The Howard County Continuum of Care for Homeless Services is administered by the Department Housing & Community Development, with the Continuum of Care Board serving in an advisory capacity. The Continuum utilizes internet-based technology, known as ServicePoint, to capture information about persons receiving services at homeless service organizations in Howard.
In its pursuit to end homelessness, of the Continuum’s goals is to determine the extent and nature of homelessness in Howard County. This is accomplished through analysis and release of data grounded in the actual experiences of homeless persons, and the service providers who assist them in shelters and homeless assistance programs throughout the county. Information is aggregated (void of any identifying client level information), analyzed and made available to policy makers, service providers, advocates, and consumer representatives.
Benefits to Clients:
- Improved coordination of care and services·
- Reduced duplication of information gathering.
- High-security of client confidentiality.
Benefits to Participating Providers:
- Automated reporting for federal sub grantees.
- Readily accessible internal and external data.
- Potential to track longitudinal data for trend analysis.
- Streamlined and trackable referrals.
- Ability to maintain electronic client records.
Benefits to the Howard County Continuum of Care and Policymakers:
- Offers Business Intelligence software for analyzing system needs for funding, decision-making and policy.
- Creates the ability to track progress on system performance and locally defined outcome measurements.
- Strengthens partnership among agency partners of the CoC’s Coordinated Entry System of Homeless Services.
Benefits to the General Community:
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Provides information on: the extent of homelessness in Howard County; the causes of homelessness; and, trends and needs.
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Enables interested parties to better advocate around service and resource needs for those experiencing homelessness.
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Participating agencies
RESOURCES
HUD Federal HMIS Documents
HMIS Privacy & Consent Forms
HMIS Standard Operating Procedures
Committees and Workgroups
Workflow -Data Entry
- Forgot Password
- ServicePoint Overview
- Searching for and Adding Clients in ServicePoint
- Data Entry Workflow for Hotline workers
- Adding and Reading Client case notes
- Uploading Documents
- Universal Data Elements
- Interims
- Case Managers tab
- Sending a referral Workflow
- Street Outreach
- Entry/Exit Reference
- FAQs
HMIS Data Portal
Housing Inventory Count (HIC)
The Housing Inventory Count (HIC) is a nationwide inventory of housing conducted annually during the last ten days in January. The report tallies the number of beds and units available on the night designated for the count by program type in a Housing Inventory Chart. The report includes beds dedicated to serve persons who are homeless as well as persons in Permanent Supportive Housing.
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2024 Housing Inventory Count (HIC) Results
Point-In-Time Count (PIT)
The Point-in-Time (PIT) Count is a count of people experiencing homelessness in one single night of the year, usually in the last 10 days of January. Volunteers distribute paper surveys and interview people on the night designated for the count. Then, designated people entered this information in the Homeless Management Information System database.
Howard County’s HMIS team run a report to compile all the data gathered and submits the results to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)