• 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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    Bed & Unit Inventory Guide

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    Alex Fuller
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    This article will walk Providers 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 a new or changes to a project's Bed & Unit Inventory. This article is intended for use by the following project types: Emergency Shelters (Entry/Exit and Night-by-Night), Transitional Housing, Rapid Rehousing, and Permanent Housing (PH, PSH).

     

     

    What is a Bed & Unit Inventory?

    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 bed and unit inventory 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.

     

    Bed & Unit Inventory Elements

    There are three main elements to a Bed and Unit Inventory: 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 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.

     

    Dedicated Bed Inventory 

    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.
      • Chronically homeless veterans
      • Youth-veterans
      • Any other veteran
    • Youth: Beds that are dedicated to house youth (persons up to age 24) and their household members.
      • Chronically homeless youth
      • Youth-veterans
      • Any other youth
    • Chronically Homeless (PSH Only): Permanent Supportive Housing Beds that are dedicated to chronically homeless persons and their household members.
      • Any other CH
      • Chronically homeless youth
      • Chronically homeless veterans

     

    Reporting New or Updated Bed & Unit Inventories

    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 Bed and Unit changes that have occurred to a project, the HMIS Team needs to know!

     

    Please use the form below to document New or Updated Inventories: 

     

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