Written intake procedures must require documentation of chronically homeless status in a fixed order: third-party documentation first, intake worker observation second, self-certification third

coc.recordkeeping.chronically_homeless_evidence_order_of_priority · v1.0.0

The recipient must maintain and follow WRITTEN INTAKE PROCEDURES to ensure compliance with the chronically homeless definition, and those procedures must require documentation at intake of the evidence relied on to establish and verify chronically homeless status. The procedures must establish the order of priority for obtaining evidence as THIRD-PARTY DOCUMENTATION FIRST, INTAKE WORKER OBSERVATIONS SECOND, AND CERTIFICATION FROM THE PERSON SEEKING ASSISTANCE THIRD. Records in an HMIS or a comparable database used by victim service or legal service providers are acceptable as third-party documentation and as intake worker observations if the system retains an auditable history of all entries -- who entered the data, the date of entry and the change made -- and prevents overrides or changes of entry dates. Evidence of disability must be documented at intake and kept for 5 years after the end of the grant term; intake staff-recorded observation of disability must be confirmed and accompanied by acceptable evidence no later than 45 days from the application for assistance. Third-party documentation of a single encounter with a homeless service provider on a single day within a month is sufficient to count the entire calendar month, unless there is evidence of at least 7 consecutive nights not so living during that month. And a project-level cap applies: for at least 75 percent of the chronically homeless individuals and families a recipient assists in a project during an operating year, no more than 3 months of the qualifying period may be documented by self-certification per person, though breaks in homelessness between occasions may be documented entirely by self-report.

Confidence

high

Effective from

2015-12-04

Consequence model

agency finding with cure

Last reviewed

2026-08-29