Final Consolidated QUESTIONS 8-25.docx

QUESTIONS for #86614620Q00009 – FY20 Home Evaluation Study –

1. Is there a list I can get on for consideration as a sub-contractor for the data analytics portion of the requirement?

· There is no list available

2. Could you please tell me if the Combined Synopsis/Solicitation posted as solicitation number 86614620Q00009 will be a follow-on requirement to any work performed currently or in the past, or will this be a new requirement? If possible, can you please provide the most recent contract or task order number?

· This is a new requirement

3. Kindly clarify that travel will not be part of the fixed price, but will be cost reimbursable?

· Travel will be a reimbursable in accordance with the Joint Travel Regulations all other tasks are FFP.

4. p.12, item k. HUD requires a report of the budgeted costs, current total incurred and the projected costs. Given this is a fixed price contract, is this part of the report required?

· This item will be removed from the PWS

5. p.14 Data agreements: Kindly clarify - does HUD have provisions in the grantee agreements for data sharing with the external evaluation contractor? If not, this could be a very time consuming and expensive exercise for the contractor.

· Yes, this will be a provision of their grant.

6. p. 16 Final Report: Kindly clarify - the solicitation says “the first draft of the final report must be submitted to the COR within 165 weeks of contract award. HUD will provide comments within 4 weeks. The second draft must be submitted to the COR within 169 weeks of contract award.” Can the 169 weeks be extended to allow time for the contractor to adequately respond to comments? We also have the same question on timing for section 5.11. Or may the offerer suggest timelines?

· A calculation error was made, HUD will provide the Contractor at least two weeks to review and submitted revised documents. At the COR’s discretion additional time can allotted as needed.

· Yes, the offerer can suggest a different timeline, as long as it is justified.

7. p. 17 Section 6.0 Deliverables: CLIN 0002 Travel specifies travel for 2 staff to DC round trip for the Final Briefing. Section 5.7.1 (p.15) requires the contractors to conduct site visits to subset of grantees. How should we estimate the costs for travel?

· Travel cost estimation re geographic location of grantees:

· The General Services Administration (GSA) has noted in its FY 2021 Per Diem Highlights webpage that, “Most of the [Continental United States] CONUS (approximately 2600 counties) are covered by the standard CONUS per diem rate of $151 ($96 lodging, $55 meals and incidental expenses). In fiscal year (FY) 2021, there are 319 Non-Standard Areas (NSAs) that have per diem rates higher than the standard CONUS rate.”

· GSA’s Per Diem Rates page gives rates for Fiscal Year 2021 throughout the U.S.

· An October 2019 private sector report (discussed here as an example, without endorsement) on travel costs in 2019 estimated that the average business travel airfare was about $440, with an increase for 2020 projected as ½ to 1 percent.

· The Federal Reserve Bank’s Federal Open Market Committee’s June 2020 Economic Projections Table showed their inflation estimate using the price index for personal consumption expenditures as 0.8, 1.6, 1.7, and 2.0 percent for 2020, 2021, and 2022, and for the longer run, respectively.

8. p.26 Key Personnel: Can HUD kindly provide the key tasks to be assigned to the proposed staff? Or is HUD assuming the offeror will fill this in?

· Key tasks will be assigned by the contractor to their key members of their staff

9. p.49 Section 2.4 The solicitation states “submission of proposal by fax for E-MAIL is not acceptable. Kindly confirm that we may submit the proposal by email.

· Submissions of proposals shall be submitted via Email

10. p.49. Section 3.0: Kindly confirm that attachment J5 should be submitted with the Technical Proposal.

· J.5 Shall be submitted with the Technical Proposal

11. p.49. Section 3.0: Kindly confirm that attachment J2 should be submitted with the Business Proposal.

· J.2 Pricing shall be submitted with the Business Proposal

17. p.49. Section 3.0: Kindly confirm that the Past Performance (Attachment J3) should be submitted as an Annex to the Technical Proposal and does not count towards the page limit.

· Past Performance J.3 does not count towards page limits

18. p.49 Section 1.0 Questions. Currently the proposal is due on 27 August 2020 and Questions are due on 24 August 2020. Can the contracting officer consider an extension to ensure that we are able to respond to all questions that are answered?

· The proposal submission is extended until Sept 03, 2020

19. p.50 Technical Proposal - Kindly confirm that we may include and Annex that includes our team structure and CVs of our team members.

· You can include an Annex that includes the team structure and CVs of your team.

