Survey Analysis
As you tally up the responses to each survey, it’s important that you look for trends as well as disparities. For example, did frontline staff have very different answers than higher level staff on certain questions? Were staff perceptions in tune with the realities expressed by consumers?
Here are some of the answers you should be examining particularly closely to ensure you accurately assess your community’s overall performance and HEARTH readiness.
Community Leader and Executive Director Survey
Question #2
Funding and service decisions in our community are prioritized to focus on permanent solutions to homelessness.
Look at the answers to this question carefully, as they will reflect where people believe your community is in terms of buying into a rapid re-housing or permanent housing-focused model. A lot of disagreement with this question may mean that some additional focus on change management is in order. Organizational Change: Adopting a Housing First Approach (http://www.endhomelessness.org/content/article/detail/2489) might be a helpful resource in helping your community learn to embrace this model.
Question #10
Our system is set up so that service providers and programs with the best performance are rewarded and praised.
Question #12
Providers are held accountable for their outcomes.
Performance should be the main factor in judging funding worthiness of all homeless service providers. To aid in the process of accurate performance measurement, each organization should develop benchmarks that reflect specific and measurable items that will help each organization achieve the main goals of the HEARTH Act. If benchmarks are not in place or not being monitored, or if frontline staff are unclear on what they are, this is the time to fix that. Beginning to track returns to homelessness, length of stay, and new entries into homelessness is a good place to start. To keep these measures in the forefront of employee’s minds, progress on benchmarks should be reviewed and evaluated consistently. The Columbus/Community Shelter Board performance measurement model (http://www.endhomelessness.org/content/general/detail/3463) is an excellent example of how communities can measure and, if necessary, work to improve provider performance.
Question #23
The community has been successful engaging landlords and finding new ones that are amenable to housing formerly homeless persons.
Having a strong relationship with community landlords in the public and private sectors is perhaps the most important element in a successful rapid re-housing program. Providing landlord incentives or bonuses (e.g., more money up front for taking formerly homeless tenants, putting on awards ceremonies), being forthright about the kind of support landlords can expect, and, perhaps most importantly, having case workers that can perform frequent check-ins and do effective conflict resolution are all ways to ensure that the tenant-provider-landlord relationship remains a positive and productive one.
Direct Service Provider Staff Survey
Question #7
Consumers are prioritized for housing, financial assistance, and services based on their needs.
Each organization should be using the same assessment tool at intake to accurately determine the needs of each individual that comes into contact with the homelessness assistance system and match them with the correct services. It is important that consumers receive the assistance they need regardless of when or where they come to ask for it. Long waiting lists for entry into a program may be another sign that consumers are not being prioritized or targeted properly. Communities should take a hard look at these types of situations to determine if their current set-up could be improved to help people get into the right programs more quickly. For more on assessment, targeting, and prioritization: http://www.endhomelessness.org/section/_2010conferencepresentations/_makingthedistinction
http://www.endhomelessness.org/content/article/detail/2061
http://www.endhomelessness.org/content/article/detail/1907
Question #9b
Whenever possible, our community employs strategies that prevent people from losing their housing and diverts them away from needing shelter or other housing assistance.
Question #9c
The community has sufficient rapid re-housing resources in place that assist consumers in being re-housed quickly (<45 days) should they become homeless.
Diversion, prevention, and rapid re-housing are proven to prevent, reduce, and end homelessness and will all be eligible activities under the HEARTH Act. As frontline staff assess the needs of and work with their clients, they should take careful note of what resources may have prevented them from entering the system in the first place and share their findings with the rest of the community. If more consumers are eligible for rapid re-housing than are being rapidly re-housed, then its time to consider ways to improve housing search and location services (more on how this might be accomplished can be found here: http://www.endhomelessness.org/content/article/detail/2226). If necessary, communities can decide whether or not they need to increase the permanent housing supply by developing more affordable housing, converting temporary housing units to permanent housing units, creating more transition-in-place opportunities, etc.
Question #10
Please answer the following questions pertaining to your qualifications, training and expertise.
Gauging how confident service providers feel with evidence-based practices and rapid re-housing models will be important in determining training needs moving forward. By providing training on those topics where knowledge may be lacking, communities can build provider confidence in their ability to meet consumers’ needs. Determining areas that need improvement may also be important when making decisions in the future on how to spend the new training money that will come with the HEARTH Act (or any training funds that are currently available).
Question #16
As a community, we routinely reflect on data from either our HMIS or other case management software to understand who we are serving and not serving well and make adjustments to our service delivery.
Providers should be aware of and interested in the outcomes of the homeless system as reflected through HMIS data. HMIS data can be particularly illuminating in verifying if outcomes have improved, and is invaluable in helping communities gain a clear understanding of who is entering their homeless system. Data should also be assessed in terms of its accuracy and its relevance; beyond having a system that measures the required outcomes, communities should be discussing how to make their data work best for them.
Consumer Survey
Question #21
What could have prevented consumers from becoming homeless?
Question #10
What services did consumers need to get permanent housing?
Question #4
What services do consumers need to keep their housing?
Question #11
What services were consumers offered to help them get housing?
These questions can be extremely helpful in determining whether or not the current set-up of your homeless system is (a) truly preventing people from becoming homeless and (b) meeting the needs of consumers effectively. If there is a mismatch between what consumers say are the services they need and what they are receiving, communities should research why this is the case. A consumer board or more consumer representation within your system may prevent this from happening in the future. If the system is unwilling or unable to meet consumers where they are at, this is cause to consider some serious system restructuring. If specific service needs are identified in every stage (prevention permanent housing, maintaining housing), this could mean that entry into your system to be re-examined to make these services available earlier at the “front door” of the system. Mainstream providers should be pulled into these conversations to determine if their services can be used to prevent individuals and families from becoming homeless.
Question #16
I felt that the services I received while homeless were focused on helping me get into permanent housing as quickly as possible.
All providers who work with people experiencing homeless should work together to devise a service plan that has the ultimate goal of housing stabilization for clients. Without this coordination and focus, consumers may receive duplicate services or may remain in the homeless system longer than absolutely necessary.
Question #22
Do you think that you may become homeless in the future?
If a large portion of survey takers feel like they may fall into homelessness again, it’s important to find out why and address these issues. For example, if consumers are worried they may lose their housing because they don’t have enough money for their rent, income and benefit support services may need to be increased. Reducing recidivism and ensuring housing stabilization are crucial to improving consumer quality of life and ending homelessness.
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