REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
for a
Homeless Services Strategic Plan
for The
CITY OF PHILADELPHIA
Issued by:
the CITY OF PHILADELPHIA (“City”)
Office of Homeless Services
On:
Tuesday, May 16, 2017
All proposals must be submitted electronically to the correct contract opportunity established for this RFP (identified by opportunity number), through the eContract Philly online application process at www.phila.gov/contracts, choose eContract Philly.
Applicants who have failed to file complete applications through the eContract Philly online application process will not be considered for the contract.
Electronic Proposals must be received no later than 5:00 p.m. Philadelphia, PA, local time,
on Friday, June 9, 2017.
The Hard Copies of Proposals must be received no later than 5;00 p.m. Philadelphia local time, on Tuesday, June 13, 2017 to: Lauren Whitleigh, Director of CoC Planning, Office of Homeless Services, 1401 JFK Boulevard, MSB, Suite 1030.
All questions should be referred by email only on or before Wednesday, May 24, 2017, 5:00 p.m. Philadelphia, PA, local time, to: Lauren Whitleigh, Director of CoC Planning, at
Optional Pre-Proposal Conference:
Date: Monday, May 22, 2017 Time: 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Location: Municipal Services Building
1401 JFK Blvd, 16th Floor, Room Y, Philadelphia, PA 19102
James F. Kenney, Mayor
Elizabeth G. Hersh, Director, Office of Homeless Services
Table of Contents
I. Project Overview
A. Introduction; Statement of Purpose 1
B. Department Overview 1
C. Project Background 1
D. Eligible Applicants 3
E. Request for Proposals 3
F. General Disclaimer of the City of Philadelphia 4
II. Scope of Work
A. Project Details 4
B. Services and Tangible Work Products 5
C. Hours and Location of Work 7
D. Monitoring; Security 7
E. Reporting Requirements 7
F. Cost Proposal 8
G. Organization and Personnel Requirements 8
H. Alternative Solutions 8
III. Proposal Format, Content, and Submission Requirements; Selection Process
A. Proposal Format 9
B. Notice to Applicants to State Requested Exceptions to Contract Terms in Proposal 13
C. Office of Economic Opportunity – Participation Commitment/Diversity Reports 13
D. The Philadelphia Tax and Regulatory Status and Clearance Statement 14
E. Compliance with Philadelphia 21st Century Minimum Wage and Benefits Ordinance 15
F. Certification of Compliance with Equal Benefits Ordinance 16
G. Local Business Entity or Local Impact Certification 16
H. Mandatory Online Application Requirements 16
I. Selection Process 19
IV. Proposal Administration
A. Procurement Schedule 20
B. Questions Relating to the RFP 20
C. Interviews; Presentations 21
D. Term of Contract 21
V. General Rules Governing RFPs/Proposals; Reservation of Rights, Confidentiality and Public Disclosure
A. Revisions to RFP 21
B. City Employee Conflict Provision 21
C. Proposal Binding 21
D. Contract Preparation Fee 21
E. Reservation of Rights 22
F. Confidentiality and Public Disclosure 24
Attachments
A. RFP Checklist
B. Introduction and Executive Summary
C. Budget Form
D. Applicant Staffing & Organizational Structure/ Organization Chart
E. Job Descriptions for all positions to perform work under this RFP
F. Resumes for identified personnel for each position or indicate TBD as applicable
G. 3 Sample Work Products
H. 3 References
I. Vendor Application
J. Solicitation for Participant and Commitment Form (See Appendix B 1)
K. Workforce Demographics & Board Composition Form (See Appendix B 2)
L. Proposed Supplier Diversity Form (See Appendix B 2)
Appendices
Appendix A – General Provisions
Appendix B – Office of Economic Opportunity, Antidiscrimination Policy – Minority, Woman
and Disabled Owned Business Enterprises
Appendix B-1 – Antidiscrimination Policy and Solicitation for Participation and
Commitment Form
Appendix B-2 – Special Antidiscrimination Requirements Applicable to Nonprofit
Organizations and Diversity Report of Nonprofit Organizations Form
Appendix C – City of Philadelphia Tax and Regulatory Status and Clearance Statement
Appendix D – Local Business Entity or Local Impact Certification
RFP Homeless Services Strategic Plan Page 24
I. Project Overview
A. Introduction; Statement of Purpose
The City of Philadelphia Office of Homeless Services, on behalf of the Philadelphia Continuum of Care, is seeking proposals for professional consulting services (“Consultant”) to assist the City and its Continuum of Care to develop a multi-year strategic plan to make homelessness in the City of Philadelphia rare, brief, and non-recurring. The Strategic Plan must align with the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness’ (USICH) Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to End Homelessness.
B. Department Overview
The Office of Homeless Services (OHS) is part of the Mayor’s Health and Human Services Cabinet. The mission of the Office of Homeless Services is to make homelessness rare, brief and non-recurring for the City of Philadelphia by providing the leadership, coordination, planning and mobilization of resources. OHS works collaboratively with city, state and federal governmental entities and more than 60 homeless housing and service providers to comprise Philadelphia’s homeless service system or Continuum of Care (CoC). This system provides emergency housing and services to people who are both experiencing homelessness and at imminent risk of homelessness. It includes homelessness prevention and diversion; emergency and transitional housing, rapid re-housing, and permanent supportive housing; case management, supportive services, emergency response, service days (clean-up of encampments), food and commodity distribution to contracted emergency housing facilities and soup kitchens, and operation of the Riverview Personal Care Home.
