[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 237 (Tuesday, December 12, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 58441-58444]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-26684]


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DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT

[Docket No. FR 6069-N-01]


Advanced Notice of EnVision Center Demonstration

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, HUD.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: Through this notice, HUD solicits comment on a demonstration 
designed to test the effectiveness of collaborative efforts by 
government, industry, and nonprofit organizations to accelerate 
economic mobility of low-income households in communities that include 
HUD-assisted housing through EnVision Centers, centralized hubs for 
supportive services focusing on the four pillars of Economic 
Empowerment, Educational Advancement, Health and Wellness, and 
Character and Leadership. Approximately 10 communities, selected from 
across the country, are anticipated to participate in the 
demonstration. The purpose of the demonstration is to explore the 
potential of a new service-delivery mechanism to provide HUD-assisted 
households the ability to benefit from life-changing opportunities that 
the advancement of the four pillars affords.

DATES: Comment Due Date: February 12, 2018.

ADDRESSES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments responsive 
to this notice to the Office of General Counsel, Regulations Division, 
Department of Housing and Urban Development, 451 7th Street SW, Room 
10276, Washington, DC 20410-0001. All submissions should refer to the 
above docket number and title. Submission of public comments may be 
carried out by hard copy or electronic submission.
    1. Submission of Hard Copy Comments. Comments may be submitted by 
mail or hand delivery. Each commenter submitting hard copy comments, by 
mail or hand delivery, should submit comments to the address above, 
addressed to the attention of the Regulations Division. Due to security 
measures at all federal agencies, submission of comments by mail often 
results in delayed delivery. To ensure timely receipt of comments, HUD 
recommends that any comments submitted by mail be submitted at least 2 
weeks in advance of the public comment deadline. All hard copy comments 
received by mail or hand delivery are a part of the public record and 
will be posted to http://www.regulations.gov without change.
    2. Electronic Submission of Comments. Interested persons may submit 
comments electronically through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at 
http://www.regulations.gov. HUD strongly encourages commenters to 
submit comments electronically. Electronic submission of comments 
allows the commenter maximum time to prepare and submit a comment, 
ensures timely receipt by HUD, and enables HUD to make comments 
immediately available to the public. Comments submitted electronically 
through the http://www.regulations.gov website can be viewed by other 
commenters and interested members of the public. Commenters should 
follow instructions provided on that site to submit comments 
electronically.
    No Facsimile Comments. Facsimile (fax) comments are not acceptable.
    Public Inspection of Comments. All comments submitted to HUD 
regarding this notice will be available, without charge, for public 
inspection and copying between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., Eastern Time, 
weekdays at the above address. Due to security measures at the HUD 
Headquarters building, an advance appointment to review the public 
comments must be scheduled by calling the Regulations Division at 202-
708-3055 (this is not a toll-free number). Individuals with speech or 
hearing impairments may access this number through TTY by calling the 
Federal Relay Service at 800-877-8339 (this is a toll-free number). 
Copies of all comments submitted are available for inspection and 
downloading at http://www.regulations.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ariel Pereira, Associate General 
Counsel for Legislation and Regulations, Office of General Counsel, 
Department of Housing and Urban Development, 451 Seventh Street SW, 
Room 10282, Washington, DC 20410-7000, telephone number 202-402-5132 
(this is not a toll-free number). Persons with hearing or speech 
impairments may access this number through TTY by calling the Federal 
Relay Service at 800-877-8339 (this is a toll-free number).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background

    Under the leadership of President Donald J. Trump, the 
Administration is committed to reforming government services and 
expanding opportunities for more Americans to become self-sufficient. 
The EnVision Center demonstration focuses on empowering people to leave 
HUD-assisted housing through self-sufficiency to become responsible 
homeowners and renters in the private market. By doing so, HUD will be 
able to make those resources available to others and help more 
Americans.
    The EnVision Centers demonstration is premised on the notion that 
financial support alone is insufficient to solve the problem of 
poverty. Intentional and collective efforts across a diverse set of 
organizations are needed to implement a holistic approach to foster 
long-lasting self-sufficiency. EnVision Centers will provide 
communities with a centralized hub for support in the following four 
pillars: (1) Economic Empowerment, (2) Educational Advancement, (3) 
Health and Wellness, and (4) Character and Leadership. The Economic 
Empowerment pillar is designed to improve the economic sustainability 
of individuals residing in HUD-assisted housing by empowering them with 
opportunities to improve their economic outlook. The Education pillar 
seeks to bring educational opportunities directly to HUD-assisted 
housing and includes partnering with public and private organizations 
that approach education in non-traditional ways on non-traditional 
platforms. The Health and Wellness pillar is designed to improve access 
to health outcomes by individuals and families living in HUD-assisted 
housing. The Character and Leadership pillar is designed to enable all 
individuals and families residing in HUD-assisted housing, especially 
young people, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, 
responsible citizens by encouraging participation in volunteer and 
mentoring opportunities.
    Through results-driven partnerships with federal agencies, state 
and local governments, non-profits, faith-based organizations, 
corporations, public housing authorities (PHAs), tribal designated 
housing entities (TDHEs) and housing finance agencies, EnVision Centers 
will leverage public and private

