Understanding Heading Home’s
Data Dashboard

Heading Home’s public data dashboard, with regional data on homelessness, launched on March 4, 2024. This is an essential tool to understanding South Central Indiana’s progress in making homelessness rare, brief, and non-repeating. The dashboard includes data from a six-county area: Monroe, Morgan, Lawrence, Owen, Greene and Martin counties.

This guide defines terminologies used in the data dashboard. 

How is this data generated?

Heading Home pulls the data from the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) for Indiana’s Region 10, which includes Monroe, Morgan, Lawrence, Owen, Greene and Martin counties. HMIS is used by agencies in this region’s homeless response system.

What is a homeless response system?

The homeless response system is a coordinated, regional effort to reach people who are unhoused and to connect them to resources needed to obtain housing and other supportive services.

What metrics are used on the Heading Home data dashboard? 

• Inflow:  Newly identified, returned from housing, returned from inactive
• Outflow: Housing placements, moved to inactive, no longer fits population criteria 

What does inflow mean?

Inflow includes people who have lost housing and entered our region’s homeless response system.

What categories are included in inflow and what do they mean?

Inflow includes: 

• Newly identified: People experiencing homelessness for the first time or having their first experience of homelessness within the past two years 
• Returned from housing: People who have experienced homelessness before, obtained housing, and then experienced another housing crisis resulting in homelessness
• Returned from inactive: People who experienced homelessness, left the homeless response system – because they moved out of this region, for example, or for other reasons – and then reappeared/reconnected with the homeless response system

What does it mean if someone is actively experiencing homelessness?

Someone is actively experiencing homelessness if they are currently living on the streets, staying in emergency shelters, or living in places not fit for human habitation.

What does outflow mean?

Outflow encompasses people who have exited the region’s homeless response system. 

What categories are included in outflow and what do they mean? 

Outflow includes: 

• Housing placements: People who have obtained stable housing through the homeless response system
• Moved to inactive: People who have exited the system without support from the homeless response system. This may include moving to a new area, self-resolving (finding their own housing) or staying long-term at an institution
• No longer meets population criteria: People whose status has changed since entering the homeless response system. An example is someone who is initially identified as a veteran but is later determined not to fit that category.

To learn more about the Heading Home data dashboard, click here for a post that explains why this tool was created.