Objectives

To determine if the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) monitors data on the State’s homeless population to better understand the nature and scope of homelessness across the State; and to determine if OTDA’s programs are using all available data to best address the needs of those experiencing or at risk of homelessness. The audit covered the period from January 2018 through July 2024.

About the Program

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) 2023 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report to the U.S. Congress, New York State had the second largest population of people experiencing homelessness in the United States, with 103,200 homeless individuals. Further, New York State had the largest absolute increase in homelessness between 2022 and 2023 (29,022 additional people).

OTDA supervises homeless shelters and related programs through 58 local departments of social services (Local Districts). OTDA’s Division of Housing and Refugee Services administers an array of programs to address homelessness in the State, including homelessness prevention, the construction of housing, and programs that provide essential services to stabilize homeless persons’ housing situations and increase their levels of self-sufficiency. OTDA has estimated annual homeless shelter costs as ranging from $2–2.2 billion for the calendar years within our audit scope.

Twice a year, Local Districts are required to submit Homeless Services Outcome Reports to OTDA. While these reports provide aggregate data to OTDA, Local Districts typically also collect and submit client-level data on the populations they serve to a computer system compliant with HUD’s Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) Data Standards, which establish guidelines for the type of information organizations must collect on their homeless populations. In New York, 24 federally funded regional or local planning bodies—Continuums of Care (CoCs)—coordinate housing and services funding for homeless families and individuals. These CoCs control access to the HMIS-compliant systems but are not required to share this data with OTDA or provide open access to the Local Districts that submit this data. OTDA encourages Local Districts to establish a relationship with their CoCs to track and access data in their respective HMISs.

Key Findings

OTDA does not have access to the client-level data collected in the various HMISs—data that could be analyzed and used to help identify the root causes of homelessness, gauge progress toward achieving permanent housing, and better determine what programs are used or needed by the homeless population. OTDA asserts that it has no oversight of the HMIS data controlled by the CoCs but, seeing the value of this data, has attempted to obtain it through its data warehouse initiative. However, OTDA has acquired permission to access the data from only seven of 24 CoCs, which represent approximately 7% of the State’s homeless population based on HUD’s point-in-time count. Without access to this data, OTDA cannot appropriately assess the causes of homelessness throughout the State, as well as look for patterns, trends, emerging issues, increases or decreases in need for particular services, or issues of a specific Local District or region of the State—nor can OTDA evaluate Local Districts’ overall performance in addressing client homelessness.

Methods of recording homeless data vary throughout the State at the Local Districts. Furthermore, analysis of all 24 CoCs found that of the 579 shelters listed by OTDA, 174 (30%) are not entering any data into an HMIS. Therefore, some of the reports received by OTDA containing the aggregate data do not include data from all shelters.

Finally, we surveyed all 58 Local Districts. Of the 54 Local Districts that responded, 36 stated that HMIS information could assist in getting clients into supportive housing/independent living, while 13 Local Districts are actively using HMIS data to help clients into housing and out of homeless shelters. Some of these Local Districts use HMIS data to understand local trends, track clients’ times and locations in emergency housing, and identify gaps in services and needs of the homeless population to assist in resource management and ensure equity in the application of resources for homeless individuals at the client level. The remaining five Local Districts stated they do not utilize data from an HMIS, including one Local District that did not have access to an HMIS due to the costs associated with the system and its constrained budget.

Key Recommendations

• Take steps to obtain access to homeless client-level data for OTDA and Local Districts.
• Analyze homeless client-level data to help monitor and manage the statewide homeless shelter system, the services it provides, and the outcomes of those services.
• Pursue a comprehensive data warehouse as stated in the initial goals of the New York State Data Warehouse Environment (NYSHADE) initiative.
• Survey Local Districts to determine best practices for managing client-level data and employ these strategies statewide where appropriate.