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What Data is Included in the LSA? - An overview of LSA data components, including key definitions
Monitoring Data Quality - Frequently asked questions related to troubleshooting LSA data
What Data is Included in the LSA?
The HUD fiscal year of 10/1/2017 to 9/30/2018 is the first for which each Continuum of Care is required to complete the HMIS Longitudinal System Analysis (LSA). This report (also known as The Longitudinal System Analysis for the Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR)) is one of HUD's annual reports to Congress, and was designed to have a broad range of uses. Although this report shares some similarities in purpose with the Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) it replaced in Fall of 2018, the LSA is a completely distinct report, with entirely new logic that looks at data up to two years in the past, and incorporates a much wider array of information and analysis. Below you'll find some key highlights regarding the LSA's data that may be useful as you review its content.
HMIS Project Types
The LSA includes the following HMIS Project Types:
Emergency Shelter (ES)
Safe Haven (SH)
Transitional Housing (TH)
Rapid Re-Housing (RRH)
Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH)
The first three groups are combined as ES/SH/TH (EST) in the LSA, leaving three main categories: EST, RRH, and PSH.
Geography Type
The Geography Type of each project is used in the LSA.
Household Types Categorization
The LSA uses a new categorization of Household Types:
Adults Only (AO)
Adults and Children (AC)
Children Only (CO)
Unknown Household Type (UN)
There is additional reporting on "Parenting Youth" (age 24 and under, with minor children) and "Large Families" with 3 or more children and at least one adult.
As HUD as shifted from the AHAR to the LSA, the focus is shifting from reporting on all clients, to just reporting on Adults and Heads of Households. Age is the only demographic reported for household members under age 18.
Cohorts
The LSA refers to clients who meet the criteria for inclusion on a specific measure as Cohorts. Cohorts are categorized as "Active" or "Exit," and a client can be considered one or both.
Active Cohorts are anyone served during the fiscal year in EST, RRH, or PSH.
Exit Cohorts are clients who exited in a particular period of time from SO, EST, RRH, or PSH and who did not return to EST, RRH, or PSH within 14 days. There are three types of Exit Cohorts:
- Exit Cohorts 0 exited within the first 6 months of the report period.
- Exit Cohorts 1 exited in the year immediately prior to the report start.
- Exit Cohorts 2 exited in the years beginning two years prior to the report start.
A client can be counted in any or all of these Cohort periods.
The Head of Household is used to determine the entire family’s cohort status.
LSA Details
The LSA includes:
Demographic characteristics
- Age
- Gender
- Race
- Ethnicity
- Veteran Status
- Disability Status
- Chronic Homeless Status
- Fleeing Domestic Violence
- Household Type
- Relationship to Head of Household
Length of time homeless
- Considers each client's full history over the three year period
- Days in ES, TH, EST, RRH, and PSH
- Housing move in dates for RRH and PSH
- Pre-move in days in RRH and PSH
- Approximate date started
Patterns of use / System path
HUD refers to system path as "the distinct combination of project types in which a head of household has been enrolled during any continuous period of system use/homelessness that overlaps with the report period, including enrollments prior to the start of the report period."
Tables are broken down by the following system paths:
- ES/SH only
- TH only
- ES/SH + TH
- RRH only
- ES/SH + RRH
- TH + RRH
- ES/SH + TH + RRH
- PSH only
- ES/SH + PSH
- ES/SH + RRH + PSH
- RRH + PSH
- "All others"
Subpopulations
Table are often broken down by subpopulations:
- Veterans
- People experiencing Chronic Homelessness
- Households fleeing domestic violence
- Unaccompanied Youth
- Parenting Youth
- Large Families
Housing outcomes
There is a large focus on housing outcomes in the LSA, including clients who exit to Permanent Housing, clients who return to homelessness, and the length of time housed in RRH and PSH.
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Monitoring Data Quality - Frequently Asked Questions
How can I do cleanup before the LSA report is due, in preparation for running it?
Which clients are counted in RelationshipToHoH1 and RelationshipToHoH3?
Which clients are counted in SSNNotUnique? / Which SSNs are counted in DistinctSSNValuesNotUnique?
Which columns on the LSAReport.csv indicate missing or problematic data?
How can I do cleanup before the LSA report is due, in preparation for running it?
Use the Create Program Groupings feature + the LSA Report data variable to create a custom group of programs that are in your LSA Report. This will help you focus your cleanup on the programs that are included.
If you have clients you know that are supposed to be merged, you will want to do that before you run the LSA.
