STJ CES PSH/RRH Providers - Managing Housing Referrals

All HMIS PSH and RRH providers in the STJ CoC are expected to participate in coordinated entry by requesting housing referrals from the List Holder for clients on the PL whenever a housing opportunity is available.

As such, you will need to manage these referrals in HMIS in two ways: 1) Set up an Outstanding Incoming Referrals Counts Report, and 2) Close PSH/RHH referrals made to your agency. The first part of this tip sheet demonstrates how to set up the Counts Report on your Community Services Home Page Dashboard. The second part will cover how to close those received referrals.

Counts Report: Outstanding Incoming Referrals

From your Home Page Dashboard, you will open the customization options by clicking to the left of Customize Home Page Dashboard as indicated by the red arrow below.

Next, you will click on the Add Counts Report tile as shown.

The Counts Report dashlet now appears on your Home Page Dashboard. Click on the pencil icon to the left of Counts Report to open the Edit Dashlet window. Note: There are four quadrants available, so up to four count reports can be displayed on your Home Page Dashboard using this feature.

Follow these five steps to add the Outstanding Incoming Referrals Counts Report to the Top-Left quadrant.

Select Outstanding Incoming Referrals from the Report Name dropdown menu.
Set Select Dates to All Dates.
Set Provider Type to Provider.
Select your agency from the Provider dropdown menu. Do not select a specific project for your agency and leave Including Subordinates unchecked.
Click OK.

After you have set up your Counts Reports, be sure to click Save on the Home Page Dashboard so the report(s) you just added will remain readily available to you every time you login.

The blue number in the Outstanding Incoming Referrals Counts Report represents the number of open referrals sent to your agency and serves as a hyperlink to the Count Details.

In the Count Details window, you will see the Client ID, Referral Date and Need Type. If you scroll to the right, you will also see the Referred By Provider and Referred To Provider. Click on the Client ID to view the client’s record and enrollment information.

In the client’s record, you will want to review the enrollment for the STJ CES Access Point to find contact information for the client to follow up. To ensure you are viewing the most current data, select Interims if any are recorded.

Note: Clients will not be enrolled into your PSH/RRH project until contact has been made with the client and the intake process completed for your specific housing project.

Closing PSH/RRH Referrals

HMIS PSH/RRH providers will close housing referrals made to them, and the List Holder will be responsible for closing housing referrals made to non-HMIS providers.

You can access the client’s record by using the Client ID hyperlink in the Outstanding Incoming Referrals Count Details window, or by searching for the client in the Clients tab. In the client’s record, click on the View Entire Service History tile from the Service Transactions tab.

In the All Service Transactions window, carefully identify the open “Homeless Permanent Supportive Housing” or “Rapid Re-Housing Programs” referral to your agency. Each service transaction record includes two rows, one for Need information and one for the Referral information as indicated by the green outline below. The Need row will show the List Holder as the Provider, and the Need Status/Outcome should be “In Progress/Service Pending”. The Referral line will show your agency as the Provider receiving the referral. Click on the pencil icon to the left of the Referral.

In the Edit Referral window, scroll all the way down to the Need Status and Outcome section. It is extremely important that the Need Status and Outcome section is accurate and complete when closing a housing referral as these fields determine how to “credit” your agency with housing the client through CE. Change Need Status to Closed and Outcome to Fully Met or Not Met, whichever is appropriate for the client served. If Not Met is chosen, select one of the four following reasons: Could Not Contact Client, Client Not Eligible, Client Refused Service or Service Not Accessible. Note: The options All Services Full and Service Does Not Exist will never be selected. Click Save & Exit.

You will exit to the Referrals tab where you can see the referral is now Closed/Not Met.

Once the referral has been closed, the “Referred To” housing provider needs to follow up with the List Holder to let them know the outcome. If the client was housed, the List Holder will remove the client from the Prioritization List. If the client was not housed through this referral, the List Holder needs to know this information to ensure the client is referred to the next housing opportunity.