Your community has a homelessness management information system that can be analyzed to assess how long people are homeless, what their needs are,what the causes of homelessness are, how people interact with mainstream systems of care, the effectiveness of interventions, and the number of homeless people.Good data is essential for communities to plan to end homelessness, to evaluate programs, and to properly allocate resources. There are two typical methods of collecting data on homelessness, and both have their uses. The first is point-in-time data that is collected during a brief time period (typically a single night but sometimes as much as a week). It can identify the number of people who are homeless at any one time, as well as some of their characteristics. It is a good way to identify both people who live in shelters and people living on the streets. The second source of information is administrative data, data that is continuously collected by programs. This data can be collated on a community-wide basis, and is then usually called a homelessness management information system (HMIS). HMIS is an indispensable tool for communities seeking to end homelessness. It can be used to assess cost; to plan solutions; to implement prevention measures; and to measure outcomes.