Often SSNs that are the same on two distinct PIDS are a way to find clients that should be merged. Run the HMIS ReportBuilder, unduplicated, across divisions (by PID), Summary table on SSN, show each row's total, and then investigate all SSNs that have a total of more than 1, with an eye toward merging them. For more details, see Which clients are counted in SSNNotUnique? / Which SSNs are counted in DistinctSSNValuesNotUnique?
The LSA report logic excludes clients / enrollments when household ID is blank. You will want to make sure that all clients/enrollments are in households, and that a Primary Client is specified.
Run an HMIS ReportBuilder that filters for Relationship to Household ID is blank, or Household ID contains H, and do the cleanup necessary to put these clients in households. This is important, because these clients/enrollments won't even be on your LSA. In addition, either on the same HMIS ReportBuilder or on a separate one, use a filter to show "Primary client" is blank. Be sure to fill out the relationship on the Primary Client's Relationships table. For more details, see Which clients are counted in RelationshipToHoH1 and RelationshipToHoH3?
Which clients are counted in RelationshipToHoH1 and RelationshipToHoH3?
To know which clients are being counted in RelationshipToHoH1 and RelationshipToHoH3 in the LSAReport.csv, we recommend first using the HMIS ReportBuilder to complete a data quality check. Specifically, when doing so use the following settings:
Program - Select the Custom Grouping that includes only LSA programs.
Roster Date Range - Select "In Program" and use a date range that is two years before your LSA report start date, through your LSA report end date.
Unduplicated Client Count - Do NOT use this option.
Data Variables - Selections should include "Global Household ID" and "Relationship to Primary Client"
Filters / Summary Tables - We recommend investigating all records with the following specific values. It may speed up your troubleshooting process to set filters that narrow the report results accordingly.
- a missing (blank) Global Household ID
- a Global Household ID that starts with "H"
- a blank relationship to primary client value
Completing clean-up based on the above will provide you with a good start in troubleshooting any issues with this aspect of the LSA; however, note that the actual formula behind-the-scenes is more complex, only looking at clients in households. To look at the actual source of the values, use dq_enrollment.csv, which is one of the tables in the Individual Details calculation tables. On that csv, use the following filters:
Status1 is not blank (meaning, you want to see just rows where Status1 = 0 or 1 or 99) - AND - relationship to HoH is blank. This will show you who is counted on LSAReport.csv's RelationshipToHoH1.
Status3 is not blank (meaning, you want to see just rows where Status1 = 0 or 1 or 99) - AND - relationship to HoH is blank. This will show you who is counted on LSAReport.csv's RelationshipToHoH3.
Once you've made that determination, look up clients by PersonalID and use the EntryDate to see which enrollment has the relationship that needs to be inserted on the Primary Client's Relationships table.
Which clients are counted in SSNNotUnique? / Which SSNs are counted in DistinctSSNValuesNotUnique?
To know which clients are being counted in SSNNotUnique, or which SSNs are being counted in DistinctSSNValuesNotUnique in the LSAReport.csv, we recommend using the HMIS ReportBuilder. Specifically, when doing so use the following settings:
Program - Select the Custom Grouping that includes only LSA programs.
Roster Date Range - Select "In Program" and use a date range that is two years before your LSA report start date, through your LSA report end date.
Unduplicated Client Count - Make sure the "Unduplicated" option is checked off at the top of the page where you specify the report's data variables.
Data Variables - Make sure you select both "SSN" and "SSN Data Quality" for inclusion in the report, along with "Personal ID" and any other variables you prefer; for example, "Program."
Filters / Summary Tables - Choose to include a summary table for "SSN" that shows each row's total.
When you've generated the report, take a look at the SSN summary table. It will help you to see where you have two or more distinct personal IDs with the same SSN. You may want to investigate all of these instances, for they all may indicate either errors in name spelling or DOB, or cases where there are different people who were accidentally recorded with the same SSN. In looking at the specifics here though, keep in mind that the following are NOT counted in the SSNNotUnique count on the LSAReport.csv:
Records where SSN Data Quality is "client doesn't know" or "client refused"
Records with SSNs that are all one digit, EXCEPT when the number is all 9s (this one is considered valid)
Records that start with "9," "000," or "666," that have "0" as the 4th and 5th digit, or that end with 4 "0"s
These exceptions need only be investigated if you've identified other conditions that warrant it.
Which columns on the LSAReport.csv indicate missing or problematic data?
The first several columns of the LSAReport.csv are about the report parameters and vendor information. Those columns are followed by others that provide counts of clients and households included in the report. And lastly, there are a series of columns that relate to missing or problematic data. If you choose to complete data quality checks, that latter group of columns is a good place to start.
