OMB AHS15 Supporting Statement PART A

SUPPORTING STATEMENT

A. Justification

1. Necessity of Information Collection

We request clearance for the proposed questions to be used on the 2015 American Housing Survey (AHS). We will collect data for the majority of the sample between May 1 and September 18, 2015. A small number of cases in the Phoenix, Arizona area will be interviewed between September and December 2015. This request is a revision to the currently approved data collection request for the AHS under OMB Number 2528-0017.

The 2015 AHS begins a new longitudinal panel, as well as a significant number of changes to the questionnaire. The sample design has three primary components: an integrated national sample, an independent metropolitan areas sample, and a bridge sample of housing units that were surveyed in 2013. Furthermore, the integrated national sample includes three parts: (1) new national cases representative of the US and nine Census divisions, (2) new subsidized renter oversample cases, and (3) a new oversample of the top 15 metropolitan areas in the US. The total integrated national sample will be 86,025. The independent metropolitan areas sample will consist of an additional 10 metropolitan areas and will include approximately 30,391 records (approximately 3,000 per metropolitan area). The bridge sample will consist of 6,000 housing units surveyed in 2013.

Starting in 2009, the AHS questions were classified into “core” modules and “rotating topical” modules in order to minimize respondent burden and satisfy widening needs for data content. Questions in the core modules are asked in each survey and typically undergo only minor revisions between surveys. Questions in the topical modules are asked on a rotating basis.

Title 12, United States Code, Sections 1701z-1, 1701z-2(g), and 1701z-10a provide authority to collect this information.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) uses the information from the AHS to prepare the Worst Case Needs reports to Congress. HUD was directed to prepare this report series by U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee in 1990 (Committee Report to accompany H.R. 5158, The VA-HUD Appropriations Act for FY 1991 (S. Rpt. 101-474)). HUD also uses these data to prepare other special reports for Congress and its committees concerning the effect of legislation on the housing stock.

The 2015 data collection procedures and questionnaire content are similar to the 2013 survey with the following exceptions:

1. Introduction of the New Pre-Interview Module Completed by the Field Representatives (FRs): In an effort to reduce respondent burden, FRs will consult public records, such as tax assessments, and observe the housing unit and neighborhood to answer questions prior to the AHS interview. Pre-Interview will include, among others, questions about the condition of the unit’s roof and windows, the presence of trash or litter in the streets, and the accessibility of the community by persons other than residents. FRs will only answer these Pre-Interview questions when they can observe the full scope of the surfaces without trespassing on private property. The instrument will be designed to collect this information from the respondent when the FR cannot answer.

2. Removal of Four Rotating Topical Modules from the 2013 AHS: The Public Transportation and Pedestrian Accessibility, Disaster Planning, Doubled-Up Households, and Neighborhood Social Capital topical modules will not be included in the 2015 survey.

3. Removal of Utility Billing Questions when Utility Costs can be modeled: To reduce respondent burden associated with utility billing questions, allocation models were developed to estimate average monthly costs for electricity, natural piped gas, and bottled gas using housing and household characteristics, weather data, and data from the Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS). We will stop collecting monthly bills for electricity, natural piped gas, and bottled gas when those utilities are billed separately or when they are combined with each other. We will continue to collect annual costs for fuel oil and costs for other fuels, trash, and water. When electric, natural piped gas, and bottled gas bills include fuel oil, other fuel, trash, or water costs, we are not able to separate the parts of the bill that we can model from those we cannot model. With these types of billing combinations we will collect one bill or an estimate of average monthly costs to create cost estimates.

4. Questions on Neighborhood Quality added to Core: Questions on neighborhood quality frequently used in hedonic home price models, which were part of the Core questionnaire before 2011 and included in a topical module in 2013, return to the Core questionnaire in 2015.

5. Reinstatement of the Healthy Homes Topical Module: The Healthy Homes module collects data on potential health and safety hazards in the home. It has been revised since its last deployment in 2011. In addition to revised questions on second-hand smoke and the presence and treatment of asthma in children, there are new questions about radon exposure.

