Nashville Nonprofits Serving Homeless To Participate in Database Program
From today’s Nashville City Paper:
City installing homeless database
BY NATE RAU nrau@nashvillecitypaper.com
All Nashville nonprofits providing care to the city’s homeless will soon be required to participate in a Web-based Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), which compiles data on homeless individuals here and the services they receive.
Nashville is joining a 4-year-old initiative adopted by Congress that called on the federal department of Housing and Urban Development to encourage local governments to build a homeless persons database.
The HMIS initiative has been on the way in Nashville since 2002 with Metro Social Services and Metro Health Department both taking terms establishing the database. But Mayor Karl Dean wrote the installation of the program into his budget proposal and the HMIS was moved to the Metro Housing and Urban Development department.
The database will come with a price tag of about $150,000 as part of Dean’s 18 percent improvement to Metro homeless services. The basic information maintained on the database will be the name, Social Security number, age, ethnicity and veteran’s status of the homeless persons receiving services in Nashville.
More advanced data is also available through HMIS systems.
“We can now have data that will help us make better decisions and make sure we are getting efficient services,” Homelessness Services Coordinator for the Metro Homeless Commission Clifton Harris said.
Cities across the country are participating in an HMIS program on some level. Instead of using existing software for the database, Metro developed its own system.
Some nonprofit groups in Nashville already use databases of some sort, but this program will be far more intricate and will link them together citywide. Harris said HUD has already given Nashville’s homegrown system strong reviews.
MDHA is in the process of hiring an HMIS coordinator and the hope is the database will be up and running in the coming months, Harris said.
Essentially, an HMIS system tracks all persons receiving homeless services in Nashville. The database keeps track of where an individual sleeps, where they receive medical services and where they eat, among other information.
All nonprofits receiving federal grants are required by HUD to participate in Nashville’s HMIS program or face losing their funding. Nashville’s largest homeless services provider, the Nashville Rescue Mission, does not receive federal funds and would not be required to participate.
However, CEO Don Worrell said the Rescue Mission was willing to jump on board. The Nashville Rescue Mission services about 6,000 homeless persons annually.
“We are seriously interested in this and we want to be good neighbors and participate,” Worrell said.
Memphis is among the cities recognized by HUD for being national leaders on HMIS systems.
Pat Morgan, executive director of Memphis Partners for the Homeless, said the program has paid off in numerous ways.
Among them is serving as an accountability agent to ensure the nonprofits are doing what they say they’re doing. The database also allows Memphis Homeless Coalition to track overall homeless numbers and even to perform more involved functions like keeping tabs on domestic abuse.
“The data helps us make sure the agencies are helping people get help, find jobs and move into homes,” Morgan said.
Confidentiality and privacy laws do come into play, but Morgan said it’s rare that a homeless person isn’t willing to cooperate by signing the necessary waiver.
Morgan said the Memphis program generates quarterly reports on the number of homeless, the services they are receiving and the services not sufficiently provided.
“Business people and accountant types love it, because it gives them hard data and really allows a city to examine the issues,” Morgan said.
The homeless persons database is part of Dean’s emphasis on combating the problem in downtown Nashville. In a budget year when most departments received cuts totaling at least 5 percent, the Homeless Commission received an 18 percent increase.
Besides the database, funding also increased for health care at the downtown Guest House.
During his campaign for mayor a year ago, Dean actually spent a night on the streets and increasing funding to $1.15 million for homeless services is a response to what he has called a critical need.
“This computer system will allow us to make sure we are maximizing government resources to help them,” Dean said. CP
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