Contents

Background    
PATH Annual Report    
Additional PATH Resources    
HMIS Project Setup    
PATH Definitions    
PATH Data Collection Requirements    
PATH-Funded Services and Referrals    
PATH Project Data Collection Overview    
PATH Project Performance Impact on CoC Performance    
 

Background

Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness (PATH) is a federally funded program that gives assistance to individuals who are homeless or are at risk of homelessness and have a serious mental illness. PATH funding is distributed to States/Territories who contract with local public or nonprofit organizations to fund a variety of services to homeless individuals. 
PATH Program participation in HMIS creates client care coordination and assists with the generation of the PATH Annual Report, in addition to other benefits to clients and PATH Program grantees

 

PATH Annual Report

Organizations that receive PATH funding are required to submit annual PATH data reports through the PATH Data Exchange (PDX). There is an assigned State PATH Contact (SPC) that can be reached out to for questions related to data reports and PDX functionality. The report will detail how grant funds were used and expended in accordance with federal grant requirements. PATH annual reports must be made available to the public in order for states and territories to receive funding. 

 

The PATH Annual Report does not report on each instance of a service that is provided to a PATH enrolled client, but rather only one instance of each type of service that was provided during the reporting period.  Provider PATH contacts may instruct their PATH providers to collect every instance of service, which is allowable so long as long as the PATH report created by your local HMIS does not return duplicative service data. In other words, all contacts should be recorded in HMIS, regardless of when they occur during the time that a PATH provider is working with a client as long as HMIS is made aware they these will need to be unduplicated later on for the purposes of the PATH Annual Report. 

 

PATH providers should get the PATH data from HMIS, however the funding/budgeting data that is also required for the PATH Annual Report must be collected separately and cannot be retrieved from HMIS. PATH providers must report actual budget values. Contact your State PATH Contact for help with determining how to report the following funding information:
 

In order to get funding for PATH funding, the data collection stages should look like this: 

Additional PATH Resources

For additional assistance, please refer to the following guidance about the PATH Program and its requirements that can be found on the PATH Program page including:

 

PATH Annual Report Manual
State  PATH Contact HMIS Self-Assessment

PATH HMIS Participation Guidance
PATH Data Exchange (PDX)

HMIS Project Setup

There is a difference between a program and a project that will need to be distinguished in order for the set up to be understood. A program is the source of funding that the organization is getting to run its project (e.g. PATH Program funding for ABC Street Outreach project). A project is a piece of an organization which may or may not be funded by HUD or the federal partners, these projects provide services and/or lodging. For data collection purposes, HUD and its federal partners refer to categories of funding within a program as components. 

The PATH Program offers funding for two components:

 

• The Street Outreach component of PATH is used by PATH projects that provide outreach and engagement to those living in places not meant for human habitation. These PATH activities are created to meet the immediate needs of unsheltered homeless persons by connecting them with emergency shelter, housing, and/or critical health services. Persons considered “living in places not meant for human habitation” would be those sleeping on the street, under bridges, in camps, camp grounds, abandoned buildings, structure meant for animals, vehicles and public places. 
• The Supportive Services component is used by PATH projects to provide outreach and engagement to those living in places meant for human habitation. This would include people who are in shelter, and those in doubled up housing or at-risk of homelessness. 

 

A single agency may be funded for both Street Outreach and Supportive Services, this will require separate projects to be set up in HMIS in order to record the different funding activities supported by each component. 

 

PATH Definitions

Due to PATH providers doing street outreach they may face challenges related to HMIS data collection such as, infrequency of contacts, or the time it takes to collect accurate information from a client, and more. The data collection process was created to support PATH projects as relationships between street outreach workers and the client grows. Listed below are several key terms specific to the PATH Program: 
 

 

 

PATH Data Collection Requirements

PATH Projects are required to be in HMIS, and so they are required to collect HMIS Universal Data Elements.  For more information on the PATH Data Elements please refer to the PATH Program HMIS Manual.  In addition to that they must also collect the following data elements: 

 

 

Due to the PATH Project possibly beginning with light engagement, the data standards will vary depending on the relationship stage that the PATH worker and the PATH client/possible client is at. Refer to this chart to understand which data elements would be needed at which points in time: 
 

PATH-Funded Services and Referrals 

PATH-Funded services and referrals are limited the list that is shown here:
 

 
 

 

PATH Project Data Collection Overview

As previously mentioned the type of client-worker relationship will transform over time in the PATH Projects as the rapport improves. Below is an overview of what the engagement will look like on HMIS. 

 

Please note that the only data that must be captured before the Date of Engagement is:

• Project start date
• Contact Date (all contacts from project start/first contact to date of engagement) 
• Some form of name/alias so the street outreach team can identify them on HMIS
   

 

PATH Project Performance Impact on CoC Performance

HMIS is to report back to HUD on the System Performance of the entire CoC. With that in mind the data collected for PATH Projects in HMIS will affect the HUD System Performance Measures that are reported in the following areas: 

• Measure 7a: Successful Placement from Street Outreach 
• Client Universe: Persons in Street Outreach Projects that exited from Street Outreach during the reporting period.