AWARDS is configured to follow strict guidelines established by HUD when determining which of the six AHAR categories a client is placed into.  Using these guidelines category placement is dictated by client household composition, and the AHAR will:

1. Report persons as individuals or as families depending on the household information for each person.  The rule is that everyone is counted as an individual unless they are part of a household that includes both adults and children.
2. Look at agency program information from the System Setup module to determine the target population for each program and use that information to flag persons whose household data is inconsistent with the target population for that program.  Someone who reported with a household size of one is inconsistent with a program that targets families, for example.  Likewise, someone with a household size greater than one whose household includes both children and adults is inconsistent with a program that targets individuals.

In some cases a placement will conflict with user assumptions.  For instance, a 17 year-old female with a 3-month old child in an Emergency Shelter will report out in the "Emergency Shelter - Individuals" category because a family, for AHAR purposes, requires there to be at least one person who is at least 18 years old, accompanied by at least one person who is less than 18 years old.  As a result, an individual program category may have individuals in households with one or more members, but entries in a family category will only have households with more than one member regardless of actual program enrollment.

Also note that potential conflicts may exist between AHAR data and Housing Inventory Chart data as families served in programs with family beds may, in fact, report out as individuals on the AHAR as demonstrated above.

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