A
-
Households with only adults 25+ years of age.
B
-
Are breakdowns on persons who identified as Black, Indigenous, and/or a Person of Color (BIPOC) during their enrollment into COHMIS.
C
-
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.
-
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 the 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.
-
Colorado uses the same HMIS system across the state and refers to it as COHMIS. See Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) definition for more information.
-
A Continuum of Care is a regional or local planning body that coordinates housing and services funding for families and individuals experiencing homelessness.
-
The primary access point for housing resources, assessing needs and prioritizing referrals for those resources.
D
-
Offers daytime facilities and services (no lodging) for persons experiencing homelessness, at-risk of experiencing homelessness, or just accessing amenities offered at the building.
E
-
Provides temporary, overnight accommodations often with other services including meals and case management.
-
When a person leaves a program, such as an emergency shelter, in COHMIS, providers record where they are living at that time. HUD uses this information to measure program success—exits to stable housing are considered successful, while exits to homelessness or unknown locations are not.
-
A subset of the total served population, this refers specifically to people who, based on available data, experienced sheltered or unsheltered homelessness at some point in 2025.
F
-
Households with at least one adult 25+ years of age & at least one child under the age of 18.
H
-
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.
-
Short-term financial assistance and services for households at risk of losing housing.
-
Based on the composition of the individuals in a housing situation.
-
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.
-
The date a household physically moves into permanent housing. Please note: this field is only available within Permanent Housing projects.
I
-
Households with members missing dates of birth in ways that prevent assigning another household type.
L
-
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.
N
-
Are people who received their first project enrollment in COHMIS and is experiencing homelessness for the first time.
-
Are persons who received their first project enrollment in COHMIS. This only means the person is new to COHMIS and not necessarily that they are experiencing homelessness or housing instability for the first time.
O
-
Long-term housing options that may include one-time, short-term, or long-term rental payment assistance with or without ongoing services.
P
-
Refers to long-term housing solutions such as Permanent Support Housing (PSH), Rapid Re-Housing (RRH), and Other Permanent Housing (OPH).
-
Long-term housing with ongoing supportive services for individuals with disabling conditions or acute needs who have experienced chronic or repeated homelessness.
-
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.
R
-
Short- to medium-term rental assistance and services to help people quickly exit homelessness.
S
-
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.
-
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 type of project may not be experiencing homelessness.
-
Individuals or families who are staying in emergency shelters, transitional housing, or safe havens that are specifically designated to provide temporary living arrangements.
-
Engages people experiencing unsheltered homelessness where they are, providing basic survival needs and connections to shelter, services, and housing.
-
A broad range of supports serving people experiencing homelessness and those working to maintain housing. This includes case management, primary and behavioral healthcare services, employment assistance, meals, and other services to meet basic needs.
T
-
Offers short- to medium-term housing paired with supportive services to help people move toward stability.
-
Everyone who interacted with the homelessness response system during the year—from people experiencing unsheltered homelessness and engaging with street outreach, to those staying in emergency shelter, to households seeking prevention assistance, to those in permanent 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.
U
-
Individuals or families living in places not meant for human habitation, such as streets, cars, abandoned buildings, parks, or encampments.
V
-
Provide Veterans experiencing homelessness with rental assistance or a voucher with wraparound support.
Y
-
Households with members 24 years of age and younger; includes unaccompanied youth, parenting youth, & minors under the age of 18 (without a parent/guardian).