6. Introduction of Three New Rotating Topical Modules: To continue the strategy of rotating topical modules in order to minimize respondent burden and satisfy widening needs for data content, three new topical modules have been added to the survey, Arts and Culture, Housing Counseling, and Food Security modules. These modules collect data on the effects of arts and cultural venues on the community, the use and benefits of housing counseling services, and the access and affordability of food. Please refer to the attached items booklet for the questions in these modules and the entire AHS questionnaire.

7. Sample Split for Rotating Topical Modules: A split of the survey sample will be used to maximize the number of rotating topical modules that can be included in the 2015 AHS. Fifty percent of the sample will be asked the Healthy Homes module. The other 50 percent will be asked the Arts and Culture, Housing Counseling, and Food Security modules.

The following are new features of the integrated national sample design:

1. Oversample of Top 15 Metropolitan Areas: Fifteen metropolitan areas have a sample size of approximately 3,000 and are embedded in the national sample design.

2. Addition of Subsidized Housing Units: In 2015, we will select 5,258 housing units associated with one of HUD’s subsidized housing programs. A subsidized housing unit is one where the resident receives government rent assistance such as in units owned by public housing authorities and properties in HUD’s multifamily housing program. A subsidized housing unit meets the Census definition of a housing unit in that the resident lives separately from others on the property and has direct access from outside or a common hallway.

We also request clearance for the reinterview questions to be used in conjunction with this survey. We will conduct a second interview at approximately 7 percent of the total addresses in the survey for the purpose of interviewer quality control. Reinterview questions ask respondent whether they recall general details from the original interview. The 2015 reinterview instrument will contain seven questions. However, each respondent will only be asked four or six questions. While three of the questions will be the same for each reinterview respondent, due to the split sample assigning different questions to respondents in the original interview, the remaining reinterview questions will be different for respondents in each of the two samples. We included in this clearance the cost and respondent burden estimates for the reinterview.

2. Needs and Uses

Both HUD and outside entities use the core modules of the AHS extensively. The core modules capture information about building and unit characteristics, housing quality, fuel and electricity costs, resident mobility and recent movers, rent and mortgage expenses, household demographic characteristics, income, and repairs and remodeling frequency and expenses. The following subsections describe the internal and external uses of the core modules and expected uses of the rotating topical modules.

1. HUD’s Internal Needs for the Core Modules

HUD has numerous needs for the AHS to support Congressional reporting requirements, programmatic needs, and ongoing research.

The needs include, but are not limited to:

1. Worst Case Housing Needs: Congress requires HUD to produce the Worst Case Housing Needs report every two years. This report is based almost entirely on the AHS.

2. Worst Case Housing Needs of People with Disabilities: HUD produces a supplemental report to the Worst Case Housing Needs report providing national estimates and information on the critical housing problems that confront low income renting families that include people with disabilities.

3. Characteristics of HUD Assisted Renters and Their Units: HUD produces a report detailing the housing conditions of HUD-assisted renters. This report is based entirely on the AHS responses of units that match to HUD administrative records of subsidized housing.

4. Housing Program Monitoring: AHS data is used to evaluate, monitor, and design the HUD programs to improve efficiency and effectiveness. From a HUD policy perspective, the AHS data have proved valuable in analyzing the potential effects of program design and redesign proposals. Past data have enabled HUD, for instance, to determine under what conditions a moderate income, multifamily construction program might be needed and feasible; to examine the effect of low vacancy rates on housing maintenance and quality; and to evaluate how housing assistance programs help welfare recipients.

5. National Housing Market Program of Research: HUD PD&R continuously monitors the state of the nation’s housing market. The AHS contributes to this effort by providing estimates of vacancy, financing types, homeowner equity, and housing values, to name a few.

6. Regional and Local Housing Market Research: HUD PD&R use the AHS data as one source of data for creating Comprehensive Housing Market Analyses and other local housing market intelligence reports. These reports help HUD field economists evaluate feasibility and market impacts of proposed multifamily assisted housing project investments.

