All Home Data & Evaluation Workgroup MeetingSummary February9, 2016

Present
Bill Hallerman
Amanda Thompkins
Dan Burton
Denille Bezemer
Laurie Olson
Mary Shaw / Mark Putnam
Kate Speltz
Sarah Sausner
Nancy Sherman
Sean Walsh
Emily Ruf / Absent
Rene Franzen
Lindsay Garrity
Brooke Buckingham
Patrice Frank
Rose Hickman
Agenda Item / Action Steps and Follow Up
Housing Goal Models
/ The Coordinating Board requested a dashboard for each population group that showed the number of people who need to be housed in addition to the number of people being housed each month. The housing goal model chart tracks the number of households exited to permanent housing each month and the number of households that need to be housed each month to reach the federal goal of ending homelessness by 2020.
It is difficult to calculate the average inflow or “waiting pool” of single adults until our coordinated entry system is implemented. Potential model strategies for estimating the annual inflow of single adults into homelessness include:
  1. Using the annualized Point in Time Count  gives us a goal of housing 409 single adults each month
  2. Using the number of newly homeless from HMIS data  gives us a goal of housing 805 single adults each month
  3. Using the Zero 2016 Veterans multipliergives us a goal of housing 692 single adults each month
The Data and Evaluation staff will take feedback on the methods and bring the information back to the committee next month.
The group is cautious of the consequences of low-balling the inflow number. Strategies suggested under HALA will help significantly with homelessness but there is still much more action needed to reach our goal of ending homelessness by 2020. The macro information around rent prices, population increases, etc. will also impact the inflow number.
Using the HMIS data to determine the inflow number seems to be a less complicated and easier to understand method. There is also a need to address the large amount of de-identified data in HMIS.
The data intersection between HMIS and other DSHS services is something the group would like to further explore.
Rapid Re-Housing for Families Pilot Data / An overview of the Rapid Re-Housing Family Pilot is available in the meeting materials.
The pilot has a commitment to the housing first model, with almost every family scoring a one on their assessment. Every family is offered employment services. The pilot included 5 agencies who meet monthly for a learning circle on the study results. In other communities, 85%-90% exits to permanent housing are the normal rate. We did not hit that goal. Returns to homelessness data will be collected after the pilot has concluded to measure success.
Rapid re-housing is reliant on market rate housing, which is difficult in our competitive rental market. Our community also has a large stock of transitional housing units in comparison to other communities; that coupled with other factors may answer why our community is having more difficulty with rapid re-housing. Transitional housing is more expensive than rapid re-housing while showing no better outcomes for high needs families.
All Home hosted visitors from North Virginia who successfully use the rapid re-housing model. They employ housing navigators who seek non-traditional housing options for clients.
There is concern about exiting families with zero reported income. Are we setting them up for failure? How can we better house families with this model?
The committee would like to see demographics on the families in the study and the geographical areas that families were exited to. After the pilot concludes, and the learning circle has made recommendations, the Data and Evaluation Sub-committee can make recommendations based on the data to improve our rapid re-housing model.

Next Meeting

Tuesday March8th,2:00-4:00pm, Mercer Island Community & Event Center