[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 239 (Thursday, December 14, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 86671-86673]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-27445]


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DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT

[Docket No. FR-7077-C-03]


Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records

AGENCY: Office of Policy Development and Research, HUD.

ACTION: Notice of a modified system of records.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended, the 
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Policy 
Development and Research (PD&R), gives notice of a proposed revision of 
an existing Privacy Act system of records. The system of records is 
being updated in support of a follow-up information collection with the 
participants of the Homeless Families Impact Study (now called the 
Family Options Study). The overall goal of the Family Options Study is 
to determine which housing and service intervention works best to 
promote housing stability, family preservation, and family well-being, 
and self-sufficiency for homeless families with children. The new 
information collected will be added to the existing Homeless Families 
Impact Study Data Files. The Department proposes to expand the data 
collected under the previous study to capture additional data to 
determine the effects that housing and service interventions have had 
on the young children who are part of the sample. Refer to the 
``Categories of Records'' section to identify new record types. 
Additionally, this Notice updates the routine uses of the data 
collected. This notice supersedes the previously published notice 
(February 26, 2014; FR-5763-N-02).

DATES: Comments will be accepted on or before January 16, 2024. This 
proposed action will be effective immediately upon publication. Routine 
uses will become effective on the date following the end of the comment 
period unless comments are received which result in a contrary 
determination.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by docket number by one 
of these methods:
    Federal e-Rulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the 
instructions provided on that site to submit comments electronically.
    Fax: 202-619-8365.
    Email: [email protected].
    Mail: Attention: Privacy Office; LaDonne White, Chief Privacy 
Officer; The Executive Secretariat; 451 Seventh Street SW, Room 10139 
Washington, DC 20410-0001.
    Instructions: All submissions received must include the agency name 
and docket number for this rulemaking. All comments received will be 
posted without change to http://www.regulations.gov. including any 
personal information provided.
    Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or 
comments received go to http://www.regulations.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: LaDonne White; 451 Seventh Street SW, 
Room 10139 Washington, DC 20410-0001; telephone number 202-708-3054 
(this is not a toll-free number). HUD welcomes and is prepared to 
receive calls from individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, as well 
as individuals with speech or communication disabilities. To learn more 
about how to make an accessible telephone call, please visit https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/telecommunications-relay-service-trs.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: HUD launched the Family Options Study in 
2008 with the intent of generating

[[Page 86672]]

evidence about the relative effectiveness of various housing and 
services interventions designed to address family homelessness. HUD 
awarded the contract for the Family Options Study to Abt Associates and 
their partner, Vanderbilt University, who have conducted prior phases 
of the study and will conduct this next phase of the evaluation. 
Specific changes to the SORN include:
    a. Changes to categories of records in the system and sources 
categories. The upcoming follow-up information collection with the 
participants of the Family Options Study will include additional 
categories of records which will be stored as part of the Homeless 
Families Impact Study Data Files.
    b. Updated routine uses. The routine uses have been updated to 
remove those which are no longer relevant to this data collection 
(including the Congressional Inquiries Routine Use, the Department of 
Justice for Litigation Disclosure Routine Use, the Court or Law 
Enforcement Proceeding Routine Use, and the Law Enforcement 
Investigation Routine Use) and to add a new Research and Statistical 
Analysis Disclosure Routine Use.
    c. Updated the System Location to reflect current addresses of 
contractors. The contractor has moved offices since the publication of 
the original SORN in 2014, and thus the System Location has been 
updated to reflect the current address.
    d. Updated the Purpose to reflect the additional phase of the 
study. The original SORN was published in 2014 and did not forecast 
this new follow up information collection, thus the SORN is being 
revised to refer to this additional phase of the study.
    e. Updated record retention and disposal and safeguards sections to 
reflect current retention requirements and current safeguard 
procedures. This section has been updated to reflect current record 
retention requirements and current safeguard procedures.

SYSTEM NAME AND NUMBER:
    Family Options Study HUD/PD&R-04.

SECURITY CLASSIFICATION:
    Unclassified.