7. Affordable Housing Program of Research: HUD PD&R uses the AHS to conduct research on the number of affordable rental units in the housing stock and the degree to which rents are affordable to low- and moderate-income families and to very-low-income families.

8. Housing and Demographics Program of Research: HUD PD&R uses the AHS to conduct research on demographic distributions by types of housing units. Of particular interest are housing choices by low-income female householders, minorities, first-time home buyers, the elderly, and households nearing retirement.

2. Core Modules Uses External to HUD

National and local policy analysts, program managers, budget analysts, and Congressional staff use the AHS data to advise executive and legislative branches about housing conditions and the suitability of policy initiatives. Academic researchers and private organizations also use the AHS data in efforts of specific interest and concern to their respective communities.

Data from the AHS is the major source of estimates of the space-rental value of housing (a component of personal consumption expenditures) and of the rental income of persons (a component of both personal income and national income). The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) uses the AHS data in preparing metropolitan income and product accounts. The specific data that the BEA uses are those defining farm or nonfarm location, type of housing unit, occupancy status, tenure of the occupant, and the expenditures related to housing (rent, utilities, mortgage, and so on).

Another use of the AHS data is to evaluate the housing program benefits reported on the Current Population Survey (CPS) and the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). The Energy Information Administration of the Department of Energy issues an annual report “Annual Energy Review” using the heating fuel data collected in AHS (http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/annual/).

Data from the AHS are the primary input into Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies estimate of the size of the remodeling market (http://www.jchs.harvard.edu/research/remodeling-futures).

3. Rotating Module Needs and Potential Uses

New data are being collected in the 2015 survey on the use and benefits of housing counseling services, the effects of arts and cultural venues on the community, the potential health and safety hazards in the home, and the access and affordability of food. We will collect this data in the following four modules.

1. Housing Counseling Module: The Housing Counseling module was developed as a rotating module to get a sense of the number of homeowners and renters who have sought out housing counseling advice. HUD is also generally interested in why they sought advice, how much they paid, and if it was helpful.

2. Arts and Culture Module: The Arts and Culture module was developed as a rotating module in the 2015 AHS to collect information on arts and cultural venues and events, and their relationship to neighborhood choice, their convenience to the respondent’s residence, and assessment of their importance to the respondent’s community.

3. Healthy Homes Module: The Healthy Homes module was included in the 2011 AHS. In the 2015 AHS, this module contains some new and revised questions about second-hand smoke, radon exposure, and other related topics.

The overall goal of the Healthy Homes module is to explore the use of AHS as a cost effective means for improving national surveillance on housing characteristics and conditions that can adversely impact occupant health. For example, data will be collected on the presence of important asthma triggers (i.e., cockroaches, mice, mold) and key injury hazards. Questions on the presence of an occupant with asthma and the need for recent emergency treatment will allow for an assessment of the association between exposure proxies and presence and severity of occupant asthma.

4. Food Security Module: The Food Security module was added to the 2015 AHS as a rotating topical module to collect the intersection between food security and housing costs. Food-insecure households lack consistent access to adequate food for one or more household members. To this point, data have not been available to enable research on housing burden and food security jointly. Food security data in the AHS would support research to understand this relationship at the household level, and to examine the role housing and energy assistance may have in moderating it. Most policy research has focused on the effects of food and nutrition assistance programs on food insecurity. The 2015 AHS will allow analysis of how HUD assistance programs, especially rental assistance, affect food security assistance.

Information quality assessment is an integral part of the pre-dissemination review of information disseminated by the Census Bureau (fully described in the Census Bureau’s Information Quality Guidelines). Information quality assurance is also integral to information collections conducted by the Census Bureau and is incorporated into the clearance process required by the Paperwork Reduction Act.

