The Department of Commerce seeks applications from organizations interested in providing diversion services to people at risk of homelessness or recently homeless in their communities. Services must be prioritized to communities with a demonstrated disproportionate representation in homelessness and housing instability. Services must be low-barrier, trauma-informed and culturally responsive. Funding will not exceed $1.275 million, and Commerce expects to fund between 8-10 contracts. Responses are due November 27. Learn more…
Author Archives: Graham Parrington
Instead of tweaking individual cells in your data set, make adjustments to a whole table, row or column. Which spreadsheet would you prefer to work with? à Table 1: Before Formatting Fun …
No dataset is perfect, but good data helps improve the good work already being done to help people experiencing homelessness across Washington. Data is important, and there is a report for that. It is the Data Quality Report (DQR). What is the DQR? The DQR reviews data quality for many HMIS data elements and helps us understand how our programs and projects are doing with data quality. For an overview…
The power of data filters is that they can help you find information quickly and increase efficiency. Hours of slowly scrolling a large dataset for a certain piece of information can be replaced by a few clicks. What is a Filter? A filter finds and displays all cell values that match a certain criterion. The data in your spreadsheet can be filtered by text, number or color. How to turn…
If you are entering data for a Street Outreach project or other service projects, you would also have recorded each contact you make with clients in a little section called the Current Living Situation. Once all this data is collected, how and where would you access them? Currently, there aren’t any reports within HMIS built specifically for Current Living Situation, but there is a quick workaround using the Program Details…
Have you ever needed a quick count of clients or wondered what their average age is? The average age and more information can be found easily on the Excel Status Bar if properly set up. Set your Status Bar You can find the Status Bar at the bottom of the Excel Spreadsheet; see the orange rectangle below. Right-click on the Status Bar to bring up the ‘Customize Status Bar’ window.…
In Excel, if you write a formula in a cell, it is common for it to contain a cell reference, which means the formula points to a value in one or more other cells. In the example below, the formula in cell E2 references cells B2, C2 and D2. It determines the total number of phone cards requested during the quarter by adding together the requests in April (B2), May…
Dates can be tricky to deal with in Excel. That said, since you need to track when certain things happened in HMIS, it’s helpful to learn how to deal with some of the date functions in Excel in the course of tracking things. For this post, though, we’re just going to learn how to compare a date to today. Let’s say you have 10 active clients, and you are wondering…
The Emergency Broadband Benefit will provide a discount of up to $50 per month towards broadband service for eligible households and up to $75 per month for households on Tribal lands. Eligible households can also receive a one-time discount of up to $100 to purchase a laptop, desktop computer, or tablet from participating providers if they contribute $10-$50 toward the purchase price. The Emergency Broadband Benefit is limited to one…
The report found that between 2019 and 2020, homelessness increased significantly among unsheltered populations and people experiencing chronic homelessness. “The findings of the 2020 AHAR Part 1 Report are very troubling, even before you consider what COVID-19 has done to make the homelessness crisis worse,” said Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Marcia L. Fudge. “Thanks to President Biden’s leadership, we are once again putting Housing First to end this…