Documentation – Temporary Shelter and Crisis Interventions Inventory

September 12, 2024

Documentation for the Temporary Shelter and Crisis Interventions Inventory Dashboard, which n includes the report’s purpose, data source, reporting frequency, key terms, and metrics.

Back to top

Purpose

This dashboard provides current capacity and occupancy numbers at HSH shelter and crisis intervention sites.


Back to top

Data Source

Data in these dashboards is sourced from two HSH databases:

The Online Navigation and Entry (ONE) System, a HUD-compliant Homeless Management Information System (HMIS).
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.


Back to top

Reporting Frequency

The dashboard refreshes Monday – Friday at 10 AM.


Back to top

Data Notes

  • Many unoccupied units are not immediately available for placement. At this time, our data system has limited ability to distinguish the status of vacant beds in greater detail. Reasons why beds or units may not be immediately available for placement include:
    • An individual unit may need to undergo repair or maintenance.
    • Referrals may be limited by provider capacity.
    • Beds might be temporarily held to support other initiatives, such as the demobilization or temporary closure of another program.
  • Some beds, like the Emergency Shelter (Care Not Cash) beds referenced in the dashboard, are held for referrals from specific program partners or have special eligibility criteria and must remain vacant until appropriate referrals are available.
  • For programs managing data in the ONE System, the occupancy status of a given bed or unit cannot be tracked. Occupancy in these programs is estimated based on the number of guests or households enrolled in a program. These programs may occasionally appear to have an occupancy greater than the capacity due to:
    • Data quality issues in which guests are not exited from programs in a timely fashion; 
      adult couples enrolled in a program separately but occupying a single bed; or 
    • Data quality issues in which guests within the same household are not appropriately linked in the ONE system and appear to represent multiple households. 
    • HSH is working with providers to minimize data quality issues.
  • Historic capacity and occupancy data is not available.

Back to top

Key Terms

Site Types: For definitions of site types, see the listing below the dashboard on the Temporary Shelter and Crisis Interventions webpage.

Congregate/Non-Congregate Sites:

  • Congregate programs serve guests in a common space with more than 5 beds.
  • Non-congregate programs have private units. Some non-congregate programs can serve households with more than one person in a single unit. 
  • Semi-congregate programs can serve multiple households in a single unit with 2 to 5 beds. Some units in semi-congregate programs may be private but are counted as semi-congregate due to the site-level classification. 
PopulationDefinition
AdultPrograms open to adult households without children under 18.
FamilyPrograms open to households with at least one adult and at least one child under 18, as well as households with at least one pregnant person.
Young adultsPrograms open to unaccompanied young adults. Most programs are for young adults ages 18 to 24, but some programs serve people up to the age of 27.
MinorsPrograms open to unaccompanied minors under 18.

Population: Identifies programs by the population they serve.


Back to top

Metrics

MetricDefinition
Total GuestsThe total number of people staying in shelter and crisis intervention programs as of the report date. This number may vary from occupancy numbers, which reflect actual beds and units occupied. In certain circumstances, multiple individuals can occupy one bed or one unit.
Capacity

The number of beds or units in the system at the time of the report. Capacity of a program can vary over time based on a number of factors, including changes to COVID-19 spacing guidelines.

Congregate and semi-congregate settings: capacity represents beds.

Non-congregate settings: capacity represents units.  

Occupancy

The total number of beds or units occupied by guests on the date of the report.

Congregate and semi-congregate settings: occupancy reflects the number of beds occupied by at least one guest. For ONE System data, each guest is assumed to represent one occupied bed.

Non-congregate settings: occupancy reflects the number of units occupied by at least one person. For example, a non-congregate family shelter unit will be counted with an occupancy of one if the unit is occupied, whether that unit is occupied by a single pregnant person or a family of four. For ONE System data, each household is assumed to represent one occupied unit.

Occupancy Rate

The occupancy divided by the capacity, not the count of total guests divided by the capacity.

In certain circumstances, family congregate shelters may have limits on both the total number of individual guests that can be served and the total number of families that can be served. In these cases, programs that have some vacant beds but have reached the maximum number of families they can serve will be calculated at a 100% occupancy rate.


Back to top

Questions?

 

Return to the Shelter and Crisis Interventions Inventory Dashboard

Back to top