SYSTEM LOCATION:
    Data Files are maintained by Abt Associates which has principal 
offices at the following locations: Abt Associates Inc., 10 Fawcett 
Street, Suite 5, Cambridge, MA; Abt Associates Inc., 6130 Executive 
Blvd., Rockville, MD 20852; and the U.S. Department of Housing and 
Urban Development, 451 7th Street SW, Washington, DC 20410-0001. The 
Abt Associates system is hosted inside Amazon Web Services US East 
Cloud Region.

SYSTEM MANAGER(S):
    Carol Star, Director, Division of Program Evaluation, Department of 
Housing and Urban Development, Office of Policy Development and 
Research, 451 Seventh Street SW, Room 8120, Washington, DC 20410-0001. 
Phone: (202) 402-6139.

AUTHORITY FOR MAINTENANCE OF THE SYSTEM:
    Sections 501 and 502 of the Housing and Urban Development Act of 
1970 (Pub. L. 91-609) (12 U.S.C. 1701z-1; 1701z-2(d) and (g)).

PURPOSE(S) OF THE SYSTEM:
    The purpose of the Family Options Study will be to store the 
information that is needed to measure the long-term outcomes of the 
Family Options Study. The information to be maintained in this records 
system is necessary to identify and track the participating families 
over the course of the study and determine the effectiveness of the 
interventions. The data in this system will be analyzed using 
statistical methods and any results shared with the public or published 
in anyway will be reported only in the aggregate. Resulting reports 
will not disclose or identify any individuals or sensitive personal 
information.

CATEGORIES OF INDIVIDUALS COVERED BY THE SYSTEM:
    Families enrolled in Family Options Study and children in these 
families who have aged into adulthood and enrolled in the study.

CATEGORIES OF RECORDS IN THE SYSTEM:
    The data sets will contain the following categories of records.
    Responses to surveys: Includes participant's full name; social 
security number; study identifier; birth date; contact information 
(home address, telephone numbers, email address); demographic 
characteristics of the family head and children; income and employment 
history; health information; housing history; program service 
participation and experiences; and child well-being.
    Administrative data: Includes data on tenant's full name, date of 
birth, age, gender, race/ethnicity, disability status, income/salary, 
geolocation information, home address, unique household identifier; 
employment status, earned income, name of employer, email address, 
phone number.
    Locational data: Includes data such as the address and location of 
participating household.

RECORD SOURCE CATEGORIES:
    Families enrolled in the Family Options Study, HUD's PIH Inventory 
Management System/PIH Information Center (IMS/PIC), National Director 
of New Hires (NDNH), National Student Clearinghouse, Research Data 
Assistance Center, National Center for Health Statistics, National 
Change of Address (NCOA), and Accurint.

ROUTINE USES OF RECORDS MAINTAINED IN THE SYSTEM, INCLUDING CATEGORIES 
OF USERS AND PURPOSES OF SUCH USES:
    (1) To contractors, grantees, experts, consultants, Federal 
agencies, and non-Federal entities, including, but not limited to, 
State and local governments and other research institutions or their 
parties, and entities and their agents with whom HUD has a contract, 
service agreement, grant, cooperative agreement, or other agreement for 
the purposes of statistical analysis and research in support of program 
operations, management, performance monitoring, evaluation, risk 
management, and policy development, or to otherwise support the 
Department's mission. Records under this routine use may not be used in 
whole or in part to make decisions that affect the rights, benefits, or 
privileges of specific individuals. The results of the matched 
information may not be disclosed in identifiable form.
    (2) To contractors, grantees, experts, consultants and their 
agents, or others performing or working under a contract, service, 
grant, cooperative agreement, or other agreement with HUD, or its 
contractor Abt Associates, when necessary to accomplish an agency 
function related to a system of records. Disclosure requirements are 
limited to only those data elements considered relevant to 
accomplishing an agency function.
    (3) (a) To appropriate agencies, entities, and persons when: (1) 
HUD suspects or has confirmed there has breached the system of records; 
(2) HUD has determined that as a result of the suspected or confirmed 
breach there is a risk of harm to individuals, HUD (including its 
information systems, programs, and operations), the Federal Government, 
or national security; and (3) The disclosure made to such agencies, 
entities, and persons is reasonably necessary to assist with HUD's 
efforts to respond to the suspected or confirmed breach or to prevent, 
minimize, or remedy such harm.

