Data errors connected to a federal system used by End Homelessness Winnipeg have led to a significant overestimation of the number of people experiencing homelessness in the city, an internal organizational memo obtained by CBC News says.
Revised data shows 436 people were experiencing chronic homelessness at the end of March, instead of about 4,400, as the organization previously reported, the two-page document says.
My math skills may suck, but ive definitely seen more than 436 people that seemed to have no homes recently.
Even End Homelesness acknowledge the data error.
"The organization’s board was told in August that a staff member had noticed a problem with the case count during a routine review in early July.
They found a “significant number of participant files” were still open, even though the people in question hadn’t accessed services for “extended periods.”
“Further investigation found that the federal HIFIS data system was not automatically closing inactive cases as [End Homelessness Winnipeg] had understood,” the memo states.
After getting clarification from the federal department of housing, it “confirmed on July 9 that the 90-day inactivity threshold did not automatically close cases.”"