Center for Social Policy
CSPTech
2003 Report (.pdf)

 

Center for Social Policy
McCormack Graduate School 
University of Massachusetts Boston
100 Morrissey Blvd.
Boston, MA 02125-3393
Phone: (617) 287 5550
Fax: (617) 287 5544
MASShelter Data Center
Individuals Using Massachusetts Emergency Shelters

MASShelter provides access to the most comprehensive data available on homeless individuals in Massachusetts emergency shelters, as collected by the CSPTech project of the Center for Social Policy. Analysis of this information is critical to efforts to understand and overcome the many dimensions of homelessness in Massachusetts.

Three easy screens will allow you to choose the information you are interested in. You can view your results as a table, chart, text document or spreadsheet.

Update:
MASShelter now includes 2003 data and more data elements and features, including special needs, insurance, income, and region prior to first homelessness.

Hard Numbers, Hard Times: Individuals in Massachusetts Emergency Shelters, 1999-2003 (July 2004) is the Center for Social Policy's written report, which includes data not available in MASShelter, along with analysis and running responses from key stakeholders, including homeless and formerly homeless individuals and providers serving diverse populations. View Press Release and Executive Summary

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Learn More

What is The CSPTech Project?
What Does MASShelter Do?
Comparing MASShelter to CSPTech's Data Releases
Client Privacy and Data Integrity
Why Do We Ask For You Email? (Your Privacy)
Representativeness of the Data
Limitations of the Data
Acknowledgment
Sending Feedback
Available Filters and Data Elements
Sample Reports and How To Read Them
Breakdown of Records By Shelter


What is the CSPTech Project?

The Center for Social Policy (CSP) at the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies, University of Massachusetts Boston oversees the Connection, Service, and Partnership through Technology (CSPTech) project. CSPTech operates a homeless management information system (HMIS) implemented throughout the Commonwealth. Founded in 1995, this project is a networked computerized record-keeping system that allows homeless service providers across Massachusetts to collect uniform client information over time. This information is aggregated in a database used by service providers, advocates, government officials, researchers, and people experiencing homelessness. Analysis of this information is critical to efforts to understand the extent of this problem in Massachusetts in an attempt to break the cycle of homelessness and poverty.

Through multi-year contracts with the City of Boston, City of Cambridge, and the State of Massachusetts, about 113 homeless programs serving individuals are currently involved in the CSPTech project, representing over 60% of the homeless individuals served in emergency shelter in the state. The availability of these data is the result of an intensive, cooperative effort over the past several years of service providers throughout the state of Massachusetts.

What Does MASShelter Do?

MASShelter allows you to create your own queries based on a subset of the data collected by the CSPTech project. Users can choose to view data from 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003. You can choose filters and columns of data for your report. View list of available filters and data elements.

MASShelter's dynamically generated results will show the percentage breakdown of the population by the column(s) chosen. If more than one column is chosen , the table will display the percentage breakdown of the first column by the second column as well as specific slices of the total population. If, for example, you choose Gender in Column 1 and Race in Column 2, you will be able to see what percentage of women are African American, as well as what percentage of the total population are African American Women. The tool allows you to view the results as a table, as a text document, spreatsheet or pie chart. If you choose Average Age may also be viewed as a bar chart. Your browser must be configured to view Java Applets in order to see pie charts and bar charts.

Comparing MASShelter to CSPTech's Data Releases

CSPTech releases annual reports on data collected, which can be viewed at www.mccormack.umb.edu/csp/csp_tech.jsp.

In a written report, it is impossible to combine the data in more than a few combinations. MASShelter allows you to cross-cut data in more ways than are available in the written report. However, the written report does contain data currently unavailable in MASShelter, including data on health insurance, more detailed data on income, as well as special needs. Some data in MASShelter are aggregated, rounded or presented differently than in the CSPTech data release.

Client Privacy and Data Integrity

MASShelter shows only aggregate data. It does not present information about particular people. In cases where there are fewer than 100 records for a particular category, data are not shown. This rule applies both for the universe of records used in the percentage breakdowns as well as the cells used to show the average age. This restriction is necessary to protect client privacy, so information about clients cannot be learned through unique characteristics. This rule also ensures higher integrity of the results. Since the datasets do not represent 100% of the population, information based on smaller sample sizes are likely to be inaccurate.

Why Do We Ask For Your Email?

The main reason we ask for your email is for us to determine how many unique people are using the site. We will never share or sell your email address to anyone and we will not contact you by email unless you request it. The first time you visit the site using a particular email, you will also be asked the type of affiliation that best represents you. If you wish to receive occasional information from the Center for Social Policy, please check the appropriate box.

Representativeness of the Data

Based upon policies developed by the project’s Steering Committee, aggregate data must meet a minimum threshold criterion before they can be released; data must represent at least 60% of those persons served in a region. Based on a calculation of client records contained in the database versus shelter system capacity for a particular period, the data are deemed eligible for release.

The data contained in this report represent between 60% and 65% of homeless individuals served in the Commonwealth’s non-specialized individual emergency shelter programs for each of the years. (See Breakdown of Records By Shelter) With the implementation of a web-based collections system several of the larger emergency shelter providers chose to use a random sampling method during calendar years 2001 through 2003. Data obtained utilizing this method were weighted appropriately.

Limitations of the Data

These data were collected in large part by interviewing people experiencing homelessness, most often in non-specialized Massachusetts shelters. These data do not capture information on people who are in doubled-up living situations, and others who are homeless but do not come into contact with the service system. They are not necessarily reflective of the characteristics of the homeless population overall.

In particular, individuals utilizing the following types of services are usually not represented in these data: family shelters, street outreach programs, domestic violence shelters, substance abuse treatment and detoxification programs, hotels, programs serving persons living with AIDS, healthcare programs, transitional housing programs, and permanent housing programs. Individuals who are deemed ineligible for service are also not included in these data.

Acknowledgement

We thank the thousands of homeless people who shared their personal information, as well as the hundreds of staff who have conducted interviews, entered data, and managed the project. We also thank the members of the CSPTech team who continue to labor long and hard with each of the program sites.

Feedback

Send feedback on any aspect of MASShelter tool by emailing: brian.sokol@umb.edu

Available Filters and Data Elelements

Due to improving data collection, more filters and reporting columns are available for later years. Including earliers years in your report limits the data elements available to you. Thus, for example, if you are interested in elements that only appear in 2003 and 2002, choose ONLY those years.

Click here for a list of all filters and columns, and the years they are available.

Sample Reports and How to Read Them

Click Here to View Sample Reports and Learn How to Read Them.

Two sample reports are provided, one simple and one complex. The first, simple report shows the table produced when the user chooses only 2003, no filters and only the "Education Level" column.

The second, more complex report shows the result produced in a case where the user chose the data sets of 2002 and 2003, the filter of "Male," "Race" for column 1, "Insurance" for Column 2, and "Average Age as the aggregate column.

Text in red does not appear in report but is shown in the sample to demonstrate how to read the report.

Breakdown of Records By Shelter

Click here for a list of the emergency shelters that contributed to the data set for each year, along with the duplicated and unduplicated counts recorded in the homleless management information system for each year.