20. p.50 Section 7.0 Proposal Matrix: Could you please provide an example of what you would like to see in each cell of the table to clarify this requirement?

· 7.0 As part of the proposal submission, offerors shall submit Quote Matrix using the table below or similar format, which maps what page of the proposal addresses each Performance Work Statement, Section C, Tasks 5.0 – 5.11 requirement identified under Technical Approach, and which page of the proposal fully addresses each Evaluation Factor. The offeror shall use the appropriate column to fill in the requirement as stipulated in the RFQ to which the page/section number applies.

21. p.50 Section 7.0 Minimal Technical Acceptability: Kindly confirm that the Cover Page, Table of Contents and Proposal Matrix/Quote Matrix do not count towards the 15 page limit.

· Added Limitation on Size of Technical Proposal

22. p.51 Past Performance, Section E: Kindly confirm that if a Key Personnel member of the team has successfully submitted OMB packages that this can meet your requirement as described in Section H.

· See Past Performance Section L (d) If the Offeror chooses to make such a substitution, the offeror must clearly identify the substituted key personnel by name and title proposed. Only the past performance of Key Personnel overseeing the entirety of the proposed project will be considered in substitution for the firm’s past performance under this factor. The contractor shall provide the survey contained in Attachment 4 to each past performance reference with first-hand knowledge of the performance of the substituted Key Personnel in sufficient time for the reference to complete and submit the survey directly to the HUD Contracting Officer prior to the date and time for submission of proposals. HUD will consider recent and relevant past performance available in PPIRS prior to considering past performance of key personnel.

23. p.51. Past Performance Section G. Currently the proposal is due on 27 August 2020 and Questions are due on 24 August 2020. We are concerned that there may not be time for past performance references to be completed prior to proposal submission. Can the contracting officer kindly either extend the proposal deadline or allow past performance references to be submitted after the deadline?

· This procurement has been extended to Sept 03, 2020 – 1:00 CST

24. Attachment J1 - Kindly confirm if you require attachment J1 to be part of the technical proposal.

· J.1 will be part of the Technical Proposal, however it will not count against page limitations

25. Attachment J2 - Does HUD require any narrative explanation of Attachment J2 (Price Abstract)?

· There is no narrative explanation required, however if it is needed to support your position please include it.

26. Attachment J2 - How should the offerer provide estimated travel costs for travel to Washington DC for the final briefing? Also how should the offerer provide estimated travel costs to conduct site visits, given we do not know the geographic location of grantees?

· Travel cost estimation re geographic location of grantees:

· The General Services Administration (GSA) has noted in its FY 2021 Per Diem Highlights webpage that, “Most of the [Continental United States] CONUS (approximately 2600 counties) are covered by the standard CONUS per diem rate of $151 ($96 lodging, $55 meals and incidental expenses). In fiscal year (FY) 2021, there are 319 Non-Standard Areas (NSAs) that have per diem rates higher than the standard CONUS rate.”

· GSA’s Per Diem Rates page gives rates for Fiscal Year 2021 throughout the U.S.

· An October 2019 private sector report (discussed here as an example, without endorsement) on travel costs in 2019 estimated that the average business travel airfare was about $440, with an increase for 2020 projected as ½ to 1 percent.

· The Federal Reserve Bank’s Federal Open Market Committee’s June 2020 Economic Projections Table showed their inflation estimate using the price index for personal consumption expenditures as 0.8, 1.6, 1.7, and 2.0 percent for 2020, 2021, and 2022, and for the longer run, respectively.

27. Attachment J2 - The monthly reporting and communications requirement represents a significant amount of labor from the offerer. Kindly confirm that costs related to this labor may be submitted as part of the Costs for 5.3 Research and Management Plan.

· It is up to the contractor to determine where this best fits in their overall pricing proposal.

28. Attachment J4 - Survey for Past Performance: Kindly confirm that submission of past performance references for non-US Government contracts is acceptable.

· Past Performance does not have to be limited to US Government Contracts.

29. Attachment J5 - Kindly confirm in the attachment J5 - Labor Mix for FY20 Home+Mod+Study that there should be a column for 5.8.2 Interim Briefing - or should we include the labor for this activity in 5.8.1 (Interim Report)?

· Include the labor for this activity in the Interim Report

30. Attachment J5 - Kindly confirm in the attachment J5 that the last column should be labelled Final Briefing.

· Yes, the labor mix spreadsheet has a Final Report and a Final Briefing that is required.

