HUD Resources

Point-in-Time (PIT) and Housing Inventory Chart (HIC)

The Point-in-Time (PIT) Count and Housing Inventory Count (HIC) are annual counts conducted by Continuums of Care (CoCs) to provide a snapshot of homelessness and available housing resources in the community.

Point-in-Time (PIT) Count

The PIT Count counts people experiencing homelessness on a specific night. This includes people staying in emergency shelters, transitional housing, safe havens, and places not meant for human habitation.

Housing Inventory Count (HIC)

The HIC counts the beds and housing units available to people experiencing or at risk of homelessness. This includes emergency shelter, transitional housing, rapid rehousing, permanent supportive housing, and other housing programs.

Why Are They Important?

PIT and HIC data help CoCs:

Understand the scope of homelessness in their community
Identify housing needs and gaps
Plan and evaluate homeless services
Support funding applications and HUD reporting
Understand available housing capacity

How Does HMIS Fit In?

HMIS data is an important source for PIT and HIC reporting. Accurate and complete HMIS data help ensure the CoC has reliable information about people experiencing homelessness, program participation, and available housing resources. Accurate HMIS data helps create a clearer picture of both homelessness and the resources available to address it.

Looking for resources specific to your state? Click the links below.

New Hampshire

NH PIT/HIC Resources

Vermont

HUD System Performance Measures

he System Performance Measures are set of HMIS reports that evaluate the homeless services system, and are designed to

Help Continuum of Care (CoC) communities understand how their system is functioning.
Help CoC's determine if they have the right combination of strategies and resources.
Gauge a CoC's progress toward the goal of ending homelessness.

These consist of 7 measures that communities can use to help track their progress toward making homelessness rare, brief, and non-reoccurring. Currently, community progress on these measures is included as a scored component in the CoC Program NOFO (Notice of Funding Opportunity) competition. All but Measure 4 include clients in HMIS based on program type and regardless of funding.

Measure 1: Length of Time Homelessness:

Metric 1a: This metric uses actual time in Emergency Shelter and Safe Haven (and includes Transitional Housing in part of the metric) to determine the median and average length of stay for clients served during the reporting year.

Metric 1b: This metric builds on Metric 1a, but adds the “Approximate date homelessness started” response to the beginning of each client’s stays before calculating the average and median.

Measure 2: Returns to Homelessness

This measure reports on clients that have returned to homelessness within two years of exiting a permanent housing destination and counts the number of people who re-appear in HMIS in the those two years. It also provides data on returns to homelessness at less than 6months, 6-12 months, 13-24months, and total in 2 years.

Measure 3: Number of Homeless Persons

This measure includes Point in Time Count totals of clients served in Emergency Shelter, Safe Haven, and Transitional Housing (sheltered) as well as Unsheltered clients on the night of the Point-in-Time. It also includes the total unduplicated count of clients served during the reporting year in Emergency Shelter, Safe Haven, and Transitional Housing projects as recorded in HMIS.

Measure 4: Employment and Income Growth

Unlike other measures, this one is limited to only those projects funded through the CoC Program. We look for adult stayers (clients still enrolled, who have been enrolled at least 365 days as of the report end date) who have increased earned income, non-employment income, or total income. We report on the same 3 categories for adult leavers.

Measure 5: First Time Homeless

Metric5a includes clients who entered Emergency Shelter, Safe Haven, or Transitional Housing projects during the reporting year. Clients who did not have an entry in HMIS during the 24 months prior to their entry in the current reporting year are counted as “Newly homeless”. Metric 5b builds on 5a, also including clients entering PH projects during the reporting period.

Measure 7: Metric7a counts successful exits from Street Outreach. This includes exits to permanent destinations and some temporary destinations. (e.g. for Street Outreach, exiting to emergency shelter is considered a positive exit.) Metric 7b1 is the percentage of clients exiting ES, SH, TH, and RRH to permanent housing destinations, as well as clients exiting other permanent housing projects without a housing move-in date. Metric 7b2 looks for retention of permanent housing for clients served in permanent housing projects other than RRH (provided they have a move-in date). Clients still enrolled in the project on the last day of the report period and clients exiting to permanent destinations during the reporting period are counted as successes for this metric. Some destinations result in a client being excluded from this measure entirely (e.g., Deceased).

