Best Practices for Community Outreach in Consolidated Planning

1. NCDA Winter Conference Washington, DC February 2017 Consolidated Plan Best Practices: Community Outreach City of Knoxville, Tennessee Becky Wade, Director Linda Rust, Presenter

2. Encouraging Citizen Participation • Requiredunder CFR, Title 24 – Housing and Urban Development, 91.105 • In addition, participation should specifically include: • Low and moderate income persons; • Those living in slum and blighted areas; • In areas where CDBG funds are proposed to be used; • By residents of predominantly low and moderate income neighborhoods; • Minorities and non-English speaking persons; and • Persons with disabilities. • Jurisdictions are also encouraged to: • Explore alternative public involvement techniques and • Quantitative ways to measure efforts that encourage citizen participation in “a shared vision for change in communities and neighborhoods.”

3. An Online Survey Tool • Accessible by smartphone or computer with internet service. • Free vs. subscription makes a difference. • Should be downloadable into MS Excel. • Consider the pros/cons of having surveys in English and another language. • Consider offering an online version ONLY (no paper copies). • Publicity is critical to getting responses! • For a description of the “7 Best Online Survey Tools” www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2014/11/10/best-online-survey-tools

4. Designing a Survey Instrument • Keep it simple! • Think about how you will manage the data. • Use HUD definitions as much as possible. • Be aware of jargon. • Include a clear introduction to the purpose of the survey on your cover page: • Be clear about how the data being gathered will be used • Be wary of expectations you may be setting up w/in the community • Be really clear that the survey is not supposed to yield statistically valid data - unless you're designing it that way.

5. Deciding What You Want to Know • You should spend the most time on this. Beta Test it with staff. Then analyze the data to see how it can be simplified more, while still getting useful information. • We asked ten content questions about different categories of community needs: • Neighborhoods, Home Ownership, Rental Housing, Homeless, Housing for Special Populations, Economic Development, Public Services, Public Facilities, Infrastructure Needs, and lastly, prioritizing those. • Seven questions were demographic in nature • To determine who met the definition of LMI, respondents were asked 2 different questions - one about annual household income and one about household size. • Other questions were: • Where do you live? • How did you hear about the survey? • The final question was open-ended, a place where people could share a comment.

6. Lessons Learned • Beware the open-ended question! • As simple as you think you’ve set your survey up, it could be simpler. • Challenge yourself on why you need to know each piece of information and how responses will be used. • We wished later that we'd included a question about disability status. • Be clear about asking about where respondents live. Don’t assume everyone recognizes the same geographic boundaries. • We added aquestion about how respondents learned about the survey. This was important as we learned what outreach or publicity methods worked the best.

7. Audience Response System (aka Touch Pad Polling) • Get surveys completed by people who don’t have computer/internet access or skills. • Use it with more traditional means of gathering input, such as public meetings and focus groups. • It’s FUN! It’s easy to set up and easy for respondents to use. • Formats right into your MS Power Point Presentation. • Should mirror your survey question/answer selections exactly. • Should also be downloadable into MS Excel (to add it to your online survey data). • We didn’t display demographic responses in live meetings. • Many, many brands to choose from (rental vs. purchase, etc.) www.polleverywhere.com/ars-comparison (has a comparison table between many different systems that are available)

8. Example Now we’re going to ask you some questions using the polling touch pad devices. The touch pads count everyone’s votes but we won’t know how you personally voted. We’ll ask a couple of questions first to get you used to how it works. If you want to change your mind during the polling, just press another number and your last vote(s) will be the vote(s) counted. We’ll give you a warning when we’re closing the voting.

9. Example Have you ever lied to your mother? • Never, ever, ever! • Maybe sometimes, when it was absolutely necessary. • Only when it involved candy. • I don’t want to admit it!

10. Example Now we’re going to ask you some questions regarding what you think are the most important needs in your community. We’re going to ask you to choose the top 3 most important needs to you. Your responses are anonymous. We have no way of knowing how you personally have answered a question.. Press the 3 numbers to vote for your most important needs. If you change your mind, press another 3. Your last votes will be the ones that count.

11. Example What are the 3 most important needs of Homeowners? • Energy Efficiency Improvements • Lead-based Paint Screening/Abatement • New Construction • Rehabilitation (including emergency and minor home repairs) • Down payment andClosing Cost Assistance

12. The Role of Technology • Technology is not a substitute for a good community engagement process. • Get a lot more responses and feedback from more varied audiences. • Make your presentations much more interactive and fun. • People of all abilities can participate. • The data can show you how particular “audiences” or groups of people (income level, age, geographic location, etc.) respond to the same questions. This can raise important issues to think about.

13. What are the 3 most important needs of those who are Homeless? Homelessness Prevention Emergency/Transitional Housing Affordable Permanent Housing Case Management Services Employment/Economic Stability

14. It’s All a Matter of Perspective How the people (including subrecipient agency staff) in a general public meeting responded. How a group of people who are experiencing (or have experienced) homelessness responded.

15. When to Use an Online Survey Tool • Use surveys with social media, at events or advocacy agency offices. • To reach LMI people – look for non profit tax assistance workshops, LIHEAP/other application events, human services offices, employment centers, etc. • To reach people in LMI Areas – look for community festivals, neighborhood or school events in LMAs

16. When to Use Touch Pad Polling • Use at meetings, presentations and/orfocus groups. • To reach LMI people – look for meetings of PHA tenant councils, “homeless collective,” senior citizens groups/clubs/classes, etc. • To reach people in LMI Areas – look for neighborhood association meetings, umbrella neighborhood groups meetings, PTA and other public meetings. • To reach minorities and non-English speaking communities – look for meetings of African American Chamber of Commerce, Hispanic Council, refugee groups/churches, etc. • To reach people with disabilities – look for councils/meetings of persons w/disabilities, advocacy agency meetings, veterans groups meetings.

17. Thank you.