Data Quality: Universal Data Elements

This article will review the HUD defined Universal Data Elements (UDEs) required of all projects entering into HMIS regardless of funding stream, project types, or purpose of data entry.

What are Universal Data Elements?

UDEs are the data elements (aka "HMIS questions") which all HMIS participating continuum projects are required to collect from the client and enter in the system. UDEs are required of every project entering into HMIS regardless of how the project is funded; if the project is entering the data as part of the Continuum of Care's HMIS implementation, these data elements are required.

UDEs allow the system to create unduplicated client records, identify clients who meet time criteria for chronic homelessness, and establish participation in a project during a specific time period.

Note: Projects funded by federal funding sources (i.e. ESG, COC, VA, HOPWA, RHY, PATH) often require the projects they fund to maintain and report on additional data elements. These additional data elements are called "Program Specific Data Elements (PSDE)". The local Continuum of Cares also expect additional data elements which are not federally required, but locally required, be entered into the system. These additional local data elements and additional federally required PSDE are not reviewed in this document.

Which data elements are the UDEs?

Client Name
Social Security Number
Veteran Status
Date of Birth
Gender
Race
Ethnicity
Relationship to Head of Household
Disabling Condition
Client Location
Prior Living Situation
Destination
Housing Move-in Date (required only for RRH, PSH, and PH project types)
Project Start Date
Project Exit Date

Client Record

The first three UDEs are initially entered as part of the Client Search (or Client Record creation, if a client is not already in HMIS). The Client Name, Social Security Number, and Veteran Status data elements can then all be located &/or edited from the Client Profile tab under the Client Record.

Client Name

There are two required fields to complete the Client Name UDE: Name and Name Data Quality (shown as "1" in the image above). The Name field should include the First and Last name of the client, as they identify. The Name Data Quality field should match the quality of the name provided. (i.e. a client provides their first & last name so the name data quality would be Full Name Reported) Note: Partial Name, Client Doesn't Know/Refused should rarely be used. The circumstances around this type of data quality is most often found related to the Street Outreach project type. If in doubt of Name or Name Data Quality selection, please reach out to the Data Center and request a phone call to discuss further.

Both fields are required.

Social Security Number

There are two required fields to complete the Social Security Number UDE: Social Security and SSN Data Quality (shown as "2" in the image above). The SSN field can only be entered by users upon record creation; if the SSN field is inaccurate or incomplete, please review this Zenguide for guidance: Updating & Editing Social Security Numbers in HMIS. The SSN Data Quality field is able to be manually adjusted over time and should match the quality of the SSN provided.

Project must ask for client Social Security Numbers, however, clients do have the right to provide partials, refuse, or share they otherwise do not know.

The SSN Data Quality is always required.

If a report is showing a data quality error related to SSN, correct the SSN Data Quality field to match project records. If the report continues to show the error, follow the guidance in the Updating SSN Zenguide above or reach out to the Data Center for additional support.

Veteran Status

This data element is only one field (as shown as "3" in the image above). This is required to be completed for all adults (18+). It is highly encouraged this be filled out for all clients, as it will be required when those minors turn 18.

Client Demographics

The client demographics should be initially entered on the Client Profile tab. The client's Date of Birth, Gender, Race, and Ethnicity data elements can then all be located &/or edited from the Client Profile tab under the Client Demographics section or within the Project Start intake assessment found under the Entry/Exit tab.

For Client Demographic errors, be sure to BACK DATE to the date of the client's intake (aka Project Start Date) in order for the data to appear correctly. If the new answer isn't "sticking" when entered using the proper back date mode, review the history color bar to see if there is conflicting answers by another agency or staff persons having an impact. Review to this Zenguide for additional information about the history color bar: Using the History Color Bar to View and Edit Prior Responses

Date of Birth

There are two required fields to complete the Date of Birth UDE: Date of Birth and Date of Birth Data Quality (shown as "4" in the image above). The Date of Birth field should include the birth month, day, and year provided by the client. The Date of Birth Data Quality field (called "Date of Birth Type" in HMIS@NCCEH) should match the quality of the DOB provided. (i.e. a client provides their month, day, and year of birth so the data quality field would be Full DOB Reported)

Date of Birth is vital for determining which clients are adults vs minors, which impacts reporting. It is strongly encouraged to at least obtain an approximate date of birth in order to distinguish adults from children (ex: the client is unwilling to share a date of birth but is willing to share an age of 39. In this situation, the project can list a date of birth as an approximate date of birth by listing the month as January, day as the first, and the year as 39yrs ago - "1/1/1984")

Project must ask for client Date of Birth, however, clients do have the right to provide age only (approximate DOB), refuse, or share they otherwise do not know.

