Case Study

Standardizing Performance Metrics for the HUD Grants Management Office

Challenge: Historically, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD’s) discretionary grant programs have been authorized independently to meet particular needs, and these programs established their reporting requirements and related definitions independently. Consequently, related HUD programs collect similar information in substantively different ways. This impedes coordinated planning and oversight at the Federal level and potentially discourages the integration of HUD services. This has further hindered HUD’s ability to effectively aggregate and systematically quantify the performance of its discretionary grant programs in reports to Congress.

Solution: In order to efficiently report on the efficacy of these programs, HUD contracted with Summit to provide strategy and analysis services to the Grants Management Office (GMO). Our team supports the effort to create a unified set of data elements and metrics that can be implemented within HUD’s performance tracking system.

Summit began this project with a robust strategic framework in order to build performance metrics that align with goals and quantify the impacts of funds within and across these diverse programs. Our team conducted stakeholder interviews and evaluated all current performance-related information collection systems used in HUD discretionary grant programs. Under the direction of GMO, we developed a refined set of universal core data elements to rigorously and consistently track the performance of HUD’s grantees. Additionally, Summit developed a set of performance metrics using these core data elements that align with HUD strategic goals. This project is the first step in a departmental effort to track, measure, and quantify the impact of HUD funds on individuals and communities across the nation.