ombrocisTH2024supportstatement

Supporting Statement for Paperwork Reduction Act Submission
Semi-annual Progress Report for the Transitional Housing Assistance Program
Grant for Victims of Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Stalking, or Sexual
Assault Program
A. Justification
1.

Statutorily-Mandated Need for Information

Pursuant to 34 U.S.C.12351 , the Transitional Housing Assistance Program Grant for Victims
of Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Stalking, or Sexual Assault Program (Transitional
Housing Assistance Program) provides transitional housing, short-term housing assistance, and
related support services for individuals who are homeless, or in need of transitional housing or
other housing assistance, as a result of fleeing a situation of domestic violence, dating violence,
sexual assault, or stalking, and for whom emergency shelter services or other crisis intervention
services are unavailable or insufficient.
Currently, there are different statutory and regulatory reporting requirements that affect
Transitional Housing Assistance Program grantees. The Violence Against Women Act requires
all VAWA grantees, including Transitional Housing Assistance Program grantees, to report on
the effectiveness of their programs to the Attorney General who, in turn, must report to Congress
every two years. Section 1003 of VAWA 2000 states that
(a) REPORT BY GRANT RECIPIENTS.- The Attorney General or Secretary of
Health and Human Services, as applicable, shall require grantees under any
program authorized or reauthorized by this division or an amendment made by
this division to report on the effectiveness of the activities carried out with
amounts made available to carry out that program, including number of
persons served, if applicable, numbers of persons seeking services who could
not be served and such other information as the Attorney General or Secretary
may prescribe.
(b) REPORT TO CONGRESS.- The Attorney General or Secretary of
Health and Human Services, as applicable, shall report biennially to the
Committees on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives and the
Senate on the grant programs described in subsection (a), including the
information contained in any report under that subsection.
34 U.S.C. 10227.
OVW must also comply with the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993
(GPRA) (Pub. L. 103-62) which was enacted to increase Congressional and Administrative focus
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on the results from government programs and activities. To meet its GPRA reporting obligations
and elicit more meaningful information about grantee performance, OVW has recently developed
performance measures, including output measures, regarding which the Transitional Housing
Assistance Program grantees must report on a semi-annual basis.
2.

Use of Information

OVW uses data from the information collection1 in different ways. OVW will use the
information collected from Transitional Housing Assistance Program grantees to monitor their
grant-funded activities and qualitatively assess those activities. In particular, OVW is seeking
data that includes baseline information to review activities supported with Transitional Housing
Assistance Program funds, including, for example, an increase in the number of trainings or an
increase in the number of victims served. OVW will review each semi-annual progress report to
monitor individual grantee’s performance, including the grant-funded activities and to ensure that
the goals and objectives set forth in applications for funding and award documents are met.
The Transitional Housing Assistance Program grantees collect information that addresses the
following grant-funded activities (different sections on the reporting form): staff, statutory
purpose areas, informational materials, and victim services. Narrative questions at the end of
these different sections enable grantees to give more detailed qualitative information about their
grant-funded activities. In addition, grantees must answer narrative questions on the most
significant areas of remaining need with regard to improving services to victims/survivors of
sexual assault, increasing victims/survivors safety, and enhancing community response, what has
federal funding allowed the grantee to do that grantee could not do prior to receiving funding,
additional information about the Transitional Housing Assistance Program grant and/or the
effectiveness of the grant and any additional information about the data submitted.
In addition to the proposed information collection, OVW will continue to use a number of
other techniques to assess the performance of Transitional Housing Assistance Program grantees.
These may include OVW staff attendance at site visits, grant-funded training and technical
assistance events, staff review of products prior to dissemination, and ongoing consultation with
OVW staff.
OVW will aggregate data from all grantees’ progress reports to assess the performance of
the Transitional Housing Assistance Program as a whole and to respond to Congressional,
Department of Justice, and other inquiries about how Transitional Housing Assistance Program
funds are being used. In addition, information collected from grantees will support the following
performance measures:
Number of victims receiving requested services;

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1 Under a cooperative agreement between OVW and the University of Southern Maine’s
Muskie School of Public Service, data collected from OVW grantees on all of OVW’s progress
report forms is transmitted to the Muskie School for analysis. For the analysis of the data,
standard descriptive statistics (frequency, sum, percentage, mean, etc.) are used to describe the
characteristics of the grantees and report basic findings. All analyses are conducted in SPSS 13.0.
Number of policies developed /revised;
Number of communities with improved CCR (community coordinated responses); and Percent
of victims requesting services who received them.
Information collected from Transitional Housing Assistance Program grantees will enable OVW
to respond to statutory requirements to report on the effectiveness of grant-funded activities. The
2022 Measuring Effectiveness Report to Congress, which includes information about how funds
were expended and an assessment of the effectiveness of funded programs- see
https://www.justice.gov/ovw/media/1348091/dl?inline. This report is based on data submitted
Transitional Housing Assistance Program grantees reflecting Transitional Housing Assistance
Program awards made and Transitional Housing Assistance Program‐funded activities engaged
in during calendar years July 1, 2019- June 30, 2021.
The data that OVW collects on the semi-annual progress reporting forms is currently not used
in connection with an evaluation of the Transitional Housing Assistance Program. OVW is
currently exploring the development of a multi-layered evaluation agenda for its grant programs.
It is important that OVW collect this information from Transitional Housing Assistance
Program grantees on a semi-annual basis so that OVW can ensure that they are performing
within the statutory limitations of the program in a timely manner. Because OVW is not able to
perform site visits with every Transitional Housing Assistance Program grantee, the review of
progress reports every six months enables OVW to monitor grantees in timely manner. It is
easier to identify a potential resolution for a matter that needs correction or modification if the
issue is identified sooner rather than later. An annual report would increase the potential for
grantees, unintentionally or intentionally, to spend grant funds inappropriately for a longer period
of time. Semi-annual reporting periods allow for more frequent course corrections and
interaction between the grantee and OVW.
3.

