Bed & Unit Inventory Guide

This article will walk Agency Administrators through the importance of having an accurate Bed & Unit Inventory, the components of a Bed & Unit Inventory within HMIS, and the steps to take in order to report changes (even temporarily!) to a project's Bed & Unit Inventory. This article is intended for use by the following project types: Emergency Shelters (congregate, multi-site, and hotel/motel), Transitional Housing, Rapid Rehousing, and Permanent Housing

 

What is a Bed & Unit Inventory (BUI)

The bed and unit inventory is a record of available beds & units by household type & housing type for each residential project within a Continuum of Care. The BUI is used for tracking utilization rates, data quality analysis, and other reporting. At a minimum, HMIS must have an accurate record of bed and
unit inventory information for all continuum residential projects at least once per year.

Elements of an HMIS Bed & Unit Inventory

There are three elements to an HMIS BUI: Household Type, Housing Type, and Availability.

Household Type

Bed & Unit inventories are broken down into three household compositions.  The households are determined solely based on the household members' age categories.   Even if beds can be used by multiple household types (i.e., they are not dedicated to one of the specific household types below), they must still be reported in one of the official HUD Household Types (adults only, children only, or adults with children). 

• Households without children : Everyone in the household is age 18 or older. This includes households where there is only one single person over 18 and also households with multiple adults 18 or older. (Even parents and their children who are older than 18.)
• Households with at least one adult and one child: There is at least 1 member of the household under the age of 18 and at least 1 member of the household age 18 or over. All Adult & Child Households must have at least two persons. 
• Households with only children: Everyone in the household is under the age of 18. This includes households where there is only one single person under the age of 18 and also households considered parenting youth (the parent is under 18 and has a dependent under 18). This household type is uncommon within the local community.

Housing Type

The next element of a bed & unit inventory is the housing type. There are three housing types for Bed & Unit inventories:

• Site-Based-Single site: All clients are housed in a single project facility.
• Site-based-Clustered/Multiple site: Clients are housed in more than one project facility in multiple locations, but more than one client is housed in each project facility. The facility locations are owned, operated, or sponsored by the project.
• Tenant-Based-Scattered site: Clients have leases or other occupancy agreements and are housed in residences that are not owned or managed by the project.

Availability (applicable to shelters only)

The final element of an HMIS Bed & Unit Inventory is incorporating bed utilization by their availability to clients.  There are three types of availability:

• Year-round : These beds are planned to be available throughout the course of the year.
• Seasonal : These beds are available on a planned basis, with a set start and end date, generally during anticipated periods of higher demand.
• Overflow : These beds are available on an ad hoc or temporary basis during the year in response to demand that exceeds planned (year-round or seasonal) bed capacity

 

Calculating Project Bed & Unit Inventory

Counting "Fixed" Beds, Units & Vouchers

Applies to all project types if the project has a fixed, year-round number of units/vouchers that are explicitly dedicated to one of the three household types. If a project adjusts how beds are utilized based upon needs, please go to "Counting Multiuse Beds, Units & Vouchers" section below.

Counting Fixed Units

A unit is effectively a household.  This may be a household of one person or a household of multiple persons. For example, a house with three bedrooms which is designated to be used by a single-family is one unit. However, if the same house was designated to house three families (one in each bedroom), it would be three units. Another example would be a barracks-style shelter designed for 25 homeless single adults, which would be 25 units. 

Counting Project-Supplied Beds

All beds, regardless of size, are counted for the number of people they're designated to hold according to the program. For example:

•  

  • A single bed for one person is counted as one bed.

  • A queen-size bed for one person is counted as one bed.

  • A queen-size bed for a couple is counted as two beds.

Do not include cribs or pack-and-plays in your bed count.  Rollaways, mats, or cots should only be counted in your bed count if they are the standard bed for the program.

 

Counting Tenant-Supplied Beds

For programs that lease apartments as needed for qualified clients (usually permanent supportive housing voucher-type programs): Your total bed count will be the same as the number of people who are being housed in the units. This also applies to voucher-based projects like rapid rehousing. 

For programs that own unfurnished units:  You may use one of the two options:

1. Determine your average family size for the previous year and multiply that times your number of units (preferred method)
2. Standard Bed Counts for Unfurnished Family Units:  Note: This is an example and you would need to determine the typical number of beds in each unit size for your project. 
   •  
     • Efficiency = 1 bed
     • 1 bedroom unit = 1 bed
     • 2 bedroom unit = 3 beds
     • 3 bedroom unit = 5 beds

 

Counting "Multiuse" Beds, Units & Vouchers

Applies to tenant/voucher-based transitional housing, rapid rehousing, and permanent supportive housing projects. Also applies to projects with a fixed number of units where the units switch between household types based upon need. If a project has a fixed number of units that are assigned to specific household types, go to "Counting Fixed Beds, Units & Vouchers" section above.

