Current Living Situation (CLS) Assessment Guide

Table of Contents

• Overview

• Completing a CLS Assessment

  • Including Household Members in CLS

• Accessing CLS from the Client Profile

  • Using the Sidebar Entry Point

• Accessing CLS from the Enrollment Workflow

  • Enrollment Workflow Order
  • Closing the Workflow Before Recording a CLS
  • Enrollment Date Alignment
• Accessing CLS from Program-level Assessments

• Accessing CLS from Client-level Assessments 

• 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.

Clarity 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 both the client-level and program-level Assessments workspace. 

If you close the enrollment workflow before recording CLS, a Current Living Situation Needed prompt on the program's Information Bar takes you back to the CLS form.

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, from program-level Assessments, or from client-level Assessments.

Details on accessing a CLS assessment can be found in this article in these sections:

• Accessing CLS from the Client Profile

• Accessing CLS from the Enrollment Workflow

• Accessing CLS from Program-level Assessments

• Accessing CLS  from Client-level Assessments

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, which 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.

Including Household Members in CLS

If the Head of Household client receiving a CLS assessment is part of a household with other adult group members (18+), the Include Household Members (optional) step may appear.

Whether household members are included in the workflow depends on where you complete the CLS assessment. The Include Household Members (optional) step appears in the workflow during program enrollment, from the program-level Assessments workspace, or from the Active programs card on the client's profile. 

The Include Household Members (optional) step does not appear from the client-level Assessments workspace.

Program Enrollment

Select household members on the Include household members (optional) step, which appears right after you select the program in the Add program enrollment workflow. 

During a program enrollment, you can select any combination of adult household members to include in the assessment. 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 CLS.
  • The Current Living Situation field is based on the Head of Household's response, but can be edited for each individual.

Refer to the Enrollment Workflow Order section for the full sequence. 

Program-Level Assessments

From a CLS-enabled program, users can include adult (18+) household members on a CLS initiated from the program-level Assessments workspace. Select household members on the Include household members (optional) step, which appears right after you select an assessment on the Add a program assessment workflow. 

Active Programs Card

On the Active programs card, select household members on the Include Household Members (optional) step, which appears after the current client's CLS assessment is completed on the Add Current Living Situation workflow. 

On the Active programs card, only the currently enrolled household member(s) in the selected active program will appear as options for recording a CLS.

Accessing CLS from the Client Profile

You can quickly initiate a CLS assessment directly from the client profile sidebar in the Active programs card. 

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. 

If there are adult household members enrolled, you can include them on the Include Household Members (optional) step, which appears after the current client's CLS assessment is completed on the Add Current Living Situation workflow. 

Accessing CLS from 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.

When users navigate to Client > Programs >Add program enrollment for a CLS-enabled program, the Record Current Living Situation step will appear after the Head of Household entry screen.

After you complete the workflow, the Task Summary on the Completed step confirms that the CLS was recorded. When you include household members, it shows how many.

Refer to Creating and Managing Program Enrollments (New Clarity Interface) for the full list of Task Summary lines.

Enrollment Workflow Order

For a CLS-enabled program, the Add program enrollment workflow runs in this order:

• Select the program.
• If the client has household members, select the members to include on the Include household members (optional) step.
• Complete the enrollment screen for the client you are enrolling.
• Record that client's CLS.
• For each household member you selected, complete the member's enrollment screen. Then record the member's CLS if the member is an adult (18+).
• After all steps have been completed, click Complete.

Closing the Workflow Before Recording CLS

Your enrollment is saved when you save the enrollment screen, which happens before the Record Current Living Situation step. The CLS is saved separately. If you close the workflow before recording CLS, you can add it later.

To close the workflow after saving the enrollment:

• Click the Close (X) icon in the Add program enrollment modal. The Enrollment saved dialog appears and reads: "The enrollment is saved. Current Living Situation and household members can be added from the program page."

Choose one of the following:

• Click Continue enrollment to keep the workflow open and continue to the Record Current Living Situation step. 
• Click Close to close the workflow. The new enrollment opens, and it appears in the client's program enrollment history.

To record the CLS after closing the workflow:

• Open the new enrollment. The program's Information Box displays the Current Living Situation Needed prompt. Hover over the prompt to see a tooltip that explains what is missing.

• Click Current Living Situation Needed. The Add Current Living Situation modal opens on the CLS form for this enrollment. You do not need to select a program.
• Complete the fields described in the Completing a CLS Assessment section in this article.
• Click Save. The prompt disappears without a page reload, and the CLS appears on the enrollment's Assessments workspace.

On smaller screens, like mobile devices, the prompt appears as a pill. Tap the pill to open a bottom sheet, then tap the button at the bottom of the sheet to open the CLS form.

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 from Program-level Assessments

You can initiate a CLS assessment from the program-level Assessments workspace.

Click + Add Assessment and select Current Living Situation, then Next.

 

If there are adult household members, select them in the Include household members (optional) step, then Next.

Complete the CLS assessment for the current client and for each household member selected. Click Save and Complete.

Once saved, the CLS record is visible in both the client-level Assessments (for each household member it was completed) and the program-level Assessments workspaces for the selected enrollment.

Accessing CLS from Client-level Assessments

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

• Click + Add Assessment and select Current Living Situation, then Next.
  
  
  
  • This option only appears if the client has at least one active CLS-enabled enrollment.
• Select the active enrollment the assessment belongs to, then Next.
  
  
• Complete the CLS and Save.

Once saved, the CLS record is visible in both the Client > Assessments and Program > Assessments workspaces for the selected enrollment.

Moving a CLS Assessment

If a CLS assessment was recorded under the wrong program, it can be moved to the correct one. The Move To Another Program option is only available from the program-level Assessments workspace. This action is not available from the client-level History or Assessments workspaces.

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 workspace.

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

The View Audit Log option in the CLS Action Menu can be selected by a system administrator with Audit Log access rights. All user actions are recorded in the CLS assessment audit log to ensure data integrity and enable tracking.

Updated: 10/22/2026