[[Page 58442]]

resources for the benefit of individuals and families living in HUD-
assisted housing. HUD anticipates that positive outcomes for 
individuals and households will generate additional positive impacts at 
the community-wide level. EnVision Centers will also break down the 
silos of government, and co-locate government services that lead to 
self-sufficiency.
    A January 2011 report from the Government Accountability Office 
(GAO) that focused on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, 
Employment Services and Workforce Investment Act Adult employment 
programs funded by the U.S. Departments of Labor, Education, and Health 
and Human Services, found that while it would be a challenge, 
efficiencies in offering government services could be achieved by co-
locating services and consolidating administrative structures.\1\ 
EnVision Centers will bring together in one place, federal, state and 
local government services, community based organization services, non-
profit mission based organization services and faith based organization 
services that lead economic self-sufficiency and ultimately, greater 
economic mobility.
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    \1\ http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d1192.pdf.
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II. Demonstration

    Every resident living in public or assisted housing should have 
access to the opportunities economic mobility can provide. This 
demonstration is designed to encourage and create a platform for 
communities to collaborate with community supportive service providers, 
other businesses, foundations, nonprofit organizations, educational 
leaders, job training and workforce development organizations, and 
others to advance economic mobility in their communities and to test 
the effectiveness of a collaborative set of actions that address all 
barriers to economic sufficiency. The demonstration will build upon 
existing partnerships and continue collaborative work to improve the 
lives of residents housed with HUD assistance by providing a forum by 
which cross-sector organizations can come together to design and 
implement local interventions to advance economic mobility.

1. Process and Criteria for Participation

    HUD's goal is to identify a sample of diverse communities from 
different geographies and of varying sizes that have the capacity to 
effectively and expediently implement the demonstration to serve HUD-
assisted families. HUD seeks the interest of communities where local 
leadership has already taken steps to support the goals of the 
demonstration, as measured by both the community's participation in 
other complementary Federal initiatives supporting economic mobility, 
as well as local plans and strategies for addressing the four pillars.
    Participation in the demonstration by these communities will build 
upon existing efforts already underway to expand economic mobility, 
thereby building the comprehensive and coordinated set of resources 
that will result in the long-term, sustainable employment that places 
individuals and families on track to become self-sufficient.
    As part of this demonstration, HUD will provide technical 
assistance, evaluation and monitoring, access to online resources such 
as the EnVision Center mobile application, access to stakeholder 
offerings made available to participating communities and a network of 
support from HUD's departments to ensure that all relevant HUD 
knowledge resources are made available to participating communities. 
HUD believes that communities participating in the EnVision Center 
demonstration will benefit from the collaboration made possible under 
this demonstration with: Local, state and federal government services, 
community based organization services, non-profit mission based 
organization services and faith based organization services that will 
lead to the development of economic self-sufficiency and ultimately, 
greater economic mobility for those most in need within these 
communities.
    HUD will use the following criteria to assess communities that have 
expressed an interest in participating in the demonstration:
    (1) The mayor or equivalent executive elected official of the 
community, and the PHA's or TDHE's executive leader, must formally 
announce a commitment to enhance economic mobility and in so doing 
identify skills gaps that exist in their community among distinct 
neighborhoods and demographics, the resolution of which will support 
long-term, sustainable employment that places individuals and families 
in HUD-assisted housing on track to become self-sufficient.
    (2) Communities should commit to developing and implementing a plan 
to promote and expand economic mobility. The development of this plan 
will serve as a vehicle for bringing various stakeholders together and 
providing them with a tangible path for achieving the goals of the 
demonstration. As an example, the plan could specify and formalize the 
participation of community stakeholders, describe gaps in current 
service delivery models, identify a physical location(s) which can act 
as a shared services site to house the EnVision Center, and/or outline 
specific benchmarks and goals for the EnVision center. Communities' 
participation plans will be expected to describe the goals of the 
community's participation in the demonstration and provide, to the 
extent possible, objective goals regarding the number of partnerships 
established with state and local government, non-profits, faith based 
organizations, and private and philanthropic organizations.
    (3) To ensure the presence of local support and leverage HUD 
infrastructure for implementation of this demonstration, communities 
should be currently participating in one or more Federal place-based 
initiatives, such as: The Promise Zones program; PHAs participating in 
the Moving to Work Demonstration, the Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation 
program; the Strong Cities, Strong Communities program; the JobsPlus 
program; the Family Self-Sufficiency program and the Resident 
Opportunities and Self-Sufficiency (ROSS) program; the ConnectHome 
program; existing Neighborhood Networks sites; existing Family 
Investment sites; the ROSS for Education Program; the Energy and 
Economic Development program (SEED); or the Building Neighborhood 
Capacity program.
    (4) Communities should be broadly committed to realizing the Office 
of American Innovation \2\ vision, especially, developing ``workforce 
of the future'' programs, modernizing government services and 
information technology, improving services to veterans, creating 
transformational infrastructure projects, implementing regulatory and 
process reforms, creating manufacturing jobs, and addressing the drug 
and opioid epidemic.
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    \2\ https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/03/27/president-donald-j-trump-announces-white-house-office-american.
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    (5) As a condition of participation, selected entities are required 
to cooperate in full with HUD staff and/or any contractors affiliated 
with HUD, in the implementation and evaluation of this program.
    (6) After selection, HUD will finalize a set of measurement tools 
to evaluate the program's impact and effectiveness. Selected 
respondents will be required to keep records to document how the 
Demonstration is being implemented, cooperate with the evaluation, and

