What is the short-term and long-term impact on households, organizations, communities, and governments from specific State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) projects in priority policy areas such as affordable housing, workforce, and public safety?
- Housing
- State and Local Governments
- Workforce Development
Project Overview
Summary
The U.S. Treasury and the Office of Management and Budget hosted a researcher interest meeting on February, 15, 2024. Click here for the slides from that meeting.A question and answer document is also available here.
The State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) program provides $350 billion for state, local, territorial, and Tribal governments to support their response to and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, support families and businesses struggling with its economic impacts, maintain vital public services despite revenue losses, and make investments that support long-term growth and build a stronger, more equitable economy. As described in more detail in Treasury’s Economic Recovery Learning Agenda, in the immediate term, a key research priority is understanding the impacts of SLFRF award funds in priority policy areas.
In particular, Treasury has identified a small set of priority areas where SLFRF funds can have the most transformative long-term impact on communities, including projects that are focused on affordable housing, workforce, and public safety. Performing additional evaluations in these areas will allow Treasury and researchers to understand how SLFRF funds addressed short-term challenges while also paving the way for longer-term economic growth. Examining the short-term and long-term impact on households, organizations, communities, and governments from specific SLFRF projects in priority policy areas such as affordable housing, workforce, and public safety, could include research that answers more detailed questions such as:
How have SLFRF-funded community violence interventions—such as violence interrupter programs, 911 mental health response units, and youth employment programs—improved public safety and health in communities?
To what extent have workforce development projects helped disproportionally impacted individuals improve their employment opportunities and earnings?
What innovative approaches to housing stability have jurisdictions employed to meet the housing challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic and increase long-term housing stability?
To what extent have recipients used SLFRF resources to complement and increase the impact of funds from other Treasury housing programs such as the Emergency Rental Assistance program and the Homeowner Assistance Fund?
Anticipated Deliverables
Meetings: Regular meetings with Treasury program and evaluation staff to discuss the research approach, the evaluation plan, initial findings, and reports
Evaluation Plan: An evaluation plan that Treasury will review before researchers begin any analysis. This evaluation plan should outline the researchers approach to evaluating the relevant research question, including methodology, timing, and data sources.
Evaluation Report(s): An interim report for review by Treasury and a final public report that include the findings of the evaluation of the impact of SLFRF funds in relevant policy areas. Reports should include short 3-4 page plain language summaries of results as well as documentation on the methodology. For example, see this sample of a summary of findings and methodology from a previous research project.
Planned use of results
This research will help Treasury to more effectively administer the SLFRF program by identifying interventions that are particularly effective. This information could be disseminated by Treasury through promising practice guides, blog posts, factsheets, and other communications with SLFRF recipients to encourage them to adopt certain types of projects and approaches to using their SLFRF award funds. In addition, this research will inform Treasury’s lessons learned from the implementation and administration of the SLFRF program, as well as the federal government’s long-term policy development for future programs to assist governments and households in future economic crises.
Funding
Treasury does not have funds available for this research.
Data
- Public data from Treasury’s SLFRF Data Dashboard.
- Detailed data from jurisdictions about their SLFRF-funded projects and beneficiaries.
- Data and information from Recovery Plan Performance Reports, which are submitted by jurisdictions with over 250,000 residents and contain details on each government’s strategy and uses for SLFRF award funds.
- Data from the U.S. Census, including the American Community Survey, related to community-level outcomes for jurisdictions that received SLFRF funds.
Other Benefits to Project Partners
Treasury could provide briefings to researchers about the SLFRF program, including information on program structure, available data, and program chronology. Treasury could also assist with matchmaking between researchers and particular local and state governments to facilitate the secure exchange of detailed data on individual beneficiaries of SLFRF-funded projects. In addition, Treasury could participate in regular meetings with researchers who are conducting an evaluation to discuss research progress and answer any questions.
Agency Learning Agenda Question(s)
Treasury Learning Agenda Question 1.3: To what extent are American Rescue Plan (ARP) programs being implemented equitably? What is the impact of ARP programs on households, businesses, and governments? More details are available in Treasury’s Economic Recovery Learning Agenda.
Contact and Project Updates
Download and share the project summary
Project point of contact
Elizabeth Hipple
Senior Policy Advisor
Department of the Treasury
OSPPI@treasury.gov
Application details
Expertise Needed
- An interest in producing actionable and policy-relevant research.
- General knowledge (or a willingness to learn) about federal grant assistance programs and state/local social service programs.
- An ability to work cooperatively and collaboratively with the federal government.
- Skill in producing concise, plain language summaries of research findings.
- A willingness to partner with local or state governments (if doing local or state level research).
- A background in rigorous evaluation research and designs as well as qualitative research methods.
Key Milestones and Dates
Ideally, initial research products would be completed in 2024 to allow findings to be used to inform the future implementation of the program. Longer term impact evaluations are also of interest to Treasury.