3. Use of Information Technology

1. Data Collection

The U.S. Census Bureau began conducting all the AHS interviewing with computers with the 1997 AHS enumeration. A Census Bureau FR conducts the interview via a Blaise CAPI instrument. The same survey instrument is used for all interviews. However, the instrument code includes skip patterns and makes use of dependent interviewing techniques, which means that a few questions will not have to be asked in future enumerations to decrease respondent burden for households in sample.

The AHS has not collected data via the Internet or through the Electronic Data Interchange because of the significant investment in time and research needed to establish these types of electronic reporting in an ongoing survey. However, the Census Bureau is planning the use of an Internet survey for the 2017 AHS.

2. Data Dissemination

The Census Bureau currently makes summary tables and micro data collected by the AHS available to the public on the new Census Bureau Internet Web site developed in collaboration with HUD at:

http://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/ahs

The Census Bureau plans to make the 2015 AHS summary data available on American FactFinder (http://factfinder.census.gov) and via the newly developed AHS Table Creator Tool (http://sasweb.ssd.census.gov/ahs/ahstablecreator.html).

The data being disseminated and released are not individually identifiable and will have been cleared for release/dissemination by the Census Bureau's Disclosure Review Board.

4. Efforts to Identify Duplication

1. Duplication in the Core Modules

HUD consulted with other government agencies and determined that the AHS is the only data source with both detailed information on the physical condition of the housing inventory and of rents of housing units. Although housing data are collected as part of the American Community Survey (ACS) (Census Bureau), Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES) (Bureau of Labor Statistics), and the Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) (Department of Energy), these surveys provide neither the longitudinal data over a period of years nor the detailed information available from the AHS. The CES collects housing cost data but does not collect detailed information on vacant units. The RECS does not collect mortgage or detailed housing cost data. Neither the ACS nor the RECS have detailed information on the physical condition of housing units or information on vacant units. Thus, these datasets could not serve as substitutes for the measures produced by the AHS that detail worst case housing needs.

The purposes of the AHS and the other surveys cited above also differ according to the agency’s goals and objectives. Certainly the HUD surveys involve personal/household behavior with respect to housing and community development issues. But human behavior in general is conditional on fundamental familial, demographic, housing, and economic variables. As a general rule, HUD is not interested in the levels of individual variables, but in the relationships among variables. Therefore, they must observe the values of the variables for the same individuals in the same sample to capture covariance structure. (All multivariate statistical procedures rely on the covariance structure.) The AHS asks about the same fundamental variables but goes further and asks numerous detailed questions about other aspects of housing consumption, finance, and moving. In order to understand human behavior and detailed housing information, HUD needs to know how the fundamental housing variables affect or are related to the more detailed housing variables. It would make no sense to collect detailed information about housing cost burdens and mortgage financing if we had no idea about fundamental housing attributes such as size, value, or rent of the housing unit.

2. Duplication in the Rotating Topical Modules

HUD undertook considerable effort to determine if the rotating topical modules would be duplicative of existing surveys. HUD’s conclusions are below:

1. Housing Counseling Module: The module was developed in consultation with the Housing Counseling Program at HUD. Most existing studies of housing counseling have been small-scale evaluation studies or larger scale analyses of administrative data. While small private surveys of housing counseling exist (i.e. Neighborworks America’s Annual Housing Survey), no other Federal nationally-representative household survey collects data on housing counseling. The Economic Census collects data on businesses that provide housing services to low-income individuals and families, which includes housing counseling, but it does not collect data on households that receive counseling.

2. Arts and Culture Module: The module was developed with the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The questions ask respondents about access to arts and cultural amenities, the importance they place on such amenities, and the role they played in choosing their current neighborhood. The Current Population Survey (CPS) has collected a “Public Participation in the Arts” supplement, which collects data on the type and frequency of adult participation in the arts, training and exposure to the arts, and musical and artistic preferences. While the CPS collects data on participation in the arts, it does not measure access to arts and cultural amenities and the importance of these amenities in the neighborhood context. In the AHS, these questions will allow for the analysis of the effects arts and cultural amenities on housing costs, residential choice, and neighborhood satisfaction.

