ESG Street Outreach Workflow

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How Do I Conduct a Current Living Situation Assessment?

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HMIS Workflow: ESG Street Outreach

Terms

ESG – The Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) is a federal funding opportunity supporting Street Outreach, RRH, Emergency Shelter, and HMIS operations and services.

Program Enrollment/Start Date - This is the date of the first interaction between an outreach worker and client. This date should coincide with the Program Enrollment date and the first contact/CLS record.

Contact - This is an interaction between a worker and a client. These can be verbal conversations between the worker and client, or a referral to a service. Contacts are recorded using the Current Living Situation Assessment every time a client has an interaction with an outreach worker.

Current Living Situation (CLS) – The Current Living Situation Assessment is used to document every contact in HMIS. The CLS Assessment must be completed every time contact is made with a client.

Date of Engagement (DoE) - The date on which an interactive client relationship results in a deliberate client assessment or beginning of a case plan, etc. It is expected that all data elements, i.e. Income, Disability, etc. have been collected on or before the Date of Engagement and that deduplication efforts are complete.

Background

The ESG Street Outreach workflow starts at the first contact, or interaction, that an outreach worker has with a potential client. This will likely be before the Date of Engagement. Clarity provides the following fields to track these events:

Program Enrollment
- Required to be created on the date the first contact
  Current Living Situation
- This Assessment is used to record every contact with the client
- Users enter the Date of the contact, the client’s Living Situation, and Location Details
- The date of the first contact is the same as the Program Enrollment start date
  Date of Engagement
- The date a client formally agrees to participate in a Street Outreach program
- There should be only one Date of Engagement per Enrollment
- By this date all data elements on the Profile and Enrollment screen are required to be entered into HMIS
  - Efforts to identify duplicate client files in Clarity are complete
  - And clients are not already/still enrolled in a different Street Outreach or other housing programs
- If the client does not ‘engage’ prior to Program Exit, then no date is recorded

Following the recommended workflow will ensure that data are entered properly into Clarity for reporting purposes and that users are compliant with the requirements outlined in HUD’s most recent ESG Program HMIS Manual.

Program Enrollment Date - Initial Client Meeting

This is the initial Contact with the client. Outreach workers are required to create a Program Enrollment in HMIS for all persons contacted. It is important to gather and include as much information as possible/appropriate. That said, it is understood that in some instances a person may not be willing to provide even basic information such as a name. These clients still require a HMIS Profile and Program Enrollment. Their initial client profile and program enrollment will include only the rudimentary information available at the time of the initial contact.

It is understood that outreach workers will update the client profile and program enrollment over time and at the time of the ‘Date of Engagement’.

Searching Existing Client Records

The first step to entering data into HMIS after an initial contact is to check if the client has as existing file. Follow the steps outlined in the HelpScout article ‘Searching For & Creating New Client Records’ to search existing clients
If an existing client file has been identified, please ensure all unique identifying elements match before proceeding

Adding a New Client Record

Sometimes outreach workers encounter a client who has no existing record in the HMIS database or for whom there is too little identifying information to conclusively match an existing record. In this case a new client profile should be added following the detailed procedure outlined in the HelpScout article ‘Searching For & Creating New Client Records’
When creating a file for a client whose full name is unknown, follow HUD’s HMIS Data Standards for creating an appropriate nickname or pseudonym “Street Outreach may record a project entry with limited information about the client and improve on the accuracy and completeness of client data over time by editing data in an HMIS as they engage the client. The initial entry may be as basic as the ‘Project Start Date’ and a “code name”(e.g., “Redhat Tenth street bridge”) response in the name field that would be identifiable for retrieval by the worker in the system. Over time, the data must be edited for accuracy (e.g., replacing “Redhat” with “Robert”) as the worker learns more details, more information about the client is obtained.”
- Select ‘Partial, street name, or code name reported’

