Better than HMIS?
HSIS: Homeless Survey Information System
 

A homeless information system that makes sense --
especially for communities without realistic options
for fully interactive casework.  

Useful, Affordable and Assessible
( under $10,000 one-time cost including customization)

In-Depth Information to Educate Your Community
One Day and Year Counts
Automatic Scanning  

Avoid the steep costs and limited participation of full HMIS.
With just one lead agency, all other service
providers can easily participate, for free.  

Our HSIS package was developed by a nonprofit
as a better alternative to meet HUD information requirements,
but most importantly, to help communities
better serve people who are homeless and at-risk.

HSIS has been in-use and perfected for three years.

• Sophisticated Information
  
• Inexpensive Acquisition
  
• Simple Implementation
  
• Full-spectrum Participation

HSIS:
Homeless Survey Information System

Beyond HMIS
HSIS is not a client tracking or interactive casework system. It is a community-based information system generating comprehensive data that benefits communities. In this regard, HSIS far surpasses capabilities of systems costing hundreds of thousands of dollars to acquire, implement and maintain. Because those systems are prohibitively expensive, time-consuming, and require ongoing tech capacity, many service providers cannot participate. Thus, information is not comprehensive, being generated from only the few sources mandated to do so.

Yes, It’s Paper!

But Automatically Scanned

Since surveys are scanned automatically, you can ask a lot of questions and gather a lot of information. Since the surveys are so well designed, people don’t mind too much filling them out. HSIS gives a complete picture for an annual homeless count in a way that huge complicated systems can’t. Any entity can participate. And we’ve gone well beyond the minimum HUD-required information, including questions that can help better educate communities by producing new information and disputing stereotypes. Our county’s Homeless Continuum of Care Council uncovered twice the number of homeless persons expected and we captured data from an equal number of respondents who answered yes to the question, “I am very likely to lose my housing in the very near future.”

Findings

In our county, of 3,000 homeless individuals, about 250 fit the chronically homeless definition. The vast majority of respondents were homeless less than three months at the time they filled out their survey. Over half were long-time residents, over half had family in the county. Generally, the statistics from the homeless compared to the at-risk of homelessness were strikingly similar.

Reports

HSIS can provide information for specific grants or used to refine or create new programs. It can show gaps in services, or quantify groups needing to access services. It makes a powerful statement to educate your community. You can also sort information from any question or response (or link three questions together) and get a picture of all of the rest of the survey responses from the standpoint of that subgroup. Reports can be in table form, or pie charts and graphs and in numbers or percents. Data is exportable into Excel or Access.

Sample data:

• Separate reports for at-risk and homeless
• Chronic Homeless
• Domestic violence, past or present
• Income range and source
• Length of time homeless and causes
• Household characteristics
• Racial, ethnic and gender information
• Age-range and number of children in household Length of residency
• 36 Services requested, provided and/or referred

Filling Out Surveys

Questionnaire wording is written directly for clients. It’s user-friendly. Staff need only assist if client is unable to do it on their own. HSIS asks a lot of questions with a lot of response boxes, but it’s so well organized, it’s still quick to complete. Clients can do this while waiting for services. Staff need only check off agency, date, and services provided/referred boxes.

Scanning Procedures

Surveys are filled out at various sites where homeless and at-risk of becoming homeless people frequent or are served. Surveys are sent monthly to the project lead agency who processes them with an automatic scanner. To sort out duplicates, our system uses a unique identifier: the first three letters of last name combined with a birth date. A community could choose to use a Social Security number instead. The surveys are automatically kept as a bit-mapped picture so the original paper can be discarded. Because handwriting recognition technology is not perfect, and most people's handwriting is less than perfect, the "unique identifier" needs to be verified which is easily done from the bit-mapped image. If there are questionable responses or mistakes, the software automatically chooses the most likely response and flags those questions. The operator easily checks or corrects by referring to the electronic picture of any survey in question. The bit-map image is on the screen right alongside the scanned responses for easy referencing.

Duplicate Surveys

Data is exported into Excel, then sorted for duplicates using the unique identifier. Staff deletes any duplicate survey. All surveys are kept, duplicate or not, but only the unduplicated surveys would be used for tabulating reports.

Why purchase HSIS and not just buy the survey software?

You won’t have to slog through seven computer manuals. We’ve done it for you. Our design and content are exceptional. We don’t think you can come close to what we’ve developed and wouldn’t want to invest the time necessary to even try.

Our nonprofit has served low and no income people for 32 years and we have a good sense of what is most useful for clients/customers, agency data needs and communities.

Sample Budget Estimate

• Survey Scanning Software $4,500
  (purchased from the Mercator software company)
• Duplex Scanner (two-sided) $1,000
  (must use ISIS operating system)
• Computer Printer $ 50
• HSIS Consulting Package $2,500***
  (purchased from People of Progress)
• 5,000 printed surveys $ 400
  (printed in your community)
• Staff
• Scanning/computer entry 3 hrs weekly
  (this is more than sufficient to process 5,000 surveys annually)

Report Generation as needed

Reports can be compiled as often as desired. Surveys are “dated” when respondent checks off the month they completed the survey-- thus, they can be scanned any time during a year but data reflects the month each individual survey was completed.

*** The HSIS consulting package is available for purchase
through December, 2006 for $2,500.