Housing & Homelessness HMIS Wrapper

The Housing & Homelessness HMIS Wrapper sits alongside your Continuum of Care's Homeless Management Information System and lets partner agencies coordinate around each client under the consent the client has given. Shelters, outreach teams, health and social service partners share what each client has agreed to share, and public safety partners can refer people to outreach without seeing their records. Every share, view and referral is recorded, so the HMIS lead can show that data moved only as clients and agreements allowed.

The problem it solves

People experiencing homelessness are served by many organizations at once: shelters, street outreach, health clinics, social services and, often, police or crisis responders. Each holds part of the picture, and the HMIS is not set up for fine-grained, consent-based sharing with partners outside it. So information is passed by phone and email with no record of what was shared or why, police calls about people in crisis do not reach outreach teams, and agencies hesitate to share at all for fear of breaching privacy rules.

Who it’s for

• HMIS leads and Continuum of Care staff
• Shelter, outreach and housing program staff at partner agencies
• Coordinated entry teams who assess and prioritize clients for housing
• City and county human services, health and public safety departments
• Privacy officers who answer for how client data is shared

1. ConsentEach client's consent to share is recorded once, by the agency that serves them, with exactly which partners and which kinds of information it covers and when it ends.
2. SharePartners see a shared client view that contains only what the client's consent and the data sharing agreements allow, drawn from the HMIS and partner systems.
3. ReferOutreach teams, 311, health partners and police can refer a person to outreach or a service. Referrers see whether the referral was taken up, not the client's record.
4. CoordinateCase conferencing and coordinated entry teams work from a shared list of consenting clients, track housing matches and record the actions each agency has agreed to take.

Granular consent

Consent recorded by partner and by information category, with start and end dates, revocation and a history of every change.

Sharing rules engine

Data sharing agreements turned into rules that decide what each partner can see, applied every time a record is opened.

Shared client view

One view of the client across partners, showing only the information each viewer is entitled to see.

Restricted categories

Health, behavioral health, substance use and justice information kept in separate categories that need their own specific consent.

Outreach referrals

A referral form for partners, 311 and public safety, routed by area to the right outreach team, with status shown to the referrer.

Public safety boundary

Police and crisis responders can refer and see referral status, but cannot search or view client records.

By-name list

A shared list of consenting clients for case conferencing, with housing status, assessments and agreed actions.

Case conferencing

Agendas, attendance, decisions and actions recorded for each case conference, with follow-up tracked to completion.

Housing match tracking

Coordinated entry matches to housing openings tracked from referral to move-in or decline, with reasons.

HMIS synchronization

Client, enrollment and service data read from the HMIS using HUD data standard elements, and outcomes written back where supported.

Privacy request handling

Client requests to see, correct or restrict their information recorded and tracked to a response.

Access accounting

A record of every view and share of each client's information, available to the privacy officer and, on request, the client.

Case manager

Records consent, works with their agency's clients and coordinates with partners

Coordinated entry staff

Assess and prioritize consenting clients and track housing matches

Partner agency lead

Oversees their agency's staff, sharing and referrals

Public safety liaison

Submits referrals to outreach and sees their status, without access to client records

HMIS lead administrator

Manages partners, sharing rules, users and the connection to the HMIS

Privacy officer

Approves sharing rules, handles privacy requests and reviews access

HMIS

Client, enrollment, service and assessment data read from your HMIS through its API or HMIS CSV exports, using HUD data standard elements.

Coordinated entry

Assessments and prioritization data from the coordinated entry process, whether it runs in the HMIS or a separate tool.

311 and 211

Requests about people who may need help can be passed to outreach as referrals, including from Moraph's 311 Omni-Channel Citizen Intake.

Public safety referral intake

Police, fire and EMS submit referrals through a web form or a feed from their own systems, under the data sharing agreement with their department.

Health partners

Clinics and health systems can share care coordination information where clients consent, under a business associate agreement where PHI is involved.

Housing inventory

Openings in permanent supportive housing, rapid rehousing and other programs from your inventory or the HMIS.

Single sign-on

Staff sign in through the HMIS lead's identity provider or their agency's own (SAML or OpenID Connect).

Work API

Aggregate and de-identified referral and coordination data available to your data warehouse through the Moraph Work API.

Single sign-on

Staff sign in through your identity provider, so your password and multi-factor policies apply.

Consent-based access

Each record view is checked against the client's consent and the sharing rules at the moment it is opened.

Encryption and keys

Client data is encrypted, with keys Moraph staff cannot use without explicit, time-bound authorization.

Complete audit trail

Every view, share, referral and consent change is logged with the person, agency and time, and cannot be edited.

US hosting

Government and client data is hosted in the United States region only.

Business associate agreement

Where health information covered by HIPAA is involved, Moraph signs a business associate agreement.

Moraph cloud

Hosted and operated by Moraph in the United States region, the only region used for government data.

Dedicated environment

A single-tenant environment for Continuums of Care or counties whose policies require isolation, scoped in the proposal.

With a managed service

Optionally run alongside a Moraph managed service for partner onboarding, sharing rule changes and support.

Agreements and consent

We work with your HMIS lead, privacy officer and counsel to translate data sharing agreements and consent forms into categories and sharing rules. Your Continuum of Care approves them.

HMIS connection

We connect to your HMIS through its API or HMIS CSV exports and agree the schedule. We need a contact from your HMIS vendor or administrator.

Partner onboarding

Partner agencies are set up with their programs, users and areas, and sign participation in the agreements before their staff get access.

Referral routing

Outreach areas, teams and escalation paths are configured, and referral routes from 311, public safety and health partners are set up and tested.

Coordinated entry

The by-name list, case conferencing and match tracking are configured to your Continuum's written standards.

Training and go-live

Case managers are trained on explaining consent to clients, and each partner type on its own workflows. Partners can be brought on in phases.

• It is not an HMIS. Your HMIS remains the system of record, and HUD-required reports continue to be produced from it.
• Sharing follows the consent and agreements you configure; your Continuum of Care, its privacy officer and counsel decide what may be shared and with whom.
• Victim service providers do not enter client data into HMIS, and their clients' information is not shared through the Wrapper.
• Public safety partners can refer and see referral status but cannot see client records; it is not a tool for enforcement or locating individuals.
• Synchronization with the HMIS depends on what your HMIS vendor's API or exports support, and writing outcomes back is not available with every HMIS.
• It does not manage housing subsidies or payments to landlords. Moraph does not hold funds.
• Health information is shared only where a client consents and the participating organizations' agreements, including any business associate agreement, are in place.
• Coordinated entry prioritization policy is set by your Continuum of Care; the Wrapper applies and records it but does not decide it.

• Take your current consent form and check that each choice on it can be recorded and enforced
• Open the same sample client as three different partners and compare what each sees
• Submit a referral as a public safety liaison and confirm what they can and cannot see
• Run a mock case conference from the by-name list
• Request an access accounting for a sample client
• Confirm with your HMIS vendor what the connection can read and write