This dashboard has been developed to allow the St. Louis City CoC to ensure that shelter beds are being utilized to their fullest extent and to work toward giving all persons in need equal opportunity to access shelter beds.

Shelter Utilization FAQs

The Shelter Utilization portions of this dashboard provide an overview of the availability and use of beds or units in the facility-based shelters located within the St. Louis City CoC. The dashboard includes all Emergency Shelters and Transitional Housing projects which utilize the HMIS. These sections are generally updated weekly on or before Thursday, with data up through the prior Saturday.

How is this data gathered?

All calculations in this dashboard are based upon information that has been provided to ICA by shelter providers. If shelter providers have concerns that the data ICA has for their project is out of date or inaccurate, they are encouraged to reach out to the helpdesk at mohmis@icalliances.org so it can be updated or corrected.

Why include only HMIS-participating shelters?

ICA, as HMIS Lead Agency, has direct access to daily client data only for shelters which utilize the HMIS. Shelters which do not utilize HMIS do not provide the level of detail necessary to ICA to be included in this dashboard. If shelters wish to learn about participating in the HMIS so that they may be included in this and other reports and dashboards, they are encouraged to reach out to the ICA Missouri Helpdesk at mohmis@icalliances.org.

Where are the voucher-based shelters?

Due to the high level of fluctuation of the number of voucher-based shelter beds available at any given time, they have been excluded from this dashboard.

How can a shelter be over 100%?

Any shelter project can have a utilization rate over 100% in certain circumstances. The most common causes include:

1. the shelter has temporarily added beds to accommodate for larger than usual families,

2. the shelter has beds that are made available only during extreme weather,

3. the shelter has not discharged clients in a timely fashion, or

4. the shelter has expanded capacity but did not notify ICA.

Ensuring that client data is entered in a timely fashion and notifying ICA of changes in project capacity in a timely fashion is important to maintaining the accuracy of this dashboard. Any changes can be sent to the ICA Missouri Helpdesk at mohmis@icalliances.org.

How was the target utilization range defined?

The target utilization range (90-105%) was established by a workgroup of the CoC's Service Delivery Committee. If a shelter is above or below the range for more than a couple nights in a row, they are encouraged to review the capacity they have reported to ICA as HMIS Lead Agency to ensure it is accurate.

How is utilization calculated for this dashboard?

Traditionally, residential program capacity is calculated based upon the number of available beds in the program and utilization is calculated based upon the number of clients in the program on a given night. This works well for shelters who fill their beds on a per-client basis, but not so well for shelters who fill their beds on a per-household basis. To ensure the most accurate representation possible, some shelters have been categorized as using units and groups instead of beds and clients. With this in mind, shelters have each been categorized as one of these two:

Bed-based Shelters

Utilization for these shelters is calculated by taking the number of clients (i.e., individuals) enrolled in the project on a given night and dividing it by the number of beds the project has reported having available on that same night.

Unit-based Shelters

Utilization for these shelters is calculated by taking the number of groups (i.e., households) enrolled in the project on a given night and dividing it by the number of units (i.e., rooms or spaces) the project has reported having available on that same night.

Referral and Turn Away FAQs

Referral and Turn Away data is gathered in the GET HELP® application, then provided to ICA on a regular basis in accordance with a data sharing agreement put in place to protect client confidentiality. ICA then analyzes the data to generate the information in this dashboard specific to the St. Louis City CoC. Generally, data is processed from GET HELP® on a monthly basis and uploaded to the dashboard within 10 business days of the end of the month.

How are the referral and turn away statistics calculated?

Turn Away Count

When an outreach worker or a worker at an access point interacts with a client who is seeking shelter, but there are no appropriate openings showing in the GET HELP® application, a turn away is recorded in GET HELP®. The CoC began gathering this information in late October 2023 in hopes of being able to determine the number of shelter beds and other housing resources needed within the CoC. The information gathered is deduplicated (meaning that households who are turned away more than once per time period are counted only once per time period) and then reported upon in this dashboard. Daily turn away information is available on the Turn Aways tab.

Referral to Enrollment Rate

All referrals made in GET HELP® to shelters in the St. Louis City CoC are compared to the data in HMIS by an algorithm that categorizes and matches referrals between the systems. To be considered a match by the algorithm, the first name, last name, date of birth, and intake dates in both systems much match, and the intake must occur on the same day, the day after, or two days after the referral was recorded. Any referrals that are not categorized or matched by the algorithm are then manually reviewed by an ICA team member to identify approximate matches, such as when there may be a typo in the spelling of a name or the date of birth. The Referral to Enrollment rate is calculated by taking the successful referrals where a match was found in HMIS divided by the number of referrals made, excluding referrals where the client withdrew the request or did not show up for intake. The CoC's goal is to get this percent as high as possible, indicating that as many referrals as possible result in a successful shelter placement. More detailed outcome data is available on the Referral Outcomes tab.

Enrollment with Referral Rate

All HMIS enrollments in entry-exit based shelters in the St. Louis City CoC, except for those which are voucher-based, are compared to the data in GET HELP® by an algorithm which matches the entries to referrals recorded in GET HELP®. To be considered a match by the algorithm, the first name, last name, date of birth, and intake dates in both systems must match, and the intake must occur on the same day, the day before, or two days after the referral was made. Any entries that are not matched by the algorithm are then manually reviewed by an ICA team member to identify approximate matches, such as when there may be a typo in the spelling of a name or the date of birth. The Enrollment with Referral rate is then calculated by taking the total number of enrollments with matching referrals, divided by the total number of enrollments. The CoC's expectation is that this percent be as high as possible (ideally 100%), indicating that all clients enter shelter through the same manner and that no clients are given advantages over others.

What if I have other questions?

Questions about the dashboard from HMIS-participating shelters included in this report may be directed to mohmis@icalliances.org. Questions from other entities may be directed to the CoC Board.