Total Household Enrollments
This metric tracks household enrollments recorded in HMIS during the reporting period. Households may be enrolled in more than one program during the reporting period.
The HMIS is made up of project enrollments across many program types. This dashboard focuses on our inventory-bearing program types: Emergency Shelter, Transitional Housing, Rapid Re-Housing, and Permanent Housing. Because we are evaluating program performance, we look at the enrollment level, the unit at which programs deliver services and move households toward outcomes. A household can hold more than one enrollment during a reporting period, so the same household may appear in more than one program’s results. Total household enrollments shows the overall volume of activity for the period and gives context for the metrics throughout this dashboard.
How it’s calculated: Total household enrollments = distinct count of enrollments for heads of households, counted where the enrollment is active during the reporting period.
Exit to or Maintain Permanent Housing
Emergency Shelter, Transitional Housing, Rapid Re-Housing Programs
The primary goal of the homeless response system is to support individuals and households to move from homelessness into permanent housing. To track our progress, we measure the rate at which programs exit households from the homelessness response system to a permanent housing destination.
How it’s calculated: Exits to permanent housing = Total number of households who exited to permanent housing during the timeframe ÷ Total number of households who exited to any destination during the timeframe
Permanent Housing Programs
Some programs, such as Permanent Supportive Housing, are meant as permanent housing solutions for clients who formerly experienced homelessness that require ongoing housing support. In these programs, maintaining enrollment or exiting to permanent housing are considered successful outcomes.
How it’s calculated: Exits to or maintain permanent housing = Total number of households who maintain enrolled past the end of the timeframe and total number of households who exited to permanent housing during the timeframe ÷ Number of households active in the system during the timeframe
Average Length of Enrollment
This measure looks at the average amount of time households are enrolled in a program. Best practices aim to reduce the amount of time someone experiences homelessness by moving them to housing as quickly as possible.
How it’s calculated: Average length of enrollment = total number of days that households stay in a program by the end of the timeframe ÷ total number of households who accessed that program during the timeframe. This includes households that exit during the timeframe (leavers) and those that remain enrolled at the end of the timeframe (stayers)
Return Rate
While it is important to house people experiencing homelessness quickly, it is equally important to ensure that a permanent housing situation is sustainable so that people don’t experience homelessness again. This measure is calculated only for clients who consent to share identifying information in HMIS.
How it’s calculated: Return rate = Number of households returning to homelessness within 6 months of the timeframe ÷ Number of households who exited to permanent housing during a given timeframe
Utilization Rate
Utilization rates allow us to monitor the use of beds and units in the system. Utilization rates are not calculated for Rapid Re-Housing programs because these programs do not have a fixed number of units.
How it’s calculated: Utilization rate = Total number of nights that units were occupied ÷ total number of nights that units were available in the timeframe
Definition: Number of Units = The maximum number of units that were available at a given time during the reporting period.
Other Definitions
The Annual Population Trends dashboard provides trends by age group, household composition, race/ethnicity, and veteran status. Data on these characteristics are based on information reported about the designated head of the household.
Age Group: Determined based on the age of the head of household at the time of enrollment. Adults are heads of households aged 25 and older and Youth and Young Adult heads of households are 24 and younger.
Household Composition: Determined based on the age and household composition of the head of household at the time of enrollment.
KCRHA-Managed Contracts: Programs participating in the HMIS that received partial or full funding and contract management from KCRHA during the reporting period.
Non-KCRHA-Managed Contracts: HMIS-participating programs that received no KCRHA funding and were not contract-managed by KCRHA during the reporting period.
Race & Ethnicity: Head of household’s self-reported race and ethnicity at the time of enrollment using HUD-defined categories. The Fiscal Year 2024 HMIS Data Standards provide two significant updates to how clients can identify their race and ethnicity:
- Middle Eastern or North African was added to the list of options clients can identify as. Before October 2023, this was not an option for clients.
- “Race” and “Ethnicity” were combined into one question. These were previously two separate questions for clients, with Ethnicity identifying whether someone identifies as Hispanic/Latina/e/o. Now, Hispanic/Latina/e/o is part of a single “Race & Ethnicity” list.
Veteran Status: Head of household’s self-reported veteran status at the time of enrollment. Note: The “non-Veteran” category includes some households that are ineligible for military service (e.g. youth).
NOTE: Since some families are headed by young adults, these households are categorized as “Families with Children” in the Household Composition view and as “Under 25” in the Age Group view.