State agencies collect some of these data from state-funded providers. Until recently, however, state government has made no coordinated effort to track where people in shelters come from and where they go, and how many people receive services from multiple agencies. Reliable quantitative data could have an impact on policy and funding decisions. On the individual shelter side, data on the prior living situations of shelter clients could help us develop a more comprehensive picture of the flow of people through state agencies and shelters, and help us pinpoint those agencies that are most likely to discharge individuals into shelters. Data on lengths of stay and multiple shelter use could help us determine whether there really is a small number of chronic shelter residents with significant obstacles to self-sufficiency, who might be better served by other state agencies.
ANCHoR is a new initiative to collect uniform data on services to homeless people.
ANCHoR was developed by the University of Pennsylvania, and is operated in Massachusetts by the University of Massachusetts, McCormack Institute. Massachusetts began implementing the system in Fiscal Year 1998. Providers transmit uniform data reports to a central server at the McCormack Institute that produces aggregate data reports. A steering committee, composed of shelter providers, representatives from the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, and formerly homeless individuals decides how to use the data and what modifications the McCormack Institute should make to the University of Pennsylvania's model. A number of agencies are not yet participating in the ANCHoR project.