In 2002,  the Vermont Department of Mental Health launched the first VT HMIS with seven SAMHSA funded Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness (PATH) http://pathprogram.samhsa.gov/ communities in Brattleboro, Middlebury, Burlington, Montpelier, Barre, Newport and Rutland, Vermont.

The following year Mc Kinney Vento funded homeless providers who served predominantly mentally ill homeless persons joined the HMIS initiative and began data entry. Subsequently, other HUD Mc Kinney Vento funded grantees have joined the VT HMIS project. More recently, Homelessness prevention & Rapid Rehousing (HPRP) grantees became participating members.

Currently the Balance of State database contains 57,400 client demographic, service records and length of stay information of over 51,118 unduplicated clients as of June 3rd, 2010.

In Vermont there are two Continuums of Care. The VT Balance of State Continuum & the Chittenden County Continuum.  Visit:  http://helpingtoHouse.org

These organizations with the Vermont State Housing Authority http://vsha.org/ form the backbone of the HMIS driven Annual Point in Time Count and Annual Report. This benchmark data and other HMIS data driven reports have been particularly useful for advocates and funding sources.

For the 2009 PIT Report click HERE

In the fall of 2009, the Data Quality Management Council of the VT Balance of State Continuum of Care finalized the Vermont Data Quality Standards. This standard has become a model for replication in other jurisdictions and is a valuable methodology for grading provider data quality on a regular basis.