Homeless Management Information System

Our System

A Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) is a local information technology system used to collect data from service providers serving individuals or households experiencing or at risk of homelessness. Housing Forward provides HMIS access, training and technical support to all partners serving our unhoused neighbors.

Become an HMIS Participant

New Agencies

If your agency would like to begin entering data into HMIS, please watch this short video to learn more about HMIS. To begin the HMIS onboarding process, please complete this form.

New Users

If your agency already enters data into HMIS, please have your HMIS Security Officer submit an HMIS New User Request Form and to begin the New User Training process.

We ask that agencies support new users in setting aside enough focused and uninterrupted time to concentrate fully on their HMIS training content, activities, and practice work – which we estimate will take about 6 to 8 hours total for most new users to complete.

Keep in mind, however, that it will likely take several business days to become a live site user, as some parts of the training process rely upon email communication back and forth between the new user and the Helpdesk.

If your agency would like to begin entering data into HMIS, please contact Freda Nelms, Director of Data Management & Reporting, at freda.nelms@housingforwardntx.org to begin the HMIS onboarding process.

HMIS Office Hours

Monthly Office Hours are focused on data quality topics and offers the opportunity for end-users to ask specific questions. Each session is focused on specific topics to common issues we see in the help desk and within the data. In January we will begin a series on understanding the Universal Data Elements (UDE), how to ask the question in a way the client understands, and how to record the data in HMIS.