As part of an evaluation of the Chicago Housing Authonty's (CHA) Anti-Drug Initiative—a
comprehensive crime prevention program—the authors have conducted four waves of a cross-
sectional, face-to-face survey in nine CHA buildings. This article describes the data collection
procedures developed, including using resident interviewers, the problems encountered, and the
lessons learned. The authors describe their experiences in recruiting and training resident
interviewers and addressing safety concerns. Using techniques developed for this study, the
authors achieved consistently high response rates (more than 75%), despite the constraints of
interviewing in public housing.
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