencing homelessness or housing instability for the first time.

Project Enrollment Start Date

Indicates the beginning of a person's participation with the project they are enrolled in.

Sheltered Homelessness

Is when someone stays in a temporary shelter, emergency shelter, or transitional housing. This data is pulled from HMIS, regardless of the data source. 

Homeless Management Information System (HMIS)

HMIS is the information system designated by a local CoC used to record and analyze client, service, and housing data for individuals and families who are either experiencing homelessness or at-risk of experiencing homelessness. HMIS is administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) through the Office of Special Needs Assistance Programs (SNAPS) as its comprehensive data response to the congressional mandate to report annually on national homelessness.

Newly Experiencing Homelessness (filter)

Allows you to view breakdowns on person who received their first project enrollment in COHMIS and is experiencing homelessness for the first time. Please note having a ‘Yes’ value for this filter only means that the person’s enrollment in COHMIS indicates that they are experiencing homelessness or housing instability for the first time.

Reporting Period (filter)

Allows you to view data during a specific period of time. Dashboards automatically show data for the most recent calendar year. Data is provided from January 2019 to present day.

Housing Move-in Date

The date a household physically moves into permanent housing. Please note: this field is only available within Permanent Housing projects.