UPDATE: DURING COVID CRISIS
Need Status Glossary
What is a Referral Need Status?
Once a client is matched to a housing provider, a referral is made in HMIS. Referrals track housing providers’ progress in contacting the individual or household, completing an intake, entering the individual or household into the program, and ultimately, helping them secure permanent housing. The referral is made with an initial status of “CES: Matched: Awaiting response by Housing Provider”. The status should then be updated by the housing provider to reflect the individual or household’s progress towards housing (or lack thereof).
Referral Need Status Table
Below is a table of Need Statuses exactly in the order they appear in HMIS and their explanations. Need Statuses shaded in green are ones you will most commonly use. Need Statuses shaded in grey you will never use or have been specifically instructed to use during your training. Needs statuses shaded in red you should never use. The column on the right indicates whether the Need Status is subjected to the Need Status Timeliness Standard.
Needs Status Timeliness Standard
Within 30 days of receiving the initial CES referral, Housing Providers must update the HMIS Referral Need Status to represent the household’s status toward project enrollment by selecting one of the following:
- CES: Enrolled
- CES: Rematch Needed: _____ (select appropriate reason from glossary)
- CES: Client Engaged, In Progress to Enrollment
If a Housing Provider does not update the HMIS Referral Need Status to one of the three resolved options by day 35, the household Need Status will be changed to “CES: Rematch Needed: CES Team Only: Housing Provider Did Not Respond” and the household will be placed back on the CE List and eligible to be matched to a different provider.
If the HMIS Referral Need Status on day 30 is listed as “CES: Client Engaged, In Progress to Enrollment”, the Housing Provider will have another 30 days to resolve the need status as outlined above.
The brief webinar below describes the referral needs status timeliness standards, the glossary and input to HMIS.
At minute 10:24 is the HMIS demo for how to update your referral needs status.
Contact protocol policy can be found here.