Housing Counseling Process Evaluation and Design of ... - HUD User

The challenges of having to use multiple CMS was a common theme in comments on the agency
survey:
“Last, but certainly not least, our agency is caught between the competing needs of funders
regarding data collection. HUD has mandated that we use a CMS system for housing
counseling, but for other activities, HUD requires that we use an HMIS system [for reporting
under homeless funding programs], and a couple of our funders also require that we enter
data into their web-based systems. None of these databases allow transfers of information.
The result is that we must sometimes enter data about one client into as many as four separate
databases. This is a tremendous waste of time, and not what is supposed to be achieved
through the use of technology!” (Housing counseling agency in MO)
“With HUD’s requirement to track clients with an online database, our tracking time for
clients has dramatically increased. Currently, we have three files for one client, that is a hard
file, our agency program, and CounselorMax.” (Anti-poverty agency in UT)
“Our agency receives funding from a wide range of funding sources, each requiring
mandatory reports. Our in-house database has always been sufficient to generate the needed
data for all of the required reports. All of the online databases did not allow us to generate all
of the necessary data needed for the reports. We did not have the funding available to link
our in-house database to the CMS. In order to be HUD compliant (and not lose our status as
a HUD approved counseling agency as we were informed would happen if we didn't use an
online database) we now use two databases to meet the requirements of our funders. As I'm
sure you can imagine this has become administratively burdensome.” (Housing stabilization
agency in PA)
While the use of CMS holds much promise for improving the efficiency of counseling agency
operations, the industry is clearly still in the initial phases of fully adopting these systems. A
particularly important issue is the need for multiple systems to meet the needs of different funders and
different types of clients. The development of a single CMS that would meet the collective needs of
counseling agencies would represent a major advancement for the industry.
Summary
This chapter discussed five main topics: sources of referrals for counseling clients, basic client
characteristics (race, ethnicity, and income), challenges of obtaining information on client outcomes,
client outcomes as reported in the HUD 9902, and the industry’s use of client management systems
(CMS) to track client services and outcomes.
Most clients find out about counseling agency services through word of mouth or the Internet (either
HUD’s or the agency’s web site). Clients are also referred for housing counseling by other non-profit
organizations, financial institutions, and government agencies. Outreach and marketing by the
agency is not a common source of clients for most agencies.
Of the 1.7 million individuals that received counseling services from HUD-approved agencies in
2007, just over half were white, 36 percent were black or African American, 5 percent are another
Chapter 7. Client Characteristics and Outcomes 119