HMIS Newsletter: February 2026

Table of Contents

• Announcements
• Federal Reporting Updates
• Help Desk Reminders
• In Our Community
• Upcoming Events 
• Bitfocus is Hiring

Announcements

March Performance Management Workgroup Meeting

SPM 4: Employment and Income Growth for individuals and families

Summary of HUD System Performance Measure 4

Measure 4 is a critical benchmark used by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to evaluate how effectively Continuum of Care (CoC) programs help homeless adults gain financial independence. At its core, it tracks the growth of cash income—whether through a paycheck or public benefits—to ensure long-term housing stability.

How Measure 4 Works

The measure relies on data from the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) to compare a client's financial status at two points: their entry into the program versus either their annual assessment or their departure from the program.

The Metrics

Register for the upcoming meeting on Thursday, March 26, 2026 from 1:00pm - 2:00pm.

Federal Reporting Updates

Point-in-Time Count & Housing Inventory Count

First and foremost: thank you! To every staff, volunteer, and client who helped with the 2026 PIT Count, your dedication is the backbone that will help us end homelessness in our community.  

Action Required: Data Quality Phase

We have officially moved into the Data Quality phase for the Housing Inventory Count (HIC) and Point-in-Time (PIT) report. Our focus now shifts to Utilization Rates—ensuring that the number of people served on the night of the PIT matches the capacity of our HMIS programs. 

What this means for Agency Leads: If you manage Emergency Shelter, Transitional Housing, RRH, PSH, or OPH programs, please keep a close eye on your inbox. We are currently flagging programs with significantly HIGH or LOW utilization. 

If you receive a flag, we need your help to resolve it by:  

• Providing a detailed explanation for the utilization discrepancy.
• Updating Bed and Unit Inventory if your program capacity has changed.
• Cleaning up client data, specifically ensuring all missing exit dates and housing move-in dates are recorded.

Questions?

Accurate data ensures our community receives the funding and resources it deserves. If you need a hand navigating these updates, please reach out directly to sccsupport@bitfocus.com.

Continued 2025 System Performance Measures (SPM)

We are currently working on Data quality review for the final federal report that are required by HUD: System Performance Measures (SPM)

Throughout the next month you may receive emails regarding data quality in your program(s). These emails will be requesting a review and/or correction of specific data quality elements. For example, some agencies may need to review and correct missing Exit Destinations or add Annual Assessments.  

What Can Your Agency Do to Prepare for the SPM?

The Bitfocus team may reach out to verify or correct data about your program and/or clients. Please look out for those emails and respond promptly. We truly appreciate all of the hard work your community does to maintain data that is complete, accurate, and timely!  

You can review the data by doing the following: 

1. Run the [HUDX-225] HMIS Data Quality Report for the period 10/1/24 to 9/30/25 (you'll find this report in the Clarity Human Services Report Library under HUD Reports). Correct records with errors, paying special attention to any element that shows over a 5% error rate (remember, clicking on a number will give you a “drill down” list of clients being counted in that number). Want more information on what gets counted in this report? 

Check out our Help Center article: [HUDX-225] HMIS Data Quality Report

2. Run the [GNRL-106] Program Roster for the period 10/1/24 to 9/30/25 (this report is under Program Based Reports) and make sure household groups are correct (households are separated by bold lines. Clients not separated by lines are grouped together in a household). If clients are grouped together incorrectly, contact the Helpdesk to get them corrected. Some measures only count heads of household, so it's important that households be configured correctly!  