If your program provides hotel/motel vouchers or is a voucher based rapid rehousing or permanent supportive housing project, the bed and unit capacity that you should report for purposes of the housing inventory should equal the number of people who are using vouchers on the night of the PIT count.  

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  • If you have 10 people being housed with vouchers on the night of the point-in-time count, then your bed inventory should be reported as 10, even if you could provide more vouchers if they were needed.

  • If you are a voucher based permanent supportive project or transitional housing project contracted to serve 30 clients, for example, but you have 35 clients enrolled in the project on the night of PIT count, then you should report 35 beds.

Assigning Beds to HUD Household Types

In the event a project has multiuse beds, all beds must be categorized into one of HUD's three household types. Projects may choose to categorize unused beds based upon the population they typically serve or the population they served on the night of the PIT/HIC (see how to calculate the two options below)

1. Based Upon Typical Population Served

Formula: Percentage of Beds Typically Used by Household Type × Total Beds = Total Beds in Household Type

AC=Adult & Child Households               AO=Adult only households             CO=Child Only households

Example:

A project with 40 beds typically has 70% of its beds used by AC households, 20% used by AO households, and 10% used by CO households. 

Noting this, we can determine the project's beds should be distributed as follows:

• 70% AC beds × 40 total Beds = 28 AC beds
• 20% AO beds × 40 total beds = 8 AO beds 
• 10% CO beds × 40 total beds = 4 CO beds

The project, therefore, reports 28 AC beds, 8 AO beds, and 4 CO beds.

2. Based Upon Night of the Count

Formula: (Beds in Use by Household Type ÷ In Use Beds) × Unused Beds = Unused Beds in Household Type

Example:

On the night of the count, a project with 40 beds that can serve anyone (i.e., all multiuse beds) had: 

• 20 beds in use by AC households 
• 10 beds in use by AO households 
• 0 beds in use by CO households 
• 10 beds unused

Using the formula above, we determine the unused beds should be distributed as follows:

• (20 AC Beds ÷ 30 In-Use Beds) × 10 Unused = 6.67 unused AC beds
• (10 AO Beds ÷ 30 In-Use Beds) × 10 Unused = 3.33 unused AO beds 
• (0 CO Beds ÷ 30 In-Use Beds) × 10 Unused = 0 unused CO beds

After rounding, the project reports a total of 27 AC beds, 13 AO beds, and 0 CO beds.

 

Counting Overflow Beds

Applies to emergency shelters that provide overflow beds.

If your emergency shelter program provides overflow mats or cots above your normal maximum capacity in extreme circumstances, the overflow bed capacity that you should report for purposes of the housing inventory should equal the number of people who are using overflow beds on the night of the point-in-time count.  

• If you have 2 people sleeping on overflow cots on the night of the point-in-time count because of extreme weather conditions or for another reason, then your overflow bed count is 2, even if you could put out more cots.

Counting Seasonal Beds

Applies to emergency shelters that provide seasonal beds.

Seasonal beds are beds that are regularly available for only a portion of the year, for example, beds that are set up only during the winter from January 1 through March 31.  

Inventory Under Development

Applies to any project that is not housing/sheltering clients on the night of the PIT/HIC and is expected to start operating before PIT night of the following year.

Beds and units that were fully funded but not available for occupancy as of the PIT night (last Wednesday of January) of the current year.  For inventory identified as underdevelopment, CoCs must also identify whether the bed/unit inventory is expected to be available for occupancy by the PIT night next year. 

Bed Dedication for Sub-Populations

In addition to knowing overall Bed & Unit inventory by household type, housing type, and (for shelters) availability, all residential projects must also reports bed dedications.

A dedicated bed is a bed that must be filled by a person in the subpopulation category (or a member of their household) unless there are no persons from the subpopulation who qualify for the project located within the geographic area. Beds may be tied to one, two, three, or none of these categories.

• Veterans: Beds that are dedicated to house veterans and their household members. 

• Youth: Beds that are dedicated to house youth (persons up to age 24) and their household members.

• Chronically Homeless (PSH Only): Permanent Supportive Housing Beds that are dedicated to chronically homeless persons and their household members.
   

Reporting Bed & Unit Inventory Changes

“Changes over time should be documented such that a historical record of inventory is retained. Minor day-to-day fluctuations need not be recorded, but differences due to significant changes in project operations should be entered as they occur” 

If there have been significant BUI changes that have occurred to a project, the Data Center needs to know!  Please follow these simple steps to request an update within HMIS:

1. Go to www.ncceh.org
2. Click Programs (from the top menu bar), Data Center, HMIS@NCCEH, and finally About Us
3. Click the black arrow next to NCCEH Data Center Forms to expand the table
4. Click Data Center Bed & Unit Inventory Update Form to report updates