Night-by-Night Shelter guide

This article is designed to help guide HMIS users through the basics of entering clients into night-by-night shelters using the Shelters module of Wellsky Community Services. For additional assistance beyond this workflow article, please contact the ICA Missouri Helpdesk.

Night-by-Night Shelters

Before entering any information into HMIS, projects sharing data must discuss and complete the HMIS Client Informed Consent to Share and Release of Information with each Head of Household. If the client does not sign the document, the user must first contact the ICA Helpdesk before doing anything in HMIS on behalf of the client. Some night by night are a handful of "protected projects" for which this does not apply; for those projects, ICA would only need to be contacted when and if the Head of Household does sign this agreement so that the information can be opened and shared.

MOST IMPORTANT STEP!  Select appropriate Enter Data As provider after first logging on!

Checking a Client in

  1. Click on Shelters from the menu on the left
  2. Select correct Unit List and click Submit
  3. Click Check Client In Find the open bed where you're going to put the Head of Household and click on the Check In button (bed with green plus sign)

Client Search

  1. Enter Head of Household's Name, Name Data Quality, SSN, SSN Data Quality, and U.S. Military Veteran status. Optional: Enter nickname in Alias
  2. Search
    1. If a match is found, confirm the details match the client's name, date of birth, and social security number.  If it is the same person, click on the green plus to the left of the client name,
    2. If no matches are found, verify all information listed is correct with proper capitalization, click Add New Client with This Information
    3. On the popup, click Add Client (if single) or Add Client and Household (if a family)
      • If family, answer Household Type question
      • Search and add all family members to household
      • Once all family members appear in the Selected Clients table, click ContinueComplete the head of household status, relationships, and the individual client demographic information for each household member.After last family member, click Save & Exit
  3. Click on the green plus to the left of the client name.

Client Check-In

  1. Manually set Date In to enter date and time
  2.  Update household within Households Overview (if needed)
  3. Select all household members entering the shelter
  4. Assign all household members to beds using Assign Unit button

Recording Current Living Situations

  1. A "Current Living Situation" (CLS) is required to be recorded for each entry and after any other meaningful interactions you have with a client. You do not need to record a CLS if the client solely stayed at the shelter that night.
  2. Scroll down to Client Profile Additional Information + Current Living Situation (2). 
  3. Click Add on the Current Living Situation sub-assessment table (3). 
  4. Fill in the Information Date with the date the interaction took place, and ensure the Start Date matches the Information Date. The End Date field may be left blank or it can be filled in with the same date entered into the Start & Information Date fields (4). 
  5. In the Current Living Situation dropdown, if the client is staying at your shelter, choose "Emergency shelter, incl. hotel/motel paid for w/ ES voucher, or RHY-funded Host Home shelter (HUD)." If the client is currently at another location, choose that location type from the drop down (5).
  6. Night by night shelters do not complete any of the remaining questions in the Current Living Situation sub-assessment, so scroll down and click  Save (or Save and Add Another, if applicable) (6).
  7. Directly below the Current Living Situation table, you may choose to add or update Client Profile Additional Information (optional):
    • Residence History sub-assessment
    • Contact Information sub-assessment
    • Emergency Contact sub-assessment
  8. Click Save and Exit at the bottom of this page after all information has been entered.

Client Record

ROI (Release of Information)

At this point, if your project is sharing its data, all clients being entered into the system should have had the Head of Household already sign the Client Consent to Share and Release of Information - or the HMIS user should have already spoken with someone at the Helpdesk to discuss clients/households who did not want to agree to this release.

  1. Click on the head of household's name from the bed list
  2. Click on the Release of Information tab
  3. Click Add Release of Information
    1. Select all members of household
    2. Fill in Release Granted
    3. Fill in End Date with date one year from date signed
    4. Select Documentation type
    5. Fill in Witness full name (must match witness signature on ROI form)
    6. Click Save Release of Information

Project Entry

  1. Click on the Entry/Exit tab. If the client already has an open entry into the night by night shelter, then please skip to "Daily Check In/Check Out."
  2. Click Add Entry/Exit if the project row.
  3. Confirm Project Start Data
      1. If there is more than one client entering, check the box next to each additional household member that is entering the project.
      2. Confirm the Provider listed is correct. 
        • The default provider appearing will be whatever was selected under Enter Data As when first logging into HMIS.  If the provider is not correct, click Cancel. Set the Enter Data As and re-search for the head of household.
      3. Select the project Type 
      4. Confirm the Project Start Date 
        • The default date appearing will be whatever was selected during the Back Date Mode prompt. If not correct, type in the correct project start date.
      5. Click Save & Continue
  4. Complete ALL assessments that appear - for all household members. [If the screen reads "No Entry Assessment had been specified for this Provider", the wrong project type was selected. Scroll to the top of the screen. Select the correct Type from the drop menu. Click Update.]
    1. Some projects will only have the Entry Assessment, and other projects will also have a Special Needs Assessment.
    2. The final data element on the Entry Assessment is the Date of Engagement. This is an element specific to shelters that are night by night. This represents the date the beginning of an interactive client relationship resulting in a deliberate client assessment or the beginning of a case plan. This date may be on or after the project entry date and must be prior to project exit. This is very important, so please remember to enter the date if applicable.
  5. Click Save & Exit once all assessments for all household members have been completed.

Daily Check Out

Clients must be checked out of the Shelter Stay each morning. This can be done by either clicking the Check Out icon by each client currently checked in (Option 1) or by clicking the Transmit Today's Check Out List button (Option 2).

For the latter, you would click checkboxes next to each client on the window that pops ups, and clicking the Check Out button.

Project Exit

  1. Clients stay entered into the project until either:
    1. There have been 90 days since the last client contact.
    2. The client has indicated that they are housed.
    3. The shelter project is ending.
  2. When one of those criterion have been met, the client should be exited from the project. Please go to the client's profile in the Clients tab.
  3. Set the Back Date Mode to the last date that the client stayed at the shelter.
  4. Then go to the client's Entry/Exit tab, and click on the edit pencil next to the Exit Date column.
    1. After confirming the information that appears is correct, click Save and Continue.
    2. Complete ALL assessments that appear for all household members. 
    3. When finished, click Save and Exit at the bottom of the assessment.

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