3. Healthy Homes Module: The module was developed through close coordination with environmental health experts from the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health. The questions were suggested by HUD’s Office of Healthy Homes. Some of them came from previous CDC surveys. The National Center for Healthy Housing was also consulted in the development of this module. The data from this module will allow for a more accurate identification of housing with health and safety hazards. The AHS is the most appropriate vehicle for collecting these data because it is a random sample of U.S. housing and has an established infrastructure for implementation and reporting. There is no other regularly administered survey that routinely captures these data.

4. Food Security Module: HUD partnered with the USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) in the development of the module. To date, data have not been available to enable research on housing burden and food security jointly. State-level studies have shown high housing costs to be highly correlated with food insecurity. Since 1995, The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has included an annual supplement in the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS) to measure the prevalence of household food security in the United States. In addition other federal surveys have fielded food security questions, but none have included detailed housing data. Respondent burden is reduced considerably by the standard screening in the module, which asks the respondent whether they worried about running out of food, ran out of food and couldn’t buy more, or couldn’t afford to eat balanced meals. Also, the HUD assisted oversample in the AHS will provide unique insight into the effects of housing assistance on food security. Most policy research has focused on the effects of food and nutrition assistance programs on food insecurity. The AHS would allow analysis of how HUD assistance programs, especially rental assistance, affect food security.

5. Minimizing Burden

We have designed the AHS questions to obtain the required information, while keeping respondent burden to a minimum. The data are collected only from individual households, not small businesses or other small entities. For unoccupied units, data are collected from a “knowledgeable respondent,” who could be a landlord, property manager, rental agent, real estate agent, or neighbor.

6. Consequences of Less Frequent Collection

As a longitudinal survey, we interview our samples periodically to provide intermittent readings between decennial censuses. The length of time between interviews is two years on the AHS. Less frequent enumerations would reduce HUD’s ability to detect changes in worst case housing needs. Without this ability, the Administration and Congress would be unable to formulate policy on housing assistance.

7. Special Circumstances

We collect the data in a manner consistent with OMB guidelines, and there are no special circumstances.

8. Consultations Outside the Agency

1. Federal Register Comments

Attached is a copy of the Federal Register Notice required by 5 CFR 1320.8(d). The following groups submitted comments.

We received no comments.

2. 2015 American Housing Survey Redesign Conference

1. On May 9, 2013, HUD and Census held a planning conference on the 2015 AHS redesign. After presentations by HUD and Census staff members, discussion sessions were held on the survey’s core content, data user experience, and topical modules. Information was gathered from the 60 attendees on what they liked and didn’t like about the AHS and ways in which they wanted the AHS to change in 2015.

3. Consultations Influencing the 2015 AHS Core Modules

The content of the 2015 AHS Core Modules are the result of many years of consultation and testing starting with the development of the 1984 AHS questionnaire. For the original 1984 AHS questionnaire approximately 250 prospective data users were consulted who represented diverse areas of interest. The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) suggested modifications to the original questionnaire to improve BEA’s estimates and to improve the clarity and consistency of the questions.

In preparation for the 2015 AHS, HUD and the Census Bureau conducted an exhaustive review of the core questionnaire content in the 2013 AHS, paying special attention to item nonresponse and respondent burden,. The design of the core modules in the 2015 AHS will be similar to the 2013 AHS, but, as a result of the review and consultations with outside groups, some questions were redesigned, replaced, rearranged, or eliminated completely. For some questions, the universe of respondents was altered.

While the core modules are similar to those in the 2013 AHS, significant revisions were made to the Recent Mover module, simplifying questions used to identify the main reason the respondent left their last residence and introducing randomization to answer categories used in questions about the home search process. Research by Census on shared bathrooms, an important component of HUD’s housing inadequacy measure, resulted in revisions to the shared bathroom question.