31. Will there be a HUD technical expert involved in the project or only the contracting officer?

· Yes, there will be HUD Technical Experts extended through the Office of Multifamily Housing and the Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control, as well as the Office of Policy Development and Research.

32. Business Proposal -Volume 2 Business Volume 2 shall be submitted in a searchable PDF file in the format requested in Section B of this solicitation and Attachment J.4 must be submitted back as a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.

· J.2 is the pricing spreadsheet vice J.4

33. Is the highlighted text below on p. 49 of the Solicitation supposed to say “Attachment J.5”, rather than J.3?

Note: Attachment J.3 downloaded from Sam.gov is titled “Past Performance Chart for FY20 Home Mod Study” Attachment J.5 downloaded from Sam.gov is titled “Labor Mix for FY20 Home Mod Study”

· J.5 is the labor mix 2a. Technical Proposal - Volume 1 Technical Volume I shall be submitted in a searchable PDF file. The Labor Mix required in Factor 1 Technical Approach shall be submitted utilizing Attachment J.3 Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.

· The labor mix is attachment J.5

34. Proposal Matrix (RFQ p. 51)

- Is the “Proposal Matrix” the same thing as the “Quote Matrix”? Both terms are used on p.51 of the RFQ.

- Where should the Proposal/Quote Matrix appear in the proposal and will it count against page limit?

· Proposal matrix and quote matrix are being used to describe the same matrix. This matrix does not count against your page count. See L.6.b

35. Personnel (RFQ p. 26)

- Are the key personnel positions on p. 26 of the RFQ the only positions that can be included (e.g. Project Manager, Senior Research Associate/Project Manager)?

- What, if any, personnel qualification documentation should be included (e.g. resumes, CVs)?

- If included, please confirm that we should include as attachments, not to be counted against page number limit?

· The contractor can determine who their key personnel are and fill this portion in when submitting the proposals. There is no requirement for Resumes or CVs.

36. Should the Project Schedule be submitted as an attachment, not included in page count limit?

· See MINIMAL TECHNICAL ACCEPTABILITY (Shall not exceed 20 pages) Comment by Rekhi, Jagruti D: That’s really short.

The project Schedule is included in the page count

37. Regarding the grantee information below from p. 3 of the RFQ, typically/on average, how many participants receive home modifications per grantee in a given year?

· With the per home cap shown as $5,000, the period of performance shown as 3 years, and the grant range shown as $500,000 to $1,250,000, the production would be about 35 to about 85 homes per year if all the homes were modified with expenditures at the cap. If the average were, say, $3,000 per home, then the production would be about 55 to about 140 homes per year.

1.2 Background

The Department anticipates awarding up to approximately 20 grants, ranging from $500,000 to $1.25 million per grant to eligible recipients. The grantees will be expected to spend all their funds within 36 months.

The participants receiving the home modifications must be low-income homeowners and 55 years of age or older. In addition, these individuals must reside in a primary residence and must be the homeowner. The installed home modifications in a single home may not exceed $5,000. This intervention cost limitation includes the costs for labor, Contractor services, materials, equipment, devices, and everyday items, and contractors overhead, general and administrative costs, and fee (profit). If the cost is expected to be above the capped amount, HUD approval is required prior to contracting for the services for that unit.

38. Is this a new solicitation or is there an incumbent? If there is an incumbent, who is the incumbent?

· This is a new requirement and there is no incumbent.

39. The contemplated magnitude of this is $1,000,000 - $1,500,000. Is that each year or across multiple years?

· Magnitude is for the entire effort Given the proposal is due August 27 – can you give a firm timeframe for releasing the answers?

The concern is that they’ll have little time to review the answers to the questions and make updates to their proposal if the Q&A release goes beyond 24 hours after the Q&A deadline, which is only 48 hours before the due date of the proposal.

· This procurement has been extended to Sept 03, 2020 – 1:00 CST

· The submission date has been extended to Sept 03, 2020.

40. Are the costs for obtaining data from CMS covered by HUD, or should they be included in our budget estimate?

· The contractor budget should include the cost of obtaining data from CMS.

41. Is there a minimally required number of past performance references required to be sufficient for this solicitation?

· See Section L Past Performance for details

Technical Questions

1. What is the estimated level of effort for this project?

· The level of effort is defined by the contractor as they respond to the tasks outlined in the PWS.

2. How many site visits are anticipated?

· HUD estimates that up to 20 grants to be awarded, per the solicitation Section C’s Paragraph 1.2. The applicant should estimate the number or percent of grantees they will visit to gather the information requested by HUD.

