Current Living Situation (CLS) Assessment Guide

Table of Contents

• Overview

• Completing a CLS Assessment

  • Enrolling Household Members

• Accessing CLS from the Client Profile

  • Using the Sidebar Entry Point

• Accessing CLS in the Enrollment Workflow

  • Enrollment Date Alignment

• Accessing CLS in the Client Assessments Tab

• Moving a CLS Assessment

• Audit Log

Overview

The Current Living Situation (CLS) assessment collects data for the HUD HMIS Data Element 4.12 Current Living Situation. Collection of this data element is required for Adults and Heads of Households in applicable programs at program start and subsequent dates of contact.

The new Clarity interface provides multiple entry points for recording CLS assessments, ensuring that data collection is easily and quickly accessible during standard case management workflows. CLS assessments can be accessed from the Client Profile sidebar, a Program's enrollment workflow, and the Assessments tab. 

To reduce rework, CLS assessments can be moved to a different program after they have been saved, eliminating the need to delete and re-enter records created under the wrong program.

Completing a CLS Assessment

The basics of completing a CLS assessment are consistent whether you are accessing it from the client's Profile, from a client's Program enrollment workflow, or from the client's Assessments tab. Details on accessing a CLS assessment can be found in this article in these sections:

• Accessing CLS from the Client Profile

• Accessing CLS in the Enrollment Workflow

• Accessing CLS in the Assessments Tab

Once the assessment appears for you to complete, the following fields are available:

• Date of Contact: This field is pre-populated with today's date. 
  • Warning: If you change the date to any day other than today, a non-blocking warning appears: 
    
    "Date of Contact is not today’s date. Confirm this reflects the actual date of contact."
    
    
  • You may still save the record if this warning appears.

• Current Living Situation: Choose the appropriate answer from the drop-down list is populated with the selections in HUD’s Living Situation Option List (Appendix A of the Data Dictionary).
• Location Details: Enter the specific living situation details as required by the form.

Depending on the selection for Current Living Situation, additional required fields may appear:

• If one of the Temporary or Permanent Housing Situations outlined in HUD's Living Situation Option List is selected, additional required field(s) will appear. For example, a Temporary Housing Situation was selected in the example below, and 1 additional field appeared automatically.
  
  
• If the Rental by client, with ongoing housing subsidy option is selected, the Rental Subsidy Type field will appear, plus an additional field since the option is a Permanent Housing Situation:
  
  
  
  

When all fields are complete, and any household member entries have been added, click Save, then click Complete to end the workflow.

Enrolling Household Members

If the client is part of a household with other adult members (18+) active in the same program enrollment, an Include Household Members step appears. This workflow step is optional.

• Choosing Additional Group Members: You can select any combination of adult household members to include in the assessment.
• Sequential Workflow: The system will walk you through each selected member's form in sequence.
• Pre-filled Fields: Each member's form is pre-populated with the Date of Contact and Location Details from the Head of Household.
• The Current Living Situation field is based on the Head of Household's response, but can be edited for each individual.

Accessing CLS from the Client Profile

You can quickly initiate a CLS assessment directly from the client profile sidebar. 

Using the Sidebar Entry Point

When the Active Programs card in the right sidebar is expanded, the + Add Current Living Situation button appears under the program name and agency.

The + Add Current Living Situation button appears only if the client is an adult (age 18+) or the head of household, the program is active (non-exited), and Current Living Situation assessments are enabled for the program. 

Accessing CLS in the Enrollment Workflow

To ensure compliance from the start, a CLS assessment is automatically listed as a step of a client's program enrollment workflow whenever a user enrolls a client in a CLS-enabled program.

Enrollment Date Alignment

The Client > Program > Program Detail page will display a warning if the enrollment start date and the initial Current Living Situation (CLS) date do not match.

• Date Mismatch: If the initial CLS date does not match the Program Enrollment date, an Information (i) icon appears to the right of the enrollment date.
• Tooltip: Hovering over the icon displays:

"First Current Living Situation date doesn't match enrollment date. Review the CLS assessment or enrollment start date."

This indicator is visible in both active and inactive enrollment views. This message will disappear when the enrollment date and date of first contact match.

Accessing a CLS in the Assessments Tab

You can also initiate a CLS assessment from the client-level Assessments tab.

• Initiation: Click + Add Assessment and select Current Living Situation.
  
  
  
  • This option only appears if the client has at least one active CLS-enabled enrollment.
• Program Selection: You will be prompted to select which active enrollment the assessment belongs to.
  
  

• Visibility: Once saved, the CLS record is visible in both the Client > Assessments tab and the Program > Assessments tab for the selected enrollment.

Moving a CLS Assessment

If a CLS assessment was recorded under the wrong program, it can be moved. The Move To Another Program option is only available from the Client > Program > Assessments page. This action is not available from the client's History or Assessments tabs.

Locate the assessment in the program-level list, click the Action menu (⋮), and select the Move To Another Program option.

If another eligible, active CLS-enabled program is available for the client, the Move to Another Program modal opens on the right side of the page.  

Select the appropriate program from the list, then click Move. Click Cancel to cancel the move action and return to the program's Assessments tab.

If there are no eligible, active CLS-enabled programs available for the client, a notification will appear that reads:

"This client has no other program that can hold a Current Living Situation."

Audit Log

Admin users with audit log access rights can access audit logs for client records. All user actions are recorded in the CLS assessment audit log to ensure data integrity and enable tracking.

Published: 08/07/2026