Icr

Request for Approval under the “Generic Clearance for Improving
Customer Experience: OMB Circular A-11, Section 280
Implementation”
(OMB Control Number: 2511-0001)
TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: Equitable Engagement at HUD –
Credit-Related Barriers to Homeownership
PURPOSE OF COLLECTION:
To surface potential actions that HUD can take to create more equitable opportunities and close
the racial homeownership gap, HUD is seeking to gather input directly from populations who
experience credit-related barriers to homeownership. HUD is testing the hypothesis that the
inability to demonstrate credit worthiness due to poor credit history or no credit history and
biased credit requirements excludes many individuals from getting approved for a mortgage.
Expected barriers include poor traditional credit history, lack of knowledge around credit
management, insufficient enforcement and oversight of fair lending laws, and reliance on
outdated technology. These credit-related barriers were surfaced by internal HUD staff and
subject matter experts during HUD’s Equity Assessment (per EO 13985). HUD wants to test
known barriers, discover any unknown barriers individuals face, and gain deeper insight into
how these barriers impact the opportunity to own a home. Data gathered during conversations
with individual members of the public and HUD’s partner agencies will be used to inform what
actions HUD might take to better support fair and impartial opportunities for homeownership.
Insights and findings from this effort will also contribute to the Equity Action Plan that HUD
submits to OMB per Executive Order 13985. Key learnings may be used to produce design
artifacts such as user personas or journey maps that, in turn, will serve to inform decisionmaking for general service improvement and program management purposes.
TYPE OF ACTIVITY: (Check one)
[
[
[

X] Customer Research (Interview, Focus Groups)
] Customer Feedback Survey
] User Testing

ACTIVITY DETAILS
1. How
[
[
[
[
[

will you collect the information? (Check all that apply)
X] Web-based or other forms of Social Media
X] Telephone
] In-person
] Mail
X] Other, Explain

2. Who will you collect the information from?
Explain who will be interviewed and why the group is appropriate
for the Federal program / service to connect with. Please

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provide a description of how you plan to identify your potential
group of respondents and if only a sample will be solicited for
feedback, how you will select them(e.g., anyone who provided an
email address to a call center rep, a representative sample of
Veterans who received outpatient services in May 2019, do you
have a list of customers to reach out to (e.g., a CRM database
that has the contact information, intercept interviews at a
particular field office?)
This effort has grown out of HUD’s Equity Assessment (per EO 13985) to identify barriers to
homeownership experienced by underserved communities. In order to test hypotheses around
credit-related barriers to homeownership, HUD is seeking to speak directly to individuals who
meet the following criteria:
• Black or Hispanic/Latina/Latino
• Meet one of these homeownership situations:
o Do not see homebuying as an option
o Not a homeowner, but may buy a home in the future
o Not a homeowner, but actively looking to buy a home
o Tried to buy a home in the last five years but was not able to
o Currently own a home that was bought in the last five years
• 18 years of age or older
HUD will work closely with partner organizations (Public Housing Agencies, Housing
Counseling Agencies, nonprofits) to identify individuals who may be interested in participating
in this effort. After partner organizations have been given an overview of the research and are
provided with necessary outreach templates, they can help recruit individuals via email or social
media. Interested individuals will take a screener to ensure they meet the above criteria. Eligible
participants who submit the screener will contacted by HUD’s research to team to schedule a
one-on-one interview or focus group.
3. How will you ask a respondent to provide this information?
(e.g., after an application is submitted online, the final
screen will present the opportunity to provide feedback by
presenting a link to a feedback form / an actual feedback form)
An online screener will be used to collect basic information necessary to confirm respondent’s
eligibility and schedule conversations (age, race and ethnicity, homeownership situation/past
homeownership experience, credit, preferred spoken language, and contact information). After
signing up for a conversation, a consent form will be sent to participants to consent to online.
Participants will also be given the opportunity to consent verbally at the beginning of our
conversation with them. Participants will also be sent a voluntary and anonymous demographics
online form. This demographic form will collect additional information to ensure that we speak
to people from a diverse range of backgrounds (e.g., gender, location – i.e. state, where they live
– i.e., rural/urban/suburbs, age range, education, race/ethnicity, if they have children and how
many, income range, experience with financial education or housing counseling, active
duty/veteran status, disability status, LGBTQ status, student loan status, debt from medical bills
status, past incarceration status, past bankruptcy status, past experience with homelessness
status).
4. What will the activity look like?

