Outreach materials for web survey for CoC staff

Outreach Materials for Web Survey for CoC Staff

EHV Evaluation Advance Email for Survey to CoCs

Dear FIRSTNAME LASTNAME,

You are receiving this email to ask for your participation in the Emergency Housing Voucher (EHV) Survey for Continuums of Care (CoCs). The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has contracted with Social Policy Research Associates (SPR) and Abt Global to conduct an evaluation of the EHV program. One component of the evaluation is a survey of all CoCs that partnered with their local Public Housing Agency (PHA) to implement the EHV program. The purpose of this survey is to learn about:

• CoC’s involvement in the planning and implementing the EHV program;

• Determining how to use the EHV as part of the CoC’s strategy for addressing homelessness;

• EHV eligibility and referral processes;

• Supporting the housing search and lease-up processes; and

• Your perceptions of the strengths and challenges of the EHV program.

This fall, CoCs will receive two survey requests related to two separate federal evaluation studies. This survey is related to the CoC role in the Emergency Housing Voucher program and a second is related to CoC’s American Rescue Plan experience. Your participation in both surveys is requested. Both surveys are voluntary and will be used for research purposes only and will NOT be used for compliance monitoring. Information that you share will be deidentified and will not be associated with a CoC, community, or individual.

We anticipate the EHV Survey for CoCs will take an average of about 30 minutes to complete if you are working with one EHV PHA and up to 15 minutes for each additional PHA (and no more than five PHAs in total). You may involve others as well in developing your answers, but please have only one person complete the survey. You can download a paper copy of the survey here [INSERT LINK] to review the questions ahead of time. You can also review a description of the study here [INSERT LINK].

To get started, please click on the link below:

<URL>

This survey is voluntary. Whether or not you decide to participate will not affect your organization’s relationship with HUD. All information you provide is confidential and will be protected by the law. You can skip any question that you do not want to answer. Responses to this survey will be used for research purposes only and will NOT be used for compliance monitoring. All survey answers responses will be reported in aggregate, meaning no one outside the study team will be able to see your individual answers. HUD will also receive your de-identified survey responses. While there is no expected direct benefit for your organization, the findings will enable a variety of policy makers, program administrators, and researchers to better understand how the EHV program was implemented nationwide and how it might be improved in the future.

We will provide reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities. Individuals can elect to participate in the web-based survey with a live person over the phone. We will use translation services as needed for individuals with Limited English Proficiency. If you require information to be presented in an accessible format, reasonable accommodations, or language assistance to participate in this study, please contact [INSERT STAFF CONTACT], the [STAFF TITLE/ROLE], by phone at (XXX) XXX-XXXX or by email at [INSERT EMAIL ADDRESS].

If you have questions about the study, please contact [INSERT ABT STAFF CONTACT], the Abt Global Survey Director at (XXX) XXX-XXXX. If you have questions about the survey, please call our toll-free number 1-800-XXX-XXXX. If you experience technical issues accessing the link provided, please go to www.abtsurvey.com/LINK and enter your Login ID: XXXX. If you prefer to complete the survey over the phone, please call us at 1-800-XXX-XXXX. If you need help, please email us at [email protected] or call us at 1-800-XXX-XXXX.

Thank you in advance for your support of this important study!

Sincerely,

NAME

Project Director

We welcome and are prepared to receive calls from individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, as well as individuals with speech or communication disabilities. You can access free telephone and video relay services by calling 711.

EHV Evaluation Study Description

This study description will be accessible via the link in the advance email above

The Emergency Housing Voucher (EHV) program allocated EHVs to 611 Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) and their Continuums of Care (CoC) or other organization partners. It has provided about 70,000 new housing vouchers for qualifying individuals or families including those who are: 1) homeless; 2) at risk of homelessness; 3) fleeing, or attempting to flee, domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking or human trafficking; or 4) recently homeless and for whom providing rental assistance would prevent the family’s homelessness or having high risk of housing instability. In addition to designating vouchers for these four target populations, the EHV program included several enhancements, such as required housing search assistance and additional incentives for landlords, that responded to current challenges identified in operating the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) contracted with Social Policy Research Associates (SPR) and Abt Global (“the research team”) to conduct a study of the EHV program. The goal of the study is to provide a broad overview of the EHV program nationally and to inform future HUD efforts to target vouchers towards households that are homeless or at risk of homelessness. The study will also help HUD assess the success of several novel components: the partnerships between PHAs and CoCs, enhanced administrative fees for PHAs, an aggressive lease-up timeline, and various waivers and alternative requirements.

