HUD Technical Assistance Assessment

HUD is conducting this study under cooperative agreement with the Urban Institute to assess its Technical Assistance (TA) programs under the Community Compass structure. HUD TA enables housing and community development providers to be more effective stewards of HUD funding by equipping them with the knowledge, skills and tools to better manage HUD programs. TA is provided by TA providers funded by HUD and includes tools and product development, help desk support, on-call TA, direct TA and capacity building, and needs assessments, among other types. Recipients of TA include State and local governments, Tribes, Tribally-Designated Housing Agencies, Public Housing Authorities (PHAs), participating jurisdictions, housing counseling agencies, multifamily owners/operators, nonprofit organizations, and Continuums of Care (CoCs). In 2002, the GAO evaluated HUD’s existing TA programs, and recommended that HUD streamline and coordinate its TA programs and request its TA providers to establish performance measures and report on their intended outputs and outcomes. Since then, HUD has made significant changes to the structure, implementation, and data systems used in administering its TA programs. Beginning with the Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 Technical Assistance and Capacity Building NOFA issued by the Office of Community Development and Planning, and the announcement of the OneCPD Integrated Practitioner Assistance System, the ‘‘Transformation Initiative’’, HUD began to shift from a more siloed program-specific approach to TA to a more coordinated funding and collaborative TA processes across programs. Changes continued with the integration of Office of Public and Indian Housing TA programs in FY 2013 through OneCPD+ and finally in FY 2014 with the addition of two more TA funding streams to form Community Compass. Now there is a unified NOFA process for all programs included in Community Compass, along with data and coordination improvements, and streamlined online assistance and resource pages. This will be the first assessment of these and other changes made to HUD TA in response to GAO recommendations. This project helps fill the gap in understanding HUD’s TA delivery system since Community Compass began in FY 2014. The Urban Institute is conducting an assessment focused on answering three research questions: (1) What TA does HUD provide, (2) how does HUD provide TA, and 3) how effective is HUD TA? To answer these three questions, this study will include in-depth interviews with TA providers and TA customers to supplement interviews completed during the design of the research. TA providers play a central role in navigating the Community Compass process and implementing TA activities. To gain insights into how providers engage in TA through Community Compass, we plan to conduct 5 group interviews that will target front-line TA staff and subcontractors that deliver the TA. This project will also interview customers receiving TA under the Community Compass. To better understand the customer experience, we will conduct interviews with key staff at organizations that received TA. Out of these interviews, the Urban Institute will create a final report to HUD on the answers to the above research questions. The findings in the final report will inform HUD’s future delivery of TA under the Community Compass structure.

The latest form for HUD Technical Assistance Assessment expires 2022-04-30 and can be found here.

TA Provider

Federal Enterprise Architecture: Community and Social Services - Community and Regional Development