Understanding the Income Measures Report

The Income Measures Report is built based upon HUD's System Performance Measure 4: Employment and Income Growth for Homeless Persons in CoC Program-funded Projects. The calculations are programmed to align with the specifications provided by HUD for this measure. To learn more about the original measure itself, we encourage you to view the video that HUD has created about the specific measure (see below).

Report need-to-know
Who runs this report?	ICA, as the HMIS Lead Agency.
Can agencies run this report?	Yes and no. Agencies can run a similar report for their own projects, but cannot run this report at a CoC/community level.
Who gets this report?	Upon request, ICA provides this report to committees and task forces that oversee program performance. ICA typically needs at least one to two weeks notice to provide the report, but this can vary based upon current reporting workload.

HUD-Developed Resources

This video is from the HUD Exchange.

A transcript of this video is available here (pdf).

Frequently Asked Questions

Why did ICA develop this report?

This report was requested, in various formats, from multiple CoCs within the Missouri implementation.

How did ICA develop this report?

ICA started with the original report developed by WellSky (the vendor) and then modified it to meet the requests of the CoCs.

HUD developed this measure tolooks at income across six different metrics:

Metric 4.1 - Change in earned income for adult system stayers during the reporting period
Metric 4.2 - Change in non-employment cash income for adult system stayers during the reporting period
Metric 4.3 - Change in total income for adult system stayers during the reporting period
Metric 4.4 - Change in earned income for adult system leavers
Metric 4.5 - Change in non-employment cash income for adult system leavers
Metric 4.6 - Change in total income for adult system leavers

In addition, the HUD-defined measure is limited only to specific project types which receive CoC funding.

ICA has made two different adaptations of the System Performance Measure #4 report provided by WellSky.

Metric 4.3 and Metric 4.6, each reported separately for each project
Metrics 4.3 and 4.6, combined into a single metric, reported for each project

In addition, the report can be run for any projects within the CoC, regardless of whether the project receives CoC funding or is a specific project type.

It is important to note that the manner in which increases in income are calculated were not changed when ICA adapted the report, but the numbers may not align perfectly compared to when they are run for the entire CoC at once, as there are extreme circumstances where a client may be excluded from the report

Which clients are included in the Income Measures Report?

In order to be included in the report, clients must either have exited the program during the reporting period or have had an anniversary date within the reporting period. Any clients who were in the project but had not yet had an anniversary are excluded entirely.

In addition, only adults are included in the report. Any individuals under the age of 18 are excluded from the report, even if they are the head of household.

The client's project start income must also be recorded in the HMIS, or the client will be excluded from the report entirely. Missing income information at exit or most recent annual assessment, however, will not result in the client being excluded from the report. In addition, please note that income is calculated based on the change from Project Start Date to the most recent Annual Assessment and that changes recorded as an Interim Update will not be included in this report.

Why doesn't the income measure report match the income numbers on my CoC-APR?

The programming specifications for the CoC-APR and this Income Measures Report are different, and therefore generally will not provide the same results. Some of the differences include, but are not limited to:

For system stayers, this income measure determines increases in income based upon the prior annual assessment (or project start, for those who are having their first anniversary) compared to the most recent annual assessment, while the CoC-APR always looks at the income at the project start compared to the most recent annual assessment. This means that the reports treat clients who have been in the project for at least 730 days (2 years) differently.
For system leavers, the CoC-APR excludes any clients who had information about their income missing at project start or project exit, while this income measure excludes only those who had missing income information at project start.
If you'd like to compare the programming specifications yourself, the programming specifications for each are available here.
- CoC System Performance Measures Programming Specs
- CoC-APR and ESG-CAPER Programming Specifications

Why isn't maintaining income counted as a positive outcome for this report?

ICA adapted the System Performance Measure report developed by WellSky according to HUD specifications. The programming specifications specify that only increases in income should be considered as positive outcomes for the purpose of the System Performance Measures, and therefore this Income Measures Report does the same.

How much of an income increase is necessary for the report to reflect an increase?

Clients only have to have an increase in total monthly income of one cent or greater in order to be shown by this report as having an increase in income. The income changes must be reflected when comparing two annual assessments and/or project start to the first annual assessment, and the annual assessments must be properly recorded following HUD rules in order to be counted.

What if I have questions that haven't been answered?

If you still have questions that haven't been answered above, we encourage you to reach out to our helpdesk.