DV

HMIS Committee Outcomes - June 12, 2019

Overview

The HMIS Committee met on June 12, 2019.

Attendance

VOTING ATTENDANCE [LISTED AS NAMES, ORGANIZATION (ROLE, IF ANY)]

  • Clay Boykin, Louisiana Housing Corporation (Chair)

  • Gail Gowland and Joyce Watson, St. Bernard Battered Women’s Program

  • Betty Grant, Capital Area Human Services District

  • Keneisha Keener, Volunteers of America Greater Baton Rouge

  • Weston Schild, Capital Area Alliance for the Homeless

NON-VOTING ATTENDANCE (LISTED AS NAME, ORGANIZATION, (ROLE, IF ANY)]

  • Gordon Levine and Aundrea Braniff, Louisiana Housing Corporation

CoC Manager’s Introduction

The CoC Manager presented his vision for this meeting and this Working Group: that during this meeting, the group would set its intentions for the next 12 months and hold biennial elections for its chair.

Chair’s Introduction

The Chair indicated that his intention for the Committee was that it help improve providers’ familiarity with and valuation of HMIS data as a tool rather than a requirement. He also expressed a desire to assist providers in learning how to request and produce reports on their data.

EmpowerDB and HMIS

The Committee discussed many of the practical aspects of data sharing between EmpowerDB and HMIS, specifically the process for referring a participant from EmpowerDB to HMIS and how a DV provider can check to see participant status on the Prioritization List.

Training

The Committee voted unanimously to instruct the Louisiana Housing Corporation to provide HMIS training as follows:

  • Every other month and by project type, open to all providers operating projects of that type;

  • One instance of HMIS training for PATH providers in partnership with the Office of Behavioral Health.

Committee Chair

The HMIS Committee tabled its biennial Chair election.

Next Meeting

The next meeting will be held by conference call. The next meeting has not yet been scheduled. To join this Working Group or be informed about its next meeting, please contact Gordon Levine, CoC Manager, at glevine@lhc.la.gov, or Clay Boykin, Committee Chair, at cboykin@lhc.la.gov.

DV Working Group Outcomes - June 16, 2019

Overview

The DV Working Group met on June 16, 2019.

Attendance

VOTING ATTENDANCE [LISTED AS NAMES, ORGANIZATION (ROLE, IF ANY)]

  • Delma Porter, Southwest Louisiana Law Center (Chair)

  • Gail Gowland, St. Bernard Battered Women’s Program

  • Pam Hutcheson, Louisiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence

  • Trashica “Keysha” Robinson, IRIS Domestic Violence Shelter

  • Tammara Crawford and Krysta Heathcock, Empower 225

  • Antiqua Hunter, Louisiana Department of Education (by phone)

NON-VOTING ATTENDANCE (LISTED AS NAME, ORGANIZATION, (ROLE, IF ANY)]

  • Gordon Levine, Aundrea Braniff, Clay Boykin, Louisiana Housing Corporation

CoC Manager’s Introduction

The CoC Manager presented his vision for this meeting and this Working Group: that during this meeting, the group would set its intentions for the next 12 months, review and approve the referral form from EmpowerDB to HMIS, and hold biennial elections for its chair.

Referral Form

By general acclamation, the Working Group approved the EmpowerDB-to-HMIS Referral Form. This Form will be submitted to the Coordinated Entry Committee for review, then submitted to the Board for final approval.

Coordinated Entry Policies and Procedures v2.0 Discussion

The Working Group discussed many of the changes implemented in the Coordinated Entry Policies and Procedures v2.0 (CES P&P 2.0), particularly the 30-day wait requirement. Many of the providers presented made the case that the 30-day wait will lengthen the amount of time people fleeing DV spend waiting to enter housing; the CoC Manager requested data to support that position and committed to reviewing the CES P&P in light of that data. LCADV committed to collecting that data from providers, while the CoC Manager and LCADV jointly committed to discussing the issue further with national technical assistance providers.

DV Working Group Chair

By general acclamation, the Working Group selected Trashica “Keysha” Robinson from IRIS as its new Chair.

Next Meeting

The next meeting will be held by conference call. The next meeting has not yet been scheduled. To join this Working Group or be informed about its next meeting, please contact Gordon Levine, CoC Manager, at glevine@lhc.la.gov, or Trashica “Keysha” Robinson, Working Group Chair, at krobinson@stopdv.org.