[[Page 58443]]

cooperate in [any] the formal independent evaluation of the 
Demonstration.
    These criteria are meant to create optimal conditions to accelerate 
the adoption and use of the EnVision Center model. However, the 
criteria may be applied with reasonable flexibility to ensure that a 
diverse set of communities are considered for participation in this 
demonstration. Approximately 10 communities are anticipated to 
initially participate in the demonstration. As the demonstration 
proceeds, HUD will assess expressions of interest from communities and 
the availability of HUD staffing resources to support additional 
participation. Additionally, as the demonstration proceeds, HUD will 
assess the effectiveness of the participation criteria on an ongoing 
basis. As a result of these assessments, HUD may expand the number of 
participating communities, revise the participation criteria, or both 
to reflect HUD's experience in implementing the demonstration.

3. Stakeholder Meetings

    In advance of commencement of the demonstration, HUD will sponsor 
or co-sponsor one or more meetings of communities, cross-sector 
entities, and other stakeholders to facilitate the sharing of 
information and identify communities interested in participation in the 
demonstration. HUD will reach out to communities that have formally 
declared a commitment to advance economic mobility and otherwise meet 
the criteria described above to participate in those meetings. HUD also 
invites interested communities to reach out to HUD to note their 
interest and request attendance at a stakeholder meeting. HUD therefore 
encourages interested communities to take the necessary steps to meet 
the criteria as quickly as possible in order to be best positioned to 
realize the benefits of these discussions.
    HUD may partner with an existing entity that has a national 
organizational presence sufficient to provide a strong coordinating 
function across communities, government, and the private and nonprofit 
sectors. The entity should have significant expertise in community 
services, economic mobility and the four pillars. It should possess 
strong existing relationships with industry, foundations, universities, 
and nonprofit and non-governmental agencies. Finally, it should have 
community project experience, including educational and outreach 
activities in underserved populations.

III. Demonstrating Interest in Participating/Information Collection 
Approval

    Communities interested in participating in this demonstration must 
submit a written commitment by the mayor or equivalent executive 
elected official of the community (municipality, county, tribal nation 
or state), and the PHA or TDHE executive leader, to advancing economic 
mobility and empowering HUD-assisted households to become self-
sufficient. This commitment, must also respond to the items outlined in 
Section II.1. above, as well as identification of the Federal place-
based initiatives in which it is involved, as requested by Section 
II.1.(3.) above. In addition, HUD will require submission of an 
EnVision Center plan that outlines specific benchmarks and goals for 
the EnVision Center as outlined in Section II of this notice. 
Communities seeking to participate in this demonstration must submit 
this information to [email protected].
    The information collection requirements contained for the EnVision 
Center Demonstration will be submitted to the Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB) under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501-
3520). In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act, an agency may 
not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a 
collection of information unless the collection displays a currently 
valid OMB control number.

