PIT & HIC Process for ICA

This guide is designed to help ICA staff complete the PIT and HIC process.

Table of Contents

What is the PIT?
What is the HIC?
Timeline
What Projects Does this Affect?
Changes in Process this year
Using Airtable to track projects status
Reviewing Project Data
Data Aggregation
Entering Data into HDX
Updating HMIS PDDEs/Bed Inventory to Match HIC
Need Help? Overwhelmed? Confused?

What is the PIT?

The Point-in-Time (PIT) count is a one-time census of all persons experiencing homelessness and includes demographics on all persons served on the night of the count. These data are submitted to HUD and used for decisions about federal and local funding and strategic planning.

See here for HUD Resources.

What data is pulled into the PIT?

The PIT focuses on demographic information on homeless persons. This includes:

• Age
• Gender
• Race
• Ethnicity
• Veteran Status
• Chronic Status. This is determined from:
  • Homeless History
  • Disabling Conditions
• Domestic Violence history

What is the HIC?

The Housing Inventory Count (HIC) is a one-time snapshot of all beds and units available to persons experiencing homelessness and in housing programs. These data are submitted to HUD and used for decisions about federal and local funding and strategic planning.

See here for HUD Resources.

What data is pulled into the HIC?

The HIC focuses on Project Descriptor Data Elements. This includes:

• Agency and Project names
• Victim Service Provider information
• Housing Type and Target Population
• Operating Dates
• Location information
• Funding information
• Bed Inventory

The HIC also asks for number of persons served by household type, which is determined by client's ages.

Timeline

What projects does this affect?

The PIT and HIC pull data from projects  regardless of funding source. The chart below indicates whether the specific project type participates in each. 

Changes in Process this year

We are largely following the same process as last year, however there are several changes.

• Training
  • Agencies: Will embed training videos in tipsheets and also hold live training webinars
  • ICA Internal: Do more training with CoC-specific teams, rather than just at team meeting
    • Plan to do working sessions with practice data to understand how to review data
• PIT HIC Workgroup uses Airtable to track tasks, data collection tools, meeting notes
• All ICA CoC teams will use Airtable to track project status and type of data collection tool each project will use
• Comparing PIT vs HIC for each project
  • Reporting Team has created an excel tool for CoC teams to use to compare a project's PIT and HIC data, regardless of data collection tools used. This tool will perform various validations, such as youth beds and youth PIT clients. See below.
• Voucher-based projects
  • We will NOT collect max inventory for voucher-based projects. We will use persons served to complete the inventory information.
  • To do this, we have updated data collection tools to
    • not collect max inventory
    • for PH projects (who don't provide full PIT data), to project information on youth, vets, and chronic persons served for dedicated beds
  • Dedicated beds
    • In the persons served data collection tools, we will include questions about their youth, vets, and chronic persons served, and if they have dedicated beds
  • There is absolutely the option for the System Administrator to override this process and inform Reporting Team about specific circumstances for one of their projects

Using Airtable to track project status

The PIT HIC Workgroup has been using Airtable to track all their work. 

The CoC teams will also use this Airtable to track the progress of each of the CoC's projects in terms of data submission and review.

Finding the CoC Projects tab for your CoC

1. In Airtable, find the CoC Projects tab. It's the right-most tab.
2. On the left-hand View panel, click on your CoC to see all projects associated with your CoC.

This tab contains all project that were active as of 11/20/22 in HMIS, including just the PIT HIC project types, and HMIS/non-HMIS.

Checking Project Information

The view for each CoC is organized by SysAdmin. This info is taken directly from HMIS. If it is incorrect, you can update in the Airtable.

Within a project record, you'll first see information about the project itself. Check that everything is accurate.

1. Provider: provider name from HMIS
2. Sysadmin: provider associated with that agency in HMIS. If this is inaccurate,
   1. update in HMIS
   2. you can update directly in the Airtable, if you like, especially if a different SysAdmin than usual will be working with the project for PIT HIC.
3. Contact Person(s): this is a field for you to enter the name and phone number/email of the contact person you'll be working with for PIT and HIC data
4. Project Type: from HMIS
5. PIT Project?: a calculated field showing 'PIT" if the project type is ES, SH, or TH
6. HMIS-Participating?: from the 'Uses ServicePoint' PDDE in HMIS
7. New Project?: a calculated field showing if the project's Operating Start Date in HMIS is after last year's PIT date
8. Exclude?: if, for some reason, this project should not be included on the PIT/HIC, you can check this box

Adding/Removing projects from this list

If you would like to remove a project from this list:

1. On the project record in Airtable, click 'Exclude'. 
2. If you want to exclude the project because they don't fit the project type, or are not in operation, or anything like that, be sure also to update the PDDEs in ServicePoint

If you would like to add a project to this list:

1. Option 1
   1. You can add a row to this airtable by clicking on the plus sign on the bottom of your CoC view and fill out the relevant information.
   2. Be sure to add this project to ServicePoint
2. Option 2
   1. Add project to HMIS
   2. Tell Kaitlyn to update Airtable for that project.