3. How many in-depth interviews with recipients are anticipated?

· The Contractor shall establish selection criteria for sampling the universe of recipients for further in-depth surveying. HUD expects the sample to reflect geographic and socioeconomic diversity.

· The number of in-depth interviews will depend on the selection criteria.

4. Can you provide any background on the Older Adult Modification program such as the NOFA or regulations?

· Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA):

· The Fiscal Year 2020 Older Adult Home Modification Program NOFA has not yet been published.

· Regulations:

· The program is non-regulatory (apart from HUD’s overall grant (2 CFR 200) and environmental (24 CFR 50 and 58) regulations); it is being conducted based on funding for it in the Fiscal Years 2019 and 2020 HUD Appropriations Acts.

· Background:

· The overall purpose of the program is to assist experienced nonprofit organizations, state and local governments, and public housing authorities in undertaking comprehensive programs that make safety and functional home modifications and limited repairs to meet the needs of low-income elderly homeowners. The goal of the home modification program is to enable low-income elderly persons to remain in their homes through low-cost, low barrier, high impact home modifications to reduce older adults’ risk of falling, improve general safety, increase accessibility, and to improve their functional abilities in their than move to nursing homes or other assisted care facilities.

5. When does HUD anticipate making the Home Modification grants?

· HUD anticipates awarding the grants in early Fiscal Year 2021. The NOFA will be published in September 2020.

6. Are the costs for obtaining data from CMS covered by HUD, or should they be included in our budget estimate?

· The contractor budget should include the cost of obtaining data from CMS.

7. Is a larger-scale follow-up survey of the recipients—that is, a sample of the people who fill out the intake survey—required? If so, are grantees responsible for administering the follow-up?

· Follow-up survey:

· The Contractor shall establish selection criteria for sampling the universe of recipients for further in-depth surveying. HUD expects the sample to reflect geographic and socioeconomic diversity.

· Administering the follow-up survey:

· The Contractor will conduct in-depth interviews with the recipients to gather more information about why they enrolled in the program, their thoughts on the process, improvements needed, additional improvements needed. The Contractor must provide HUD with the survey questions for approval.

8. This does not include a follow-up with those who fill out the in-take survey but do not receive services.

· Yes, the solicitation does not include such a follow-up survey with those individuals who do not receive services.

· However, HUD anticipates some will be provided about those who complete the intake but who did not receive services. At the very least the contractor should provide on information about why services where not provided.

9. What is HUD’s expectation for the total sample size for the follow-up survey of recipients (if required)?

· The Contractor shall establish selection criteria for sampling the universe of recipients for further in-depth surveying in the follow-up survey. HUD expects the sample to reflect geographic and socioeconomic diversity. The Contractor will conduct in-depth interviews with the recipients to gather more information about why they enrolled in the program, their thoughts on the process, improvements needed, additional improvements needed. The Contractor must provide HUD with the survey questions for approval.

· The number of in-depth interviews will depend on the selection criteria.

10. Does the HUD’s PD&R team seek to understand the challenges for the grantee implementing the grant or the recipients of the grant themselves?

· PD&R seeks to understand the challenges for grantees as they implement the program, as well as how participants in the program are impacted by home modifications themselves

11. Is there any baseline data for this project?

· Contractor will work with the Grantee to develop a data collection protocol to be used to collect and analyze the data this shall include the questionnaire needed to establish the baseline. The Contractor will develop the baseline via the data collected by the grantees and CMS data.

· The Senate Report on the FY 2019 Appropriation for this program “directed HUD to take into account successful models of low-barrier, participant-led, holistic approaches to aging in place, including Johns Hopkins University's Community Aging in Place--Advancing Better Living for Elders [CAPABLE] program and the Comfortably Home program of the Bath Housing Authority in Bath, Maine.” (S. Rpt. 115-268 re S. 3023, June 7, 2018. www.congress.gov/congressional-report/115th-congress/senate-report/268/1). The CAPABLE program was formally evaluated, with the results published by Szanton, SL et al. JAMA Internal Medicine. 179(2):204-211. January 7, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2018.6026.)

12. Can you clarify the type of organizations that grantees are? Also, please clarify how the funds are distributed. Are the funds distributed from HUD to an agency that then distributes the funds to a homeowner? Any additional information on the program description that you can provide would be much appreciated.

· Types of grantees:

· The Older Adult Home Modification Program’s appropriations (in both FY 2019 and FY 2020) provide for grants to be made to experienced non-profit organizations, States, local governments, or public housing agencies.

