HMIS Newsletter: October 2025

Table of Contents

• Announcements
• 2026 HUD Data Standards
• Federal Reporting – Upcoming LSA
• Clients Assessed & Not on the CHQ
• Report Spotlight: [GNRL-106] Program Roster
• Upcoming events  
• Bitfocus is hiring   

Announcements

Join us for this month's DEW (Data Engagement Workshop):

The Datastrophes: From Messy to Manageable!

Date: November 19, 2025 @ 1pm

Are you spending too much time manually correcting data errors? Join this essential workshop focused on helping you maintain clean, reliable data in Clarity!

This session will teach staff how to efficiently monitor data quality and implement practical steps to fix data errors as they appear in Clarity. We'll show you how to leverage the system's tools to ensure your reporting is accurate.

Who Should Attend?

All Clarity users are welcome, but this training is a must for those actively involved in data integrity. This includes:

• Contract Monitors
• Program Managers
• End-Users responsible for data quality reconciliation

What You'll Learn: Monitoring Data Quality

Stop guessing and start analyzing! Are you unsure which reports are available for tracking and analyzing data quality in Clarity? We'll provide a detailed, hands-on review of the available data monitoring reports so you know exactly where to look and what to do next.

Registration Information

Register here!

2026 HUD Data Standards

Thank you all for your patience and dedication as we've navigated the new HUD HMIS Data Standards. 

We are excited to announce that the 2026 HUD HMIS Data Standards updates are now live and available in your instance! You’ll find updated intake forms here.
 
For more information, checkout our 2026 Data Standards central hub, the October 2025 Feature Updates article, and this local one-pager. Please contact us at sccsupport@bitfocus.com if you have any questions – or if something in your system doesn’t seem correct. 
 
We appreciate your ongoing partnership and patience during this time! 

Federal Reporting - Upcoming LSA

The upcoming federal reporting season is approaching! Preparation for two of HUD’s major CoC reports will start soon: the Longitudinal Systems Analysis (LSA) and System Performance Measures (SPM).   

HUD’s Longitudinal Systems Analysis (LSA) is a report submitted to HUD annually that includes a complex analysis across key projects participating in the Continuum of Care (CoC) Homelessness Management Information System (HMIS). The LSA replaced the Annual Homeless Assessment Report’s (AHAR) data component in the 2018 reporting year.    

HUD’s System Performance Measures (SPM) focus on evaluating local homeless responses as a coordinated system of homeless assistance options. This data is reported to HUD annually and includes key indicators of a high performing system including length of time homeless, exits to permanent housing, returns to homelessness, and more.     

What Can Your Agency Do to Prepare for LSA and System Performance Measures?    

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 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 

• 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. 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 Prefers not to Answer," 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.  

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

 
What Else Should You Know About LSA and SPM Preparation?    

The best people to review the data are program managers and key staff who work in the programs. There is overlap with the LSA and SPM timeline and relevant data. Your work on this will benefit both reports, and more broadly, your CoC.    

Time-Sensitive: Data Quality (DQ) Requirements Communication is Underway

Please note that email communication regarding the LSA Data Quality (DQ) requirements is now being sent out. It is critical that you review these emails and take note of the deadlines provided to ensure timely compliance. 

Clients Assessed & Not on the CHQ

This report helps you identify if you've completed a VI-SPDAT Assessment for a client but forgot to refer it to the Community Housing Queue (CHQ). Running this report is crucial to ensure you're not inadvertently hindering your clients' housing opportunities. 

Report Spotlight: [GNRL-106] Program Roster 

The [GNRL-106] Program Roster is a program-based report that gives you a list of clients, their program enrollment status, and any housing details for the programs you choose. This report can help you identify the number of clients and/or households enrolled during a specific period, whether they’ve had multiple enrollments in your program, and allows you to quickly review client information.  If you run this report for a housing program, it will also provide details on who has a bed or unit assignment in your program.  

The following parameters are available to obtain targeted details in the [GNRL-106] Program Roster Report:  

• Program: select which program you want to run the report for. 
• Status: select which clients will show up based on: 
  • Active within report date range - The client's project stay is active for at least one day within the report date range. This includes clients enrolled within the report date range, clients exited within the report date range, and clients enrolled before the report date range and exited after the report date range or still active. 
  • Enrolled within report date range- The client's enrollment date is within the report date range.  
  • Exited within report date range- The client's exit date is within the report date range. 
• HoHs only?: This prompt allows the ability to filter the report to only HoHs (Yes) or all clients enrolled (No).  
• Report Date Range: Choose the date range for enrollments to include in the report 
• Report Output Format: Choose one of the following options.  
  • Web Page: In the Web Page format, you can select Client Name or Unique Identifier and be taken directly to the client's profile screen in a new tab. 
  • PDF – Program 
  • PDF - Program and Unit 
  • Excel  
     

Note: Selecting PDF - Program will exclude all Inventory (Unit/Bed) information. All other Report Output Formats include Inventory information columns. 

Report Details 

This report is designed to provide an overview of program stay information for all active, enrolled, or exited clients.  
 

This report provides information for the following data elements: 

• Client 

• Unique Identifier 

• Birth Date 

• Age At Entry 

• Current Age 

• Enroll Date 

• Exit Date 

• LOS (Length of Stay) 

• Housing Move-in (Date) 

• A (Assessments) 

• S (Services) 

• CN (Case Notes) 

• Assigned Staff 

• Unit Assignment 

• Bed Assignment 

• Occupancy Start Date 

• Occupancy End Date  

The table is sorted by Length of Stay and grouped by Enrollment Household, and separated by Program. 

Head of Household (HoH) Unique Identifiers are listed in bold text and Household members are grouped together with the HoH.     

Want more details?

Check out Bitfocus's Help Center article on [GNRL-106]

Upcoming Events

Technical Administrator (TA/Agency Lead Meeting) | 11/6/2025 2:00pm - 3:30 pm Register here

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 | November 10 & 24 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 | November 6 & 20 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. 

Want more details?

Check out our full events calendar.

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