Tracking Projects' Data Submission Progress

As you scroll down in the project record, you'll see information related to the data collection tools the project is required to submit, and a place to track that progress.

1. HIC PDDE + BUI: shows the data collection tool this project will use
2. HIC PDDE BUI Data Status: This is where you can track the status of the project's data submission for their HIC PDDE BUI data. See below for the status options.
3. Persons Served: shows the data collection tool this project will use
4. Persons Served Data Status: This is where you can track the status of the project's data submission for their Persons Served data. See below for the status options.
5. PIT vs HIC Comparison: this is where you can track the status of comparing the projects PIT and HIC data. See below for status options, and section below for more.
6. PIT vs HIC Notes: a place for you to put any working notes while working on the PIT vs HIC tool.
7. Project Status: a place to track the status of the project's entire data submission

Reviewing Project Data

This section will contain links to the tipsheets created for users - those guides will help you to know what to look for. In addition, specific notes for how to review each tool are listed below.

HIC PDDE + BUI

The tool used for collecting this data depends on whether the project was included on last year's HIC or not. There is one agency tipsheet ( 2023 PDDE + BUI Data Collection Tools), that includes a video explaining PDDEs + BUI, and then one video for the Formstack portal (used for NEW projects) and one video for the HIC Excel Tool (used for OLD projects).

HIC PDDE + BUI: New Projects - Formstack

Some things to look for:

• Ensure all appropriate fields are filled out
• Assess if submitted data matches what you know about the program
  • VSP provider? 
  • Project Type? 
  • Coc?
  • Housing Type? 
  • Target Population?
  • Funding sources? 
  • Zip Code and Geocode?
• Check that bed and unit data is reasonable and follow up with provider for confirmation/clarification as needed:
  • Review the overall distribution of bed types. Most projects that are not youth providers should have beds allocated primarily to the Adult Only household type or the Adult & Child household type. Beds allocated to the Child Only household type (for non-youth providers) likely indicates a misunderstanding about household types and how beds should be allocated. 
    • On the other hand, if the project is a youth provider, there should be child-only and/or youth-dedicated beds
  • If this is a VASH or an SSVF project, there should be veteran-dedicated beds
    • If this is NOT a VASH or SSVF project, veteran-dedicated beds will be rare
  • If this is a PSH project, we would expect to see between 75% and 100% of beds dedicated to chronic households. 
• Note - for voucher projects (except VASH and EHV), the bed inventory section is not there. Instead, we ask if the project has dedicated beds, and what percent of their beds are dedicated to each type. We will use the number of persons served to calculate the bed inventory for the project.
• Per email from Aidan 1/27/23, MHDC ESG-23 projects initially funded with ESG-CV should be recorded on the HIC as receiving ESG-CV funding.

Saving

Export output to excel, then save on OneDrive: HMIS\Reports\HIC\2023\*CoC*\PDDE BUI_Formstack\

HIC PDDE + BUI: Old Projects - Excel Tool

You can find the prepared files in your CoC's HIC folder on OneDrive: HMIS\Reports\HIC\2023\*CoC*\PDDE BUI_Excel Tool\Prepared Files

Some things to look for:

• Ensure all fields are filled out - no yellow or red highlighting remains
• If numbers are significantly different from last year, you may want to follow up to ensure data is accurate
• Note - for voucher projects (except VASH and EHV), the bed inventory section is not there. Instead, we ask if the project has dedicated beds, and what percent of their beds are dedicated to each type. We will use the number of persons served to calculate the bed inventory for the project.
• Per email from Aidan 1/27/23, MHDC ESG-23 projects initially funded with ESG-CV should be recorded on the HIC as receiving ESG-CV funding.

Saving

Once you have reviewed the data, save a copy in the Completed folder: HMIS\Reports\HIC\2023\County\PDDE BUI_Excel Tool\Completed Files

Persons Served

The tool used for collecting this data depends on the project type and whether the project participates in HMIS or not.

