[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 58 (Friday, March 25, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 16194-16196]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-06849]


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DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT

[Docket No. FR-5910-N-03]


60-Day Notice of Proposed Information Collection: Surveys of 
Community Development Marketplace Project Inventory and Recipients and 
Providers of HUD Technical Assistance and Training

AGENCY: Office of Community Planning and Development, HUD.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: HUD is seeking approval from the Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB) for the information collection described below. In 
accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act, HUD is requesting comment 
from all interested parties on the proposed collection of information. 
The purpose of this notice is to allow for 60 days of public comment.

DATES: Comments Due Date: May 24, 2016.

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: Colette Pollard, Reports 
Management Officer, QDAM, Department of Housing and Urban Development, 
451 7th Street SW., Room 4176, Washington, DC 20410-5000; telephone 
202-402-3400 (this is not a toll-free number) or email at 
[email protected] for a copy of the proposed forms or other 
available information. Persons with hearing or speech impairments may 
access this number through TTY by calling the toll-free Federal Relay 
Service at (800) 877-8339.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Evan Gross, Office of the Deputy 
Assistant Secretary for Economic Development, Department of Housing and 
Urban Development, 451 7th Street SW., Washington, DC 20410; email Evan 
Gross at [email protected] or telephone 202-402-4889. This is not a toll-free 
number. Persons with hearing or speech impairments may access this 
number through TTY by calling the toll-free Federal Relay Service at 
(800) 877-8339.
    Copies of available documents submitted to OMB may be obtained from 
Mr. Gross.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This notice informs the public that HUD is 
seeking approval from OMB for the information collection described in 
Section A.

A. Overview of Information Collection

    Title of Information Collection: Survey of Community Development 
Marketplace Project Inventory and Survey of Recipients and Providers of 
Direct and Remote Technical Assistance and Training.
    OMB Approval Number: 2506-new.
    Type of Request: New collection of information.
    Form Number: Pending Assignment.
    Description of the need for the information and proposed use: This 
Notice covers three types of information HUD is proposing to collect in 
order to improve the effectiveness of technical assistance programs and 
operations:

a. Survey of Community Development Marketplace Project Inventory

    The Community Development Marketplace Project Inventory survey 
(``CDM Survey'') will serve as a vehicle to target cohort learning 
using remote tools and technical assistance products, as well as 
provide information in a useful, sortable way to foundations and 
investors who are seeking community development investment 
opportunities and researching trends. An example of how the CDM Survey 
information could

[[Page 16195]]

be presented to interested stakeholders and the public can be viewed 
via  https://www.hudexchange.info/resource/4479/promise-zones-community-development-marketplace, and questions can be addressed to 
[email protected].
    If HUD decides to proceed with the CDM survey after public comment, 
HUD may embed the survey in max.gov, or the HUD Exchange Web site, or 
another online platform. HUD may also continue to ask for user feedback 
through online suggestions and surveys on HUD Exchange or similar Web 
sites that HUD may use in the future.

b. Survey of Recipients and Providers of HUD Technical Assistance

    HUD proposes to survey the recipients and providers of technical 
assistance, including city and state grantees of HUD funds, public 
housing authorities, tribes, owners and operators of multifamily 
housing, Continuums of Care and other non-profit recipients of HUD 
funding. Technical assistance is provided by third-party organizations 
awarded funding through cooperative agreements or contracts with HUD. 
The survey responses will allow HUD and its providers to improve the 
way it delivers technical assistance HUD proposes to survey one 
representative from the recipient TA organization and one 
representative from each TA provider organization for either all or the 
majority of the TA engagements in a year. The number of engagements 
varies based on demand for TA and available funding to provide it, but 
based on past years' trends, HUD expects to survey approximately 200 
representatives each from recipient organizations and TA providers, for 
a total of 400 respondents annually.
    The survey will ask respondents to rate quality of the TA they 
received, their progress toward intended goals, and provide other 
feedback about the TA engagement including any challenges faced. At 
least annually, HUD will analyze the survey data to identify program 
strengths and opportunities for program improvements. HUD may follow up 
on surveys to secure additional qualitative information through 
interviews and focus groups.

c. Survey of HUD Training Participants

    HUD proposes to survey training participants in order to assess 
satisfaction with the course content and delivery. Participants include 
city and state HUD grantees, public housing authorities, tribes, owners 
and operators of multifamily housing, Continuums of Care (CoCs), and 
other non-profit recipients of HUD funding. Training is provided by 
third-party organizations awarded funding through cooperative 
agreements or contracts with HUD. The survey responses will allow HUD 
and its providers to improve the content and delivery of its training. 
All training participants will be offered the opportunity to provide 
feedback via a brief survey following the training. HUD estimates, 
based on past years' data, that about 7,000 training participants will 
be offered the opportunity to complete a feedback survey annually. The 
survey will ask respondents to rate their satisfaction with the 
training, including the relevance of the content to their job 
responsibilities, perceived knowledge gained, and quality of training 
delivery, and will provide space for comments regarding the training 
and suggestions to improve future training. At least annually, HUD will 
analyze the survey data to identify program strengths and opportunities 
for program improvements.
    HUD may follow up on all of the surveys listed above to secure 
additional qualitative information through interviews and focus groups. 
HUD may also survey users of online tools and products to assess the 
usefulness and quality of these offerings.

