Sue has been living in her car for 3 nights before arriving here and never been homeless before.  For the purposes of HMIS data collection, what is her Total Number of Months Homeless?


“Total number of months homeless on the street, in Emergency Shelter (ES) or a Safe Haven (SH) in the past three years” is part 5 of HUD HMIS data element 3.917A. The HUD data manual says, “Record the total number of months homeless the client has been on the streets, in ES or SH in the past three years. (The number of cumulative, but not necessarily consecutive months spent with homeless status)”.  The data manual goes on to explain that acceptable responses are either:

  1. One month (this is the first month) - this is the first month in the past three years that your client has resided on the streets, in ES or in SH
  2. Two to 12 months - count the total number of months the client indicates they have been on the streets, ES, or SH in the past three years. If the client has been on the streets, ES, or SH since January and it is now March, the cumulative total would be 3 months (January = 1, February = 2, and March = 3). If they were also homeless for a month back in October, the cumulative total would then be 4 months.  
  3. More than 12 months - following the same logic as in the response above, count the total number of months the client indicates they have been on the streets in the past three years.  If more than 12, this is your answer.

In the example above, Sue was homeless one month as this is her first month homeless.  If a person has been homeless for any length of time in the past three years you will have an answer to this question.