Persons Served: ES/SH/TH HMIS HMIS-Participating

Agency tipsheet: 2023 Sheltered Point-in-Time (PIT) Report

Note, users will have a copy of this report in their BusinessObjects inbox. Shadow the user and navigate to their BI Inbox to find and download it.

Some things to look for:

• That Household Type is filled out without alerters
  • except, if there are Unaccompanied Children that have a warning - if the project can serve unaccompanied children, those are fine
• That there are no head of household errors
  • households with HoH errors will be excluded from the aggregate data
• Note: this reflects the individual project's data. After reviewing all projects' individual data, you will run the report at the CoC level, to find any data issues that may be related to visibility. Final PIT data will be pulled from the CoC-level report.

Saving

Save a copy on OneDrive: HMIS\Reports\PIT\2023\*CoC*\BusinessObjects Sheltered PIT Report

Persons Served: ES/SH/TH Non-HMIS

Non-HMIS ES/SH/TH projects have their choice of 3 tools to use. This tipsheet ( 2023 Non-HMIS Sheltered PIT Tools) goes over all the options, with links to individual tipsheets for each tool.

Fillable Excel

Some things to look for:

• All sections are filled out (general, veterans, youth, additional populations). This includes the top portion about the project. 
  • Double check that the project name, agency name, CoC, and project type are accurate. This is used in aggregation. If the project type is wrong, it will be counted in the wrong part of the PIT.
• There are no red 'x's showing errors in validation
• If they report Child-only persons, then the must have either Unaccompanied Youth OR Parenting Youth
• If you know they are an SSVF or VASH program, there should be veterans served
• If you know they are a RHY program, there should be Youth (UY or PY)
• Saving

Saving

Save a copy on OneDrive: HMIS\Reports\PIT\2023\*CoC*\Non-HMIS Fillable Excel

Self-Calculating Excel

Some things to look for:

• There are no alerters on the Detail page
• There are no red 'x's showing errors in validation on the summary page
• If you know they are an SSVF or VASH program, there should be veterans served
• If you know they are a RHY program, there should be Youth (UY or PY)

Saving

Save a copy on OneDrive: HMIS\Reports\PIT\2023\*CoC*\Non-HMIS Self-Calculating Excel

Client Level Portal

If your project uses the Client-level portal, in order to review the data, you must enter the data from the portal into a Self-Calculating Excel file. You can find a template in your CoC's PIT folder. Make a copy of that file, save it with the name of the project. And follow this guide on how to fill out the tool.

See above for how to review.

Saving

You can save the output of the portal on OneDrive here: HMIS\Reports\PIT\2023\*CoC*\Non-HMIS Client-Level Portal

Save a copy of the completed self-calculating excel tool on OneDrive: HMIS\Reports\PIT\2023\*CoC*\Non-HMIS Self-Calculating Excel

Persons Served: RRH/PSH/OPH HMIS-Participating

Agency tipsheet: 2023 Housing Inventory Count (HIC) Persons Served Report

Note, users will have a copy of this report in their BusinessObjects inbox. Shadow the user and navigate to their BI Inbox to find and download it.

Some things to look for:

• That Household Type is filled out without alerters
  • except, if there are Unaccompanied Children that have a warning - if the project can serve unaccompanied children, those are fine
• That there are no head of household errors
  • households with HoH errors will be excluded from the aggregate data
• That there are valid Housing Move-in Dates - the HIC only counts client who are housed as of the night of the count
• That the Client Location CoC for the head of household matches the CoC of the provider - otherwise the household will be excluded
• Note: this reflects the individual project's data. After reviewing all projects' individual data, you will run the report at the CoC level, to find any data issues that may be related to visibility. Final PIT data will be pulled from the CoC-level report.

Saving

Save a copy on OneDrive: HMIS\Reports\HIC\2023\*CoC*\Persons Served_BusinessObjects

Persons Served: RRH/PSH/OPH Non-HMIS

Agency tipsheet: Using the 2023 Persons Served Portal for Non-HMIS Housing Projects (RRH/PSH/OPH)

Some things to look for:

• Ensure all appropriate fields are filled out
• Check that persons served is reasonable and follow up with provider for confirmation/clarification as needed:
  • Most projects that are not youth providers should not have Children Only households served. Children Only persons served (for non-youth providers) likely indicates a misunderstanding about household types.
    • On the other hand, if the project is a youth provider, there should be child-only and/or youth-dedicated beds
  • If this is a VASH or an SSVF project, there should be veteran-dedicated bed
    • If this is NOT a VASH or SSVF project, veteran-dedicated beds will be rare
  • If this is a PSH project, we would expect to see between chronic households.