HMIS Comparable Databases Policy

Overview

Most projects funded by the Continuum of Care (CoC) Program, the Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) Program, and certain other funding sources that fund activities for people experiencing homelessness are required to record and maintain their participants' data in ServicePoint, the LA BOSCOC's designated HMIS.

Victim services providers and legal services providers are exempt from the above requirement. Instead, they are each required to establish and operate a comparable database that complies with HUD's HMIS requirements.

Victim Services Providers

Victim services providers that are funded by the CoC Program are required to use EmpowerDB as their HMIS-comparable database.

Certain other funding sources, including the ESG Program as funded by the Louisiana Housing Corporation, may require victim services providers to use EmpowerDB as their HMIS-comparable database. Please check with your program managers for more information.

Legal Services Providers

Legal services providers that are funded by the CoC Program are not required to use a specific database as their HMIS-comparable database.

More Information

For more information, including implementation timeline requirements, please refer to the actual policy as posted on the Members section of the LA BOSCOC website.

LA BOSCOC Board Outcomes - 7/11/18

Overview

The Board met by phone on 7/11/18 to review and approve the Request for Proposals (RFP) and scoring tools for the Funding Year 2018 (FY18) Continuum of Care (CoC) Program Competition. It also voted to approve an HMIS-comparable database for projects that serve victims of domestic violence and to approve opening a limited set of HMIS data to the other CoCs in the State of Louisiana.

Attendance

  • Nicole Sweazy, Louisiana Housing Corporation
  • Eric Gammons, HMIS Lead
  • Homeless Experience Representative
  • Brooke Guidry, Houma
  • Tarek Polite, Lake Charles
  • Gail Gowland, Plaquemines/St. Bernard
  • Randy Nichols, Membership and Rules Committee (non-voting)
  • Gordon Levine, Continuum of Care Manager (non-voting)
  • Clay Boykin, HMIS Specialist (non-voting)

FY18 CoC Program Competition

The Board voted to approve the RFP and all other documents posted here: https://laboscoc.org/fy18-coc-program-competition

The Board also voted to approve up to $100,000 in funding for a Coordinated Entry (SSO-CES) project hosted by St. Bernard Battered Women's Program, which for the last year has served as the sole Coordinated Entry access point in the Plaquemines/St. Bernard Region and the sole Coordinated Entry access point operated by a domestic violence (DV) service provider. These funds will be made available from the LA BOSCOC's total DV Bonus amount of $466,959, and any funds not claimed by this project will be added to the LA BOSCOC's competitive DV Funding Pool of $366,959 as described on Page 5 of the RFP.

HMIS-Comparable Database for DV Providers

DV service providers funded by the CoC Program, the Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) Program, and by certain other funding sources are required to use an HMIS-comparable database instead of HMIS (ServicePoint).

The Board has approved the Domestic Violence Service Providers Working Group's proposal that the LA BOSCOC require that DV service providers use EmpowerDB as their HMIS-comparable database. This requirement will go into effect January 1, 2019, and will be retroactive for all participant data collected during contract periods beginning before January 1, 2019 and extending into January 1, 2019.

The LA BOSCOC will release a formal policy to this effect once the language has been vetted by the chairs of the HMIS Committee and Domestic Violence Service Providers Working Group.

You can find more information about EmpowerDB here: https://www.empowerdb.com/

HMIS Data Visibility

The Board has voted to make certain HMIS data elements visible to all other CoCs in the State of Louisiana.

This change was proposed during the most recent statewide Homelessness Working Group meeting. Currently, a given participant's data is only visible to organizations within the CoC where they presented for services. If a participant traveled to another part of the State, they would be required to provide their information again, and the new CoC would be unable to view the housing and services that participant had previously received. 

The representatives of each CoC that was present at the Homelessness Working Group meeting agreed to propose to their Boards that the following data elements from their CoC's participants be made visible to other Louisiana CoCs:

  • Participants' first and last name
  • Last four digits of participants' social security number
  • Entry and exit dates for participants' HMIS service transactions

All participant data will continue to be protected by HMIS releases of information and confidentiality agreements, which are implemented statewide by the Louisiana Services Network Data Consortium and are identical for all Louisiana CoCs.