The DOB Data Quality is always required.

Gender

This data element is one field but has a multi-select feature (shown as "5" in the image above). The data element should reflect the gender as the client chooses to identify. For clients identifying more than one gender option, hold the "Ctrl" key while clicking on the answers selected by the client.

Race

This data element should be reflect the race as the client chooses to identify. Since clients can identify with more than one racial group, this field has up to five data fields which can be filled out (the first two race fields are shown as "6" in the image above). The race fields should be completed based on the client's response. If a client identifies with only one racial group, complete only the Primary Race data element & leave the rest blank. If a client identifies with three racial groups, complete the Primary Race, Secondary Race, and Third Race data element fields.

Please note: How this data is collected will likely be updated in the system after 10/1/2023 to be a multi-select feature similar to how gender is inputted.

Ethnicity

This data element should reflect the ethnicity as the client chooses to identify (shown as "7" in the image above). Currently, HUD defines Ethnicity independently of Race. For HMIS purposes, these are two different data elements, both are required to be completed.

Please note: How this data is collected will likely be updated in the system after 10/1/2023.

Entry/Exit Tab

The remaining UDEs will only be accessible within the project's stay located on the Entry/Exit tab. The Project Start Date and Project Exit Date data elements are created & edited directly from the Entry/Exit tab. The Relationship to Head of Household, Disabling Condition, Client Location, and Prior Living Situation data elements can be located & edited from within the Project Start intake assessment. The Destination data element can be located & edited from within the Project Exit assessment. The Housing Move-in Date data element, which is only required of housing project types, can be located & edited from within Interim assessments.

Project Start Date/Project Exit Date

Both of these UDEs are created, edited, and maintained within the Entry/Exit tab. All clients served by an HMIS participating project are required to have a project stay record which includes a Project Start Date and a Project Exit Date. These dates record the time period for which a client was served by a specific project within the Continuum of Care.

Project Start is the date the client was admitted into the project. For street outreach project types, this means upon first contact with the client. For shelters, transitional, and site-based housing projects, this means the first night the client sleeps in the project. For scatter-based housing projects and prevention projects, this means when these three things are true: the client is determined eligible, the client is willing to participate, and the project has capacity to serve the client.

Project Exit is the date the client is no longer participating in the project. For street outreach project types, this means when the client is no longer eligible for services, the client declines services, or on the last date of last contact following 90days of no contact. For shelters, transitional, and site-based housing projects, this means the last night the client slept in the project (in most cases, it could be the morning after when they left). For scatter-based housing projects and prevention projects, this means when the client is no longer receiving financial &/or case management services with the project.

Relationship to Head of Household

This UDE is located on the Project Start Date intake assessment. The Relationship to Head of Household (rHOH) is required of all clients served by a project. This data element should be set to "Self" for any client presenting to a project as an individual

There must be one (and only one) client identified as "Self" during an entire project stay.

When there are multiple household members in one project stay, be sure to check that each household member has their own rHOH completed, and that only one person is the "Self" (head of household). If at any time the Head of Household has exited the project prior to other family members staying in the project, an adjustment will be required on the Project Start Date assessment; the original head of household member who exited, will need to have their Relationship to Head of Household changed from "Self" to another option while another adult remaining in the project will also need to have their Relationship to Head of Household changed to "Self". This will then guarantee that the requirement of one (and only one) client is "Self" during the entire project stay.

Additionally, if a family member joins the project at a later date than the Head of Household & their project entry was not properly linked to the Head of Household's project entry, an error will appear under the family member's rHOH. To correct, the family member's project stay row on the Entry/Exit tab should be deleted. The family member should then be added to the Head of Household's project start. Follow the appropriate Zenguide instructions for how to add additional family members:

Disabling Condition

This UDE is located on the Project Start Date intake assessment. The gateway question portion of the Disabling Condition section is the UDE; the remaining portions of that section are Program Specific Data Elements.

For assistance on how to correct errors related to Disability HUD verifications, click here: Data Quality: HUD Verification Sub-assessments

Client Location

This UDE is located on the Project Start Date intake assessment. This UDE is directly linked to the Continuum of Care which is funding (&/or directly associated to) the project in which the client is being served. This data element does not need to be asked to the client as it is a direct reflection of the project itself.

This data element should be checked in each project entry to confirm it accurately reflects the current CoC for which the project is associated.

Prior Living Situation

This UDE is located on the Project Start Date intake assessment. This UDE is actually a series of data fields within the system (as shown in the image below)

The Prior Living Situation is a data element used to determine where a client slept the night before entering the project, how long the client was in that situation, and details of prior literal homelessness. All of these combine help paint a picture of a clients history of homelessness and is used as one factor when determining homeless chronicity.