In a perfect world, the values in each of the following columns would all be 0. If you see a value other than that, you may want to look at the corresponding record(s) in further detail. Troubleshooting tips for the specifics of what to look at are provided for each.
NoCoC - The enrollment CoC is not recorded / "Client location (Continuum of Care) (Admission)" is blank
SSNNotProvided - The value for SSNDataQuality is "Client doesn't know" (8) or "Client refused" (9)
SSNMissingOrInvalid - The value for SSNDataQuality is NOT "Client doesn't know" (8) or "Client refused" (9), and the value for SSN is the system default value for missing SSN, or the value is not valid per SSA guidelines.
ClientSSNNotUnique / DistinctSSNValueNotUnique - The first of these counts how many enrollments have at least one record for a different PersonalID with the same value for SSN, excluding "Client doesn't know" (8), "Client refused" (9), or has has an invalid SSN. The second tells you many distinct SSN values are shared by one or more PersonalIDs. See the separate FAQ on SSNNotUnique for more information.
DOB1 / DOB3 - DOBDataQuality is anything other than "Full DOB reported" (1) or "Approximate or partial DOB reported" (2) - OR - DateOfBirth is missing or set to a system default - OR - The calculation would result in an age over 105 years - OR - DateOfBirth is greater than any EntryDate - OR - DateOfBirth is equal to EntryDate where RelationshipToHoH is 1.
Gender1 / Gender3 / Race1 / Race3 / Ethnicity1 / Ethnicity3 - Does not have an informational value recorded for the specified field
VetStatus1 / VetStatus3 - The client was 18 or older at any project entry - AND - the record does not have an informational value for VeteranStatus
RelationshipToHoH1 / RelationshipToHoH3 - The client is missing relationship to HoH (keep in mind that all enrollments have to be in a household before they are included in the LSA. See the separate FAQ on RelationshipToHoH1 for more information.
DisablingCond1 / DisablingCond3 / LivingSituation1 / LivingSituation3 / LengthOfStay1 / LengthOfStay3 - The total number of EnrollmentIDs where the enrollment was active in ReportCoC during the report period - AND - client was 18 or older or identified as head of household (RelationshipToHoH = 1) at entry - AND - the enrollment does not have an informational value for Disabiling Condition, Living Situation, or Length of Stay
HomelessDate1 / HomelessDate3 - The total number of EnrollmentIDs where the enrollment was active in ReportCoC during the report period - AND - client was 18 or older or identified as a head of household (RelationshipToHoH = 1) at entry - AND - ProjectType is "ES" (1) or "SH" (8) or LivingSituation is "ES" (1), "SH" (18), or "Street" (16) - AND - The enrollment does not have a valid DateToStreetESSH on or before EntryDate
TimesHomeless1 / TimesHomeless3 - The total number of EnrollmentIDs where the enrollment was active in ReportCoC during the report period - AND - client was 18 or older or identified as a head of household (RelationshipToHoH = 1) at entry - AND - the enrollment does not have an informational value for TimesHomelessPastThreeYears
MonthsHomeless1 / MonthsHomeless3 - The total number of EnrollmentIDs where the enrollment was active in ReportCoC during the report period - AND - client was 18 or older or identified as a head of household (RelationshipToHoH = 1) at entry - AND - the enrollment does not have an informational value for MonthsHomelessPastThreeYears.
DV1 / DV3 - The total number of EnrollmentIDs where the enrollment was active in ReportCoC during the report period - AND - client was 18 or older or identified as a head of household (RelationshipToHoH = 1) at entry - AND - either there is no record for 4.11 Domestic Violence at project entry (DataCollectionStage = 1); or there is no record with an informational value for DomesticViolenceVictim; or there is any record where the value for DomesticViolenceVictim is "Yes" (1) and the value for CurrentlyFleeing is not informational
Destination1 / Destination3 - The total number of exit records (EnrollmentIDs) where ExitDate is during the report period - AND - the exit does not have an informational value for Destination
NotOneHoH1 / NotOneHoH3 - The total number of HouseholdIDs associated with enrollment records where the enrollment was active in ReportCoC during the report period - AND - there are zero or more than one enrollment records (i.e., clients) associated with the HouseholdID where RelationshipToHoH = 1
MoveInDate1 / MoveInDate3 - The total number of exit records (EnrollmentIDs) where ExitDate is during the report period - AND -RelationshipToHoH for the enrollment = 1 - AND - ProjectType = "RRH" (13) or "PSH" (3) - AND - there is no MoveInDate for the enrollment between EntryDate and ExitDate - AND - Destination was to a permanent housing situation
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