Check out our Help Center article: [GNRL-106] Program Roster 

3. Run the [GNRL-220] Program Details Report for the period 10/1/24 to 9/30/25 (this report is under Program Based Reports) and review the following:  

• Date of Birth: Some measures only count adults, so it's important that dates of birth be as accurate as possible. 
• Housing Move-in Date: Make sure this date is on or between the client’s project start and exit dates, otherwise it will look like clients were never housed by your project! 
• Income and Non-Cash Benefits: Be sure these are/were updated before client exit and at annual assessments. Increase in income/benefits is one of the areas in which communities are measured. 
• Living Situation (including prior residence and length of time homeless): Make sure these fields are as complete as possible with no "Client doesn’t know," "Client refused," or "Data not collected" values when possible. These elements impact measures around entries from homelessness. 
• Exit Destination: Avoid choosing "Client doesn’t know," "Client Prefers not to Answer," or "Data not collected" values whenever possible. This element impacts measures around returns to homelessness. 
• Review Bed Inventories and Utilization rates for accuracy. Ensure an accurate number of beds and units are listed throughout the year for your shelter and housing programs. Utilization rates should be between 90-105%. For Night-by-night (NbN) Shelters, please resolve any missing exits or abandoned enrollments. 

Check out our Help Center article: [GNRL-220] Program Details Report 

Thanks in advance for your help in making sure that our community’s data is as accurate as possible. 

Help Desk Reminders

1. Canned Report Issues  
When submitting tickets for Clarity Canned Reports, include: 

• Report Name 
• Parameters Used (Agency, program, date range, etc.) 

 2. PII Reminder: Use UID Only 
To maintain client confidentiality and data security: 

• Use only the Clarity Unique Identifier (UID) in all communications (emails, tickets, chats). 
• Block out all PII (names, SSN, DOB, etc.) from screenshots and files sent to us. 

3. Support Tip: New Ticket Per Issue 
We are continuing to see users replying to or reopening old tickets. To help us support you faster and more efficiently, please submit all new requests by sending a new email to sccsupport@bitfocus.com.

❗Please do not reply to or reopen old tickets. Each request MUST be submitted as a new ticket so it can be properly tracked and assigned. 

In Our Community

MyConnectSV Feature Announcement

The February Feature Release included several new and exciting features for MyConnectSV! Not yet using MyConnectSV with your participants? Learn more and take the training to get access at https://scc.bitfocus.com/myconnectsv!

The newest features include the ability for participants to:

• Update contact information and share new contacts (learn more at https://help.bitfocus.com/customer-portal-client-contacts)
• Upload a new profile photo for approval (learn more at https://help.bitfocus.com/customer-portal-profile-photos)
• Share photos when they’re sharing a location (learn more at https://help.bitfocus.com/customer-portal-location-photos)

Clients with Assessments but No Referral to CHQ

If you are on this list and are a Coordinated Entry (CE) Only Program, please feel free to contact scc-admin@bitfocus.com to get a list of clients with a VI-SPDAT but not referred to the CHQ. 

Upcoming Events

Technical Administrator (TA/Agency Lead Meeting) | March 5, 2026 2:00pm - 3:30 pm

These meetings discuss the Agency Administrator reports and data collection requirements in HMIS. Additionally, updates regarding changes and/or upcoming changes to HMIS are explored in an effort to ascertain impacts on programs and/or end users. Furthermore breakout sessions allow for exploration of the understanding of ongoing data updates, and/or challenges being experienced by end users.

SCC HMIS Looker - HMIS Report Spotlight Office Hours | March 2, 16, & 30 & 26 2:00pm - 3:00pm | Register here

We know that lots of issues and questions can arise when using Clarity (HMIS) and Looker. Office Hours are a great opportunity to get your questions answered, see demos of anything you can't figure out or can't remember how to do, find out how to fix things that might have gotten messed up, and participate in discussions with other users around solutions to common challenges.

HMIS Clarity Office Hours | March 12 & 26 10:00am - 11:30am | Join here

We know that lots of issues and questions can arise when using Clarity (HMIS). Office Hours are a great opportunity to get your questions answered, see demos of anything you can't figure out or can't remember how to do, find out how to fix things that might have gotten messed up, and participate in discussions with other users around solutions to common challenges.

Bitfocus is Hiring

Join our Team!

• Visit bitfocus.com | Jobs | About Bitfocus 

• Work with us at Bitfocus! Join a team committed to innovation, collaboration, and real-world impact in human services.  

Questions?

Your HMIS Administrators are happy to help.

Phone: 408.596.5866 Ext. 2

Email: sccsupport@bitfocus.com