The Prior Living Situation UDE can include up to 5 total fields. For some project types, the fields have conditional logic, meaning the next data field to answer will populate depending on the previous data field's answer. (i.e. For a prevention project, the prior living situation was "rental, no subsidy" and the length of stay was a year or more. No additional data fields will populate for this UDE for the prevention project to collect).

When in doubt, be sure to fill in all portions of the Prior Living Situation UDE which populate on the screen. If they can be seen on the assessment, they are required to have an answer!

Note: The Prior Living Situation details should be reviewed & updated EVERY TIME a new project entry is created. The client's prior living situation (where they started last night) or the approximate date homelessness started (this episode) might be different than what was recorded during their previous stay!

What do the data fields for Prior Living Situation actually mean?

Prior Living Situation: "where did the client sleep last night before coming into this project"
Length of Stay in Previous Place: "how many continuous nights did the client sleep at that location from the night before?"
Approximate Date homelessness started: this is an estimated date based on how long the client has been sleeping continuously in shelter and places not meant for habitation without a "break" from shelters/places not meant for habitation.
- What is a break for a homeless episode? A break is either (1) 7 consecutive nights or more in any permanent or temporary housing situation (own unit, family/friends, couch surfing, hotel/motel not paid as shelter, etc) or (2) an institutional stay of more than 90 days (i.e. jail, substance abuse or mental health treatment facility, hospital, or other similar facility) when the client was in a shelter or place not meant for habitation prior.

An "episode" is the situation of days the client is continuously in shelter, in places not meant for habitation, or combination of the two (aka the client is experiencing HUD literal homelessness). A "break" is the situations of days in which the client is not experiencing HUD literal homelessness.

Regardless of where they stayed last night - number of times the client has been on the streets, in ES, or SH in the past 3yrs including today: this field is counting each "episode" of homelessness. If the client is entering a shelter from a non-literal homeless situation (i.e. couch surfing), "today" counts as the first day of this current homeless episode & this episode does also count.
Total number of months homeless on the street, in ES or SH in the past three years: count up all the calendar months the client was in places not meant for habitations and in shelters over the last three years.

Destination

This UDE is located on the Project Exit Date assessment. This UDE is used to determine client homelessness status and where they go upon leaving a project. Project should take due diligence to make sure the exit destination is as accurate as possible. When a client exits without notifying the project and there is no details on where the client exited, "No Exit Interview" should be selected. The Destination can be edited if the project discovers at a later time by the client or a community partner where that client did go immediately following their exit from the project.

Never select "Data Not Collected" for the exit destination!

Refer to the following Zenguide for more information related to Exit Destinations: Exit Destination Guide

Housing Move-in Date

This UDE is located on the Interim assessment. This UDE is required only of the following project types: Rapid Rehousing, Permanent Supportive Housing, and Permanent Housing. The Housing Move-in Date (HMID) is recorded as the first night the client begins to sleep in their housing. The HMID needs to be between the client's Project Start Date and Project Exit Date. Though it is uncommon for Housing Move-In Date to be the same date as Project Start Date, it may be the same date as Project Start Date if the client moves into housing on the date they were accepted into the program.

This data element is what distinguishes homeless and housed clients being served by a housing project.

Example 1: If during the course of a project stay a client becomes housed but loses housing and enters shelter again, the Permanent Housing project must exit the client from their project the day the last night the client is housed. A new Permanent Housing project start date can then be create the next day (the first day the client is experiencing homelessness again); this second project stay will now be used to continue working with the client again to find housing. When the client is again housed, this second project stay will have a new interim assessment recorded to document the new housing move in date.

Example 2: If during the course of a project stay a client becomes housed, gets an eviction notice, but is able to secure a new unit quickly and does not spend a single night in a shelter or in a place not meant for habitation, the Permanent Housing project will not need to make any updates or edits to the client's current project stay. While the client did switch units/apartments/housing, the client did NOT go from housed to homelessness.

If the agency has worked to house a client in the past, there may be situations in which data quality errors related to HMID may appear on reports for the current project stay. If this is a situation occurring for the project, please reach out to the Helpdesk for guidance. It is helpful to provide: the name of the project, the client HMIS ID, the client entry date, and if the client is or is not housed this project stay (if housed, include the current Housing Move In Date).

ARE YOU LOOKING FOR MORE RESOURCES? BELOW ARE SOME SUGGESTED RELATED ARTICLES!

HUD Exchange: Universal Data Elements (this is an outside sourced material)

Data Entry Workflows