HMIS Newsletter: November 2025

Table of Contents

• Announcements
• 2024 LSA and SPM Reporting is Underway!
• December Feature Releases  
• VI-SPDAT Facilitation Guides 
• Reminders from our HelpDesk Team
• Upcoming events 
• Bitfocus is hiring   

Announcements

Don't Forget! New HMIS Forms Are Ready for Use 

It's time to switch! Kindly replace all of your existing HMIS paper forms with the new, required forms located on the  Napa Bitfocus website. Need the Standard Forms? The 2026 Standard HMIS Forms are included below. Looking for Custom Forms? Visit the  Napa Bitfocus website and click on the Forms Tab to view them.

2026 Standard HMIS Forms - Updated 10/1/25

Word versions of these forms may be requested if necessary

Head of Household (HoH) & Adult Forms

1. HoH & Adult Client Profile
2. Adult Program Enrollment
3. Adult Current Living Situation Assessment 
4. Adult Status Update/Annual Assessment
5. Adult Program Exit 

Child Forms

1. Child Client Profile 
2. Child Program Enrollment 
3. Child Status Update/Annual Assessment 
4. Child Program Exit 

2024 LSA and SPM Reporting is Underway! 

2025 federal reporting season is here! We have already begun preparing for two of HUD’s major CoC reports: the Longitudinal Systems Analysis (LSA) and System Performance Measures (SPM).  

HUD’s Longitudinal Systems Analysis (LSA) is a report submitted to HUD annually that includes a complex analysis across key projects participating in the Continuum of Care (CoC) Homelessness Management Information System (HMIS). The LSA replaced the Annual Homeless Assessment Report’s (AHAR) data component in the 2018 reporting year.    

HUD’s System Performance Measures (SPM) focus on evaluating local homeless responses as a coordinated system of homeless assistance options. This data is reported to HUD annually and includes key indicators of a high performing system including length of time homeless, exits to permanent housing, returns to homelessness, and more.     

What Can Your Agency Do to Prepare for LSA and System Performance Measures?    

The Bitfocus team may reach out to verify or correct data about your program and/or clients. Please look out for those emails and respond promptly. We truly appreciate all of the hard work your community does to maintain data that is complete, accurate, and timely!   

You can review the data by doing the following:  

1. Run the [HUDX-225] HMIS Data Quality Report for the period 10/1/24 to 9/30/25 (you'll find this report in the Clarity Human Services Report Library under HUD Reports). Correct records with errors, paying special attention to any element that shows over a 5% error rate (remember, clicking on a number will give you a list of clients being counted in that number). Want more information on what gets counted in this report? Check out our Help Center article: [HUDX-225] HMIS Data Quality Report   

2. Run the [GNRL-106] Program Roster for the period 10/1/24 to 9/30/25 (this report is under Program Based Reports) and make sure household groups are correct (households are separated by bold lines. Clients not separated by lines are grouped together in a household). If clients are grouped together incorrectly, contact the Helpdesk to get them corrected. Some measures only count heads of household, so it's important that households be configured correctly!  Check out our Help Center article: [GNRL-106] Program Roster 

• Date of Birth: Some measures only count adults, so it's important that dates of birth be as accurate as possible.   

• Housing Move-in Date: Make sure this date is on or between the client’s project start and exit dates, otherwise it will look like clients were never housed by your project!   

• Income and Non-Cash Benefits: Be sure these are/were updated before client exit. Increase in income/benefits is one of the areas in which communities are measured.   

• Living Situation (including prior residence and length of time homeless): Make sure these fields are as complete as possible with no "Client doesn’t know," "Client Prefers not to Answer," or "Data not collected" values when possible. These elements impact measures around entries from homelessness.   

• Exit Destination: Avoid choosing "Client doesn’t know," " Client Prefers not to Answer," or "Data not collected" values whenever possible. This element impacts measures around returns to homelessness.   

• Review Bed Inventories and Utilization rates for accuracy. Ensure an accurate number of beds and units are listed throughout the year for your shelter and housing programs. Utilization rates should be between 90-105%. For Night-by-night (NbN) Shelters, please resolve any missing exits or abandoned enrollments.  

Thanks in advance for your partnership in making sure that our community’s data is as accurate as possible.   

 
What Else Should You Know About LSA and SPM Preparation?    

