Revised - Attachment M Cost Interview Advance Letter

ATTACHMENT M: COST STUDY DATA COLLECTION OUTREACH

Evaluation of Community Choice Demonstration

[Date]

[First Name] [Last Name]
[Street Address]
[City], [State] [Zip]

Dear <First Name><Middle Initial><Last Name>,

Thank you for all of your work related to the [MOBILITY PROGRAM] so far. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has funded an evaluation of the [MOBILITY PROGRAM] as part of a larger evaluation of the Community Choice Demonstration. A team of researchers, including staff from Abt Associates, the Urban Institute, MEF Associates, and Social Policy Research Associates, are conducting the evaluation for HUD.

The research team and HUD want to determine whether and to what extent mobility services are effective in helping Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) families move to higher-opportunity, lower-poverty neighborhoods. This study will help HUD understand how the mobility services were implemented and to learn more about operations and programming among the participating PHAs and their partners, the agencies’ experiences with implementation, their perceptions of how effective services are, and their perceptions on short-term outcomes for participating households. The study will look at the long-term outcomes for participating households and youth. The study is also determining and documenting the costs of the various mobility services provided in the demonstration.

I’m writing now to invite you to participate in an interview we will conduct as part of the evaluation to gather information that will help us to understand, estimate, and document the costs of mobility services provided to HCV families as part of the [MOBILITY PROGRAM]. During this interview, we will ask you questions about expenditures, staffing, and service provision costs incurred as part of the [MOBILITY PROGRAM]. We are not conducting an assessment of the performance of your agency or its services. We expect the interview to take about 2 hours.

A member of the research team will reach out to you over the next couple of weeks to explain more about the upcoming interviews and set up an appointment. In the meantime, if you have any questions or would like to schedule your interview, please contact [NAME] by phone at 1-xxx-xxx-xxxx or by email at [email protected].

If you would like to see this letter translated or to complete this interview in a language other than English, please let us know and we will try to accommodate you. If you need information to be presented in an accessible format, for example, Braille, audio, large type, or sign language interpreters, or a reasonable accommodation (a change or adjustment) so that you can participate, please let us know.

On behalf of the research team, we look forward to talking with you soon.

Sincerely,

Diane Levy

Community Choice Demonstration Study Researcher

The Paperwork Reduction Act Burden Statement: This collection of information is voluntary and will be used to evaluate the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Choice Demonstration. Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 10 minutes review. 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. The OMB control number for this collection is XXXX-XXXX and it expires XX/XX/XXXX. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden to NAME at [email protected] or call XXX-XXX-XXXX; Attn: OMB-PRA (xxxx-xxxx).

This research is conducted under the authority of the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to undertake programs of research, studies, testing and demonstration related to the mission and programs of HUD (12 USC 1701z-1 et seq.).