Interview with Program Participants

Evaluation of the Eviction Protection Grant Program

DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS | Contract #: 86614922C00007

Program Participant Individual Interview Protocol

PRA Burden Statement: ­­Public Reporting Burden for this information collection is estimated to average 45 minutes, including the time to administer informed consent to interview participants. The collection is designed to gather information from program participants regarding the services they received under the Eviction Protection Grant Program.

Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions to reduce this burden, to Anna P. Guido, Reports Management Officer, REE, Department of Housing and Urban Development, 451 7th Street SW, Room 8210, Washington, DC 20410–5000. When providing comments, please refer to OMB Control No. 2528–XXXX. HUD may not conduct and sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless the collection displays a valid OMB Control Number.

Individual Program Participant Interview Protocol (Rounds 1 and 2)

Interviewer: Thank you for agreeing to participate in this interview. My name is ______, and I am a senior researcher with 2M Research (2M), who has been asked by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to conduct a study on the Eviction Protection Grant Program.

The purpose of this interview is to understand your experiences with <GRANTEE OR SUBRECIPIENT NAME>, which received a grant through the Eviction Protection Grant Program. The Eviction Protection Grant Program provided grants to organizations that provide legal assistance to tenants at risk of, or experiencing, eviction. We are studying the ways in which different organizations have used these federal funds, as well as the overall experience of those who received services from these organizations.

We are particularly interested in any positive outcomes you experienced by working with <GRANTEE OR SUBRECIPIENT NAME> as well as any challenges you may have experienced. We will also be asking you about some details of your experience, such as how you learned about the organization that you worked with, what worked well, and what didn’t work well for you.

We will be using the information collected in this interview to help us understand how <GRANTEE OR SUBRECIPIENT NAME> provided services as well as their impact on you.

Permission to Record

Before we begin, we would like to have your permission to record the audio and video of this conversation to ensure our notes are accurate and complete. We will not share the recording with HUD, and we will delete it at the end of the study. Do we have your permission to record this interview?

If participant agrees to be recorded:

Thank you. Now, I am going to start recording (TURN ON RECORDER). Can you please confirm that you have agreed to be recorded?

If participant declines:

That is not a problem. <RESEARCH ASSISTANT NAME> will take detailed notes during our conversation to ensure that your experiences are recorded accurately.

Consent to Participate

We emailed you an informed consent form to participate. Were you able to review the form before this discussion?

If respondent says “No,” please review the “Informed Consent Form for Participation” with the participant (See Appendix A).

If respondent says “Yes,” then proceed directly to the following:

We encourage you to be straightforward and open with the information you share. We will do our best to ensure that all comments are anonymized before they are shared with grantee staff, subrecipient staff, or HUD. Anything you share will mostly be combined with information from other focus groups and interviews. Interesting quotes, however, may be included in the report mainly to illustrate a point. These quotes will be untraceable to the speaker. Instead, we will use pseudonyms to represent speakers. We will also analyze this information using an anonymous data file and will not share your identity with anyone outside the study team. Because <GRANTEE OR SUBRECIPIENT NAME> may have recommended you as a participant for this interview, however, it is possible that some of the staff there may be able to identify your experiences from research reports.

We understand that some of these experiences may be difficult to remember or talk about. You do not need to answer any questions that you do not wish to answer. You may stop participating in this interview at any time. If you decide not to participate, that is completely fine. We will use your answers to these questions for research purposes only.

Would you still like to participate in the study? <Ask the respondent for a verbal confirmation>

If you have questions about this study, please email Dr. Hiren Nisar, the study’s project manager, at [email protected].

Do you have any questions before we begin?

1. First, we’d like to know a little bit more about your background and your experiences that led you to receive services from <GRANTEE OR SUBRECIPIENT NAME>. Can you share a little bit about who you are and what led you to contact <GRANTEE OR SUBRECIPIENT NAME>?

Probe for:

1. What circumstances led to your being at risk of eviction?

2. What do you think are some of the major issues that led to your being at risk of, or subject to, eviction?

2. Now, I’d like to know a little bit more about your experience with <GRANTEE OR SUBRECIPIENT NAME>, beginning with how <GRANTEE OR SUBRECIPIENT NAME> informs the community about available services. Can you describe how you found out about the organization, and the steps you took to connect with the services that they provide?

Probe for:

1. The effectiveness of different types of outreach/engagement from the organization (for example, radio ads, ‘know your rights’ campaigns, door knocking).

2. Any barriers or challenges to getting services from the grantee.

3. Whether they had been working with or considering any other organizations when they needed legal services; whether they pursued rental or financial assistance from any other organizations in addition to seeking legal assistance; and if so, why they selected this one?

(Possible places they may have found out about the grantee is the court, the service community, word of mouth, or independent searching).

3. In your perspective, does <GRANTEE OR SUBRECIPIENT NAME> do a good job of providing information to tenants? Why or why not?

4. Once you became a client of <GRANTEE OR SUBRECIPIENT NAME>, what types of services did you receive?

4a) Which services did you find most helpful, and why?

Probe for:

1. For example: services you may have received could be legal advice, legal representation, help negotiating with landlord, help securing rental assistance, help with getting an extension to continue to stay in your home, etc.

2. Did you receive more than one service? Were any combinations of services particularly helpful? How were they helpful?

3. What are the benefits of light-touch (e.g. court navigation, limited advice) versus more extensive services (e.g. full court representation)?

4. What outcomes were you hoping for when you sought legal assistance?

5. Did you receive rental or financial assistance, in addition to legal assistance? How did these types of assistance complement each other?

4b) Which services did you find least helpful, and why?

4c) Did the services meet all your needs?

Probe for:

1. How did the services meet your needs?

2. Was there anything you needed/hoped for from <GRANTEE OR SUBRECIPIENT NAME> that they were unable to provide?

Follow-up: As part of your eviction case, did you go to court and have a hearing in front of the judge?

Probe for:

1. Did an attorney attend the hearing with you?

2. Did you talk with the attorney before the hearing?

3. Did you go to mediation or a settlement conference?

   1. If so, did an attorney go with you?

   2. Did the attorney talk to the landlord or the landlord’s attorney on your behalf?

Follow-up: Were you satisfied with how your case turned out/got resolved?

5. Did <GRANTEE OR SUBRECIPIENT NAME> help you connect with other programs or organizations? If so, which ones? How helpful were these connections, and why?

Probe for: Which other services, including housing providers, legal service providers, rental assistance programs, financial assistance, or any other services.

6. What about your experience with <GRANTEE OR SUBRECIPIENT NAME> was positive, and why?

Probe for: What were the successes you experienced?

7. What about your experience with <GRANTEE OR SUBRECIPIENT NAME> could have been improved, and why?

Probe for: What were the challenges you experienced?

8. Based on your experience, what suggestions or recommendations do you have for <GRANTEE OR SUBRECIPIENT NAME> about how they might better serve clients facing eviction?

9. How many times has the landlord attempted to evict you?

10. How many evictions have been filed against you by the same landlord?

11. What else would you like to share about your experience with <GRANTEE OR SUBRECIPIENT NAME> that you haven’t had a chance to talk about or that I did not ask about?

Thank you so much for your time today. Your perspectives on the services you received from <GRANTEE OR SUBRECIPIENT NAME> are very valuable, and we appreciate your participation in this study. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any further questions.

2M Research | 5