[[Page 86673]]

    (4) To another Federal agency or Federal entity, when HUD 
determines that information from this system of records is reasonably 
necessary to assist the recipient agency or entity in (1) responding to 
suspected or confirmed breach, or (2) preventing, minimizing, or 
remedying the risk of harm to individuals, the recipient agency or 
entity (including its information systems, programs, and operations), 
the Federal Government, or national security, resulting from a 
suspected or confirmed breach.
    (5) To contractors, grantees, experts, consultants, Federal 
agencies, and non-Federal entities, including, but not limited to, 
State and local governments and other research institutions or 
employees or contractors, and other entities and their agents for the 
conduct of HUD-approved ancillary studies relevant to the Family 
Options Study. Records under this routine use may not be used in whole 
or in part to make decisions that affect the rights, benefits, or 
privileges of specific individuals. Research reports resulting from any 
such ancillary studies would be required to report all results in the 
aggregate and to ensure that no individual was identifiable.

POLICIES AND PRACTICES FOR STORAGE OF RECORDS:
    Electronic and paper.

POLICIES AND PRACTICES FOR RETRIEVAL OF RECORDS:
    Name, Social Security Number, Date of Birth and Unique Study ID.

POLICIES AND PRACTICIES FOR RETENTION AND DISPOSAL OF RECORDS:
    Temporary. Destroy upon verification of successful creation of the 
final document or file, or when no longer needed for business use, 
whichever is later.

ADMINISTRATIVE, TECHNICAL, AND PHYSICAL SAFEGUARDS:
    For Electronic Records: All personal data will be maintained on a 
secure virtual server that is protected by a firewall and complex 
passwords in a directory that can only be accessed by the system 
administrators and the analysts actively working on the data; access 
rights to the data are granted to limited researchers on a need-to-know 
basis, and the level of access provided to each researcher is based on 
the minimal level required that individual to fulfill his research 
role; all systems used to process or store data have Federal security 
controls applied to them; the data will be backed up on a regular basis 
to safeguard against system failures or disasters; and, unencrypted 
data will not be stored on a laptop or on removable media such as CDs, 
diskettes, or USB flash drives.
    For Paper Records: Any paper records with personal identifiers will 
be securely stored until they are shipped to the evaluation contractor 
via commercial mail services; all hard copy forms with personal 
identifying data (informed consent forms) will be stored securely in a 
locked cabinet that can only be accessed by authorized individuals 
working on the data. The locked cabinet will be stored in a locked 
office in a limited-access building. Additionally, permissions will be 
defined for each authorized user based on the user's role on the 
project. Study data will be aggregated or de-identified at the highest 
level possible for each required, authorized use.

RECORD ACCESS PROCEDURES:
    Individuals requesting records of themselves should address written 
inquiries to the Department of Housing Urban and Development, 451 7th 
Street , SW, Washington, DC 20410-0001. For verification, individuals 
should provide their full name, current address, and telephone number. 
In addition, the requester must provide either a notarized statement or 
an unsworn declaration made under 24 CFR 16.4.

CONTESTING RECORD PROCEDURES:
    The HUD rule for contesting the content of any record pertaining to 
the individual by the individual concerned is published in 24 CFR 16.8 
or may be obtained from the system manager.

NOTIFICATION PROCEDURES:
    Individuals requesting notification of records of themselves should 
address written inquiries to the Department of Housing Urban 
Development, 451 7th street SW, Washington, DC 20410-0001. For 
verification purposes, individuals should provide their full name, 
office or organization where assigned, if applicable, and current 
address and telephone number. In addition, the requester must provide 
either a notarized statement or an unsworn declaration made under 24 
CFR 16.4.

EXEMPTIONS PROMULGATED FOR THE SYSTEM:
    None.

HISTORY:
    This is a revision to the previously published notice published in 
the Federal Register on February 26, 2014, at 79 FR 10823.

LaDonne White,
Chief Privacy Officer, Office of Administration.
[FR Doc. 2023-27445 Filed 12-13-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4210-67-P