Federal Reporting - Upcoming LSA
The 2025 federal reporting season is approaching! Prep for two of HUD’s major CoC reports will start soon: the Longitudinal Systems Analysis (LSA) and System Performance Measures (SPM).
HUD’s Longitudinal Systems Analysis (LSA) is a report submitted to HUD annually that includes a complex analysis across key projects participating in the Continuum of Care (CoC) Homelessness Management Information System (HMIS). The LSA replaced the Annual Homeless Assessment Report’s (AHAR) data component in the 2018 reporting year.
HUD’s System Performance Measures (SPM) focus on evaluating local homeless responses as a coordinated system of homeless assistance options. This data is reported to HUD annually and includes key indicators of a high performing system including length of time homeless, exits to permanent housing, returns to homelessness, and more.
What Can Your Agency Do to Prepare for LSA and System Performance Measures?
The Bitfocus team may reach out to verify or correct data about your program and/or clients. Please look out for those emails and respond promptly. We truly appreciate all of the hard work your community does to maintain data that is complete, accurate, and timely!
You can review the data by doing the following:
- Run the [HUDX-225] HMIS Data Quality Report for the period 10/1/24 to 9/30/25 (you'll find this report in the Clarity Human Services Report Library under HUD Reports). Correct records with errors, paying special attention to any element that shows over a 5% error rate (remember, clicking on a number will give you a list of clients being counted in that number). Want more information on what gets counted in this report? Check out our Help Center article: [HUDX-225] HMIS Data Quality Report
- Run the [GNRL-106] Program Roster for the period 10/1/24 to 9/30/25 (this report is under Program Based Reports) and make sure household groups are correct (households are separated by bold lines. Clients not separated by lines are grouped together in a household). If clients are grouped together incorrectly, contact the Helpdesk to get them corrected. Some measures only count heads of household, so it's important that households be configured correctly! Check out our Help Center article: [GNRL-106] Program Roster
- Run the [GNRL-220] Program Details Report for the period 10/1/24 to 9/30/25 (this report is under Program Based Reports) and review the following:
- Date of Birth: Some measures only count adults, so it's important that dates of birth be as accurate as possible.
- Housing Move-in Date: Make sure this date is on or between the client’s project start and exit dates, otherwise it will look like clients were never housed by your project!
- Income and Non-Cash Benefits: Be sure these are/were updated before client exit. Increase in income/benefits is one of the areas in which communities are measured.
- Living Situation (including prior residence and length of time homeless): Make sure these fields are as complete as possible with no "Client doesn’t know," "Client Prefers not to Answer," or "Data not collected" values when possible. These elements impact measures around entries from homelessness.
- Exit Destination: Avoid choosing "Client doesn’t know," " Client Prefers not to Answer," or "Data not collected" values whenever possible. This element impacts measures around returns to homelessness.
- Review Bed Inventories and Utilization rates for accuracy. Ensure an accurate number of beds and units are listed throughout the year for your shelter and housing programs. Utilization rates should be between 90-105%. For Night-by-night (NbN) Shelters, please resolve any missing exits or abandoned enrollments.
Thanks in advance for your partnership in making sure that our community’s data is as accurate as possible.
What Else Should You Know About LSA and SPM Preparation?
The best people to review the data are program managers and key staff who work in the programs. There is overlap with the LSA and SPM timeline and relevant data. Your work on this will benefit both reports, and more broadly, your CoC.