· How funds are distributed:

· The Notice of Funding Availability will identify minimum and maximum amounts for grant awards, shown as $500,000 to $1,250,000 in the Solicitation’s Section C’s paragraph 1.2.

· Applications will be reviewed, and HUD may award the full amount requested or a portion of that amount. The Office that will be managing the grants has generally awarded the requested amount to applicants selected to receive a grant.

· Distribution of funds:

· The funds are distributed from HUD to a grantee on a reimbursable basis, i.e., after the grantee has performed work (i.e., delivering materials, labor, reports, etc.) that HUD has deemed acceptable.

· None of the funds are distributed to homeowners.

· Any additional information on the program description:

· See the Solicitation’s Section C’s Vision Statement and paragraphs 1.0 and 1.1.

13. p. 4 – Section 1.8: As this is a firm fixed price contract do the hours in Section 1.8 (p.4) apply?

· The Contractor is to be available during the specified hours; these are when the bulk of the work is expected to be performed, but, as needed by field conditions and other conditions, the contractor may perform work at other times as well, although HUD will not pay shift work differential nor overtime hourly labor rates under this contract.

14. What is the timeline for the grant program? Please clarify if the grants have already been awarded.

· Timeline for the grant program:

· The period of performance for the grants will be 36 months, as noted in Solicitation’s Section C’s paragraph 1.2.

· HUD anticipates awarding the grants in early Fiscal Year 2021; they have not been awarded yet.

15. p.12, item k. HUD requires a report of the budgeted costs, current total incurred and the projected costs. Given this is a fixed price contract, is this part of the report required?

· This is being removed from the PWS

16. p.14 Data agreements: Kindly clarify - does HUD have provisions in the grantee agreements for data sharing with the external evaluation contractor? If not, this could be a very time consuming and expensive exercise for the contractor.

· Yes, this will be a provision of their grant.

17. p.15. 5.7 Data Collection: There is a reference to Tasks 3 and 4: Kindly clarify what are Tasks 3 and 4.

· The tasks HUD is referring to is Tasks 5.4 and 5.5.

18. p.15 5.7.4 Grantee Management and Staff Training: Kindly clarify which data collection instruments grantees will administer and which data collection instruments the contractor will administer.

· As noted in the Solicitation’s Section C’s paragraph 5.0, Survey of Home Modification Grantees segment, “The Contractor shall administer surveys to the grantees at least three times after the grant funds are distributed.”

· The in-take data and post modification questionnaire will be administered by the grantee. The in-depth interviews with the recipients will be conducted by the Contractor.

· HUD anticipates data to be collected should at minimum include socioeconomic information, some aspects of medical history (falls/accidents, existing health conditions, etc.), matrices measuring activities of daily living (ADL), instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), mobility and cognition issues, visual impairments, home hazards .

19. Attachment J2 - How should the offerer provide estimated travel costs for travel to Washington DC for the final briefing? Also how should the offerer provide estimated travel costs to conduct site visits, given we do not know the geographic location of grantees?

· Providing estimated travel costs in Attachment J2:

· The spreadsheet should be understood to have cell A20 to read, “Other Direct Costs”, cell A21 to read, “Travel to Washington, DC”, and cell A22 to read, “Travel for site visits”. Cells B21 through BA22 should be understood to be where the travel cost estimates and calculations are to be shown.

· Travel cost estimation re geographic location of grantees:

· The General Services Administration (GSA) has noted in its FY 2021 Per Diem Highlights webpage that, “Most of the [Continental United States] CONUS (approximately 2600 counties) are covered by the standard CONUS per diem rate of $151 ($96 lodging, $55 meals and incidental expenses). In fiscal year (FY) 2021, there are 319 Non-Standard Areas (NSAs) that have per diem rates higher than the standard CONUS rate.”

· GSA’s Per Diem Rates page gives rates for Fiscal Year 2021 throughout the U.S.

· An October 2019 private sector report (discussed here as an example, without endorsement) on travel costs in 2019 estimated that the average business travel airfare was about $440, with an increase for 2020 projected as ½ to 1 percent.

· The Federal Reserve Bank’s Federal Open Market Committee’s June 2020 Economic Projections Table showed their inflation estimate using the price index for personal consumption expenditures as 0.8, 1.6, 1.7, and 2.0 percent for 2020, 2021, and 2022, and for the longer run, respectively.