As more information is obtained - i.e. full name, DOB, SSN etc. - it is important to add this information to the Client Profile
In addition, is also important to continue to cross check the new information with existing HMIS files
- If it is discovered a client has multiple files, please contact your System Administrator to have the files merged

Street Outreach Program Enrollment

Enroll client in the appropriate Program
- Please refer to the HelpScout article ‘Program Enrollments – Assessments - Program Exits’ for additional guidance on creating an Enrollment and completing the Enrollment Assessment
- Street Outreach Enrollment parallels other program types and the Universal Data Element(UDE) questions are all present, and should be answered to the extent possible
Program Start Date should be the same date of the first contact

Date of Engagement is the date the client agrees to receive services from the Outreach program. Often this will not occur during the initial contact. This field may be left blank when creating the Enrollment and updated as appropriate. See below for additional details on the Date of Engagement
*NOTE: Client Data Unknown/Refused - If the responses to fields are unknown by the client, or client refuses to provide the information, they must be marked as ‘Client Doesn’t Know’ or ‘Client Prefers Not to Answer’, and cannot be left blank. ‘Data Not Collected’ should only be used when the outreach worker did not ask the question to a client
- New Information vs Changed Information:
  - New: As additional client information is obtained, return to the Enrollment, and fill in missing fields until all UDEs are entered
  - Changed: If the information is not newly obtained, but rather the Status itself has changed over time (i.e. a change in income), this should be entered in HMIS using a Status Update Assessment rather than editing the Enrollment Assessment

Document the First Contact

Since every interaction with a client requires entering a contact, it is necessary to record a Current Living Situation Assessment coinciding with the program Enrollment date. See below for additional details on Documenting Contacts

Documenting Updates

Current Living Situation - Documenting Contacts

Every contact with a client must be documented using the Current Living Situation Assessment.

Navigate to the Assessments tab within the Program Enrollment and click the Start button

This opens the Current Living Situation Assessment with three fields to complete
- Date of Contact (required)
- Current Living Situation (required)
- Location Details (optional)

There is conditional logic built into the Current Living Situation field meaning that some responses to this question may cause additional fields to appear. All fields must be answered
A text box is available to add any additional details about the client’s location
Click Save & Close

Documenting Date of Engagement

The Date of Engagement reflects the date a client consents to a formal case management type relationship including receiving ongoing services such as developing a case plan and working toward established goals, etc. While this could occur during the initial contact, it often occurs following a period of rapport building.

Once the client is “Engaged” this should be reflected by updating the Enrollment record to include the Date of Engagement. This can only be updated on the Enrollment Assessment

Scroll down to the relevant question and enter the relevant date into the field

In addition, it is expected that coinciding with the Date of Engagement, any remaining unknown data elements have now been collected and the Enrollment screen is complete
With all information now known, please check for any duplicate client records or overlapping program enrollments
Make sure to enter a Client Living Situation coinciding with the Engagement date
Click Save & Close

Status Update Assessments

When a client’s Status around particular data elements such as income, non-cash Benefits, disability, insurance, etc. change during an Enrollment, these changes should be documented using a Status Update Assessment.

Navigate to the Assessments tab within the Program Enrollment
Click Start

Make sure the date is correct before making any changes

Click Save & Close

Documenting Services

Documenting services will vary by Agency and Program. Please refer to the HelpScout article ‘Documenting Services’ for additional guidance on how to add services to a client record.

Exiting a Client

Reasons to exit a client include:

Client entered housing, such as RRH or PSH, or otherwise obtained permanent housing
Client engaged with another Street Outreach worker, Program, or Agency
Outreach staff have been unable to locate the client for a specified period of time (for example 90 days have passed since the last Contact has been recorded in HMIS)

To exit a client, navigate to the Program Enrollment
Click the Exit button to open the Exit Assessment

The exit date should align with the last date of Contact with the client
Enter the client’s exit destination. If the client is exited due to loss of contact the destination should be listed as “No exit interview completed”
Update additional fields as necessary
Click Save & Close