Data Analysis Technical Support

This is a SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE to determine the availability and capability of qualified small businesses (including certified 8(a), Small Disadvantaged, HUBZone firms; Veteran and Service-disabled Veteran-owned Small Businesses, Women-owned Small Businesses and Economically Disadvantaged Women-owned Small Business (EDWOSB) to provide analytical and technical services, including statistical and economic analysis, of the highest quality in support of FHEO's investigations and other work on systemic fair housing issues, building inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) investigates discrimination under the Fair Housing Act and other authorities. The Office of Systemic Investigations ("the Office") investigates complaints alleging discrimination that is pervasive, institutional in nature, or affects a substantial number of people. In addition, the Office identifies targets for Secretary-initiated investigations, based on analysis of public information such as the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act ("HMDA") data as well as information from other sources. The Office's investigations often involve mortgage lending issues such as denial and pricing disparities; discrimination in the availability, funding, or siting of assisted housing; policies screening prospective tenants in the private market; and other issues. They bring together experts in economics, statistical analysis, law, and investigations.

Assignments will cover a broad range of investigative targets and types of violations. The analytical and technical support may take many forms ranging from developing statistical models for fair lending analysis to assisting HUD review of files and documents gathered during the process of the investigations.
The Office also works on systemic fair lending and fair housing issues based on other regulatory authorities, including for example, reviewing regulations issued by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA); and conducting investigations under Title VI of The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance. Description of services is as follows:

1. Conducting statistical analysis of large data sets to identify investigation targets that may not comply with the Fair Housing Act.

2. Empirically analyze possible discriminatory practices of investigation targets.

3. Provide HUD with analyses of potential discriminatory effects of the policies and regulations of HUD, the FHA, Government-Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs), or other entities regulated by HUD.

4. Provide HUD with advice on statistical, economic, financial and lending industry issues as requested by OSI.

Specific Tasks

Projects under this requirement shall will be quite varied in subject matter, magnitude, and complexity as they depend on the nature of complaints received from the public, HUD's priorities and decisions regarding which investigations to initiate, requests for technical assistance from HUD's field offices, and the diverse issues that arise during investigations. Hence, for each project Management and Work Plan (MWP) will be develop in details of the work to be performed.

WORK PRODUCTS

Prepare interim and other work products consistent with the requirements of each project, which will be submitted to the COR on the dates specified. Draft versions of all reports must be submitted for HUD review, comments, and approval. Oral presentations of findings at HUD headquarters by the Contractor may be requested

1. Provide analytical and technical support to the Office of Systemic Investigations

Meet with Contracting Officer Representative (COR) and designated Government official to plan analyses, to inform HUD of the status of work, and to present findings. On an ongoing basis, available for less formal reports and consultations via email and telephone. The type of work to be performed may include, but not be limited to:

• development of research methodologies at the conceptual and applied levels;
• cleaning and/or entering data provided by HUD;
• statistical analysis of data sets ranging in sophistication from simple cross-tabulations to multivariate techniques;
• producing maps and geographic information system (GIS) analyses;
• evaluation and synthesis of analytical results at both the technical and policy relevant levels;
• reporting findings to HUD in clearly written, accurate, reports and memos for both technical and nontechnical audiences;
• providing literature reviews to HUD on relevant fields; and
• providing industry know-how and industry expertise.

2 Identify investigation targets not in compliance with the Fair Housing Act.
Assist HUD in conducting statistical analysis of large data sets in order to identify persons or entities who may have violated the Fair Housing Act in pervasive and systemic way for further investigation. The data reviewed may include Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data; and HUD internal data such as loan-level Federal Housing Administration (FHA) data or grant-level data on Community Development Block Grants (CDBG). The statistical analysis may require the development of new statistical methodology or improving upon the existing statistical methodology HUD has developed over years. By doing this work, you may come familiar with Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data and other methodologies for fair lending compliance monitoring, such as HUD's internal procedures and the methodology used by the Federal Reserve Board (See Robert B. Avery, Glenn B. Canner, and Robert E. Cook (2005) "New Information Reported under HMDA and Its Application in Fair Lending Enforcement," Federal Reserve Bulletin, Summer).

3. Empirically analyze possible discriminatory practices of investigation targets.
Assist HUD by providing analytical and technical support during HUD's investigations involving specific persons or entities (respondents) that have been identified as having potentially violated the Fair Housing Act in pervasive and systemic manner. These investigation targets (respondents) could be the ones identified by the Contractor in performing subtask 5.1.1 in this contract but could also be identified via other channels such as HUD's internal screening and investigations.

Provide analytical support, and statistical and economic analysis, in all aspects of its investigations. Assist HUD in identifying, requesting, and reviewing respondents' written policies or guidelines as well as databases needed for statistical analysis. "Clean" the data by handling missing values, logically inconsistent values, implausible values, and so on. If required, shall scrutinize the accuracy of the data, or a sample of the data, by comparing it to other sources of information, such as the underlying loan documents.

Merge multiple databases when required, for example, combining a respondent's administrative data with Census data. The Contractor shall do all that is necessary to convert the data into a form suitable for statistical analysis using standard statistical and mapping packages.

Using the data and knowledge of the respondent's policies, the Develop an appropriate statistical model and estimate that model using standard statistical packages. In lending cases, the goal will typically be to replicate the respondent's policies and practices, such as their underwriting or pricing policies, in order to determine if a respondent systematically treats similarly-situated individuals differently based on one or more of the prohibited bases.