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                                             Number of     Frequency of    Responses per   Burden hours    Annual burden   Hourly costs
         Information collection             respondents      responses         year        per response        hours       per response     Annual cost
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Commitment Letter.......................           1,650               1           1,650             .25           412.5          $28.85      $11,900.63
Action Plan.............................           1,650               1           1,650               2           3,300           28.85          94,050
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    Totals..............................           1,650               1           1,650            2.25         3,712.5  ..............      105,950.63
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    In accordance with 5 CFR 1320.8(d)(1), HUD is soliciting comments 
from members of the public and affected agencies concerning this 
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 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.
    Interested persons are invited to submit comments regarding the 
information collection requirements in this notice. Comments must refer 
to the proposal by name and docket number (FR-6069) and must be sent 
to:
    HUD Desk Officer, Office of Management and Budget, New Executive 
Office Building, Washington, DC 20503, Fax: (202) 395-6947, and, Office 
of Legislation and Regulations, Office of General Counsel, Department 
of Housing and Urban Development, Room 10282, 451 7th Street SW, 
Washington, DC 20410.
    Interested persons may submit comments regarding the information 
collection requirements electronically through the Federal eRulemaking 
Portal at http://www.regulations.gov. HUD strongly encourages 
commenters to submit comments electronically. Electronic submission of 
comments allows the commenter maximum time to prepare and submit a 
comment, ensures timely receipt by HUD, and enables HUD to make them 
immediately available to the public. Comments submitted electronically 
through the http://www.regulations.gov website can be viewed by other 
commenters and interested members of the public. Commenters should 
follow the instructions provided on that site to submit comments 
electronically.

IV. Evaluating the Demonstration

    HUD will work with entities across the government and the broader 
research community to rigorously measure outcomes associated with the

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efforts resulting from this demonstration to advance economic mobility. 
With this research, HUD intends to improve and build on the 
demonstration, with the goal of extending the demonstration on a 
nationwide basis. The participating communities and cross-sector 
entities are expected to participate in any HUD-sponsored evaluation 
and other efforts designed to identify and share best practices from 
the demonstration with other HUD-assisted communities. In addition, 
participating communities and entities will be required to 
collaboratively develop and subsequently measure and report outputs and 
outcomes.

V. Solicitation of Public Comment

    In accordance with section 470 of the Housing and Urban-Rural 
Recovery Act of 1983 (42 U.S.C. 3542), HUD is seeking comment on the 
demonstration. Section 470 provides that HUD may not begin a 
demonstration program not expressly authorized by statute until a 
description of the demonstration program is published in the Federal 
Register and a 60-day period expires following the date of publication, 
during which time HUD solicits public comment and considers the 
comments submitted. The public comment period provided allows HUD the 
opportunity to consider those comments during the 60-day period, and be 
in a position to commence implementation of the demonstration following 
the conclusion of the 60-day period.
    While HUD welcomes comments on the entirety of the demonstration, 
it asks that commenters consider the following specific questions:
    (1) In administering and evaluating the demonstration, how should 
HUD define ``economic mobility''?
    (2) How can HUD tailor the Economic Empowerment Pillar of the 
Demonstration to identify and focus on families and individuals 
residing in HUD-assisted housing that are able to work, and not those 
who are elderly or include persons with disabilities;
    (3) How can HUD and identified partners (state and local entities, 
private sector, philanthropic, non-profit and other entities) best 
maximize existing programs and efforts across agencies in a coordinated 
and holistic approach?
    (4) What impediments exist for achieving the four pillars, 
including institutional, organizational, legal or statutory, and 
behavioral impediments? Is it necessary to the success of the 
demonstration that communities link all four pillars, and if not, would 
it be sufficient for a community to identify in its participation plan 
the barriers to including a specific pillar? Are there additional 
pillars that contribute to self-sufficiency and economic mobility that 
should be made part of the demonstration?
    (5) What incentives and programs have worked in the past to achieve 
the four pillars?
    (6) What elements and level of detail should HUD require in a 
community's participation plan?
    (7) How should HUD define and measure economic mobility over time 
and space? How should HUD measure quality of life for residents that 
remain in assisted housing?
    (8) What data sources or data linkage is needed to develop outcome 
metrics such as, return on investment, involvement of local 
institutions of higher learning, employment and economic opportunities 
for Section 3 residents and businesses, and a public process for 
reviewing outcomes and lessons learned?

    Dated: December 5, 2017.
Benjamin S. Carson, Sr.,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2017-26684 Filed 12-11-17; 8:45 am]
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