• AIRS – Alliance of Information and Referral Systems
  • AHAR – Annual Homeless Assessment Report
  • APR – Annual Performance Report
  • ATA – Agency Technical Administrator
  • CAPER – Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report
  • CES – Coordinated Entry System
  • CDBG – Community Development Block Grant CoC - Continuum of Care
  • CH – Chronically Homeless
  • CoC – Continuum of Care
  • DOB – Date of Birth
  • DQSC – Data Quality Sub-Committee
  • DV – Domestic Violence
  • ES – Emergency Shelter
  • ESG – Emergency Solutions Grant
  • EVHI – Ending Veteran Homelessness Initiative
  • Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing HIPAA - Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996
  • HMIS – Homeless Management Information System
  • HoH – Head of Household
  • HOPWA – Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS
  • HPCC – Homeless Prevention Call Center
  • HUD – Housing and Urban Development
  • NOFA – Notice of Funding Availability PIT - Point in Time
  • NP - Non-Participating (Agency is listed as not using ServicePoint or no longer in operation)
  • PATH - Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness
  • PPI – Personal Protected Information
  • PSH – Permanent Supportive Housing
  • RHY – Runaway and Homeless Youth
  • ROI – Release of Information
  • RRH – Rapid Re-Housing
  • SH – Safe Haven
  • SHP – Supportive Housing Program
  • SRO – Single Room Occupancy
  • SSI – Supplemental Security Income
  • SSN – Social Security Numbe
  • SSO – Supportive Services Only
  • SSVF – Supportive Services for Veteran Families
  • UDE – Universal Data Element
  • TANF – Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
  • TFA – Temporary Financial Assistance
  • VASH – Veteran Affairs Supportive Housing

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    Steps of Training and Receiving HMIS Access

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    Rischelle Fajardo
    • Updated
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    New Training Requests will be paused from 

    January 9th - January 23rd 2026

    **New Process in place starting on January 26th 2026! 

    --

    There are 4 main steps in the general HMIS training process. These steps must be completed in order:

    1. Request for Training
      1. User must have an existing LMS account.
      2. ATA submits a Help Desk Ticket
      3. HMIS Team receives complete request and fulfills course enrollment
    2. Complete the Training Courses in the LMS (Learning Management System)
      1. Introduction to HMIS Course
      2. Project-Specific Course
    3. Complete the Virtual Proctored Session Review
    4. User receives their live credentials

     

    Users that have had HMIS access before, see the following article: Users with Existing Access

     

    Roles that have an alternate HMIS training process:

     

    These roles in particular are conducted within the Lead Coordinated Entry Team, in which the HMIS Team is only involved in administering and licensing accounts with their approval. Please see these articles for more information: 

     

    Request for Training

    New users will need to validated as a new hire at an agency by their ATA and/or Supervisor. 
    In this process, we, as the HMIS Lead, are able to:

    • Confirm that only users that are supposed to have access to the Chicago CoC HMIS continues on with the training;
    • Make sure that each user are assigned the courses that are most appropriate to their new role;
    • Coordinate with ATA/Supervisor regarding their new user's training process and progress.

     

    Step 1: User must have an existing LMS account.

    Users will be using Talent LMS (Learning Management) to take training courses.
     

    • If they've never had an account on Talent LMS, you may follow this Step by Step Instructions on How to Create a New Account.
    • If they've previously had an account and have taken courses in this CoC in the past, do not create a new account; they may follow this Step by Step Instructions on How to Update Your Existing Account. This ensures that all their training history and progress can be found in one account.
      • If they have already created a new one, please have them delete it and update their old account: How to Create or Update Learning Management System (LMS) Accounts
      • If they cannot access their old account, please send a ticket and we are able to update the account to their new email so they may have access to it again.
      • If they have an account under a personal email, please have them update their account to be linked to their current agency email. This allows us to easily verify what organization someone is associated with.
      • We cannot transfer course progress between accounts. 

