Table of Contents

• Announcements
• September 2026 Feature Focus
• This Year's LSA: What to Know and How to Prepare
• Report Spotlight
• Stay Informed
  
• Upcoming Events 
• Bitfocus is Hiring

Announcements 

🏠 Feature Update: Pending Referral Unit Change 

What's New?

Housing providers can now change the assigned Unit on a Pending referral directly—without needing to deny the referral and recreate it from scratch. This makes it much easier to match clients to the best available unit for their needs.

How it Works:

• Open the referral on the Referral Details page. 
• Locate the new Referred Unit field directly beneath Referred Program. 
• Select an available unit from the dropdown list and save your changes.

Note: The Referred Unit field stays editable while the referral is pending, so you can update the unit multiple times if placement plans change.

To change a unit on a referral, the following must be true

• To change a unit on a referral, the following must be true:he referral is in Pending status.
• The referral is assigned at the Unit level (bed-level referrals cannot be swapped via this screen).
• The program has at least one other Active, unoccupied unit available as of the referral date.

• Referral History & Audit Log: Every unit change is automatically logged with an activity note and timestamps.
• Occupancy History: Available under Manage > Sites > Buildings & Units > Occupancy History, keeping unit records accurate and up to date
  Under Referrals - Pending, toggle on Referrals - Change Unit for the appropriate roles.

• Navigate to Setup > Access Role. 
• Under Referrals - Pending, toggle on Referrals - Change Unit for the appropriate roles.

🔗 Want step-by-step instructions, details on system warnings, or workflow specifics? Check out the full Clarity Human Services Feature Update: Pending Referral Unit Change article for more details.

September 2026 Feature Focus  

Looker Upgraded to Verison 26.12

On September 13th, the Data Analysis Tool was upgraded to Looker version 26.12 during the early-morning maintenance window. No action was required from users as a result of this upgrade.

New features now available:

• Higher row limits: Table visualizations can now display more than 5,000 rows, up to a new maximum of 50,000. Bitfocus is gradually increasing instance row limits while monitoring performance.
• KPI Visualization: the Single Value Visualization has been renamed to the KPI Visualization and now supports spark charts and comparison formatting.
• Google Maps Visualization enhancements: vector maps, dual-axis metric comparison, and contextual/custom overlays are now available.

Looking Ahead: October 2026 Release

Clarity's new user interface is live for all communities! We're still working on some pieces around reports and day-to-day case management, but we're looking forward to hearing how the transition into this modern structure works for you!

This Year's LSA: What to Know and How to Prepare

HUD's Longitudinal Systems Analysis (LSA) is the annual, system-level report that replaced the AHAR's data component back in the 2018 reporting year. Where the APR/CAPER looks at individual projects and System Performance Measures (SPMs) track CoC-wide benchmarks, the LSA sits in between: a system-level look at households and individuals served, broken out by household type and population, that feeds HUD's national homelessness estimates.

Prep season for the LSA and its companion SPM report kicks off in October. Here's what's new for this year's submission and how your agency can get ahead of it.

What's new in the FY2026 LSA specifications:

• A new data quality measure separates 4-digit SSNs out from "Missing/Invalid" SSNs.
• Disability Status now separates "Client Doesn't Know/Prefers Not to Answer" from "Missing/Invalid."
• The Sex field, which was incorporated in the 2026 Data Standards, will not be analyzed.
• New project-level DQ measures count Emergency Shelter – Night-by-Night enrollments excluded from the LSA due to missing Bed Night Date service records.

How to prepare your agency's data:

We will be reaching out over the next several weeks to verify or correct program and client data — please look out for those emails and respond promptly. In the meantime, Agency Leads should review their own data ahead of the federal reporting deadline.

• Run the [HUDX-225] HMIS Data Quality Report for 10/1/25–9/30/26 (Report Library → HUD Reports) and correct any element with an error rate over 5%.
• Run the[GNRL-106] Program Roster for the same period (Program Based Reports) to confirm households are grouped correctly — some measures only count heads of household.
• Run the [GNRL-220] Program Details Report to check dates of birth, housing move-in dates, living situation fields, and exit destinations — avoiding "Client doesn't know/Client prefers not to answer/Data not collected" wherever possible.
• Review bed inventory and utilization rates (aim for 90–105%) and resolve any missing exits or abandoned enrollments for Night-by-Night shelters.

This review takes about 30 minutes for someone familiar with the program, and the same cleanup benefits both the LSA and the SPM.

Where communities commonly lose usability:

The most common causes of "unusable LSA" reports are: utilization outliers (zero, or unusually low/high), missing projects or enrollments, overlapping bed nights within the same project type, and invalid or missing SSNs. Addressing these now is the best way to ensure a strong reporting year for your community's homeless response system!

Want more detail? Visit HUD's LSA HUD Exchange Page.

Report Spotlight: [HSNG-200] Current Housing Availability

This report summarizes available bed and unit inventory — by housing project type and program — as of the night before the report is run.

• Where to run it: Report Library → Housing → [HSNG-200] Current Housing Availability. An Admin version, [HSNG-200-AD], is available under Administrator Reports for cross-agency views.
• Who can run it: All users can run this report — access is limited only by each user's own permission scope, not by the report itself.
• How to read it: Current Availability = Capacity − Total in Use. Capacity comes from active bed/unit inventories as of the night before the report runs; what counts as an active enrollment for Total in Use varies slightly by project type (for example, Emergency Shelter – Night-by-Night only counts enrollments with a logged bed-night service for that night).
• Bonus: you can drill down on the Total in Use numbers to see basic demographics for the clients included in that count.

Want more information? Check out our Help Center Article. 

Stay Informed! Get the Latest News from the KCRHA Blog 

Want to stay in the loop with the King County Regional Homelessness Authority? The KCRHA Blog is the go-to resource for real-time updates on regional efforts. This month, we’re highlighting critical information regarding seasonal shelter openings and the latest Notice of Funding Opportunities (NOFO). Don’t miss out on important deadlines and community resources. Bookmark the KCRHA Blog today

Upcoming Events

Coordinated Entry Monthly Assessor Credential Training (ACT) | October 14th @ 9:30am - 11 Open the Zoom Registration Link Here

Users must attend an ACT training before they gain assessors access in the HMIS.

The Monthly Assessor Credential Training is hosted virtually every month. Come prepared to participate in a Coordinated Entry Assessor Onboarding Training that will cover an overview of the system, housing types, service match, documentation, and nomination process, followed by an HMIS demo on your basic assessor workflow.

Bitfocus is Hiring

Join our Team!

• Visit bitfocus.com | Jobs | About Bitfocus

• Work with us at Bitfocus! Join a team committed to innovation, collaboration, and real-world impact in human services.  

Questions?

Your HMIS Administrators are happy to help.

Phone: (206) 444-4001, Ext 2

Email: kcsupport@bitfocus.com