Research and Analysis

CCEH conducts research and analysis regarding the needs of those who are homeless in Connecticut. We coordinate and host the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), a comprehensive data warehouse:

A resource for evaluating effectiveness of practices, policies and outcomes;
A tool in planning and program evaluation.

CCEH connects providers, advocates and members of communities with a goal to end homelessness with the information that they need to better understand the populations that we serve. Its central goal is to disseminate information which will promote solutions to permanently end homelessness. Our work is designed to inform social policy and program design and evaluation.

 

Statewide Point in Time Homeless Count (CT PIT). 

CT PIT represents a snapshot of persons who were staying in emergency shelters and transitional housing programs, as well as living in places unintended for human habitation, on one night during the last ten days of January per Housing and Urban Development (HUD) regulation. The Count mobilizes non-profits, local and state government agencies, and hundreds of concerned citizens from every region of the state to gather critical data in order to inform efforts to prevent and end homelessness.

CT PIT collects annual homeless data in a statistically rigorous and standardized way in order to better understand the dynamic causes of homelessness, to evaluate the effectiveness of programs serving homeless people and, ultimately, to track progress towards ending homelessness in Connecticut.

Homeless Point in Time Counts across the country are used as primary data source for federal agencies to understand homelessness trends and track progress against the goals and objectives contained in Opening Doors, the Federal Strategic Plan to End Homelessness. Additionally, the Congressionally-mandated Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) is prepared using PIT and Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) data.

As demonstrated by the federal AHAR report construct, it is critical to observe PIT numbers in conjunction with other numbers and in a greater, more comprehensive context of other data and structures related to poverty.

Connecticut Homelessness Management Information System (CT HMIS). 

CT HMIS serves as the database in which information on clients utilizing State-funded emergency shelter and transitional housing services are recorded. CT HMIS data provides profiles of clients served by these programs over time.

Most of Connecticut's emergency shelters and transitional housing programs participate in CT HMIS. About 85% of Connecticut’s emergency shelters, virtually all of Connecticut’s transitional housing programs, and about three-quarters of the state’s permanent supportive housing (PSH) programs enter some data in CT HMIS.  With the addition of Shelter Plus Care providers beginning in 2011, virtually all PSH providers will participate. Client and programmatic data for other homeless residential assistance programs funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) are also collected in the System.

History of Connecticut Implementation of CT HMIS.  In 2004 three pilot communities – Danbury, Hartford, and Bridgeport – began entering data into the Connecticut Homeless Management Information System (CT HMIS).  By 2008 the Connecticut Department of Social Services (DSS) revised homeless service contracts to mandate HMIS usage for emergency shelters, supportive housing programs and transitional housing programs.  Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness (CCEH) relies on CT HMIS for much of the analysis of homelessness data throughout the state.

Today, there are over 600 licensed users of CT HMIS (ServicePoint and PROVIDE) and all the Continua are included.  There is data on over 48,000 unduplicated clients. 

Footnote: CT HMIS does not collect data from people who use domestic violence shelters, which are exempted from HMIS reporting for reasons of safety.  CT HMIS also does not include people living with family or friends out of economic need (doubled up), (staying with family or friends due to economic reasons), or those who are unsheltered.

Data accuracy for any crisis response system can be challenging.  One of the difficulties is that most of the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Universal Data Elements (UDE)s are “self-reported” and have no verified back up.  Information is collected at intake and discharge, when there are many demands on the client and the intake worker.

Connecticut’s Frequent Users’ Service Enhancement Program

FUSE is one promising intervention to target permanent supportive housing to certain chronically homeless individuals. FUSE is operated through a partnership between the CT Coalition to End Homelessness, the Corporation for Supportive Housing, the CT Department of Mental Health & Addiction Services, the CT Department of Correction, (DOC) the CT Judicial Branch’s Court Support Services Division.   CCEH’s role is to identify people who frequently use services in both jails and shelters, using data from DOC and comparing this to client’s homelessness records. More information.