Chapin Hall

Credible data on youth experiencing homelessness are critical for making decisions about the allocation of resources to address the needs of homeless youth and monitoring progress toward preventing and ending youth homelessness. 

The Youth Homelessness Data Solutions Project (YHDSP) is a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-funded collaboration aimed at developing new methods for generating credible data on the number and characteristics of youth who experience homelessness using linked administrative data. The YHDSP team, which is led by Chapin Hall and Partnership Center, Ltd,  collaborated with Continuum of Care (CoCs) in Midlands, SC, Austin/Travis County, TX, and New York City to:

• Facilitate a learning consortium of three partner CoCs
• Inventory and appraise administrative data
• Analyze linked administrative data
• Produce a practical guide
• Develop a Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) data application

The team is analyzing HMIS data from South Carolina’s four CoCs linked to administrative data from multiple state agencies to count the number of youth experiencing homelessness, estimate the prevalence and incidence of youth homelessness, describe the characteristics of the homeless youth population, and explore pathways into homelessness from public systems.    

Chapin Hall developed this Data Mapping Guide for communities that want to leverage their HMIS data paired with other administrative data to learn more about their population of youth experiencing homelessness. The guide explains how communities can identify, catalogue, access, and assess potentially relevant administrative data. It also provides useful tools to help with each of those steps.  

Chapin Hall is committed to helping communities prevent and address homelessness by generating evidence that can be used to drive decision making.   

For more information on this project, contact Dr. Amy Dworsky.  

Read the Data Mapping Guide