Housing Interventions

Join us for our upcoming office hours designed for county behavioral health housing staff who interface with the federal HUD HMIS data system and the corresponding

Continuums of Care (CoC) HMIS leads. The sessions will open with a presentation covering recent updates to the approved HMIS entry process for assisted living placements — providing an opportunity to walk through the changes and address any questions you may have. 

Please send HMIS questions to [email protected].

These webinars were designed for county behavioral health housing staff who interface with the federal HUD HMIS data system and the corresponding Continuums of Care (CoC) HMIS lead.

Recordings and materials are organized by HMIS vendor—please review the session specific to your county.

Universal materials:

• HMIS Project Set-up Instructions (PDF)
• Appendix B Project Setup Template
• BHSA HMIS Project Build Webinar

Please send HMIS questions to [email protected].

In partnership with housing consultants Homebase and Abt, CalMHSA hosted a series of on-demand webinars designed to assist county behavioral health teams with new requirements from the Behavioral Health Services Act. Sponsored by the Department of Health Care Services, these webinars supported counties with practical strategies, models for partnership, and approaches for best meeting their communities’ needs.

Webinar on Legal Permissions for Data Sharing Between County Behavioral Health and Continuums’ of Care HMIS

This webinar covers the legal basis for system-level housing data sharing for care coordination purposes without individual client permission.

Counties will need to pull data from Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS) and share housing-specific information back in order to ensure Behavioral Health Services Act (BHSA) funds support people experiencing homelessness or chronic homelessness. This data sharing will remain essential for accurate reporting and fiscal tracking, and will help improve client care and expand access to housing resources.

The webinar reviews the Notice of Privacy Practices and other guidance Continuums of Care (COCs) will need to allow this sharing, and will explain the role of the new ASCMI form in enabling data exchange.

Intended audience: County behavioral health leadership, housing managers and staff, county counsel and staff, and HMIS leads.

Other Resources

Policy Clarification Memo: Data Sharing Between Continuums of Care and Member Counties for Care Coordination

This webinar covers strategies for inquiring about an individual’s homelessness history and documenting it in a way that aligns with HUD and HMIS standards, including ways to capture chronic homelessness accurately.

Gathering housing status data on clients is critical — for documenting that BHSA funds are being spent on people who qualify, for showing the work being done to assist people struggling with housing stability, and most importantly, for helping people access housing resources.

The webinar features:

• Experts from Homebase explaining a tool designed to align with BHSA definitions around chronic homelessness and structured for adaptation to EHR systems
• Trauma-informed approaches to discussing housing experiences
• Strategies for reducing stigma during information gathering
• Documentation best practices
• Common implementation challenges

Intended audience: County Behavioral Health and contracted provider staff including outreach workers, access staff, case managers and supervisors