February 2024

Happy February from the Data & Analytics Department! Here's a sneak peek of what's inside:

• Important Reminder: HMIS Test Client and Program Enrollments
• Announcement: System Performance Measure Report Submission
• Decision-Making Opportunity: Voting on New HMIS Features with BitFocus
• Reporting Season Update: HIC & PIT Efforts are Underway

In Partnership,

Data & Analytics Department

It is often useful to use a fake client profile, or what we call a test client, to test your programs or train your staff. While these test clients are useful, whatever enrollments, services, and referrals you add to these test client accounts are included in the real HMIS data for your program and for the system as a whole. If you need to use a test client, please use one of the test clients we have below. Our main test client, Mother Test (999688397) is an example of an HMIS-approved test client.

To provide realistic test clients, Mother Test is part of a household with other adults and a minor.  We also have an individual client with no household members.  The list of HMIS-approved test clients is below:

• Mother Test (999688397) - Head of Household
• Mr. Mother Test (164E12789) - Husband of HoH
• Johnny Test (ED28C1C4D) - Adult Son of HoH
• Baby Test (427B553E5) - Minor Child of HoH
• Kirk Test (D66AB8A46) - Individual Client with no Household Members

If your organization has created any test clients in the past, please let us know so we can delete them and any enrollments, referrals, and services that are connected to them from the system.  As these test clients harm your program data and the data as a whole, it is important that we only use these five test profiles so this data can be removed from the reporting. 

It is now System Performance Measures (SPM) report season! The SPM report, which covers the period from October 1, 2022, to September 30, 2023, is submitted to HUD and reflects the performance of our entire system. The deadline for this report is February 28th. If needed, we'll be reaching out to you for any necessary corrections. To facilitate this, we are offering support hours on February 14 and 21 dedicated to addressing any questions. 

Additionally, we request your participation by running two reports in HMIS.

Under the HUD Reports section, please review the HDX-225 HMIS Data Quality Report with a date range of October 1, 2022, to September 30, 2023 in the webpage format. The next report being under the Data Quality Report section is the [DQXX-102] Program Data Review. There are general date ranges for this report, please run the report as a web page for individuals who are both active and have exited within the last year.

These actions will help identify and rectify any data errors, ensuring that our SPM report is accurate and reflective of our CoC’s performance. We appreciate your commitment to maintaining the highest standards in our reporting. 

How great would it be to be able to view your password before you logged in so you could see if you were typing it correctly? This suggestion is currently being reviewed by developers.

BitFocus offers a system for suggesting new software features, which involves submitting suggestions and then having community members vote for suggestions they would like to see. BitFocus developers review these suggestions in order based on the amount of votes they receive. These suggestions play a huge role in the changes that are made to the system.

Thank you to all our community volunteers and CoC partners for this year’s Unsheltered Point In Time Count (PIT) efforts. The Unsheltered PIT is conducted every two years, relying on hundreds of volunteers to physically count the total number of unsheltered people in Sacramento County on a single night in January. Now, shifting gears, it's time for the Housing Inventory Count (HIC) and Sheltered PIT, to determine the total number of people either in temporary housing or permanent housing through homeless service programs from data in our Homeless Management Information System. In the upcoming weeks, we will be reaching out to the community ensuring we collect and obtain the most accurate data for 2023 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) reporting. 

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