HUD and the Census Bureau routinely consult with outside groups who are frequent users of the AHS, including the National Association of Home Builders and the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS). Because of the depth of their experience with the AHS, these groups often make recommendations concerning minor changes to AHS questions. The Neighborhood Quality Module was added to the core and the number of questions in the module was reduced after consultation with NAHB. In consultation with JCHS, questions on the date of completion and the source of financing for remodeling jobs were added to the Home Improvement and Remodeling Module. We also worked with JCHS to combine some of the Home Improvement job categories to reduce respondent burden. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) at the Department of Energy was consulted in the development of utility cost allocation models, which will be used to model utility costs using household and housing characteristics and climate data in the 2015 AHS.

4. Consultations Influencing the 2015 AHS Rotating Topical Modules

The process of developing the 2015 AHS rotating topic modules included consultations with several outside groups.

1. Housing Counseling Module: In developing this module, HUD consulted housing counseling experts within the Housing Counseling Program at HUD.

2. Arts and Culture Module: In developing this module, HUD consulted with the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The module includes questions developed by NEA that are designed to determine access to and use of cultural amenities in a respondents neighborhood.

3. Healthy Homes Module: This module was developed through close coordination with environmental health experts from the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health. The questions were suggested by HUD’s Office of Healthy Homes. Some of them came from previous CDC surveys. HUD also consulted the National Center for Healthy Housing about the module.

4. Food Security Module: HUD partnered with USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) in the development of the module. This module was adapted from the USDA Economic Research Services’ (ERS) U.S. Household Food Security Survey Module. There are several variations of the Household Food Security Survey Module (http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/food-security-in-the-us/survey-tools.aspx). An 18-item module that includes 10 adult items and 8 items about children is used in USDA’s national prevalence measure. However, USDA recommends including the 10-item adult food security survey module on the AHS (3 questions refer to the household as a whole and 7 questions reference adults in the household) because the 10 adult/household items provide sufficient detail regarding the food situation of the household without asking the sensitive child items and it has lower response burden than the 18-item module.

9. Paying Respondents

The AHS does not give respondents payments or gifts.

10. Assurance of Confidentiality

The Census Bureau collects these data in compliance with the Privacy Act of 1974 and OMB Circular A-108. The Census Bureau will send each sample address a letter (AHS-26/66(L)) in advance of the interview containing the information required by this act.

The Advance Letter informs the respondents of the voluntary nature of this survey and states that there are no penalties for failure to answer any question. The letter explains why the information is being collected, how it will be used, and that it will take approximately 40 minutes to complete the interview. The letter displays the OMB control number and date of expiration.

As part of the introduction for personal-visit households, the Census Bureau FRs will ask the respondents if they received the Advance Letter. If not, the FRs will give the letter to the respondents and allow them sufficient time to read the contents. We also display the address and toll-free phone number of the regional office for which the FR works as a way for the respondent to authenticate her/his employment with the Census Bureau. For interviews conducted by telephone, FRs will read to the respondents a condensed version of the advance letter that includes the information required by the Privacy Act.

After the interview is completed, the FRs will give the respondents a "Thank You" Letter (AHS-28/68(L)). Both the Advance Letter and the Thank You Letter state that all information respondents give to the Census Bureau employees is held in strict confidence by Title 13, United States Code. Each FR has taken an oath to this effect and is subject to a jail term, fine, or both, if he/she discloses any information given him/her.

The data collected under this agreement are confidential under Title 13, U.S.C., Section 9. Should HUD staff require access to Title 13 data from this survey to assist in the planning, data collection, data analysis, or production of final products, those staff members are required to obtain Census Bureau Special Sworn Status (SSS). They must demonstrate that they have suitable background clearance and they must take Title 13 Awareness Training.

Any access to Title 13 data at HUD is subject to prior approval by the Census Bureau's Data Stewardship Executive Policy Committee upon assurance that the HUD facility and information technology security meet Census Bureau requirements.

11. Justification for Sensitive Questions

The survey does not include any questions of a sensitive nature.

12. Estimate of Hour Burden

We estimate the respondent burden hours to be 64,622. Please refer to the table below for more detailed information.

