Head of Household Characteristics

This project is integral to several AzHAC projects that rely on HMIS data because it allows us to categorize households in a manner that is both consistent with the service delivery models that arise in practice, and also useful from a program evaluation perspective. By deriving operational definitions of households based on the age (adult vs. child) of individuals appearing together in HMIS enrollments, as well as their relationship to the Head of Household, AzHAC analysts are better able to understand how the composition of households change across repeated enrollments. These classification frameworks for households inform other analytic projects aimed at understanding the intensity of engagement with homelessness and housing services (High Utilizer Analysis), the financial costs associated with housing services (Cost Analysis), patterns and predictors of returns to homelessness following housing interventions (Returns to Homelessness Analysis), as well as many others.