BY-NAME LIST POLICIES FOR NON-CONSENTING YOUNG PEOPLE

This page provides resources and guidance around By-Name List Scorecard question 10:

10) Does your by-name list have a way to account for young people experiencing homelessness who have not consented to services and/or assessment?

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Sample policies: 

• Walla Walla, WA: Walla Walla has established a process for tracking non-consenting young people in HMIS and outside HMIS for the purposes of case conferencing

• Montgomery county MD: How to track households without a full assessment

• Winston-Salem, NC: Winston-Salem has developed a process to account for individuals who refuse or are unable to undergo an assessment, this is the process layout. 

• Chattanooga, TN: Policy layout for coordinated entry system to anonymously track clients who have not given consent for an assessment. 

• Chicago, IL: Chicago has developed a workflow in HMIS that allows them to track individuals who have refused an assessment

Actions to consider:

• Document encounters with individuals unwilling or unable to complete a full assessment, and include them on your By-Name List; note you must have consent from these individuals to include their name and/or identifying information on the By-Name List

• Coordinate outreach and engagement for individuals who have not completed an assessment using case conferencing or another appropriate forum

• Work with your HMIS support to establish a workflow within HMIS that allows staff to record client details without using identifying information that can be tracked separately, thereby maintaining confidentiality but allows records to be included in your overall count of actively homeless individuals.

• Partner with local agencies who are likely to encounter high counts of young people to create a process for de-duplication of non-consenting young people.

Community Highlight: Walla Walla

Walla Walla’s process for de-duplication of non-consenting young people:

• Blue Mountain Action Council partnered with local YWCA DV shelter to de-duplicate YYA on BNL by acting as a CE access point:

  • BMAC staff visit shelter 1x a week to complete CE enrollment and refer YYA to housing navigation services.

  • The YWCA keeps an internal tracking system for residents that assigns them to a YWCA-generated identifier. YWCA staff create a consent-refused profile for enrollment in HMIS and type the YWCA-generated identifier into HMIS in the “other name(s) or aliases” box. YYA sign an ROI for this YWCA-generated identifier to be shared with BMAC staff.

    1. BMAC Navigators use this YWCA-generated identifier to search for YYA in HMIS. This will pull up the consent-refused profile previously created. BMAC Navigators enroll YYA in CE with this profile to de-duplicate enrollments on BNL.

    2. BMAC keeps their own internal tracking system for YYA that include their YWCA-generated identifier, their HMIS unique identifier, and the name associated with them to reference and for record-keeping.

Main points about this process:

1. Each agency has their own internal tracking system for non-consenting YYA. For example, a spreadsheet that links their name to their HMIS-generated Unique Identifier.

2. An ROI specifically for the release of information to the other agency is signed by a young person to allow Agency 1 to share the HMIS client refused Unique Identifier to Agency 2. This is not an HMIS consent form.

3. Participation and/or communication between agencies to ensure a YYA’s homelessness status is always up to date.