Use of Information Technology

The collection of information will involve the use of automated, electronic, mechanical or
other technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology. OVW
grantees are required to submit semi-annual progress reports through the Grants Management
System (GMS).
4.

Duplication of Information Request
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There is no other mechanism by which OVW collects information about grant funded
activities including number of victims served, victims seeking services who could not be served,
or persons trained.
5.

Impact on Small Entities

There is no impact on small entities as the collection of this type of information is
routinely kept by most grantees receiving funds under the Transitional Housing Assistance
Program.
6.

Consequences to Federal Programs or Policy

By statute, Congress has mandated that Transitional Housing Assistance Program
grantees report to the Attorney General on the effectiveness of their activities funded under
VAWA. If OVW was not able to collect the information necessary to complete these reports on
behalf of the Attorney General, not only would it be failing to meet a statutorily required
reporting mandate, but also the existence of this important and necessary grant program could be
jeopardized. Transitional Housing Assistance Grants for Victims of Domestic Violence, Dating
Violence, Stalking, or Sexual Assault Program funds organizations to assist victims of domestic
violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking who are in need of transitional housing,
short-term housing assistance, and related supportive services.
7.

Special Circumstances

There are no special circumstances as identified in the specific instructions for a
supporting statement for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions.
8.

Federal Register Publication

OVW has consulted with persons outside the agency who have advised that the data
proposed to be collected is available, the semi-annual collection of such data is not burdensome,
the form is clear, and that the information is routinely kept by most grantees receiving funds
under the Transitional Housing Assistance Program. OVW has solicited public comment on this
form in accordance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act. A 60 day notice was
published in the Federal Register on June 28, 2024 (Federal Register, Volume 89, page 54068)
and a 30-day was notice was published in the Federal Register on August 27, 2024 (Federal
Register, Volume 89, page 68646). OVW did not receive any public comments.
9.

Payment or Gift to Respondents
There will no payment or gift to respondents.
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10.

Confidentiality

Although this information is needed for a public report to Congress, it will not involve
any personal information about victims that could identify them as specific individuals.
However, anecdotal, non-identifying information about the effectiveness of individual programs
may be included in the report. There is no assurance to confidentiality.
11.

Specific Questions

The semi-annual progress report will not contain any questions of a personal, sensitive
nature such as sexual behavior and attitudes, religious beliefs, and other matters that are
commonly considered private.
12.

Hour Burden of the Collection of Information

This semi-annual progress report is not overly burdensome. The data collection tool will
be completed by approximately 120 Transitional Housing Assistance Program grantees twice a
year. There will be 240 semi-annual responses and it is estimated that it will take grantees no
more than 1 hour to complete the progress report form. Thus, the annual reporting and
recordkeeping hour burden is 240 hours. Transitional Housing Assistance Program grantees are
informed about the reporting requirements during the grant solicitation process and during the
grant award process.
OVW is seeking basic information that is routinely kept by the grantees in the normal
course of their operations. Thus, the requirement that grantees complete this progress report
within a period of less than 30 days after receipt of it is not overly burdensome. OVW estimates
that it will take approximately 1 hour for a grantee to complete the form. OVW developed this
estimate based on the fact that information of this nature is already kept by grantees receiving
funds under the Transitional Housing Assistance Program and that the grantees have been
apprized of these reporting requirements during the solicitation process and reminded throughout
the grant award process. The progress report is divided into sections that pertain to the different
types of activities that grantees may engage in, i.e. training, product development, victim
services. Grantees will only have to complete the sections of the form that relate to their specific
grant-funded activities.
13.

Cost Burden of the Collection of Information

OVW does not believe that there is any semi-annual cost burden on respondents or
recordkeepers resulting from the collection of this information.
14.

Annualized Costs to the Federal Government
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The annualized costs to the Federal Government resulting from the OVW staff review of
the progress reports submitted by grantees are estimated to be $13,440.
15.

Program Changes or Adjustments

There are no program changes or adjustments for the estimates identified in Section 13
and in Section 14. This is an information collection that is necessary for OVW and its
Transitional Housing Assistance Program grantees to comply with the statutory reporting
requirements and the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (Pub. L. 103-62).
16.

Published Results of Information Collections

There will be no complex analytical techniques used in connection with the publication of
information collected under the request. Information will be gathered once a year at the end of
the reporting periods. OVW is statutorily required to submit a report on the effectiveness of all
grant-funded activities on a biennial basis and the Transitional Housing Assistance Program
Activities specifically on an annual basis.
17.

Display of the Expiration Date of OMB Approval

OVW will display the Expiration Date of OMB Approval in the upper right hand corner
of the Progress Report.
18.

Exception to the Certification Statement

OVW is not seeking any exception to the certification statement identified in Item 19,
Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions, of OMB Form 83-I.

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