More specifically, the four study objectives are as follows:

1. Document how PHAs and CoCs structured and implemented their EHV programs, including the extent to which each of the four populations eligible for EHVs were served by the program and how the CoC prioritized EHV receipt among people currently or recently experiencing homelessness;

2. Learn how PHAs applied administrative fees and chose among and implemented alternative program features and gaining the perspective of PHAs regarding their value;

3. Detail the extent to which PHAs and CoCs considered and incorporated equity principles and approaches into their EHV programs, including the prioritization of households who most needed housing and incorporating people with lived experience of homelessness to inform the CoC’s prioritization strategy; and

4. Describe the households that were referred to the PHAs and issued EHVs and their success rates and compare them and their success rates to households using HCVs.

The research team will collect different types of data to respond to HUD’s research questions and achieve the objectives, including:

1. A comprehensive review of multiple HUD administrative and publicly available data sets;

2. A nationwide web-survey fielded to all PHAs that received EHVs and their CoC partners; and

3. Follow-up telephone interviews with staff from PHAs and CoCs or other partners who managed EHV programs in 25 communities to gather additional, deeper knowledge of implementation experiences.

The research team will report on key findings in a final report with the goal of informing future programs that provide rental assistance to people experiencing homelessness, as well as potential reforms to the ongoing HCV program.

For questions or concerns about the study please contact Anne Paprocki, SPR’s Project Director, by email at [email protected] or by phone at (510) 768-8499 or Jeffrey Chen, HUD’s Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR), by email at [email protected] or by phone at (212) 542-7422.

EHV Evaluation Reminder Email about Survey to CoCs

Dear FIRSTNAME LASTNAME,

We recently sent you an email requesting your participation in the Emergency Housing Voucher (EHV) Survey for Continuums of Care (CoCs). We noticed that you have not completed the survey. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has contracted with Social Policy Research Associates (SPR) and Abt Global to conduct an evaluation of the EHV program. One component of the evaluation is to survey of all CoCs that partnered with their local Public Housing Agency (PHA) to implement the EHV program and ask about their experience.

This fall, CoCs will receive two survey requests related to two separate federal evaluation studies. This survey is related to the CoC role in the Emergency Housing Voucher program and a second is related to CoC’s American Rescue Plan experience. Your participation in both surveys is requested. Both surveys are voluntary and will be used for research purposes only and will NOT be used for compliance monitoring. Information that you share will be deidentified and will not be associated with a CoC, community, or individual.

We anticipate the EHV Survey for CoCs will take about 30 minutes to complete if you are working with one EHV PHA and up to 15 minutes for each additional PHA (and no more than five PHAs in total). You may involve others as well in developing your answers, but please have only one person complete the survey.

To get started or continue where you left off, please click on the link below:

<URL>

This survey is voluntary. Whether or not you decide to participate will not affect your organization’s relationship with HUD. All information you provide is confidential and will be protected by the law. Survey responses will only be reported in aggregate form and will not identify your organization directly. HUD will receive your de-identified survey responses.

We will provide reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities. Individuals can elect to participate in the web-based survey with a live person over the phone. We will use translation services as needed for individuals with Limited English Proficiency. If you require information to be presented in an accessible format, reasonable accommodations, or language assistance to participate in this study, please contact [INSERT STAFF CONTACT], the [STAFF TITLE/ROLE], by phone at (XXX) XXX-XXXX or by email at [INSERT EMAIL ADDRESS].

If you have questions about the study, please contact [INSERT ABT STAFF CONTACT], the Abt Global Survey Director at (XXX) XXX-XXXX. If you have questions about the survey, please call our toll-free number 1-800-XXX-XXXX or email us at [email protected]. If you experience technical issues accessing the link provided, please go to www.abtsurvey.com/LINK and enter your Login ID: XXXX. If you prefer to complete the survey over the phone, please call us at 1-800-XXX-XXXX.

To learn more about the study, please visit: [LINK TO STUDY INFORMATION PAGE]

Thank you in advance for your support of this important study!

Sincerely,

NAME

Project Director

We welcome and are prepared to receive calls from individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, as well as individuals with speech or communication disabilities. You can access free telephone and video relay services by calling 711.

PRA Burden Statement: The public reporting burden for this collection of information relating to the Evaluation of Emergency Housing Voucher (EHV) Program is estimated to average 5 minutes per respondent for phone and virtual interviews with CoC and non-CoC partner organization staff. These burden estimates include the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering, and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Comments regarding the accuracy of this burden estimate and any suggestions for reducing this burden can be sent to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of the Chief Data Officer, R, 451 7th St SW, Room 8210, Washington, DC 20410-5000 or email: [email protected]. Do not send completed forms to this address. This agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless the collection displays a valid OMB control number. HUD collects this information to examine the implementation and outcomes associated with the Emergency Housing Voucher (EHV) program, which was created under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. HUD may use this information to help guide any future emergency housing voucher programs and the data could also inform possible changes to the HCV program to serve households who are experiencing or at risk of experiencing homelessness. This information is voluntary.  This information collected will be held confidential pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552 (Freedom of Information Act), 5 U.S.C 552a (Privacy Act of 1974), and OMB Circular No. A-130.