Longitudinal Systems Analysis (LSA)
Learn about running and submitting the 2025 LSA as a ClientTrack user.
Written by Jessica Fleming
Updated at October 28th, 2025
Table of Contents
LSA Overview
The Longitudinal Systems Analysis (LSA) is a systems level report that details how individuals and households are served by HMIS participating projects throughout the federal fiscal year. The FY25 LSA will generate data for active clients and households between October 1, 2024 through September 30, 2025. Sections of the LSA may utilize a lookback period of 7 years to determine key pathways on individuals who return to the system after exiting. All data collected and submitted as part of the FY25 LSA will be used in combination with the 2026 Point-in-Time Count and 2026 Housing Inventory Chart to inform the larger, Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR). The AHAR informs strategic planning and key initiatives to prevent and end homelessness on a local, state, and federal level.
2025 LSA Updates
2025 LSA Updates have been deployed to all customer environments as of 3pm ET on October 28, 2025
Logical Updates:
- Remove Gender references
- Update Hispanic/Latina/e/o terminology to Hispanic/Latina/o
- Update AHAR terminology to AIR (Active In Residence)
- Clarified that there must be at least one bed night in the reporting period to set AIR = 1 for ES NbN Shelters (Section 5.1)
- Limited several sections to limit counts of people to those active in residence when LSAScope = 3/HIC (Sections 5.3, 10.8, 10.9, 11.5, 11.6, 11.7)
FY2026 LSA Report Launch Form
- The 2026 form has been set as the workgroup override for the baseline HMIS Workgroups and has been updated to default the Report Start Date as 10/1/2024 and the Report End Date as 9/30/2025
- FormID 5365 / Longitudinal System Analysis (LSA FY26) Export
2026 Calculated Explorer
- Added text descriptions in a drop-down list to assist users in identifying the client records contributing to each flag.
- FormID 5368/LSA Calculated Explorer
Saved LSA Exports
- This new form enables end users to view saved LSA report settings and generate an export from the form.
- Saved Report Settings can be updated by navigating to the LSA Export form, selecting the appropriate Saved Report record, and then update the parameters on the form.
- FormID 5366/LSA 2026 Saved Export Settings
LSA Report Runs
- This form has been updated to include additional aggregated information for Run Times & Execution Time Estimates for LSA Runs within your ClientTrack system. This addition of Run Times & Execution Time Estimates is available to better enable end users to anticipate how long an LSA may take to generate with your community's specific data set.
- The calculation does not consider processing time required for the async worker to move from one step to the next. It only includes how long each step took to query and collect the data for the relevant step.
- FormID 5367/LSA Reports - 2026
*This data was generated in an environment with little test data. The Run Time and Execution Time Estimate are low because of a very small dataset.
LSA Season
The opening of LSA in November 2025 marks the beginning of LSA season. This time should be dedicated to addressing data quality around Project Descriptor Data Elements (PDDE's), working through uploads to HDX 2.0 and the flag file produced, and general data quality checks. It is expected that that LSA is an iterative process as communities work through the flag files. Communities should share their flag files over with support so that we may work through common flags across communities to issue guidance related to locating the data, correcting the data, or enhancing the logic of our LSA.
Additional information regarding the LSA can be found in the LSA: FY 2025 HMIS Programming Specifications document or on the LSA page of the HUD Exchange.
Timeline:
*Please Note - There is not yet an official calendar for the 2025 LSA Season. This is estimated based on information shared with the vendor groups and prior years calendars.
Office Hours
Re-occurring every Wednesday from 3-4pm EST via Teams. See below for the links
If you need to join the Community of Practice, please click here. By clicking the link, you will automatically be added to the Community of Practice where you can access recordings of past Office Hours and any documentation that accompanies them. If the link above isn't working, please try this link: HMIS Community of Practice.
Office Hours will be scheduled beginning on November 12, 2025. Please keep an eye out for the meeting invite from the HMIS Community of Practice.
Helpful Articles & How-To's
Accessing the LSA
The LSA is menued up under the LSA workspace within the LSA Space workgroup. Individual customer environments may elect to menu up the LSA within different workspaces, so please check with your administrator. If you do not have access to the LSA Space but need to generate a LSA, please check in with your administrator to grant you access.
Locating the LSA in the LSA Space* Workgroup:
1. Change your workgroup to LSA Space*
2. Navigate to the LSA Space workspace on the left-hand menu
3. Select New LSA Export
4. Enter the parameters to generate the report and select Run Export
Submitting Flag Files
Please share over your flag files by submitting an issue ticket within your system with the following information:
- LSA in the subject line
- Attach the flag files, LSA Export, and the HUD CSV Export (if generated)
- Description of any issue(s) you'd like to bring to attention
- Screenshot of the issue(s)
- Check the ‘Send to ClientTrack' checkbox
Issues submitted to support will then be shared with the engineering and product team to identify common issues for prioritization. Common/Known issues will be updated on the top of this article with a description of the issue and a potential release date.
Helpful Links
HUD Resources:
- LSA Page on HUD Exchange
- LSA Common Flags Library
- Introductory Guide to Submitting LSA Data for the AHAR
- HDX 2.0
- HUD Weebly Page
Knowledge Base Articles:
- ClientTrack Known Issues
- Household Issues
- Project Descriptor Data Element (PDDE) Report
- Overlapping Enrollment Report
*A suggestion for identifying Overlapping Enrollments was shared during office hours. To use this suggestion, please see the steps below:
- Run LSA and upload into HDX to receive the warnings file. Log into ClientTrack in the LSA Space* Workgroup, make note of the relevant report ID used to generate the LSA that was uploaded into HDX.
- Navigate to the LSA Space Worksapce > Select a CoC > LSA Tools > Calculated Explorer
- Select Report ID and enter Cohort, Universe, HHType, Population and row (These can be found in the warnings file generated from HDX)
- Select Search and export the results to Excel
- Review the excel for the column header Calculated_data_RelevantID (column E currently) > Filter this column by ‘,’ (comma) - this should filter the column to only show results that have more than one enrollment ID associated with the Client and the Date.
- Review the clients and make appropriate data entry updates or write an explanation for the flag in HDX.
2023 LSA Information
Important Dates:
November 13 HDX 2.0 Opens to Communities
November 14 Eccovia LSA release to customers
November 16 Eccovia LSA Webinar (Register here)
November 20 - November 24 Holiday Break (Abt Associates liaisons aren't available for assistance, but HDX is still available)
November 29 Communities should have had at least one successful upload
December 23 - January 1 Holiday Break (Abt Associates liaisons aren't available for assistance, but HDX is still available)
January 17 - Final Submission Deadline
January 23 - Final Submission Deadline (1 week extension granted on 1/11/2024)
2023 Specific Resources
Additional information regarding the LSA can be found in the LSA: FY 2023 HMIS Programming Specifications document or on the LSA page of the HUD Exchange.
