Office of Community Services Affordable Housing and Supportive Services Demonstration Data Collection
No material or nonsubstantive change to a currently approved collection
No
Regular
01/07/2025
Requested
Previously Approved
10/31/2027
10/31/2027
1,462
1,474
1,393
1,411
0
0
The Affordable Housing and Supportive Services Demonstration (AHSSD) Data Collection (OMB #0970-0628) was originally approved in March 2024 and then revised in September 2024. The information collection includes individual-level survey instruments and on-site focus groups to collect information from program participants, onsite and virtual interviews to collect information from program staff, and report forms to capture service delivery and outcomes.
The Office of Community Services (OCS) has not yet collected data using the focus group and interview protocols. After we awarded our most recent round of grants, we realized that budgetary constraints may impede the collection of data via in-person site visits. Collecting this data in person would require extensive staff travel, which will be difficult to achieve given budgetary and staff constraints.
OCS has begun collecting data with the survey instruments for baseline data, and we have recently begun the first wave of data collection for the follow up survey. Our analyses of the follow-up data has demonstrated that we can trim a few items to reduce participant burden as they are not needed for the longitudinal analysis.
OCS requests changes to achieve efficiencies in collecting in-depth qualitative data from participants and staff, as well as minor changes to reduce burden. To achieve efficiencies in collecting in-depth qualitative data, OCS would like to transition from on-site data collection with participants and staff to virtual data collection. OCS had originally planned to conduct site visits during which we would conduct interviews and focus groups, but we believe that conducting these collections virtually would lead to significant time savings for OCS, grant recipients, and participants. Additionally, in order to better promote participant privacy in the virtual environment, we propose to transition from using a focus group format for the participant data collection to using an interview. It is difficult in a virtual environment to ensure that participants are only sharing information with those in the focus group, so we would like to conduct this collection as individual interviews to better ensure privacy of participants.
We also make revisions to reduce burden on participants. Upon running our preliminary analysis on the service receipt questionnaire and self-sufficiency matrix, we realized that we do not need length of time in current housing and number of children in the household in the service receipt questionnaire. The self-sufficiency matrix provides a firmer sense of length of time in service delivery with the item about enrollment in case management services. Additionally, our analysis does not use the number of children item because we are most interested in child-care utilization, the need for which is captured in the self-sufficiency matrix. As a result, we updated Instrument 2 (Service receipt questionnaire) to remove âhow long have you lived in your current housingâ and âhow many children under the age of 18 live in your householdâ
Finally, we make minor revisions to increase the flexibility of these instruments moving forward. Primarily, across all items in this change request, we indicate that we will insert an appropriate contact in the PRA statement by adding [contact] to the statement.
US Code:
42 USC 1310
Name of Law: Social Security Act
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that the collection of information encompassed by this request complies with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding the proposed collection of information, that the certification covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.
NonSub Change Request - AHSSD.docx
2024 Version – Semi-Annual Quantitative Report OPTIONAL