Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) – HUD’s annual report to Congress on the nature and extent of homelessness nationwide. Annual Performance Report (APR) – A reporting tool that HUD uses to track program progress and accomplishments of HUD homeless assistance and HPRP Programs on an annual basis. Formerly known as the Annual Progress Report. By-Name List – A real-time catalog of the names of existing clients within the homeless prevention system, the By-Name List is an important tool for coordinated entry as it supplements other tools used to track homelessness (such as the Point-in-Time count), aids in assessing existing clients’ needs, and helps in tracking individuals’ entry into and exit out of the homeless prevention system. Client - An individual seeking services, also referred to as Participant and Consumer. The Collaborative - Any agency that has signed the agency participation agreement is a part of the collaborative. Continuum of Care (CoC) - A local body comprised of various stakeholders invested in ending homelessness. Coordinated Entry System – Coordinated Entry System serves as a front door to connect people facing homelessness to housing and supports in an accessible, equitable, transparent manner. This allows all partners in the Continuum of Care to collaborate to improve access and outcomes for people without permanent housing while delivering trauma informed services Data Quality Benchmarks – Quantitative measures used to assess the validity and reliability of the data. These include measures for timeliness, completeness and accuracy. Data Quality Monitoring Plan -- A set of procedures that outlines a regular, on-going process for analyzing and reporting on the reliability and validity of the data entered into the HMIS at both the program and aggregate system levels. A data quality monitoring plan is the primary tool for tracking and generating information necessary to identify areas for data quality improvement. Data Quality Plan – A community-level document that facilitates the ability of a CoC to achieve statistically valid and reliable data. A data quality plan is generally developed by the HMIS Lead Agency with input from community stakeholders, and is formally adopted by the CoC. At a minimum, the plan should: Identify the responsibilities of all parties within the CoC that affect data quality. Establish specific data quality benchmarks for timeliness, completeness, and accuracy. Describe the procedures that the HMIS Lead Agency will take to implement the plan and monitor progress to meet data quality benchmarks. Establish a timeframe for implementing the plan to monitor the quality of data on a regular basis. Data Quality Standards – A national framework for ensuring that every Continuum of Care can achieve good quality HMIS data. It is anticipated that HUD will propose Data Quality Standards that 1) establishes administrative requirements and, 2) sets baseline data quality benchmarks for timeliness, completeness, and accuracy. Disclosure of Data - The release, sharing, transfer, provision of access to, or divulging of personally identifiable information to an organization outside the HMIS participating agency holding the information or outside the HMIS Lead. Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS) - A Homeless Management Information System (HMIS)is the information system designated by a local Continuum of Care (CoC)to comply with the requirements of CoC Program interim rule 24 CFR 578. It is a locally-administered data system used to record and analyze client, service and housing data for individuals and families who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. HMIS Data Quality – Refers to the reliability and validity of client-level data. HMIS data quality can be measured by the extent to which the client data in the system reflects actual information in the real world. HMIS Lead - Administers HMIS on behalf of North Central Continuum of Care, and is governed by the North Central CoC Board Participating Agency - Agencies that access HMIS and have signed the HMIS Agency Participation Agreement. Personally Identifiable Information (PII) - Information collected in HMIS. This includes information that identifies, either directly or indirectly, a specific individual. Program Specific Data Elements (PDEs) – Program Specific Data Elements differ from the Universal Data Elements in that no one project must collect every single element in this section. Which data elements are required is dictated by the reporting requirements set forth by each Federal partner for each of their programs. A Partner may require all of the fields or response categories in a data element or may specify which of the fields or response categories are required for their report. Project Descriptor Data Elements (PDDE) – Project Descriptor Data Elements (PDDE) are completed within the HMIS for each project that is able to enter data into the HMIS. The PDDEs include information used to identify each organization using the HMIS and all of the projects associated with an organization. Universal Data Elements (UDEs) – HMIS Universal Data Elements are elements required to be collected by all projects participating in HMIS, regardless of funding source. UDE’s establish the baseline data collection requirements for all contributing CoC projects. They are the basis for producing unduplicated estimates of the number of persons experiencing homelessness, accessing services from homeless assistance projects, basic demographic characteristics of persons experiencing homeless, and patterns of service use, including information on shelter stays and homelessness over time. Use of Data - The sharing, application, utilization, examination, or analysis of personally identifiable information within a HMIS participating agency or within the HMIS Lead.