     

    Step 2: ATA submits a Help Desk Ticket

    HMIS courses are not currently available in the LMS for self-enrollment and must be requested by an ATA through the Help Desk. Please provide the following information: 

    1.  
      1. Name of user
      2. Agency email
      3. Username on the Learning Management System (LMS)
      4. What will be their expected responsibilities (ex. Read-Only, reviewing referrals, reporting, etc)
      5. What projects will need to be accessed

     

    Step 3: HMIS Team receives complete request and fulfills course enrollment

    There are 2 main courses that most users will need to get access to the HMIS:

    1. Introduction to Homeless Management Information System (HMIS)
    2. Project-Specific Course: Dependent on what type of projects you will be primarily working with.
    •  
      •  
        • Drop-in/Day Shelter Workflow
        • Emergency Shelter (ES), Transitional Housing (TH) + Safe Haven (SH) Workflow Training
        • Employment and Income
        • Permanent (Supportive) Housing (PSH) and Rapid Re-housing (RRH) Bundle:
          • Families - Permanent Housing and Rapid Rehousing Workflow Training
          • Singles - Permanent Housing and Rapid Rehousing Workflow Training
        • Outreach/PATH Workflow Training
        • RHY - Street Outreach (SOP)
        • Services Only
        • SSVF Workflow Training
        • State Homeless Prevention Workflow
           

    *Note: The project-specific courses cost $25 each, in which we can either redeem training credits for or an invoice will be sent from PayPal to the requesting ATA.

     

    Complete the Training Courses in the LMS (Learning Management System)

    Training is completed on the user and/or agency's own timeline as they are all Self-Paced courses.

     

    Step 1: Introduction to HMIS Course

    This is the prerequisite HMIS course on the Learning Management System (LMS), which means that all project-specific courses will be marked "Restricted" until this course is completed to 100%

    The objective of this course is to:

    1. Provide a comprehensive overview of how federal, state, and local Continuum of Care (CoC) systems work together to implement and utilize the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) to support individuals and families who are experiencing homelessness or are at risk of homelessness
    2. Provide an overview of the general structure of Chicago CoC's HMIS System, also known as Community Services:
      • Navigation around the system
      • Searching and creating clients
      • Privacy policies and client consent
      • Determining homeless status according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
    3. Register for an HMIS training account*

     

    **Read Only users will be enrolled in an alternate Introduction to HMIS course and will receive access after completion of this course.

     

    Step 2: Project-Specific Course

    This course is dependent on what type of projects you will be primarily working with.

    •  
      • Drop-in/Day Shelter Workflow
      • Emergency Shelter (ES), Transitional Housing (TH) + Safe Haven (SH) Workflow Training
      • Employment and Income
      • Permanent (Supportive) Housing (PSH) and Rapid Re-housing (RRH) Bundle - The following courses in this bundle are similar, with the Families having a multi-person household focus. Users should only complete the course that better reflects the majority of the population expected to service. 
        • Families - Permanent Housing and Rapid Rehousing Workflow Training
        • Singles - Permanent Housing and Rapid Rehousing Workflow Training
      • Outreach/PATH Workflow Training
      • RHY - Street Outreach (SOP)
      • Services Only
      • SSVF Workflow Training
      • State Homeless Prevention Workflow
      • HPCC HMIS Review

    The objective of these courses is to:

    1. Provide an overview about the project type and specific requirements that it may require
    2. Provide a detailed walk-through of the workflow of enrollments and completing assessments as it relates to the project
    3. Register for the Virtual Proctored Session*
      • Access to the following projects currently do not require a proctor: HPCC & State Homeless Prevention

     

     

    Complete the Virtual Proctored Session Review

    This is the final assessment that needs to be completed before users are able to receive their live HMIS credentials.

    For this open book assignment, users will be provided sample data about a client in which they must use the workflow from the corresponding Project-Specific course to accurately create a sample client and enter data for a complete enrollment.

    • ATAs must be heavily involved in training process, including providing extra support and guidance to the user on their sample client to prevent extended rounds of corrections, delays in receiving their credentials, and most of all, confusion.

    See this article for a more detailed explanation of this assignment: Virtual Proctored Sessions

     

    *Access to the following projects currently do not require a proctor: HPCC & State Homeless Prevention

     

    User receives their live credentials

    During the Virtual Proctored Session, records with minimal to no errors will then receive their live site credentials, along with the End User Agreement to be completed and submitted to their ATA/Supervisor.

     

    Users having significant errors or difficulties will be provided the following support, depending on the severity of errors or confusion:

    • Detailed feedback for corrections
    • Scheduled 1:1 video walk-through of their client record
    • Request to re-do partial or full training course

    ATAs must be heavily involved in training process, including providing extra support and guidance to the user on their sample client to prevent extended rounds of corrections, delays in receiving their credentials, and most of all, confusion.

     

    Roles that have an alternate HMIS training process:

     

    Access to the following projects currently do not require a proctor and will receive their access upon notifying the HMIS Help Desk at helpdesk@allchicago.org
    • HPCC
    • State Homeless Prevention

     

    These roles in particular are conducted within the Lead Coordinated Entry Team, in which the HMIS Team is only involved in administering and licensing accounts with their approval. Please see these articles for more information: 

     

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