ICR Template_A11 Section 280 Clearance Homelessness v3

Request for Approval under the “Generic Clearance for Improving Customer Experience: OMB Circular A-11, Section 280 Implementation”

(OMB Control Number: 2900-0876)

TITLE OF INFORMATION COLLECTION: Homelessness Survey

PURPOSE OF COLLECTION:

Cleland Dole Section 313 Study on Financial and Credit Counseling mandates U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to survey Veterans experiencing homelessness and housing instability about their use of financial and credit counseling, their barriers to using financial and credit counseling and their outcomes of using financial and credit counseling. Cleland Dole Section 313 also mandates VA to survey Veteran homeless program providers, financial and credit counselors, and other subject matter experts on financial and credit counseling services about their perceptions of Veterans experiencing homelessness and housing instability use of financial and credit counseling, their barriers to using financial and credit counseling and their outcomes of using financial and credit counseling.

The findings from these surveys will be shared with the Advisory Committee on Homeless Veterans, the Advisory Committee on Women Veterans, the Advisory Committee on Minority Veterans, the Veterans Health Administration Homeless Programs Office, the Office of Tribal Government Relations and Congress. Findings from these surveys will inform the aforementioned entities about the gaps in service delivery of financial and credit counseling to Veterans experiencing homelessness and housing instability. Depending on the elucidated service gaps, processes and policies may be modified and/or developed to better meet the financial and credit counseling needs of Veterans experiencing homelessness and housing instability.

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

[ ] Telephone

[ ] In-person

[ ] Mail

[ ] 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 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?)

• Veterans experiencing homelessness and housing instability about their use of financial and credit counseling, their barriers to using financial and credit counseling and their outcomes of using financial and credit counseling.

• The target population for this survey is any participant of the VA Homeless Program. Program data indicates that, of 425,256 program participants, 327,464 (77.0%) have an email address. Of these participants, VEO estimates that 199,222 participants will be available. VEO does not have historic response rate data for this population but assumes the return rate will be lower than we receive with other surveys due to the nature of the population. VEO has, therefor, used a conservatively low estimated return rate of 5% to determine sample needs.

• Please see Page 6 for a more in-depth explanation.

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)

• VEO will send out an email invitation to the online survey through Medallia. The email addresses were provided by the VA Homeless Program.

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?

• The activity will be an online survey that takes 5 minutes to complete.

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.

• Done

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.”)

• After receiving OMB approval, we plan to send out the invitation emails in one batch during regular business hours.

7. Is an incentive (e.g., money or reimbursement of expenses, token of appreciation) provided to participants?

[ ] Yes [X] No

If Yes, describe:

• Not applicable

BURDEN HOURS

Category of Respondent	No. of Respondents	Participation Time	Burden Hours
Individuals	2,400	5 minutes	200
Totals	2,400	5 minutes	200

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; and,

7. Information gathered will only be shared publicly in the manner described in the umbrella clearance of this control number.

Name: Sergio Gazaryan, Enterprise Measurement Project Manager, Veterans Experience Office, VA (603) 203-3167

All instruments used to collect information must include:

OMB Control No. 2900-0876

Expiration Date: 2/28/2026

HELP SHEET

(OMB Control Number: XXXX-XXXX)

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.

Homelessness Survey: Sampling Methodology

Background

VEO has been asked to conduct a single wave survey of participants in the VA Homeless Program. The purpose of the report is to provide a sample methodology for this survey.

Sample Frame

The target population for this survey is any participant of the VA Homeless Program. Program data indicates that, of 425,256 program participants, 327,464 (77.0%) have an email address. Of these participants, VEO estimates that 199,222 participants will be available for the sample frame once the following have been removed because of:

• Bad email addresses

• Email addresses associated with multiple veterans

• Participants that have opt out from receiving VEO surveys

• Participants that have received another VEO survey in the past 30 days (quarantine)

Estimated Return Rate

VEO does not have historic response rate data for this population but assumes the return rate will be lower than we receive with other surveys due to the nature of the population. While we have validated email addresses for the sample frame, current or past struggles with homelessness is likely associated with:

• Limited access to the technology (smart phone/ computer) to view email

• Less frequent monitoring of email due to focusing on the more immediate needs of those in economic distress or, in some cases, psychological distress

VEO has, therefor, used a conservatively low estimated return rate of 5% to determine sample needs. As a result, we expect to exceed the target discussed below by as much as 50% and potentially even more given the uncertainty of the actual return rate.

Target Number of Respondents and Sample Needs

VEO proposes to target a Margin of Error (MOE) of +/-2% with a 95% confidence interval to assure a statistically robust sample. This will require roughly 2,400 completed surveys. Given an estimated return rate of 5% we will need to send 48,000 survey invitations to safely achieve this target.

Stratification

VEO will not use explicit strata targets for this survey to preserve equal probability of selection. Instead, it will use balancing variable or implicit stratification to assure that the sample closely mirrors the distribution of the sample frame. Typically, we use age, gender, and location as balancing variables but additional variables may be added if seen fit.

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