In 2020, we partnered with a regional public housing authority to better understand the experiences, preferences, and needs of residents living in public housing developments. The collaboration aimed to inform two major policy questions facing the agency: how to improve day-to-day management practices, and whether to prioritize reinvestment in site-based public housing or shift resources toward vouchers and scattered-site housing options. To support this decision-making, the research team designed and implemented a survey of residents both within the authority’s jurisdiction and across comparable site-based developments elsewhere in the state. Surveys of public housing residents are relatively rare, and this project highlights the unique challenges and opportunities involved in systematically gathering input from a population that is often underrepresented in research and decision-making. Over the course of the project, the survey instrument and fielding strategy underwent multiple methodological refinements intended to increase participation and enhance the quality of information collected from a population with well-documented barriers to institutional engagement. These adjustments—spanning access strategies, contact protocols, and trust-building measures—yielded valuable lessons for future researchers seeking to strengthen a still-scarce methodological approach to resident consultation in public housing. Ultimately, the survey achieved relatively high response rates (30–60 percent across locations), and the resulting data played a central role in guiding the authority’s redevelopment plans and management reforms.