Saving

Export output to excel, then save on OneDrive: HMIS\Reports\HIC\2023\*CoC*\Persons Served_Formstack

Using Project-level PIT vs HIC comparison tool

What it is

This is an excel file that reads in the data submitted for a given project, and does validation checks on data entered for PDDEs and data submitted for Persons Served, and, for PIT projects, does validations on youth served.

This can only be used for one project at a time.

Where it is 

OneDrive: HMIS\Reports\PIT\2023\PITvsHICcomparison021323.xlsm

This is a macro-enabled excel file, so if a warning comes up when you open it, click 'enable content'.

How to use it

• Open up the file. Go to the Instructions tab (first tab), if not already there.
• Click the red 'x'. This will clear out old data and reset the tool.
• In the first blue cell (D12), select your CoC from the dropdown.
• In the second blue cell (D14), enter the agency/project name for saving. For example, "GraceandPeaceWinterES". Whatever you enter here will be used to save the output file.
• In the column, H, enter the full filename for the project's data.
  • This requires that the Persons Served and PDDE + BUI data are completed and saved appropriately in your CoC's folders.
    
  • PDDE + BUI data
    • Yellow cells: you must enter EITHER a filename for the Excel Tool OR the Formstack Portal
  • Persons Served
    • Sheltered PIT (ES/SH/TH): Green Cells
      • you must enter a filename in ONE of these cells. 
      • Note: for any projects submitting through the client-level portal, the data must be transferred into a Self-Calculating Excel Tool that can be saved in the Client-Level Portal folder
    • Permanent Housing (RRH/PSH/OPH): Pink cells
      • you must enter a filename in ONE of these cells
• Click the green '+'. This will start the macro, which will:
  • Automatically open and copy in in the data based on the CoC and filenames provided.
  • Will open and fill out a Validation tab. There is one for ES/SH/TH projects and one for RRH/PSH/OPH projects.

How to evaluate it

The validation tab will show a number of tables, detailing different comparisons. For example, 

• if the project reported receiving veteran funding, did they serve veterans?
• If the project reported dedicated beds, did they serve that population?
• if they served Child-Only households, did they report Youth (either Unaccompanied or Parenting Youth)?

Each comparison will show the relevant data (sometimes a yes/no for receiving funding), a comparison measure (a percentage, equals, etc.), and then a column that will say OK or Error. For any errors, double check the underlying data, and reach out to the project to rectify the issue. Be sure to update the original data file (make a copy that is correct), and you can re-run the PIT vs HIC comparison tool to confirm that the error has been corrected.

Data Aggregation

Reporting Team will aggregate:

• Unsheltered PIT
• Sheltered PIT
• HIC

The aggregation will produce:

• Preliminary PIT and HIC data files to share with the CoCs
• Summary PIT data, in the format of HDX
• Individual project files to use when entering HIC data

Entering Data into HDX

HUD's data submission guidance: 2023 HIC and PIT Count of Homeless Persons: Data Submission Guidance (hudexchange.info)

Who?

Reporting Team will enter sheltered and unsheltered PIT data for CoCs where they have HDX access.

CoC teams will enter HIC data.

Comparable database question

For all Victim Service Providers (VSPs), HUD requires that the question, "Are you using a comparable database?", be answered for the organization.

The Prepared HIC files for HDX for each project from a VSP include the question "Are you using a comparable database?". 

When entering HIC data in HDX, see below for a screenshot from p33 in the HIC Submission Guidance for instructions on updating an existing organization.

Updating HMIS PDDEs/Bed Inventory to Match HIC

Once HIC is submitted, we will need to ensure that the Bed Inventory, and all PDDEs are updated in HMIS to match what was submitted on the HIC.

What should it reflect?

For all project types, HMIS inventory should reflect what is recorded on the HIC for the night of the HIC.

Some example scenarios:

What can I reference?

CoC teams can decide if they prefer to use:

• the individual provider level files to update HMIS, or
• an excel table with all inventory information for all HIC projects

Need Help? Overwhelmed? Confused?

Reach out to anyone on the PIT HIC Workgroup - we're here to help!

• Kaitlyn Poepsel
• Bobbie Nielsen-Rogers
• Leah Woods
• Tonya Harris

Copyright 2023 Institute for Community Alliances. All Rights Reserved.