The best people to review the data are program managers and key staff who work in the programs. There is overlap with the LSA and SPM timeline and relevant data. Your work on this will benefit both reports, and more broadly, your CoC.    

Feature Releases: December 2025 Clarity HMIS Updates  

What Else Should You Know About LSA and SPM Preparation?    

• Training Sites Release: Monday, November 17, 2025
• Production Site Release: Monday, December 1, 2025

FY26 Data Standards Updates:  

• FY26 VA Enrollment & Mental Health Screen: You will see updates to the FY26 VA Enrollment Screen and the V10 Mental Health Consultation process. These changes will be made by your System Administrators.  

Clarity Interface Enhancements:

These updates are only available in the new Clarity Interface.

• Outgoing Referrals Tab: With this update, users with Referrals tab access can view and manage their agency’s outgoing referrals using color-coded icons.  
• Snooze Referral Tab: For a cleaner Coordinated Entry workflow, you can now manage temporarily set-aside clients in the dedicated Snoozed Tab in the new interface.
• Signature Field Type: For easier documentation, the Signature Field is now available on customizable screens in the new interface, eliminating paper trails and saving your team valuable time. 
  
  

Reporting Updates

The system now features improved Unsheltered Point-in-Time reporting with a new Looker model, validates that a household member's Enrollment CoC matches the Head of Household's for data accuracy, and includes updates to Inventory field and Bed Identifiers.

• [HUDX-230-(AD)] Shelter Count PIT: We're making compliance reporting simpler! Our new Unsheltered Point-in-Time Integration makes it easy to use Survey123 to collect Unsheltered PIT data and import it to your Clarity system. Then view it through the Outreach map layers, a new Looker model, and run a single PIT report for Sheltered and Unsheltered data.  
• Data Import Tool: New updates to DIT validation make it easier to identify data quality errors before completing your import.  
• Inventory: For inventory users, updates around unit configuration, unit editing, and completing screens have been rolled out. 

For more information, check out the release details here.

New VI-SPDAT Facilitation Guides

Check out our New VI-SPDAT Facilitations Guides Resources. Also available on our Bitfocus Napa website here. 

• VI-SPDAT for Single Adults Facilitation Guide - New
• Napa County VI-SPDAT for Single Adults Facilitation Guide - New
• VI-SPDAT Training Survey - New
• VI-SPDAT Recorded Training July 2025 🎦- New
• Explaining the VI-SPDAT, CE and Building Rapport Recorded Training 🎦 New
• VI-SPDAT for Families Training Survey - New
• VI-SPDAT for Families Facilitation Guide - New
• VI-SPDAT for Families Recorded Training - 🎦 New

Reminders from our Help Desk Team

When reporting issues with the Clarity Canned reports please be sure to include: 

• Name of the Report 

• Parameters used to run the report (Name of the agency, program, time frame, etc.) 

Personally Identifiable Information (PII) Reminder - Client Confidentiality/Privacy: 

• As part of our ongoing efforts to maintain the confidentiality of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) (Ex. name, SSN, DOB, etc.) we kindly remind you to use only the Clarity Unique Identifier (UID) when submitting any requests/emails/chats/tickets/reports/unsecured files, etc. to our HelpDesk. The UID can be found on the client's profile screen within our system. 

• Additionally, please ensure to block out PII from any screenshots, reports, or files you send to us. 

• Using the UID instead of personal information helps us ensure your data remains secure and protected. 

Support Tip: Please Create a New Ticket for Each New Request 

To help us serve you better and ensure each support need is easy to track and review later, we kindly ask that you create a new ticket for each new issue or question, rather than replying to an old or resolved ticket. 

How to create a new ticket: 

• Simply send a new email to [insert community support email address]. 

• This helps our team respond more efficiently and ensures your request gets the attention it deserves. 

Upcoming Events

Napa CoC General Meeting  | December 4, 2025 at 2:30p-4p Register here

Monthly CoC meeting run by Napa County on the first Thursday of every month. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.Description

Bitfocus is Hiring

Join our Team!

• Visit bitfocus.com | Jobs | About | Bitfocus  

• Work with us at Bitfocus! Join a team committed to innovation, collaboration, and real-world impact in human services.  

Questions?

Your HMIS Administrators are happy to help.

Phone: 888-505-1832

Email: napa@bitfocus.com