Rental Housing Assistance: HUD Data on Self-Sufficiency Programs Should Be Improved
Highlights
What GAO Found
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funds five key grant programs that encourage resident self-sufficiency. In fiscal year 2011, HUD awarded $113 million to the Housing Choice Voucher Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS), Public Housing FSS, and Resident Opportunity and Self-Sufficiency Service Coordinators (ROSS SC) programs. Public housing agencies (PHA) with HOPE VI grants or designated as Moving to Work (MTW) agencies spent a portion of their funds on activities that encourage self-sufficiency, but the amounts MTW agencies spent are not known for the program as a whole. Additionally, data on resident participation in the five programs were limited. The number of families that participated in the FSS programs and ROSS SC cannot be reliably assessed due to missing start dates, end dates, and annual updates, and a lack of reporting guidance. HOPE VI data on residents' participation does not include information on the elderly or persons with disabilities. Programwide MTW data on participation generally were unavailable. Internal control standards for the federal government state that program managers need operational data to determine whether they are meeting goals for accountability (effective and efficient use of resources). Without complete participation data, HUD lacks key information to effectively manage and evaluate its programs and Congress lacks data needed to oversee the programs.
HUD lacks a strategy for using data it requires of PHAs to expand what is known about outcomes in four of the programs. HUD has performed limited analysis of the data related to self-sufficiency outcomes for both types of FSS grants reported into its information systems. HUD has not analyzed similar data reported for ROSS SC and MTW activities. However, for HOPE VI HUD collects consistent, outcome-based measures for participation in self-sufficiency activities and uses the data to track residents' progress towards self-sufficiency. Internal control standards underline the importance not only of collecting but also using information to achieve programmatic goals. Also, the GPRA Modernization Act of 2010 (GPRAMA) emphasizes the need for information on the effectiveness of federal programs to improve congressional decision making. A strategy for using these data could inform overall management review, congressional oversight, and planning for these programs. Using such data could help HUD identify from which PHAs to draw lessons to help improve HUD management of the programs as well as PHA management of self-sufficiency-related activities. GAO's analysis of available data on residents who participated in the FSS programs suggests positive changes for those who completed the programs, but the results are not conclusive because data indicating whether a family exited FSS or subsidized housing were missing for 35 percent of families that started an FSS program in 2006.
Why GAO Did This Study
HUD reported in 2011 that nearly 8.5 million lower-income families paid more than half their monthly income for rent, lived in substandard housing, or both. As the number of those needing assistance is greater than existing federal programs can serve, if families were able to increase their income and no longer require housing assistance, spaces could become available for other needy families. HUD offers several competitive grants that PHAs can use to hire staff who link residents to services or implement programs that encourage self-sufficiency. GAO was asked to examine the effectiveness of HUD's efforts to promote self-sufficiency among residents. Among its objectives, this report describes (1) costs and resident participation in HUD grant programs for PHAs that encourage work and self-sufficiency and (2) available information on the programs' effects on residents.
GAO reviewed HUD's goals for encouraging self-sufficiency, program descriptions, and regulations; analyzed grant award data for fiscal years 2006-2011 and available outcome information; and interviewed HUD and PHA officials.
Recommendations
For three of its self-sufficiency programs, HUD should develop processes and program-specific reporting guidance to better ensure required data on participation and outcomes are complete. HUD agreed with three recommendations but disagreed that it should analyze data for the ROSS SC program. GAO believes that analysis of program data is critical for assessing outcomes.
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Housing and Urban Development |
Priority Rec.
To better inform Congress and improve what is known about residents' participation in key grant programs designed to facilitate resident self-sufficiency, and their progress towards self-sufficiency, the Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development should develop and implement a process to better ensure that data on FSS participant grants are complete; such a process should include steps for identifying missing data, identifying the reasons for missing data, and taking steps to help ensure data are complete. |
In response to this recommendation, in May 2014, HUD made modifications to the information system that it uses to collect FSS participation data. More specifically, HUD established a set of warnings and fatal edits that would trigger warnings to the user in specific situations when a public housing agency (PHA) entered incomplete or incorrect data. In August 2014, HUD sent a letter to PHAs with FSS grants informing them of these changes. To help determine the reasons for missing data on FSS participation, HUD hired a contractor to research the reasons for discrepancies in FSS participation counts. In October 2015, the contractor produced a report that identified factors contributing to FSS count reporting errors. In May 2016, HUD issued a notice to PHAs that administer FSS programs. The notice includes guidance on how to improve the accuracy of the FSS information submitted into HUD's information system, including guidance on how to overcome data submission challenges. By taking these steps to improve the completeness of FSS participation data, HUD has improved its ability to make better informed decisions about program funding, and will be able to provide Congress with a more complete view of program performance.
