Data Collection for the HUD Counseling Outcomes Study

IMPAQ International serves as a subcontractor to Abt Associates, Inc., to collect data on counselors and counseling clients at HUD-approved housing counseling agencies. The study focuses on people seeking counseling prior to purchasing their first house, as well as people seeking foreclosure mitigation counseling. As part of this project, HUD hopes to gain a better understanding of:

• Characteristics of the clients who seek counseling.
• Characteristics of the counselors at the agencies.
• Housing-related outcomes following counseling.
• Elements of successful counseling interventions.

Twenty-nine counseling agencies were selected for this study using a stratified sampling scheme that results in a nationally representative sample of agencies.

IMPAQ designed and developed a Web-based data collection system that counselors and project staff used to capture data on baseline characteristics of clients, counseling services provided to clients, and clients’ housing outcomes. One component of the system used optical mark recognition (OMR) scanning technology to capture data from paper forms. The system performed data validation at multiple stages in the process. IMPAQ also programmed and tested a CATI survey instrument and administered the survey to counseling clients approximately a year after initial contact with the agency.