Documentation – Homelessness Response System Performance Reports

Documentation for the Homelessness Response System Monthly Report, which includes the report’s purpose, data source, reporting frequency, and key terms.

Purpose

These reports monitor San Francisco’s Homelessness Response System and its components. They allow insights into how well the system is achieving its goals and depict performance trends over time. They consolidate key performance figures included on the Homelessness Response System Scorecard and identified in the Home by the Bay strategic plan.

Data Sources

Data in these dashboards are sourced from three systems:

• ONE System: HSH’s Online Navigation and Entry (ONE) System, a HUD-compliant Homeless Management Information System (HMIS).
• BACS Database: A database maintained by Bay Area Community Services (BACS) used to track homelessness prevention programs, including the San Francisco Emergency Rental Assistance Program (SF ERAP) program.
• The SF COVID Placement Tool: a database developed by RTZ Systems and used for bed management of Shelter-in-Place Hotels and some other adult shelters during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Reporting Frequency

Key Terms and Acronyms

Home by the Bay: The Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) developed the Home by the Bay strategic plan and is charged with leading its implementation from July 2023 through June 2028. Home by the Bay strategically aligns the roles and activities of City departments and offices in collaboration with community-based service providers to enhance coordination and collaboration and increase impact in pursuit of racial equity and shared citywide goals. Learn more about Home by the Bay.

Household types:

• Adult: Households without children
• Family: Households with at least one adult and at least one child
• Minor: Households with only children under 18

Youth/Youth households: Households in which all household members are 27 years old or younger.

Housing assessment:  An assessment conducted as part of the Coordinated Entry system to prioritize households in highest need for available housing resources. Households are assigned either Housing Referral Status or Problem Solving Status based on the assessment. See Coordinated Entry | SF.gov for more information.

• FY: Fiscal Year. San Francisco’s Fiscal Year begins on July 1 and ends on June 30.
• FYTD: Fiscal Year to Date.

Metric Definitions

Systemwide Exits from Homelessness

• Number of unique clients exiting homelessness: Unique people who exited homelessness in the fiscal year. The following situations are considered exits from homelessness:
  • Unhoused people who move into HSH permanent housing resources
  • People who exit coordinated entry, street outreach, emergency shelter, or transitional housing to a permanent housing situation; and
  • Unhoused people who receive prevention financial assistance

Data notes:  This measure is aligned with the Home by the Bay goal of supporting 30,000 people to move from homelessness to housing between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2028.

Street Outreach

• Number of unique clients encountered: Unique people who engage with a street outreach team
• Number of unique clients assessed for housing: Unique people who complete coordinated entry assessment with street outreach program staff
• Number of shelter placements by outreach teams: Unique people who enroll in shelter after a referral by a street outreach team.

Data notes: Homeless street outreach is performed by the SFHOT team and special teams focused on residents of Large Vehicles. This data does not include activities by street teams managed by other City departments, including the San Francisco Department of Public Health, the San Francisco Fire Department, or the Department of Emergency Management.

Coordinated Entry

• Number of unique clients assessed for housing: The number of households who were assessed for housing by a Coordinated Entry access point. Generally, only the head of household undergoes an assessment.
• By outcome of housing assessment: Assessments result in an outcome of either “Housing Referral Status” or “Problem Solving Status”. This measure divides the number of clients whose assessment resulted in each outcome by the total number of clients assessed. When a client had multiple assessments in the time period, the result of the latest assessment was used in this calculation.

Problem Solving

• Number of unique households resolved through problem solving: The number of households who received Problem Solving services.
• Type of assistance: Problem solving services can provide funds for a variety of purposes, such as to help households move into rental units or to assist with relocation to live with friends or family in another city. This metric indicates total dollar amount distributed for each type of assistance.

Shelter

• Number of unique clients served by emergency shelter or transitional housing: The number of unique people who stayed in an emergency shelter or transitional housing program for any amount of time. This metric uses data from the ONE System only because shelter stays originally tracked in the SF COVID Placement Tool are now represented in the ONE System.
• Occupancy rate of year-round emergency shelter and transitional housing (HSH-funded): The number of occupied beds or units each day divided by the total number of beds or units in the system each day.

Data notes: Data includes year-round emergency shelter and transitional housing beds and units funded by HSH. This report differs from Shelter and Crisis Interventions which calculates real-time occupancy rate and includes seasonal inventory.

See Temporary Shelter and Crisis Interventions Inventory Documentation for more information about how beds, units, and occupancy are counted.

Housing

• Number of unique households moved in to permanent supportive housing or rapid re-housing: The number of households who move in to permanent supportive housing or rapid re-housing. See definitions at Housing Inventory for more information about housing program types.

Time to move in to housing

• Median number of days between queue placement and move in to HSH housing: Through Coordinated Entry, a household may be assessed and added to the queue for housing in a permanent housing program. This metric considers the number of days between the date a household is added to a housing queue and their move-in to permanent housing within the Homelessness Response System.

Data notes: This data is also reported in the Homelessness Response Scorecard: Time to Move into Housing.