The Longitudinal System Analysis (LSA) is:
- A report to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as
- A zip file containing 12 Comma-Separated Values (CSV) files
- Generated by a Homeless Management Information System (HMIS)
- For Continuums of Care for the Homeless (CoCs)
- Submitted annually via HUD's Homelessness Data Exchange (HDX 2.0)
- Used to produce HUD's Annual Homelessness Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress and
- Provides the data for Stella, HUD's strategy and analysis tool for CoCs, available on HDX 2.0.
This repository is provided as a supplement to the LSA Report Specifications for the benefit of HMIS vendors. Its purpose is to provide a space for reconciling the LSA specifications to the HMIS Data Standards as required to maintain a compliant HMIS product. The LSA Report Specifications remain the central reference for vendors in regards to creating and maintaining LSA reporting.
The final versions of these documents are available on the HUD Exchange. The documents here are working versions that change more frequently and prior to release on the HUD Exchange.
- LSA Programming Specifications (usually referred to as 'the specs') - a Word document with detailed business logic and step-by-step instructions for producing the LSA based on HMIS data.
- LSA Data Dictionary - an Excel file that lists file names, columns, and valid values for the 12 CSV files included in an LSA upload.
The sample code is SQL, and written in SQL Server. Originally, it was not intended for public release -- it was written concurrent with the first version of the specs (FY2018) as a check to make sure the specs were specific enough. It was released on GitHub as a reference.
The Sample Data file above includes five ZIP files:
- Sample HMIS Data - HMIS CSV files
- Sample LSA Output - LSA CSV files generated by the LSA Sample Code based on the HMIS CSV files using general parameters
- Sample LSA Temp Tables - CSV files of exported data from the temporary tables created by the LSA sample code
- Sample HIC Output - LSA CSV files generated by the LSA sample code based on the HMIS CSV files using HIC parameters
- Sample HIC Temp Tables - CSV files of exported data from the temporary tables with HIC parameters
In order to run the code as is, a user must have access to a SQL Server (or SQL Server Express) database with:
- Permissions that allow creating tables, inserting records, and exporting CSV files.
- HMIS data in tables modeled after HMIS CSV FY2024. Naming conventions for tables use an hmis_ prefix with the CSV file name -- e.g., hmis_Project.
Specifically, the LSA sample code requires the tables listed below. Only records where DateDeleted is NULL are relevant.
- hmis_Organization
- hmis_Project
- hmis_Funder
- hmis_ProjectCoC
- hmis_Inventory
- hmis_Affiliation
- hmis_HMISParticipation
- hmis_Client
- hmis_Enrollment
- hmis_Exit
- hmis_Services
- hmis_HealthAndDV
- hmis_Disabilities