ARCH serves as the Collaborative Applicant for the Alabama Balance of State Continuum of Care — but that's only one part of what we do. We're also the region's HUD-designated lead for HMIS and Coordinated Entry, its primary training pipeline through ARCH Academy™, and an agency with a long track record directly administering federal and state homelessness and disaster recovery programs.
Webinars, workshops, and certificate training — including our flagship ALAMP™ program — plus technical assistance.
ARCH is the HUD-designated lead for the Homeless Management Information System and Coordinated Entry for the Balance of State CoC.
ARCH is the HUD-designated Collaborative Applicant for the 37-county Alabama Balance of State CoC (AL-507) — see what that role means.
ARCH is the HUD-designated lead for both HMIS and Coordinated Entry for the Alabama Balance of State Continuum of Care — managing the Homeless Management Information System that agencies across all 37 counties rely on to coordinate client data and track outcomes, and leading the Coordinated Entry process that connects people experiencing homelessness to available housing and services through RACAS. See Coordinated Entry & RACAS → for how someone gets connected to help, or the license process below to get access to HMIS itself.
Need a license to use HMIS? Here's the process:
ARCH's HMIS runs on PromisSE — the shared, multi-CoC HMIS implementation used by Continuums of Care across Alabama and northwest Florida. Because the privacy policy comes from PromisSE's own HMIS Policies & Procedures, it's the same notice used by every participating CoC statewide, including AL-507.
We collect personal information directly from you for reasons that are discussed in our privacy statement. We may be required to collect some personal information by law or by organizations that fund and/or operate these programs. Other personal information that we collect is important to run our programs, to improve services for homeless and at-risk persons, and to better understand the needs of homeless and at-risk persons. We only collect information that we consider appropriate.
The Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) was developed to meet a data collection requirement made by the United States Congress to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Congress passed this requirement in order to get a more accurate count of individuals who are homeless and to identify the need for and use of different services by those individuals and families. Your information may be shared among the CoCs that participate in PromisSE.
Your information can be shared with other HMIS-participating agencies throughout the implementation. The information entered by participating providers includes basic identifying demographic data (e.g., name, birth date, and gender), the nature of your situation, and the services and referrals received from the participating agency. Your information may be shared with other HMIS-participating agencies and users during both in-person and virtual (online) meetings. Virtual meetings are secured through the meeting software vendor's security protocols (e.g., data encryption and the ability to only allow authorized individuals into meetings).
Participating agencies collect personal information directly from you for reasons that are discussed in their privacy policy. They may be required to collect personal information by law or by the organizations that fund and/or operate these programs. Other personal information that is collected is important to operate programs, to improve services, and to better understand client needs. They only collect information that they consider appropriate and accurate. The collection and use of all personal information is guided by strict standards of confidentiality.
Maintaining the privacy and safety of those clients whose records reside in HMIS, and the agencies that use HMIS, is very important to us. Information gathered about each client and each agency is personal and private. We collect information only when appropriate to provide services, manage our organization and the database, or as required by law. The ownership of all records contained within HMIS is retained by the organization/agency that collected and entered or updated the client's information.
The collection and use of all personal information is guided by strict standards of confidentiality. A copy of our Privacy Policy describing our privacy practice is available to all clients upon request.
This policy may be amended at any time, and amendments may affect information obtained before the date of change.
ARCH reviews and updates this Privacy Notice at least annually and provides a current copy to all HMIS users.
Required at every HMIS-participating agency: if your agency enters data into HMIS, this Public Notice must be posted and visible to clients at your facility, per PromisSE's HMIS Policies & Procedures.
Over the years, ARCH has directly administered a range of federal and state programs addressing homelessness, housing instability, and disaster recovery across Alabama.
HUD program that prevented homelessness and quickly rehoused individuals and families who did become homeless.
HUD's core homelessness assistance program — street outreach, emergency shelter, rapid re-housing, and prevention. Need a CoC certification letter? See ESG Coordination →
CARES Act supplemental ESG funding to prevent, prepare for, and respond to COVID-19 among people experiencing homelessness. See the HOUSE 507 project below ↓
U.S. Treasury funding that helped renters and landlords cover rent and utility costs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
One-on-one case management connecting disaster survivors to the resources they need to recover after a federally declared disaster.
HUD funding to help communities recover from presidentially declared disasters through housing, infrastructure, and economic revitalization.
When ARCH was awarded $10 million in ESG-CV funding, we didn't just distribute it — we used it to grow the field. HOUSE 507 is what we called the effort to bring new organizations into federal homelessness work and help them succeed at it.
Most of the 27+ agencies ARCH brought on as subrecipients through HOUSE 507 had never worked on a federal project or managed a federal grant of any kind. Rather than limit ESG-CV funding to a handful of already-experienced agencies, ARCH built out the training, monitoring, and hands-on technical assistance needed to bring an entirely new set of organizations into the field — expanding Alabama's homeless services capacity well beyond what existed before the award.
That meant walking first-time subrecipients through everything from grant compliance and HMIS data entry to procurement rules and reporting — the same kind of capacity-building support ARCH now offers more broadly through ARCH Academy™, including our technical assistance line.
Reach our team at arch@archconnection.org.