Background

HUD defines a disabling condition as a physical, mental, or emotional impairment, including an impairment caused by alcohol or drug abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder, or brain injury that:

1. Is expected to be long-continuing or of indefinite duration;

2. Substantially impedes the individual's ability to live independently; and

3. Could be improved by the provision of more suitable housing conditions

Additionally, if the client is a veteran who is disabled by an injury or illness that was incurred or aggravated during active military service and whose disability meets the disability definition defined in Section 223 of the social security act, they should be identified as having a disabling condition.

Disabling Condition Field

Project Type Applicability: All Programs - All Components
Data Collected About: All Clients
Collection Point: Project Start
Screens in HMIS: Enrollment Screen

Tips For Capturing This Data Accurately: This element records clients' disabling conditions and helps to determine clients' chronic homeless status. HUD provides definitions for 6 categories of disabling conditions. Disabling conditions vary in their applicability to HUD's definition of a disability.

An answer of "Yes" to PSDEs 4.06 Developmental Disability and 4.08 HIV/AIDS automatically qualify the client for an answer of "Yes" to Data Element 3.08 Disabling Condition.
If the client answers "Yes" to any of the following PSDEs and "Yes" to the follow up question asking if the client expects the condition to be of long continuing or indefinite duration, the client qualifies for an answer of "Yes" to Data Element 3.08 Disabling Condition: 4.05 Physical Disability 4.07 Chronic Health Condition 4.09 Mental Health Problem 4.10 Substance Abuse
If the client is a veteran who was disabled by an injury or illness that occurred or aggravated during active military service, and meets the disability definition defined in Section 223 of the Social Security Act, they should be identified as having a disabling condition.
If a client collects Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Social Security Disability Income (SSDI), VA Service-Connected Disability Compensation or VA Non-Service Connected Disability Pension, then they can be considered as having a disabling condition.

Updating Disabling Condition

There will be times that you will need to update the client’s disabling condition. Here are two scenarios that will help you decide the best process for the update.

Scenario #1 - The client always had a disabling condition but it wasn’t noted in their enrollment. In this case, you should update the client’s enrollment screen with the disabling condition. Set the Disabling Condition to “Yes” then select one of the categories of disabling conditions.

Scenario #2 - The client may have a change in their disabling condition status that was not present at the time of enrollment. In this case, you will need to do a Status Assessment which will track the change to the disabling condition for the client. For more information on assessments, please refer to the following knowledge base article Status and Annual Assessments

Common Data Entry Errors

The following are examples of the most common data entry errors with the Disabling Condition Field:

Scenario #1 - ‘Yes’ to Disabling Condition But ‘No’ to disability types. Clients that have a ‘Yes’ response to the Disabling Condition field must have a ‘Yes’ response to at least one of the specific conditions and specified as a Long Term disability

Scenario #2 - ‘No’ to Disabling Condition But ‘Yes’ to one of the disability types In instances where a disability is indicated and specified as ‘Yes’ to being Long Term, the main Disabling Condition field must also be indicated as ‘Yes’ If the disability is indicated and specified as ‘No’ to being Long Term, the main Disabling Condition field must also be indicated as ‘No’

Exceptions for when Long Term does not need to be indicated occur when either the Developmental Disability or HIV - AIDS field are specified as ‘Yes.’