[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 25 (Tuesday, February 7, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 6137-6138]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-2720]


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DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT

[Docket No. FR-5609-N-03]


Notice of Proposed Information Collection for Public Comment: 
Data Collection for Full Housing Choice Voucher Program Administrative 
Fee Study

AGENCY: Office of the Policy Development and Research, HUD.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The proposed information collection requirement described 
below will be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) 
for review, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act. The Department 
is soliciting public comments on the subject proposal.

DATES: Comments Due Date: April 9, 2012.

ADDRESSES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments regarding 
this proposal. Comments should refer to the proposal by name and/or OMB 
Control number and should be sent to: Reports Liaison Officer, Office 
of Policy Development & Research, Department of Housing and Urban 
Development, 451 7th Street, SW., Room 8226, Washington, DC 20410-5000.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Marina L. Myhre, (202) 402-5705, for 
copies of the proposed forms and other available documents. (This is 
not a toll-free number.)

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Department will submit the proposed 
information collection to OMB for review, as required by the Paperwork 
Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35, as amended). This Notice 
is soliciting comments from members of the public and affected agencies 
concerning the proposed collection of information to: (1) Evaluate 
whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for the 
proper performance of the functions of the agency, including whether 
the information will have

[[Page 6138]]

practical utility; (2) Evaluate the accuracy of the agency's estimate 
of the burden of the proposed collection of information; (3) Enhance 
the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; 
and (4) Minimize the burden of the collection of information on those 
who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate automated 
collection techniques or other forms of information technology (e.g., 
permitting electronic submission of responses).
    This Notice also lists the following information:
    Title of Proposal: Data Collection for Full Housing Choice Voucher 
Program Administrative Fee Study.
    Description of the need for the information and proposed use: This 
request is for the clearance of on-site and telephone data collection 
from public housing agencies (PHAs) in support of the Housing Choice 
Voucher (HCV) Program Administrative Fee Study. The purpose of the 
study is to collect accurate information on the costs of administering 
the HCV program across a national sample of high-performing and 
efficient PHAs, and to use this information to develop a new 
administrative fee allocation formula for the HCV program. This request 
for clearance is the fourth OMB request in support of this study and is 
for data collection for the full national study. The prior OMB requests 
have covered the reconnaissance or research design phase of the study, 
pretesting the full national study design, and conducting additional 
reconnaissance visits to increase the study sample. For the current OMB 
request, the research team proposes three main types of data 
collection: (1) Measuring the time that HCV staff spend working on the 
various activities required to administer the program over a two-month 
period; (2) collecting information via interviews and document review 
on overhead costs, other costs related to HCV program administration 
that cannot be captured by measuring staff time, and ``transaction 
counts'' (the number of times an HCV program activity is completed over 
a specified period of time) in order to translate the staff time spent 
on that activity into a time per activity or cost per activity; and (3) 
a telephone survey of 130 small HCV programs (fewer than 250 vouchers) 
to understand how smaller agencies administer the HCV program 
effectively without the benefit of economies of scale that apply to 
larger programs. The results of the data collection will be used to 
generate estimates of total cost per activity per PHA and to build a 
multivariate regression model that tests how much the variation across 
PHAs in administrative costs can be explained by PHA, participant, and 
market characteristics. The results of the model will be used to inform 
the development of an administrative fee formula that is based on the 
average cost per activity and takes into account the most important 
factors that cause some HCV programs to be more costly to administer 
than others.
    OMB Approval Number: Pending.
    Agency form numbers: None.
    Members of Affected Public: An average of 25 PHA staff per site at 
up to 60 PHAs and an average of 2 PHA staff per site at up to 130 PHAs, 
for a total of 1,760 PHA staff persons across 190 PHAs.
    Estimation of the total number of hours needed to prepare the 
information collection including number of respondents, frequency of 
response, and hours of response: The research team plans to collect 
time measurement and cost data at up to 60 PHAs across the country and 
to survey an additional 130 PHAs with small HCV programs. There are 
four data collection activities that involve PHA staff. First, up to 3 
staff at each of the 60 PHAs will spend a total of 1,440 hours 
assembling overhead cost data and preparing for the site visit (3 staff 
x 8 hours x 60 sites = 1,440 hours). Second, up to 3 staff at each of 
the 60 PHAs will spend up to 2 days each being interviewed in person or 
by telephone by the study team about program overhead costs, 
transaction counts, and recent changes in voucher program operations (3 
staff x 16 hours x 60 sites = 2,880 hours). Third, an average of 20 HCV 
program staff per site will participate in the time measurement data 
collection. This will entail receiving 2 hours of training (20 staff x 
2 hours x 60 sites = 2,400 hours) and responding to notifications via a 
smart phone provided by the study team on their work activities over a 
two-month period (40 working days). Responding to the notifications 
will take approximately 15 minutes per day per staff, for a total of 10 
hours per staff over the 40 working days (20 staff x 10 hours x 60 
sites = 12,000 hours). Finally, up to 2 PHA staff at 130 PHAs will 
participate in the small program telephone survey. These staff will 
spend up to 2 hours preparing for the telephone survey, including 
assembling financial statements and other documentation, and an average 
of 45 minutes completing the survey (2 staff x 2.75 hours x 130 PHAs = 
715 hours). The total estimated burden across all proposed data 
collection activities is 19,435 hours.
    Status of the proposed information collection: Pending OMB 
approval.

    Authority: Section 3506 of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, 
44 U.S.C. Chapter 35, as amended.

    Dated: January 30, 2012.
Erika Poethig,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research.
[FR Doc. 2012-2720 Filed 2-6-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4210-67-P