March 17, 2020

Advanced Reporting Tools

Pillow Count Histogram

This report is known as the “Pillow Count” Histogram as it is a reflection of the number of times a client’s head hits a pillow during the course of the reporting period.  This report is an effective means for detecting stay patterns within a shelter and helping to evaluate whether resources are being properly allocated between the front door (prevention and rapid re-housing) and the back door (re-housing).  

The Housing Prioritization Tools and the Proposed Chronic Homeless Definition White Paper goes into greater detail on how the “Pillow Count Histogram” has been adopted by Quincy, MA based Father Bill’s and MainSpring to guide their resource allocation strategy. 

Daily Client Census Trends

By completing a daily client census, you can then use this chart to see shelter usage patterns on a daily basis.  Completing the client census takes a matter of seconds, as all that is required is simply the number of clients utilizing your shelter that day. No personally identifying information is needed. By looking at this chart over time, you can see how various factors, such as weather and holidays, affect usage patterns

Return to Homelessness / Episode Counter

The recidivism report gives you a look into how many times clients at your project come back for services. It provides a column chart with the number of clients as a function of number of episodes.  This allows you to see if you have a high percentage of clients that are frequently returning to the project after leaving.

Click here to view the Housing Prioritization Tools and the Proposed Chronic Homeless Definition Whitepaper, which goes into detail about how to use the Recidivism report to better serve your clients

Housing Prioritization Report