NH Street Outreach Overview

Street Outreach projects are intended to locate and provide services to individuals sleeping in "places not meant for human habitation" such as cars, abandoned buildings, doorways, and encampments. The HMIS Street Outreach workflow starts when an outreach worker first meets a potential client and essential components of the workflow include documenting interactions (contacts) and the Date of Engagement.

Funder and/or CoC Specific Guidance

PATH projects have two additional fields to complete on the enrollment screen: Connection to SOAR and PATH Status Determination.
RHY funded outreach projects have additional enrollment screen questions.
YHDP funded projects have additional enrollment screen questions.

Enrolling a Household

Funding sources, including HUD ESG, require that outreach workers create an enrollment for everyone they are working with, even if they know very little about the individual or their long term needs. The enrollment screen may initially be incomplete and is updated over time as additional information becomes known.

Street Outreach eligibility typically requires a client's Prior Living Situation on the enrollment screen to be "a place not meant for human habitation."

Often times the date of engagement will be left blank when an enrollment is initially created. This field is used to document when "an interactive client relationship results in a deliberate client assessment or beginning of a case plan." Engagement rates are used to assess project performance, so it is important that staff fill out this field as soon as a client is "engaged" in services. This is also the date that staff are expected to ask a client about any remaining unanswered fields on the enrollment screen.

While Enrolled

Outreach workers should document every contact with a client using the Current Living Situation Assessment.
Follow your CoC's guidance for connecting guests with Coordinated Entry and other housing search supports.
Some agencies or funders, including RHY and PATH, require documentation using Notes and Services. Talk to your manager if you have questions about your project's expectations.
Use Status Assessments to document changes to a client's income and benefits while enrolled.
Update the Date of Engagement field on the enrollment screen when a previously non-engaged client agrees to collaborate on housing and related goals.
Annual Assessments should be completed on the anniversary of the head of household's start date.

Program Exits

Follow CoC and/or funder specific guidance for when to Exit a Client from street outreach. The exit date should match the date of last contact (i.e. the final CLS assessment) not the date the exit is being entered. Reasons for exiting a client may include:
- The client obtained permanent housing.
- The client is connected with other supportive services and has expressed a desire to stop receiving services from this project.
- Project staff have been unable to contact the client in a given amount of time (for all NH CoC’s, this is 90 days).

Reporting, Data, Cleanup and Project Analysis

ESG funded Street Outreach projects submit the ESG CAPER. This report can also be used for data cleanup and project analysis (Pentaho/Built in)
The Data Completeness - ESG Street Outreach report is a custom Looker Data Analysis based report built specifically for Street Outreach project review (Looker) COMING SOON!
The Potential Exits Report is a useful tool for identifying clients who might be exited (Pentaho/Built in)
The Street Outreach Monthly Contacts Report can be used to monitor contacts over time (Looker) - COMING SOON!
The CLS Client Details can be used to review all information entered in a current Living Situation (Looker)

Resources

NH Guide to Street Outreach Data Entry (Written Guidance)