Interview Type		Total Addresses	Respondent Burden Combined
(A) Name	(B) Definition	(C) AHS	(D) Avg Min Per Intv	(E) Total Hours
Occupied	Sampled addresses with one or more residents	88,415	40	58,943
Vacant	Sampled addresses intended for occupancy but currently without residents	13,454	20	4,485
Noninterview	Sampled addresses not intended for occupancy or occupants refuse to participate	16,598	0	0
Ineligible	Sample address found not to be eligible for the survey.	3,949	0	0
Total Addresses For Data Collection (DC)		122,416
Reinterview	Second quality control check interview at 7 percent of the above sampled addresses	7,166	10	1,194
Total DC and Reinterview Addresses/Burden Hours				64,622
Computations Total Hours = (Average Minutes Per Case*Total Addresses)/60

13. Estimate of Cost Burden

The annualized cost estimate to respondents for burden hours is $0. There are no costs to respondents other than that of their time to respond.

14. Cost to Federal Government

HUD estimates the 2-year survey cycle costs to the government for the 2015 AHS, including 15 metropolitan areas, to be about $60million. The figure is based on the following factors.

• Actual money spent on the 2013 AHS, adjusted for inflation, to complete past data collection and release public use files for the AHS.

• Projected costs to maintain the computer assisted interviewing (CAI) system that stays current with technology. The CAI system includes the questionnaire instrument loaded to the laptop computers used to conduct the interviews, the case management system used to relay work back and forth to the FRs in the field, and the post data collection system used to process the data and produce the public use files.

• Actual money spent, adjusted for inflation, to maintain the AHS sample in a non-data collection year. Maintenance includes completing the work to release the public use file for the AHS sample.

15. Reason for Change in Burden

This is a revision of a currently approved collection. We expect the respondent burden to decrease slightly, as the survey now has an average length of interview of 40 minutes compared to an average of 45 minutes in the 2013 AHS. The decrease is due to the thorough review of the survey questions that resulted in instrument modifications and the change in rotating topical modules.

• The Public Transportation and Pedestrian Accessibility, Disaster Planning, Doubled-Up Households, and Neighborhood Social Capital modules have been removed.

• The rotating modules will be split into two groups thereby maximizing the number of rotating modules that can be included while not increasing overall response burden. Fifty percent of the sample will be asked the Healthy Homes module and the other 50 percent will be asked the Arts and Culture, Housing Counseling, and Food Security modules.

16. Project Schedule

The Census Bureau has scheduled the majority of 2015 field enumeration for the AHS survey to begin May 1 and end September 18, 2015. To avoid overlap with the 2015 Census Survey of Maricopa County, Arizona, interviewing in the Phoenix, Arizona area will be conducted September 4, 2015 to December 16, 2015. The entire reinterview data collection will span May 6 through December 31, 2015. The projected release date of the National and Metropolitan public use files (PUFs) is summer 2016. When processing the data, the Census Bureau usually implements basic data edits to ensure consistency. In some cases, statistical models are used to allocate for missing values, such as values for income, utility cost, etc. Allocated values can be identified by analysts with the help of variables that are included in the data set that tag such edits. We also create new variables by collapsing or combining questions in the survey. For 2015, we have revised the instrument in an effort to decrease respondent burden. We expect to reduce time slightly through continued streamlining and technological advances.

HUD and the Census Bureau will issue press releases and/or product announcements when releasing the PUFs, as well as reports containing a summary of the data collected as agreed upon with HUD. The summary tables will provide selected statistics at the national level involved. The Department of Commerce or HUD may release other publications. Custom tables will be made available through the AHS Table Creator.

The data being disseminated and released are not individually identifiable and will have been cleared for release/dissemination by the Census Bureau's Disclosure Review Board.

17. Request to Not Display Expiration Date

The OMB number and expiration date are included on the AHS-26/66(L)

Advance Letter. Because the questionnaire is an automated instrument, the respondent will not see the OMB number and expiration date.

18. Exceptions to the Certificate

There are no exceptions.