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Background
The CES Leads for the Family and Individual Coordinated Entry Systems match households to available housing opportunities through the Coordinated Entry System and the Bed Reservation System. In order to make these matches in HMIS, the users at the CES Leads must have the Matchmaker role. This article will review how the Matchmaker will complete matches in HMIS, including the following:
- Reviewing Households on the Community Queue
- Viewing the Available Housing Opportunities Report
- Matching Households
Reviewing Households on the Community Queue
Matchmakers will need to run reports so that they are able to view all of the households that are currently waiting to be matched to a housing opportunity on either the Coordinated Entry Community Queue or the Bed Reservation Community Queue.
Step 1: Click on the Launchpad, and select Reports.
Step 2: Click on the Data Analysis tab, and expand the drop down next to Orange County Clarity System Reports
Step 3: Click on the Run button next to the report you would like to run.
- For households on the Coordinated Entry System Community Queue, run the Matchmaker Dashboard: Households on the Community Queue report.
- For households on the Bed Reservation Community Queue, run the Households Waiting for Bed Reservation report.
Step 4: Once the report is open on a new screen, click on the Gear button and select Download as CSV to export both reports into Excel.
Step 5: A popup box will appear, make sure that under the Limit section All Results is selected and then click Download.
Understanding the Reports
Once the report is downloaded, there will be columns in Excel that are used to determine and identify the most vulnerable clients on the Community Queue. Matchmakers can request other data elements to be added to the report by entering a ticket with the HMIS Help Desk.
Below is a brief explanation of what each of the columns mean:
-
Approximate Date Homelessness Started: The date the head of household's current episode of homelessness began.
- Days Since Referral Added to Queue: The number of days since the date the household was added to the Community Queue.
- Assessment Score: The head of household's VI-SPDAT score.
- Chronic Homeless at PIT/Current Date: Whether or not the head of household meets the qualifications to be considered chronically homeless as of the date the report was run. The head of household should have a disabling condition listed on their Coordinated Entry project enrollment, and they have reported a length of homelessness and/or episodes of homelessness that meet the Chronic Homelessness criteria. Please visit the knowledge base article on How to Enroll Clients in a Project, for more information on how to add a disabling condition to an enrollment.
- Assessment Date: Date the head of household's VI-SPDAT assessment was completed.
Viewing Available Housing Opportunities
The Available Housing Opportunities report includes a list of all housing opportunities that are available for match through the Coordinated Entry or Bed Reservation Systems. The Coordinated Entry System report is sent on Mondays at noon to all users that have requested to receive the report. The CES Leads receive this report on additional days to assist with matching. The Bed Reservation report is sent to the County of Orange and the Family Solutions Collaborative on a daily basis at 11:00 am.
If additional staff need to be added to the mailing list for either report, please enter a ticket with the HMIS Help Desk. If a Housing Agency has an opportunity that was not reflected in the report due to it being made available after the list was sent out, the the Housing Agency is responsible for letting the Matchmaker know of the opening along with the eligibility for it. The Matchmaker can only complete the match if the opportunity is available in HMIS.
Matching a Household to a Housing Opportunity
CES Leads are the only entities that are able to match households to Housing Opportunities, and this functionality can only be completed by users with the Matchmaker role. To request this role, please enter a ticket with the HMIS Help Desk.
Step 1: Download the appropriate Households on the Community Queue report and the Available Housing Opportunities report.
Step 2: Identify the most vulnerable and eligible household from the Community Queue report for each of the Available Housing Opportunities.
Step 3: Go to the Community Queue tab on the Referrals page, and select the appropriate Community Queue that the household is being referred from.
Step 4: Select the following settings, then click Search:
- Active Agency: Select the name of the agency with the open housing opportunity
- Project: Select the name of the project, within the agency, that has an available housing opportunity (this will only appear if Eligible Clients Only is selected)
- Mode: Select the Assessment completed by the household
- Families: VI-F-SPDAT Prescreen for Families [V2] OC Custom
- Individuals: VI-SPDAT Prescreen for Single Adults [V2] OC Custom
- Veterans: Veteran Coordinated Entry Assessment [OC Custom]
- Bed Reservation System assessment: [OC Custom] Bed Reservation Assessment
- Sort By: Select Default, this will sort the scores from highest to lowest
- Eligible Clients Only Switch: Toggle On to only show households that meet the eligibility requirements for the project selected
Step 5: Once household has been selected to match to a housing opportunity, click on the Edit button next the to client's name
Step 6: Scroll to the Re-Assign section, and adjust the fields to the following settings:
- Select the Program the household is being referred to
- Select the Opening Date that matches the Opening Date on the Available Housing Opportunities report (The Opening drop down reflects the date an opening was added, so multiple openings may have the same date)
- Select Save Changes
Step 7: Once the household has been reassigned to a housing opportunity, the referral to the housing opportunity will appear in the History section at the bottom of the screen. The household will be removed from the Community Queue, and will instead appear as a Pending match to the housing opportunity.
