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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: Waitlist Data Management and Burden Improvement at HUD: Prototype Testing

PURPOSE OF COLLECTION:

During the HUD Customer Experience (CX) team’s first phase of work studying the affordable housing waitlist ecosystem, the team was able to gain a holistic understanding of the major pain points. Following this exploration, the team is now looking to determine what HUD’s potential role(s) could be in improving customer experiences in the waitlist ecosystem, specifically at the initial stage of finding and applying for affordable housing.

During the first phase of this project, the HUD CX team determined that the finding and applying stage has the following pain points:

• Applicants have trouble finding affordable housing and are burdened by multiple applications to join waitlists

• Applicants have inconsistent experiences when searching and applying for affordable housing

• Applications can be inequitable and/or inaccessible

• Providers can have difficulty managing applications and waitlists, from implementing preferences well to keeping applicant information updated

• A lack of consistency, transparency, and accountability around applications, preferences, and waitlists can lead to perceptions of and actual unfair practices

During this second phase of the project, the team will work to address the pain points elaborated above by developing targeted improvements and gathering feedback on them with members of the affordable housing waitlist ecosystem.

TYPE OF ACTIVITY: (Check one)

[ X ] Customer Research (Interview, Focus Groups)

[ ] Customer Feedback Survey

[ X ] 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

The feedback discussions will be conducted through Microsoft Teams, but outreach to establish participants will be conducted via other forms, which may include social media, telephone, and email.

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 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?)

HUD’s CX team is seeking to speak directly to individuals who meet the following criteria:

• Those working at PHAs or Performance Based Contract Administrations (PBCAs)

• Those working in state governments who have knowledge of the waitlist ecosystem for their state

• Property managers or owners of affordable multifamily housing properties with waitlists

• Those who are end-customers currently or formerly impacted by housing waitlists

• Those working for an organization in the waitlist ecosystem (i.e., organizations that provide waitlist software to waitlist administrators, housing network or community organizations, nonprofits)

• Those who are subject matter experts in other forms of finding and applying for services or products (e.g., other government services, college applications, adoptable pets)

The HUD CX team will work closely with partner organizations (PHAs, multifamily housing providers, housing nonprofits) to identify individuals who may be interested in participating in this effort.

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)

The CX team will work with other members of HUD to identify testing participants that represent a variety of perspectives outlined in the answer above.

For anyone serving as a participant in a professional capacity, they will receive an email from the HUD CX team describing the research and be given a Calendly (or a similar tool) link to sign up for a time slot.

For affordable housing applicants, the CX team will request professionals to send out the research request on the CX team’s behalf with a link to a brief screener form. In addition, the CX team may request that moderators of relevant social media groups post in those groups with similar language or request that professionals post in said social media channels to recruit applicants as well. The HUD CX team will monitor the screener responses and will individually email qualified applicants to sign up for a time slot via Calendly.

For those who are subject matter experts in other forms of finding and applying for services, the team will conduct traditional open-ended interviews to better understand their process for having applicants find and apply for their service. The CX team hopes to take learnings from their processes to inform improvements to the affordable housing finding and applying process.

After signing up for a conversation, a consent form detailing the conversation’s purpose and use of their information will be sent to all participants. Participants will also be given the opportunity to consent verbally at the beginning of our conversation with them.

All discussions will take place on Microsoft Teams for an hour each.

4. What will the activity look like?

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 in which the HUD CX team will be seeking feedback on the improvement ideas they have generated. These activities will be led by facilitators from HUD’s Customer Experience team (including Booz Allen contractors). 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 reactions to and opinions on the presented ideas as they relate to their lived experiences. Specific question phrasing and areas of deeper exploration will be determined on an ad hoc basis by facilitators during the conversation.

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 outreach (see attached)

• Applicant screener (see attached)

• Discussion guide (see attached)

• Consent form (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 August-December 2023.

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	Participation Time	Burden Hours
Participant outreach & Calendly sign up	200	5 mins	16.7 hrs
Screener (only affordable housing applicants will complete this)	100	3 mins	5 hrs
Testing sessions	48	60 mins	48 hrs
Interviews	12	60 mins	12 hrs
Totals	200 unique respondents	5 mins (participant outreach) / 3 mins (screener, selected participants) / 60 mins (testing session, selected participants) / 60 mins (interview, selected participants)	81.7 hrs

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: Shimu Anjir, Customer Experience Strategist, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of the Chief Financial Officer – Customer Experience Team

All instruments used to collect information must include:

OMB Control No. 2511-0001

Expiration Date: 09/30/2024

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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