Generally, Assist HUD in identifying the appropriate comparison group in order perform a counterfactual analysis. For example, may be required to compare accepted applicants or recipients to similarly-situated denied applicants or to a potential applicant pool. Examples include applicants for a loan, rental housing, or a government program. When a similarly-situated comparison, group is not easily available, Use sophisticated statistical techniques such as regression analysis or statistical matching. For all types of analyses, the shall calculate appropriate statistical hypothesis tests, goodness-of-fit statistics, and confidence intervals. When required, Contractor shall also perform descriptive analysis, such as tabulating the demographics of a respondent's housing development or program recipients or mapping the demographics of census tracts where a respondent makes loans or sites subsidized housing. Descriptive analysis of Census or other data may also be required to determine whether a group harmed by a particular policy, such as renters, surviving spouses, or those with low credit scores, disproportionately consists of a protected class. When appropriate, use sophisticated statistical techniques such as kernel density estimation or statistical graphics.

May also be required to conduct other statistical or analytical tasks relevant to HUD's fair housing investigations. Examples include the calculation of economic damages, geocoding, and the use of statistical techniques to impute race or ethnicity,

4. Provide HUD with analyses of potential discriminatory effects of the policies and regulations of HUD, FHA, GSEs, or other entities regulated by HUD

Under Section 1325 of the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992 (FHEFSSA), the Secretary of HUD has fair lending oversight authority over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government-sponsored enterprises in the conventional secondary mortgage market. In addition, Title VI of The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance. FHEO also reviews HUD regulations such as Federal Housing Administration (FHA) underwriting policies for compliance with the Fair Housing Act. Upon request, the contractor shall assist HUD with analyzing the potential discriminatory effects of current or proposed regulations and policies. The subject matter of these analyses may include mortgage lending standards, policies, and practices; the allocation of federal grant money to localities by HUD; the allocation of subsidized housing to individuals; or other regulatory matters.

5 Provide HUD with advice on statistical, economic, financial and lending industry issues as requested by the Office of Systemic Investigations

Consultative advices on various issues, including but not limited to statistical, economic, financial, and lending industry issues, which may or may not be necessarily tied to specific investigations. Examples of these include providing literature reviews to HUD as well as providing industry know-how and industry expertise in assisting HUD in investigations.

Provide a detailed description of your company's (including its teammates, if applicable) experience and demonstrated abilities to deliver each task separately of the requirement stated above. The contractor must describe the technical capabilities, level of security clearances, other critical knowledge, skills, abilities and experiences of the key personnel. Within the capability statement, describe your understanding of the requirements by better defining the specific labor categories necessary to meet the desired requirement.

Capability statements must address at least two prior contracts that reflect similar type and scope of work and the number of concurrent staff resources available. Contract place of performance may be performed at the contractor facility. The anticipated period of performance is a base period through 12 months plus 4 option periods. The NAICS Code is 541990. The small business size standard is 15M PSC B506.

Interested small business offerors are encouraged to respond to this notice. However, be advised that generic capability statements are not sufficient for effective evaluation of respondents' capacity and capability to perform the specific work as required. Response must directly demonstrate the company's capability, experience, and/or ability to marshal resources to effectively and efficiently perform each of the tasks described above in sufficient level of detail to allow definitive numerical evaluation; and evidence that the contractor can satisfy the minimum requirements listed above in compliance with FAR 52.219-14 ("Limitations of Subcontracting"). Failure to definitively address each of these tasks will result in a finding that respondent lacks capability to perform the work.

Responses to this notice shall be limited to ten pages, and must include:

1. Company name, mailing address, e-mail address, telephone and FAX numbers, website address (if available), and the name, telephone number, and e-mail address of a point of contact having the authority and knowledge to clarify responses with Government representatives.

2. Name, title, telephone number, and e-mail addresses of individuals who can verify the demonstrated capabilities identified in the responses.

3. Business size for NAICS XXXX (size standard $ or number of employees) and status, if qualified as an 8(a) firm (must be certified by SBA), Small Disadvantaged Business (must be certified by SBA), Woman-Owned Small Business, HUBZone firm (must be certified by SBA), and/or Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business

4. DUNS number, CAGE Code, Tax Identification Number, and company structure (Corporation, LLC, partnership, joint venture, etc.). Companies also must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) at https://www.sam.gov/portal/SAM/#1 to be considered as potential sources.

5. Identification of the firm's GSA Schedule contract(s) by Schedule number and contract number and SINs that are applicable to this potential requirement are also requested.

6. If the company has a Government approved accounting system, please identify the agency that approved the system.

Please submit copies of any documentation such as letters or certificates to indicate the firm's status (see item #3, above)

Teaming arrangements are acceptable, and the information required above on the company responding to this announcement, should also be provided for each entity expected to be teammates of the respondent for performance of this work.

To the maximum extent possible, please submit non-proprietary information. Any proprietary information submitted should be identified as such and will be properly protected from disclosure.

This notice is for planning purposes only, and does not constitute an Invitation for Bids, a Request for Proposals, a Solicitation, and a Request for Quotes, or an indication the Government will contract for the items contained in this announcement. This request is not to be construed as a commitment on the part of the Government to award a contract, nor does the Government intend to pay for any information submitted as a result of this request. The Government will not reimburse respondents for any cost associated with submission of the information being requested or reimburse expenses incurred to interested parties for responses to this announcement.

Responses to this announcement will not be returned, nor there any ensuing discussions or debriefings of any responses. However, information obtained as a result of this announcement may be reflected in the subsequent solicitation, and HUD, OCPO may contact one or more respondents for clarifications and to enhance the Government's understanding. This announcement is Government market research, and may result in revisions in both its requirements and its acquisition strategy based on industry responses. RESPONDENTS MUST SUBMIT CAPABILITY STATEMENT VIA E-MAIL to Brenda K Lee at Brenda.K.Lee@hud.gov no later than June 15, 2018 12:00 PM Eastern Time for consideration.