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Describe the information collection activity – e.g. what happens
when a person agrees to participate? Will facilitators or
interviewers be used? What’s the format of the interview/focus
group? If a survey, describe the overall survey
layout/length/other details? If User Testing, what actions will
you observe / how will you have respondents interact with a
product you need feedback on?
Information collection activities will include semi-structured one-on-one hour-long
conversations and hour-long focus groups. These activities will be led by facilitators from
HUD’s Customer Experience Transformation Team (including Booz Allen contractors) and
HUD’s Homeownership Equity Action Team (comprised completely of HUD staff). As
appropriate, a HUD interpreter will help facilitate conversations.
It is not the intent to ask participants a standardized set of questions. Instead, participants will
engage in a loosely guided conversation with facilitators in which they will be asked to share
their lived experiences and opinions related to a set of topics. Specific question phrasing and
areas of deeper exploration will be determined on an ad hoc basis by facilitators during the
conversation. Facilitators will cover key areas of participant’s lived experience to unearth
barriers to credit and homeownership (e.g., personal financial context, current living and
financial situation, perceptions and knowledge surrounding homebuying, experience with
lending professionals, and personal experiences, perceptions and knowledge of building credit
and credit scores).
5. Please provide your question list.
Paste here the questions or prompts presented to participants in
your activity. If you have an interview / facilitator guide,
that can be attached to the submission and referenced here.
Please make sure that all instruments, instructions, and scripts
are submitted with the request.
- Participant recruitment – email/social media (see attached)
- Screener (see attached)
- Informed consent form (see attached)
- Voluntary/anonymous demographics questionnaire (see attached)
- Facilitator/Discussion guide (see attached)
6. When will the activity happen?
Describe the time frame or number of events that will occur
(e.g., We will conduct focus groups on May 13,14,15, We plan
to conduct customer intercept interviews over the course of
the Summer at the field offices identified in response to #2
based on scheduling logistics concluding by Sept. 10 th, or
“This survey will remain on our website in alignment with the
timing of the overall clearance.”)
These activities will take place from October-December of 2021.

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7. Is an incentive (e.g., money or reimbursement of expenses,
token of appreciation) provided to participants?
[ ] Yes [ X] No
If Yes, describe:
BURDEN HOURS
Category of Respondent

No. of
Respondents
150
50
50
50
300

Screener
Demographics
Consent
Interview/Focus Group Participants
Totals

Participation
Time
5 minutes
5 minutes
5 minutes
1 hr
1.25 hrs

Burden
Hours
12.5
4.17
4.17
50.00
70.84

CERTIFICATION:
I certify the following to be true:
1. The collections are voluntary;
2. The collections are low-burden for respondents (based on
considerations of total burden hours or burden-hours per
respondent) and are low-cost for both the respondents and the
Federal Government;
3. The collections are non-controversial and do not raise issues
of concern to other Federal agencies;
4. Any collection is targeted to the solicitation of opinions
from respondents who have experience with the program or may
have experience with the program in the near future;
5. Personally identifiable information (PII) is collected only to
the extent necessary and is not retained;
6. Information gathered is intended to be used for general
service improvement and program management purposes
7. Upon agreement between OMB and the agency aggregated data may
be released as part of A-11, Section 280 requirements only on
performance.gov. Summaries of customer research and user
testing activities may be included in public-facing customer
journey maps.
8. Additional release of data will be coordinated with OMB.
Name: Effie L. Russell, CX Strategist, Office of the Chief
Financial Officer – Customer Experience Transformation Team
All instruments used to collect information must include:
OMB Control No. 2511-0001
Expiration Date: 09/30/2024

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HELP SHEET
(OMB Control Number: 2511-0001)
TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: Provide the name of the collection that is
the subject of the request. (e.g. Comment card for soliciting feedback on
xxxx)
PURPOSE: Provide a brief description of the purpose of this collection and
how it will be used. If this is part of a larger study or effort, please
include this in your explanation.
TYPE OF COLLECTION: Check one box. If you are requesting approval of other
instruments under the generic, you must complete a form for each instrument.
CERTIFICATION: Please read the certification carefully. If you incorrectly
certify, the collection will be returned as improperly submitted or it will
be disapproved.
Personally Identifiable Information: Agencies should only collect PII to the
extent necessary, and they should only retain PII for the period of time that
is necessary to achieve a specific objective.
BURDEN HOURS:
Category of Respondents: Identify who you expect the respondents to be in
terms of the following categories: (1) Individuals or Households;(2) Private
Sector; (3) State, local, or tribal governments; or (4) Federal Government.
Only one type of respondent can be selected per row.
No. of Respondents: Provide an estimate of the Number of respondents.
Participation Time: Provide an estimate of the amount of time required for a
respondent to participate (e.g. fill out a survey or participate in a focus
group)
Burden: Provide the Annual burden hours: Multiply the Number of responses
and the participation time and divide by 60.

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