Deadline: 01-Jul-2020
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has announced a Call for Proposals to Estimate the Prevalence and Probability of Homeless Youth.
Research Objective
The objective of this research is to meet the requirements for youth research activities authorized under Section 345 of the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act, which calls for “using the best quantitative and qualitative social science research methods available to produce estimates of the incidence and prevalence of runaway and homeless individuals who are not less than 13 years of age but are less than 26 years of age; and … that includes with such estimate an assessment of the characteristics of such individuals.” In 2019, HUD published the Voices of Youth Count (VoYC) Study that met the basic requirements of the Act. Using a broad definition of youth homelessness, the VoYC Study offered a nationally representative estimate of homeless youth using Gallup phonebased household surveys, as well as point-in-time estimates of homeless youth based on street and shelter counts. Patterns and subpopulations of homeless youth were identified using qualitative in-depth interviews. To date, however, methods for estimating and predicting the number of homeless youth by linking administrative data from multiple sources have not been fully developed.
Funding Information
- HUD may award one or up to five cooperative agreements, with the total of all awards not to exceed $2,000,000.
- Minimum Award Amount: $ 400,000
- Maximum Award Amount: $ 2,000,000
- Length of Project Periods: 36-month project period with three 12-month budget periods
- Estimated Project Start Date: 09/01/2020
- Estimated Project End Date: 09/01/2023
Eligible Activities
In support of the project objectives listed above you may be asked to undertake a variety of research and analysis activities, from articulating research questions to conducting the research itself, and culminating it into research findings and producing informational tools and resources that improve practice and policies. They consider the activities listed below to be essential in creating and completing the project in a manner that achieves its objectives. However, this list is not intended to be comprehensive.
- Research design and work plan development. Developing a research design and work plan that will effectively respond to the research goals identified in this NOFA. The development of these materials will be done in close consultation with the HUD Government Technical Representative (GTR), Government Technical Monitor (GTM), and/or other staff and experts as the HUD GTR directs. This activity includes:
- Honing research questions and explaining their significance
- Conducting a literature review
- Consulting outside experts and stakeholders
- Developing a research design, which should include research questions, hypotheses, data
- sources, data collection methods, data collection instruments, and analysis methods
- Formulating a data collection plan, including if appropriate, sampling plans, surveys and
- pre-testing of Survey instruments and interview guides if applicable, detailed data system design and testing, and matching of administrative data across datasets held by different agencies, as applicable.
- Identifying existing local, state and national data that would contribute to producing estimates, and evaluating strengths, weaknesses and availability of data.
- Developing and enacting data use agreements and discussing with which entities they will likely be used. The researcher must plan for developing and executing data use agreements with all relevant data sources.
- Developing a work plan, which should include staffing assignments, task budgets, and a timeline of key activities
- Completing OMB Paperwork Reduction Act, Privacy Impact Assessment, and System of Record Notification documentation, as applicable.
- Obtaining Institutional Review Board approval as needed to ensure human subjects research protections in accordance with federal requirements
- Data Collection. This work will predominately use existing data (e.g., see table with potential administrative data sources above).This project could also include data collection using qualitative and/or quantitative methods that may be in-person, by mail, by phone, or via the internet if appropriate. The researcher must plan for developing and executing data use agreements with all relevant data sources.
- Data Matching and Analysis. Merging, tabulating, analyzing, modeling, validating and presenting data from surveys and existing administrative data sources, including third-party sources, to answer the research questions. Such analysis may include qualitative data analysis and synthesis, descriptive statistics, data visualization as appropriate to present the data.
- Communication. Synthesize and communicate findings through briefings, presentations, written reports, and the production of guidance and informational tools. These are to be designed to effectively communicate findings to non-research audiences specializing in direct-service, policy, and budgeting at the Federal, State, or local level.
- Other Eligible Activities: Other activities could include developing short papers or policy briefs on specific findings of the research that could guide decision-makers at the State and local level, or a tool-kit that would help communities replicate the counting methods used for this study.
Eligibility Criteria
- State governments
- County governments
- City or township governments
- Special district governments
- Independent school districts
- Public and State controlled institutions of higher education
- Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized)
- Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities
- Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments)
- Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education
- Nonprofits without 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education
- Private institutions of higher education
- For profit organizations other than small businesses
- Small businesses
- Individuals and foreign entities are not eligible applicants.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
