Office of Community Services
Affordable Housing and Supportive Services Demonstration Data
Collection
No
material or nonsubstantive change to a currently approved
collection
No
Regular
01/07/2025
Requested
Previously Approved
10/31/2027
10/31/2027
1,462
1,474
1,393
1,411
0
0
The Affordable Housing and Supportive
Services Demonstration (AHSSD) Data Collection (OMB #0970-0628) was
originally approved in March 2024 and then revised in September
2024. The information collection includes individual-level survey
instruments and on-site focus groups to collect information from
program participants, onsite and virtual interviews to collect
information from program staff, and report forms to capture service
delivery and outcomes. The Office of Community Services (OCS) has
not yet collected data using the focus group and interview
protocols. After we awarded our most recent round of grants, we
realized that budgetary constraints may impede the collection of
data via in-person site visits. Collecting this data in person
would require extensive staff travel, which will be difficult to
achieve given budgetary and staff constraints. OCS has begun
collecting data with the survey instruments for baseline data, and
we have recently begun the first wave of data collection for the
follow up survey. Our analyses of the follow-up data has
demonstrated that we can trim a few items to reduce participant
burden as they are not needed for the longitudinal analysis. OCS
requests changes to achieve efficiencies in collecting in-depth
qualitative data from participants and staff, as well as minor
changes to reduce burden. To achieve efficiencies in collecting
in-depth qualitative data, OCS would like to transition from
on-site data collection with participants and staff to virtual data
collection. OCS had originally planned to conduct site visits
during which we would conduct interviews and focus groups, but we
believe that conducting these collections virtually would lead to
significant time savings for OCS, grant recipients, and
participants. Additionally, in order to better promote participant
privacy in the virtual environment, we propose to transition from
using a focus group format for the participant data collection to
using an interview. It is difficult in a virtual environment to
ensure that participants are only sharing information with those in
the focus group, so we would like to conduct this collection as
individual interviews to better ensure privacy of participants. We
also make revisions to reduce burden on participants. Upon running
our preliminary analysis on the service receipt questionnaire and
self-sufficiency matrix, we realized that we do not need length of
time in current housing and number of children in the household in
the service receipt questionnaire. The self-sufficiency matrix
provides a firmer sense of length of time in service delivery with
the item about enrollment in case management services.
Additionally, our analysis does not use the number of children item
because we are most interested in child-care utilization, the need
for which is captured in the self-sufficiency matrix. As a result,
we updated Instrument 2 (Service receipt questionnaire) to remove
“how long have you lived in your current housing” and “how many
children under the age of 18 live in your household” Finally, we
make minor revisions to increase the flexibility of these
instruments moving forward. Primarily, across all items in this
change request, we indicate that we will insert an appropriate
contact in the PRA statement by adding [contact] to the
statement.
US Code:
42
USC 1310 Name of Law: Social Security Act
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that
the collection of information encompassed by this request complies
with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR
1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding
the proposed collection of information, that the certification
covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a
benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control
number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of
these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked
and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.
NonSub Change Request - AHSSD.docx
2024 Version – Semi-Annual Quantitative Report OPTIONAL