Homeless Management Information System

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Click here to see the NJ Statewide LSA 2021-21 System Performance Overview

HMIS Background

In 2002 Congress directed HUD to work with local communities throughout the nation to collect homeless data to better understand the scope of homelessness and to evaluate the effectiveness of the HUD McKinney Vento Act programs. To do this, HUD required every Continuum of Care (CoC) jurisdiction that receives HUD Homeless Assistance funding to collect unduplicated, client-level data by September 2004. The intent of Congress and HUD in creating these HMIS requirements is twofold:

1. Collection of data and information on the number of homeless persons, their characteristics, and the service(s) utilized to better understand the extent and nature of homelessness. This information is essential to strengthen the CoC needs assessment process required of all local jurisdictions.
2. To enable state and local government to assess mainstream housing and social services systems with respect to evaluation of their effectiveness, resource utilization and tracking the impact of changes to these systems.

About NJ HMIS

The NJ HMIS Collaborative was established in 2003 to collect data on homelessness throughout the participating counties to guide local and state planning efforts to reduce and end homelessness. NJHMFA spearheaded the collaborative to improve cost efficiencies statewide and to standardize the quality and format of data collected.

The New Jersey Statewide Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) application is designed to collaborate between state agencies and local communities on colleting number of homeless persons, their characteristics, and the services utilized to better understand the extent and nature of homelessness. 

The state agencies are New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency (HMFA), the New Jersey Department of Human Services (DHS), the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (DCA) and 15 Continuum of Care (CoC) local homeless planning communities.

What NJ HMIS Offers:

• Centralized collection of homeless and housing services information at the state and local level
• Compilation of information that can be used for multiple reporting requirements
• Cost effectiveness and economy scale to participating CoC jurisdictions and agencies who are required to collect this information
• Effective communication between homeless service providers within local communities across the state.
• Uniformity in reporting measures through utilization of a single standard HMIS system.