20. Will there be a HUD technical expert involved in the project or only the contracting officer?

· Yes, there will be HUD Technical Experts extended through the Office of Multifamily Housing and the Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control, as well as the Office of Policy Development and Research.

21 . Regarding the grantee information below from p. 3 of the RFQ, typically/on average, how many participants receive home modifications per grantee in a given year?

· With the per home cap shown as $5,000, the period of performance shown as 3 years, and the grant range shown as $500,000 to $1,250,000, the production would be about 35 to about 85 homes per year if all the homes were modified with expenditures at the cap. If the average were, say, $3,000 per home, then the production would be about 55 to about 140 homes per year.

22. Please note that page 10 in General Section it is cited that Contractor will develop form to be administered to all recipients for baseline data and again 6-9 months. Also, note that Page 15 states that Contractor shall select a sub-group of home modification recipients to conduct in-depth interviews. Related to Section 5.7.2 Will Contractor be responsible for collecting primary data directly from Recipients?

· The form will be developed by the contractor but will be administered by the grantee.

· The in-depth interviews will be conducted by the contractor.

23. Does HUD have grantee data collection training materials?

· No, the contractor will create the data collection instruments and train the grantees on how to use the instruments, to ensure standardized data collection across the grantees.

24. When can the contractor expect HUD to share the list of grantees (N=20)? (Reference RFQ: Page 3, Background)

· HUD anticipates the grants will be awarded December 2020.

25. Can HUD require mandatory cooperation between grant recipients and the researchers a condition of the grant? That is, if a recipient receives a grant, then they must answer the researcher's survey questions?

Reason for this question: The success of the survey questions is dependent, in part, on a high response rate by the recipients of the HUD home modification grants. If HUD can require as part of the grant that recipients must complete the follow-up surveys, then the researchers will have close to a 100 percent response rate. This will benefit HUD immensely. If HUD cannot require mandatory survey completions, then additional funds in the budget will be needed to ensure that there is a minimum response rate. By requiring recipients to participate in the surveys, this will reduce the estimated proposed fee to HUD.

· Yes, the grantees will be required to cooperate with the researchers.

26. RFQ Section 5.7.1 Site Visits states: The Contractor must conduct site visits to a subset of the grantees.” RFQ page 10 of 56 states: “Due to the limited number of anticipated grantees (approximately 20), HUD requires a population study in which the Contractor selects all the grantees for the process study.” Please clarify if the grantee site visits conducted are to be a subset of the grantees or all (approximately 20) grantees

· The site visits are to be conducted with a subset of the grantees.

27. Please provide the city and state locations of the grantee sites.

· The Grants have not been awarded.

28. It is our understanding that the NOFA for the Older Adults Home Modification Grant Program administered by HUD’s Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes has not been published. Since this is the grant program to be evaluated under this Solicitation, it raises several questions with implications for development of the Technical and Price Proposals:

a. Will the Contractor have access to the language contained in the grant requirements prior to submitting its proposal for the Solicitation

· As required by the HUD Reform Act, the publication of HUD’s NOFAs occurs through the Federal Register (42 U.S.C. § 3545(a)(1)), supplemented in recent years by concurrent posting on Grants.gov. HUD cannot provide the language beforehand.

· Grantee distribution by region:

· No, the Office of the Chief Procurement Officer does not have expectations about how the grantees will be distributed by region.

· Travel cost estimation:

· Please see the answer to the question, above, regarding Attachment J2 for more information about.

ii. Does the Contracting Office have expectations about whether recipient collection instruments will need to be translated, and into what languages?

· No.

iii. Can the Contracting Office specify whether the NOFA requires grantees to use the Healthy Homes Grants Management System (HHGMS) or other specific data collection instruments to collect data-related program implementation or recipients (such as the activities of daily living (ADLs), instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs), reductions in at-home falls, hospitalizations, and emergency response calls, and measures that can capture changes in independence and tenure in home over time as specified in page 4 of the Solicitation)? If so, will the Contractor have access to HHGMS? If not, will someone send the Contractor the data imported from them?

· The contractor will be responsible for creating instruments to collect the data needed from the grantees and the recipients.

V. If grantees are expected to use grant and recipient data collection instruments provided by the Contractor, and the data collection clearance approvals are delayed at OMB, is it the Contract Office’s expectation that grantees will serve clients without collection of data on ADLs/IADLs or other measures, or will the grants be placed on hold? This has implications for the size of the sample and power of the design to be proposed in the Technical Proposal.

· Yes, the grantees will continue to serve their clients.