Final -Time Use Study

^{Time Use Study Data Collection}

Email Invitation:

We are writing to ask you to participate in a data collection effort concerning your organization’s use of staff time in <Site Name>’s Pay for Success (PFS) demonstration, because of your role in the organization’s involvement with the Demonstration. This is a continuation of data collection concerning the amount of time paid staff at your organization have been spending as part of the HUD-DOJ Pay for Success Permanent Supportive Housing Demonstration from [date] to [date]. Thank you for providing us this information and thank you in advance for your continued cooperation!

This study is part of the evaluation of the PFS Permanent Supportive Housing Demonstration that is being conducted by the Urban Institute under a contract from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The PFS demonstration is funded by the Departments of Justice and HUD, and aims to bring together cross-sector public and private partners to implement permanent supportive housing in order to improve outcomes for chronically homeless individuals who are frequent users of jail and emergency medical services.

If you participate, we will only publicly report aggregate responses – never individual responses. No person outside of the Urban Institute research team will know how you answered a particular question. However, due to the nature of the project, a unique role or response could be potentially identifying.

For your convenience, we have attached a spreadsheet for you to record paid staff hours. This spreadsheet has been prepopulated to include the hours that your organization reported previously for other quarters. There is no need to update hours previously reported. Please update the Staff Member Hours spent on the PFS project each quarter from [date] through [date]. As a reminder, these hours should capture work that is specific to the Pay For Success component of the project.

We can also schedule a time to talk through this information request over the phone. Please use the contact information at the end of this communication. Let us know what we can do to make this process as easy as possible.

Your participation is voluntary, and you are free to skip any questions you do not wish to answer. The questions in the interview have been reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. The reporting burden for you to participate in this information collection is estimated at up to 60 minutes, including preparation for completing the spreadsheet and follow-up. The OMB control number is 2528-0319, expiring XX-XX-XXXX. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond, to a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number.

If you have any questions or have technical difficulties, please contact Clare Salerno at the Urban Institute at [email protected].    

Time Use Interview Guide

Thank you for agreeing to participate in an interview concerning time use for the Pay for Success Permanent Supportive Housing Demonstration at <site name>. Your participation in this interview is voluntary and you are free to skip any questions you do not wish to answer.

{For first interview}

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of Justice have asked the Urban Institute (a non-profit, nonpartisan research organization in Washington, DC) to conduct an evaluation of the Pay for Success (PFS) Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) Demonstration Project. This evaluation is extremely important to our understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of the PFS approach to implementing PSH for individuals at reentry.

One important aspect of PFS is the cost of implementation borne by the participating organizations, which has been difficult to measure. Because of your organization’s involvement with PFS in [site], we would like to get a better picture of the time spent on PFS-related tasks by persons in your organization. We would like you to participate in a phone interview to collect information on how much time is being spent on PFS-related tasks by paid staff and consultants in your organization.

{Interviews after the first interview}

Just to remind you, this interview is part of the evaluation the of the Pay for Success Permanent Supportive Housing Demonstration Project being conducted by the Urban Institute for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of Justice. The purpose of this call is to collect information on time spent on PFS-related tasks by persons in your organization.

[All interviews}

This interview is completely voluntary. Your responses will be used to create an estimate of the time costs of PFS to the organizations involved. Time spent will be reported by us in the aggregate, by role, organization type, and PFS stage. Individuals will not be identified by name. However, unique roles and organizations could allow a reader to attribute a statement to you. Your decision to participate or not and the responses you provide will no effect on your interactions with the Federal Government.

Your identity and the information you provide will be kept private to the extent permitted by law.

Email signature to be added, with contact information at the Urban Institute.

Phone Interview Script

We want to be sure that you freely consent to participate in this interview and that you are aware that you are not obligated to answer any questions you do not wish to. Do you consent to participate in the interview?

As we will be discussing specific numbers, we would like to record this conversation for the purposes of verifying notes after the interview. If you consent, the recording will not be shared with anyone outside the research team. Do you consent to having this interview recorded?

1. Do you (or your staff) report hours to HUD’s DRGR for the purposes of this grant?

   1. {If no} Proceed to question 2

   2. {If yes} Are there PFS-related activities and time spent by staff that are not covered in your DRGR reporting?

      1. {If no} Stop interview here

      2. {If yes} Proceed to question 2

2. Are you able to provide information about time spent on PFS-related tasks, such as PFS committee meetings, partner meetings, or time spent analyzing data, drafting materials, or preparing for meetings, by people across your organization? This time may be tracked through a timecard system, on-line time and attendance system, sign-in/sign-out sheet, other weekly or monthly employee reports, or through staff calendars.

   1. {if no} Can you provide estimates for some of the people in your organization? Is there someone else we can talk to for the other people engaged on PFS tasks?

3. Which persons in your organization or contracted to your organization worked on PFS-related tasks during the previous quarter-year (from (month 1) to (month 3))? It may help to refer to meeting schedules for this period, or time sheets with separate charges.

   1. (If DRGR data is available, informant can be reminded of staff that have charged time to the grant.)

4. How much time, in hours, did each person spend, in total during this quarter?

   1. Is this information based on calendar schedules, time sheets, or some other source?

5. Are there PFS-related activities that are not covered in your DRGR reporting?

6. Are there other people who may have spent time on PFS for whom you may not have information?

   1. {If yes} Is there someone at your organization who would know what other staff may have spent time on PFS? How can we contact them?

Thank you for your time!

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