Prior Living Situation (3.917)

This is intended to assist intake and data entry staff who work with the set of questions called “3.917” collectively. These questions ask a client about the following:

• Residence Prior to Project Entry (where did you stay last night?)
• Length of Stay in Prior Living Situation (how long where you in the place you were at before seeking services?)
• Approximate Date Homelessness Started (what date did this episode of homelessness start?)
• Number of Times Experiencing Homelessness (in an Emergency Shelter or on the Streets) in the Last 3 Years
• Number of Months Experiencing Homelessness (in an Emergency Shelter or on the Streets) in the Last 3 Years

• Homeless Situation: Emergency Shelter, Place Not Meant for Habitation, or Safe Haven
• Transitional or Permanent Housing Situation: Hotel Paid for Without Voucher, Owned by Client, Permanent Supportive Housing, Rental by Client, Residential Project with no Homeless Criteria, Staying or Living with Friends or Family, Transitional Housing
• Institutional Situation: Foster Care, Hospital or Other Non-Psychiatric Medical Facility, Jail / Prison / Juvenile Detention Center, Long-Term Care Facility or Nursing Home, Psychiatric Facility, Substance Abuse Treatment Facility or Detox

• Episodes of homelessness are separated by a break of at least 90 days in an Institutional Situation, and / or 7 nights in a Transitional or Permanent Housing situation.
• A break in homelessness is a time when a client stays in a place that is not considered a “homeless situation”.
• The “Approximate date homelessness started” data element, as defined by HUD, is not the approximate date the client experienced homelessness ever. The “Approximate date homelessness started” data element captures the date the client started experiencing homelessness THIS TIME.
  • That means that the “Approximate date” does not capture time the client experienced homelessness before any breaks in that homelessness, using the break definition above.
• The number of months a client has experienced homelessness in the last 3 years should be rounded up to the next whole number of months.