• 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

    • Articles in this section

    Step by Step How To Get Trained in HMIS (For Staff and with Note to Supervisors)

    Avatar
    Matthew Robinson
    • Updated
    Follow

     

    Getting Started

    To begin, you will need to set up your own account in the HMIS Online Learning Portal. 

    When you click that link, you will see the following login fields, click "Sign up" below:

    mceclip0.png

    Complete the registration details and you will be greeted with this screen:

    mceclip2.png

    The course catalog will present you with various courses you can take. The very first one you will want to add to your screen is going to be "Introduction to Homeless Management Information System". From this screen, you will click "Get This Course". 

    mceclip1.png

    From there, you can also filter by checking the box next to the category you want. For instance, when "Permanent Supportive Housing" is checked off, it will filter to show only the courses applicable to Permanent Supportive Housing. 

    mceclip2.png

    You'll also notice a "Bundle" feature. This bundle allows you to buy multiple courses for the price of one course. The only bundle currently available is for PH/RRH for singles and families. 

     mceclip3.png

     

    Available Courses and Overview

    There are three major components to getting trained depending on your project type:

    1. Introduction to HMIS Course
    2. Your Specific Workflow Course
    3. In-Person Evaluation / Training

    For HMIS Users getting trained for Emergency Shelter, Transitional Housing, Safe Haven, Permanent Housing, and Rapid Rehousing, your general course flow will be the following:

     

    Introduction to HMIS Course

    mceclip4.png

     

    Permanent Housing/Rapid Rehousing Course Bundle

    mceclip5.png

    +

    mceclip7.png

    Emergency Shelter, Transitional Housing, Safe Haven Course

    mceclip8.png

    In-person Evaluation

    The in-person evaluation will require you to create a client at a proctored session that you register for at the end of the online courses. While this evaluation will be open book and staff will be on-hand to answer any questions you may have, it will be pass fail. If you are not able to create a client record during the proctored session, you will not receive you live HMIS license. 

    More information on this evaluation can be found here.

     

    If you belong to a project that is outside of this, then you will take the "Project Specific Workflow Training". This "course" does not have a video component. It will simply ask you to register for a training specific to your project type. 

     

    Introduction to HMIS Course

    mceclip4.png

    Registration for Project Specific Workflow Training

    mceclip9.png

    This course is actually a registration form for users to attend a 3 hour training concentrating on their given workflow (Service Only, Supportive Services for Veterans and their Families, Runaway Homeless Youth, PATH and Outreach). There are no online components to this training. 

     

    Emergency Shelter, Transitional Housing, Safe Haven (ES, TH, SH)

    mceclip8.png 

    Any user completing that needs training specific to ES, TH and SH should complete the following steps:

    1. Complete the Introduction to HMIS
      • You will need to complete the full Introduction
    2. Purchase and complete the ES, TH, SH workflow
    3. At the end of the course, you will be prompted to register for a proctored session
      • You will attend this proctored session and will need to create one client record before getting live access to HMIS

     

    Permanent Housing, Permanent Supportive Housing, Rapid Rehousing (PH, PSH, RRH)

     mceclip5.png mceclip7.png

    Any user completing that needs training specific to PH, PSH, and RRH should complete the following steps:

    1. Complete the Introduction to HMIS
      • You will need to complete the full Introduction
    2. Purchase the PH, PSH, and RRH bundle and complete ONE of the available courses (either singles or families, you do not need to complete both)
      • If you will be working with both Singles and Families, it is recommended you complete the Families course
    3. At the end of the course, you will be prompted to register for a proctored session
      • You will attend this proctored session and will need to create one client record before getting live access to HMIS

     

    All Other Project Types

     mceclip9.png

    For users whose workflows do NOT have a corresponding course in the online learning portal, they will need to complete the following steps:

    1. Complete the Introduction to HMIS
      • You will need to complete the full Introduction
    2. Purchase the Project Specific Workflow Training course
      • This course does not have any videos, it is a registration form to attend an in-person 3-4 hour training that is specific to SSVF, RHY, PATH, Service Only and Outreach projects
        • Users will receive their HMIS licenses at this in-person training

     

    Note for Supervisors/Agency Technical Administrators (ATAs)

    Your user will need to have their own account, so you cannot register for them, they must register for these courses themselves. Please also note that the HMIS Team will not publicly provide any scheduled new user evaluation/training dates, as those are specific only to the users completing the given courses. The reason for this policy is because the team has had users arrive to the scheduled new user evaluation/training dates without having completed the pre-requisite courses.

    As  a supervisor, you should provide your new user with the following:

    • The HMIS Project IDs of the programs the client will be completing data entry for
    • What level of access that user should have in HMIS
      • Should they have access to all of the projects at your agency?

     

     

     

    Was this article helpful?
    2 out of 2 found this helpful
    Have more questions? Submit a request

    Related articles