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                                             Number of     Frequency of    Responses per    Burden hour    Annual burden    Hourly cost
         Information collection             respondents      response          annum       per response        hours       per response     Annual cost
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CDM project intake survey and follow up              332               4            1328            2.25            2988             $40        $119,520
 feedback...............................
Survey of Recipients and Providers of                400          \1\1.1             440             .33           145.2    $15 (rcpnts)        3,847.80
 HUD Technical Assistance...............                                                                                    $38 (prvdrs)
                                                                                                                            = average of
                                                                                                                                  $26.50
Survey of HUD Training Participants.....           7,000          \2\1.3           9,100             .25            2275              15          34,125
                                         ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Total...............................            7732             6.4           10868            2.83         5408.20             <40      157,492.80
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\1\ HUD anticipates that a small percentage of TA recipients will complete a follow-up survey on progress toward intended outcomes, and therefore be
  asked to complete two surveys.
\2\ HUD anticipates that a small percentage of trainees will complete multiple trainings, and therefore be asked to complete more than one survey.

A. Paperwork Burden
    (1) Whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for 
the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including 
whether the information will have practical utility;
    (2) The accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the 
proposed collection of information;
    (3) Ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected; and
    (4) Ways to 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.
B. CDM Survey
    For potential users, including foundations, investors, researchers, 
other stakeholders:
    (5) What kind of potential user are you? HUD has heard from 
foundations, investors, communities, researchers and national 
intermediaries and stakeholder networks, but there may be others who 
can use this data.
    (6) Does the Project Intake Survey template capture information 
that would be useful to you? If yes, how is this information useful to 
you? If the information captured by the CDM Survey is not useful to 
you, how could

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we adjust this survey to better suit your information needs?
    (7) Please review the list of policy codes, financing types, 
funding source types, asset classes, and types of project sponsors that 
respondents are asked to select to categorize their project details. 
Would these options assist you in filtering and searching for 
information you would like to have? Are there any codes or options that 
would help you that missing? Are there any codes or options that are 
redundant?
    (8) Does the project intake survey capture the information useful 
to organizations working in your community? Please elaborate on what is 
useful or what could be done to make it more useful.
    (9) What are the typical information gaps that interfere with your 
organization's ability to target suitable funding opportunities? How 
can the project intake survey be enhanced to yield relevant information 
for your purposes?
    (10) With regard to geography filters, projects in the draft 
database would be searchable by city, state, zip code, and census tract 
(where known by the respondent). Do these filters allow for geographic 
searches that would be useful to you?
    (11) How can HUD better engage foundation, philanthropic, and 
impact investor community?
    For potential respondents:
    (12) Please review the questions in the proposed Project Intake 
Survey at [link]. If you are managing a local community development 
project or intervention, would you be willing and able to respond to 
the survey questions and to make your responses public for purposes of 
potentially connecting you to federal and private partners and/or peers 
that could facilitate your work? If not, why not?
    (13) Do you perceive the benefits of responding to the CDM Survey 
as adequate and sufficiently motivating for you to respond? If not, 
what additional benefits would motivate you to respond?
    (14) With regard to your and your partners' community 
revitalization efforts, please explain what particular types of 
information, peer exchange, introductions or other non-competitive 
assistance would be helpful to you as you move your work forward?
    (15) With regard to geography filters, projects in the draft 
database would be searchable by city, state, zip code, and census tract 
(where known by the respondent). Do these filters allow for geographic 
searches that would be useful to you?
C. Surveys of Recipients and Providers of HUD Technical Assistance and 
Training (Available Upon Request)
    The goal of HUD's technical assistance and training is to help 
customers navigate challenges associated with HUD funding and programs 
and points them in the right direction to best serve their communities. 
HUD provides TA and training across its portfolio of programs, 
including public housing, Native American housing, community 
development, rental housing, and fair housing. HUD does not currently 
have a mechanism to systematically solicit TA or training recipient 
feedback.
    The goal of the proposed survey(s) are to systematically collect 
information across TA and training engagements to learn how effectively 
they achieved the desired outcomes identified at the start of the 
engagement. From the information collected, HUD will be able to 
understand which types of TA and training are preferred by recipients 
and which seem to be most effective in achieving specific outcomes, and 
hold TA providers accountable for the quality of TA and training 
provided. It will provide information that will help HUD continuously 
improve the way it provides TA and training.
    HUD is particularly interested in comments that address the 
following questions:
    For survey of recipients and providers of HUD technical assistance:
    (16) Is an online survey sent after the TA engagement a practical 
way to capture feedback about the TA?
    (17) Is a rating system (e.g. rank the TA on a scale of 1-4) an 
appropriate way to assess customer satisfaction with the TA?
    (18) What type(s) of survey question(s) would best measure customer 
satisfaction with the quality of TA provided?
    (19) What other methods besides a survey could be employed to 
assess the quality of TA provided?
    For survey of HUD training participants:
    (20) How can HUD most accurately measure customer satisfaction and 
outcomes of training?
    (21) Should the survey of online or virtual training participants 
be different from the survey for in-person training participants?
    (22) Are there any other questions that the survey should ask of 
HUD training recipients to measure the effectiveness of HUD training?
    HUD encourages interested parties to submit comment in response to 
these questions. Comments submitted in response to this notice will be 
summarized and/or included in the request for Office of Management and 
Budget approval of the information collection request; they will also 
become a matter of public record.

B. Solicitation of Public Comment

    This notice is soliciting comments from members of the public and 
affected parties concerning the collection of information described in 
Section A on the following:
    (1) Whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for 
the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including 
whether the information will have practical utility;
    (2) The accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the 
proposed collection of information;
    (3) Ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected; and
    (4) Ways to 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.
    HUD encourages interested parties to submit comment in response to 
these questions.

     Authority: Section 3507 of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, 
44 U.S.C. Chapter 35.

    Dated: March 21, 2016.
Harriet Tregoning,
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and 
Development.
[FR Doc. 2016-06849 Filed 3-24-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4210-67-P