Collection of data on homelessness

This is an index and change explainer for the collection of data on homelessness.

Problems with the way we currently collect this

Homelessness was considered as part of Data definition for factor candidates for the Overstay2 project, including a definition of how we would derive it from collected data.

Current data

• Pre acute living situation field
• Project NonTradLoc
• Postal Code field

• Pre acute living situation field - has specific entry option for homeless
• Postal_Code_field#Homeless_with_proxy_address
• Previous Location field#Direct Admit Scenarios
• Dispo field#Homeless patients

Province - That definition doesn't make it clear to me whether the entry should be "NK Not Known / Not available" or "MB" - can we clarify that? Ttenbergen 00:17, 12 July 2025 (CDT) * who should we clarify with, I would think if they have a MB PHIN or are self pay then you would choose MB, if they don't then I would choose Not known Lisa Kaita 21:25, 6 September 2025 (CDT) more of a "tighten definition" than "check with"; from talking with SW this population frequently doesn't have their paperwork or registrations figured out, or their MB Health status has expired even if they would theoretically be covered, etc. This all came up when Julie checked for outliers and compared the province and postal code to determine status for homelessness.

• SMW

• Cargo

• Categories

We also had an ICD10 diagnosis to capture homelessness ( Homelessness (Z59.0) ), but retired it August 28, 2019 Task meeting

CIHI has a document about coding homelessness; link is included here only as supplemental, use the definitions on the wiki rather than these unless we adopt them specifically.

Legacy data

• Homelessness

Log

• August 28, 2019 Task meeting - stopped collection of ICD code Homelessness