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| Department of Housing and Urban Development | To better inform Congress and improve what is known about residents' participation in key grant programs designed to facilitate resident self-sufficiency, and their progress towards self-sufficiency, the Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development should develop and implement a process to better ensure that PHAs awarded ROSS SC grants annually report required participation and outcome data that are comparable among grant recipients; this process should include the issuance of program-specific reporting guidance. |
In response to our recommendation, HUD took several steps. For example, in June 2014, HUD issued the fiscal year 2014 funding announcement for ROSS SC grant funds. The announcement noted that HUD had revised the tool (an Excel-based spreadsheet) that it required ROSS SC grantees to use to report participation and outcome data. The revised tool included a series of mandatory services and outcomes that all applicants were required to report on. The tool includes tabs for the reporting of data for each of the three years of the grant. HUD noted in the announcement that by having a uniform number of mandatory elements, HUD would be able to compare results using common measures for all grantees. Additionally, HUD included specific guidance and a glossary of terms with the new tool. Further, HUD provided web-based training in August 2015. By developing revising the ROSS-SC reporting tool, developing program-specific reporting guidance, and providing training related to the tool, HUD has taken steps to help ensure the collection of accurate participation data, and establish data sets that can be used to assess participation for the ROSS-SC program as a whole.
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| Department of Housing and Urban Development |
Priority Rec.
To better inform Congress and improve what is known about residents' participation in key grant programs designed to facilitate resident self-sufficiency, and their progress towards self-sufficiency, the Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development should develop and implement a strategy for regularly analyzing FSS participation and outcome data; such a strategy could include identification of PHAs from which lessons could be learned and PHAs that may need assistance improving completion rates or outcomes. |
In March 2014, HUD developed criteria to identify high-performing and low-performing PHAs that participated in the Family Self-Sufficiency program. This criteria would be used to evaluate data collected through HUD's Public and Indian Housing Information Center (PIC) system. PIC captures data from PHAs that participate in FSS, including data on whether the head of the household works full-time, part-time, or is unemployed. According to HUD's criteria, participating PHAs would be annually assessed based on the percentage of FSS participants that: experienced an increase in earned income; exited the FSS program after completing their contract; and exited the FSS program without completing their contract. In October 2015, HUD provided documentation of its analysis of PIC data. According to its report, HUD created scores for the three criteria described above. Using this approach, HUD identified 20 high-performing PHAs and 20 low-performing PHAs. Additionally, in October 2015, HUD provided documentation of analyzing additional FSS-related data. Specifically, HUD analyzed 15 outcomes related to education, employment, financial literacy, and housing. By better using the data it collects on the FSS program, HUD's analysis will inform overall management review, congressional oversight, and planning for the FSS program.
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| Department of Housing and Urban Development |
Priority Rec.
To better inform Congress and improve what is known about residents' participation in key grant programs designed to facilitate resident self-sufficiency, and their progress towards self-sufficiency, the Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development should develop and implement a strategy for regularly analyzing ROSS SC participation and outcome data; such a strategy could include identification of PHAs from which lessons could be learned and PHAs that may need assistance improving participation rates or outcomes. |
In response to our recommendation, HUD took several steps. For example, in June 2014, HUD issued the fiscal year 2014 funding announcement for ROSS SC grant funds. The announcement noted that HUD had revised the tool (an Excel-based spreadsheet) that it required ROSS SC grantees to use to report participation and outcome data. HUD required the fiscal year 2014 ROSS SC grantees to submit their first reports back to HUD by March 2016. In September 2016, HUD provided documentation of its analysis of the data to GAO. HUD noted that the data obtained from the revised tool were more reliable than past iterations. HUD was able to use the data to assess participation and a variety of outcomes, such as the number of persons that completed their training plan, improved their living conditions, and obtained full-time employment. HUD was also able to use the data to identify high and low-performers. For example, HUD defined high performers as those ROSS SC grantees that reported outcomes for mandatory metrics that were 65 percent or more above the median. HUD will undertake annual analysis of data collected from cohorts of ROSS SC grantees and noted that lessons learned from high-performing grantees will be shared. By developing and implementing a strategy for using the data it collects, HUD has improved its ability to inform overall management and congressional oversight of the ROSS SC program.
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