RHY Basic Center Programs - ES & HP

RHY BCP Shelter Program Enrollments

A single client may receive either prevention or emergency shelter or both prevention and emergency shelter during one experience at BCP. Below is guidance on how to approach the distinction:

If a youth receives services that are not shelter stays, the youth would be entered into the BCP prevention project using the Prevention Workflow along with the RHY specific guidance below.
If the youth stays in the emergency shelter, the youth would be entered into the shelter project using the Entry/Exit shelter workflow along with the RHY specific guidance below.
If a youth initially comes in contact with the program to only receive preventative services, but afterwards enters a shelter program, the youth should be entered into BCP Prevention during the date range in which they are only receiving prevention services, and then be exited out of prevention and entered into BCP-Emergency Shelter.
If the youth leaves the shelter but still receives preventative services, the youth should be exited out of emergency shelter and the preventive services should be recorded as After Care.
For clients that move on the same day from the prevention program to the shelter (i.e., require overnight sheltering) recording them only in the shelter project is acceptable.

Understanding Households for RHY

All HMIS systems place individual clients in households. A household may be a single person household (i.e., an unaccompanied youth) or a household with multiple persons (i.e., household of a parenting youth and child or children). Where two or more youth under age 18 present at a project together without children, each youth should be entered in their own household. In this way, all elements required to be collected for youth by RHY grantees should be visible for data collection in HMIS as each youth is their own Head of Household.

RHY Specific Data Elements

In addition to the HMIS Core Data Elements, RHY grantees are required to collect the following data elements.

BCP Shelter RHY funded Services

RHY funded services are recorded under the Program Enrollment.

Recording RHY BCP Exits

Shelter Exits

For BCP Emergency Shelter, the exit date would represent the last day of continuous stay in the shelter before the client transfers to another residential project or otherwise stops residing in the project, regardless of funding source. For example, if a person checked into an overnight shelter on January 30, 2021, stayed overnight and left in the morning, the exit date for that shelter stay would be January 31, 2021. The project exit date should indicate when the youth actually exited the shelter, rather than when the youth reaches the allowable RHY limit under FYSB funds. A change in program status should be noted in the case notes for the client. This will allow for a more accurate account for how long the youth remains in care and the destination outcomes. (The RHY Act allows youth to receive up to 21 days of emergency shelter through BCP programs. Alternative funds may be used to support the youth after the limit of FYSB funding has been reached.)

Recording RHY BCP Prevention Exits

For BCP Homelessness Prevention, the exit date should represent the last day a service was provided. The exit date should coincide with the date the client is no longer considered a project participant. Projects must have a clear and consistently applied procedure for determining when a client who is receiving services is no longer considered a client. For example, if a youth is dropping in regularly to connect with a worker and receive advice/support as part of an ongoing effort to prevent their homelessness, the last date of service is the date of the last client contact or when the worker is able to close the case. If a client uses a service for just one day (i.e., starts and stops before midnight of same day), then the Project Exit Date may be the same as the Project Start Date.

Related Resource

RHY CSV Export Report and Instructions