System Performance Resources

HUD Data Standards

Where do the Data Standards come from?

Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Department of Veteran Affairs (VA)

Why do we have Data Standards?

Standardize data collection across systems
Guides System Administrators, CoCs, and End Users in understanding HMIS and reporting requirements.
Identify required data elements and understand the function and specific use for each federal partner

What is my role as a provider?

Refer to the HMIS Data Standards Manual located on the HUD website
Reach out to your System Administrators with questions
Review trainings and subscribe to the HMIS Newsletter in your state for news and updates

In order to be in compliance with the required data elements, the 2024 HMIS Data Standards went into effect on October 1, 2025.

Resources:

HMIS FY 2026 Federal Data Standards Update Training:

This training is 15 minutes total, please take the time to review and if you have any questions or concerns, please reach out at nhhmis@icalliances.org

Follow this link to complete the google form to receive credit
If you need the password, please reach out to your system administrators.

HUD:

HMIS Data Standards (HUD Exchange website)
- 2026 HMIS Data Dictionary
- 2026 HMIS Data Standards Manual
- Data Collection Requirements for Transition for FY 2026 Data Standards
- FY 2026 Interactive HMIS Data Standards Tool
- Federal Partner Participation

HMIS Federal Reporting Guide and Checklist

Every year, ICA, CoC’s and Providers are responsible for submitting various reports to the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). We get a lot of questions about these reports. What are they? When are they due? Who is responsible for what?

ICA has created a Federal Reporting Guide to help answer these questions. The guide includes a description of all reports, the timeframe for each and a checklist of what needs to be completed. Reports included in this guide are:

Point-in-Time (PIT)
Housing Inventory Count (HIC)
System Performance Measures (SPM)
Longitudinal System Analysis (LSA)
Annual Performance Report (APR)
Emergency Solutions Grant Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report (ESG CAPER)

Resources

HMIS Federal Reporting Guide (PDF)

HUD Homelessness and Chronic Homelessness Definitions and Documentation

HUD's Four Categories of Homelessness

HUD defines four categories under which individuals and families may qualify as homeless:

Literally homeless;
Imminent risk of homelessness;
Homeless under other Federal statues; and
Fleeing/attempting to flee domestic violence.

While people in all four categories are considered to be experiencing homelessness, due to a lack of sufficient resources to serve everyone, eligibility for many projects is determined by which category of homelessness a household is experiencing.

Click HERE for the official HUD definitions of these four categories

(HUD exchange)

Chronic Homelessness Definition

Within the Category 1 literal homelessness, HUD further defines a subgroup of those who are experiencing Chronic Homelessness. Chronic Homelessness is an eligibility requirement for some projects, including most PSH. According to HUD, in order to be considered chronically homeless, one must meet the following criteria:

A "homeless individual with a disability" as defined in the McKinney-Vento Assistance Act, who: Lives in a place not meant for human habitation, a safe haven, or in an emergency shelter, and
- Has been homeless (as described above) for at least 12 months or on at least 4 separate occasions in the last 3 years where the combined occasions must total at least 12 months. Occasions are separated by a break of at least 7 nights.
An individual who has been residing in an institutional care facility for fewer than 90 days and met all of the criteria in paragraph one of this definition before entering that facility; or
A family with an adult head of household (or, if there is no adult in the family, a minor head of household) who meets all of the criteria in paragraphs one or two of this definition, including a family whose composition has fluctuated while the head of household has been homeless.

Click HERE for the official HUD definition of Chronic Homelessness

(HUD exchange)

Chronic Homeless Determination Data Elements

Chronic Homelessness Roadmap

Resources