OHS is the Collaborative Applicant for the Philadelphia Continuum of Care and is the recipient of HUD Continuum of Care Planning funding. The Philadelphia Continuum of Care is a community-wide collaborative charged with developing and implementing a community plan that adheres, not only to the requirements established in the HUD Continuum of Care Interim Rule, also to the requirements and directions of the most recently issued notice of funding availability (NOFA). The Planning Unit within the Planning, Policy, and Performance Division of OHS will be responsible for managing the contract.
The purpose of the Philadelphia Continuum of Care is to:
· Promote a community-wide commitment to the goal of ending homelessness;
· Provide funding for efforts to quickly re-house individuals (including unaccompanied youth) and families experiencing homelessness while minimizing trauma and dislocation to those persons;
· Promote access to and effective use of mainstream programs by individuals and families experiencing homelessness;
· Optimize self-sufficiency among individuals and families experiencing homelessness.
C. Project Background
In 2012, as a part of the Homeless Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing Act of 2009 (HEARTH Act), HUD implemented the Continuum of Care. The Continuum of Care consolidated into a single program what used to be known as the Supportive Housing Program (SHP) and Shelter Plus Care (S+C) programs. The Continuum of Care is designed to promote the development of transitional and permanent supportive housing and to rapidly rehouse homeless persons in a concerted effort to assist homeless persons to live as independently as possible.
The Continuum of Care program is authorized by the Homeless Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing Act of 2009 (HEARTH Act). Section 1504 of the HEARTH Act directs HUD to establish regulations for this program. Funds made available under the Continuum of Care program are subject to the interim program regulations at 24 CFR part 578, effective 8/31/12. Continuum of Care program regulations can be accessed through the following web page: https://www.hudexchange.info/programs/coc/. The services identified in this Request for Proposals will be funded by Philadelphia’s HUD CoC Planning grant for the time period summer 2017 - summer 2018 and will be embodied in a Professional Services Contract with the Office of Homeless Services. Applicants under this RFP are strongly encouraged to review the information on the webpage prior to submitting a proposal.
The City of Philadelphia led the implementation of Philadelphia’s Ten Year Plan: Creating Homes, Strengthening Communities, and Improving Systems from 2005 to 2015. The plan was developed through a one-year collaborative process, led by the Mayor’s Task Force on Homeless Services, a task force co-chaired by the City of Philadelphia Managing Director and the executive director of a nonprofit homeless service provider. Over 100 organizations representing various sectors, including, but not limited to the nonprofit, business, faith-based, private funding, and public sectors, participated in the community planning process on several work groups, with each group focused on a key area. The process also included consultation with people with lived experience with homelessness. The plan focused on creating more affordable and low-demand housing, homelessness prevention, increasing the incomes of households experiencing homelessness, and making emergency shelters a point of triage, not a destination for households experiencing homelessness. External facilitators were hired to support various aspects of the planning process. The final plan, endorsed by the Mayor’s Task Force, included 8 goals based on the recommendations from goal-oriented work groups:
- Open the “back door” out of homelessness – ensure that all Philadelphians have a decent, safe, accessible and affordable home.
- Close the “front door” to homelessness – implement successful prevention strategies
- Ensure that no one in Philadelphia needs to live on the street
- Fully integrate all health and social services to aid in preventing and addressing homelessness
- Generate the political will, civic support, and public and private resources to end homelessness
- Build human capital through excellent employment preparation and training programs and jobs at a livable wage
- Make shelters a dignified place for emergency assistance, not a destination
- Support families and individuals to promote long term independence and prevent their return to homelessness
The original ten-year plan ended in 2015, with marked success in ending veterans homelessness, creating new permanent supportive, permanent subsidized, and rapid re-housing units, and providing rental and utility assistance to prevent homelessness among households at imminent risk.
In June 2016, with the original ten-year plan expired, the Philadelphia Continuum of Care Board of Directors and the City of Philadelphia Office of Homeless Services, supported by Rapid Results Institute, launched a 100 Day Challenge to End Street Homelessness to galvanize community-wide efforts to implement new strategies and improve the coordination of housing and services provision to Philadelphia’s most vulnerable populations. The 100 Day Challenge Team focused on chronic, non-chronic, and youth under age 25 subpopulations. They have been meeting regularly since the June 2016 launch to work on community-established goals related to developing Philadelphia’s by-name list of households experiencing chronic homelessness, recommending policies and strategies to prevent homelessness among youth who have aged out of the child welfare system, and identifying the places and processes within our system that cause delays in connecting households to the appropriate housing and services for which they are eligible. The 100 Day Challenge has galvanized an unprecedented level of collaboration between Philadelphia’s public and private entities, which has laid the groundwork for a strategic planning process.
D. Eligible Applicants
Qualifications and Experience Requirements
The Department expects the following with respect to the successful applicant’s Qualifications and Experience:
· Experience in planning to meet the housing needs of persons experiencing homelessness
· Experience developing written strategic plans with action steps for community-based collaborative bodies that include both government and non-government
· Ability to attend meetings and stakeholder engagement sessions with the City, the CoC Board, and a broad base of community stakeholders
· Experience working with HMIS data
· Experience facilitating meetings and discussions with community stakeholders
· Experience working on projects of similar size and scope with similar jurisdictions
E. Request for Proposals
The services identified in this Request for Proposals will be funded by Philadelphia’s HUD CoC Planning grant for the time period summer 2017 - summer 2018 and will be embodied in a Professional Services Contract with the Office of Homeless Services.
Qualifications and Experience Requirements
The Department expects the following with respect to the successful applicant’s Qualifications and Experience:
· Experience in planning to meet the housing needs of persons experiencing homelessness
· Experience developing written strategic plans with action steps for community-based collaborative bodies that include both government and non-government
· Ability to attend meetings and stakeholder engagement sessions with the City, the CoC Board, and a broad base of community stakeholders
· Experience working with HMIS data Experience facilitating meetings and discussions with community stakeholders
· Experience working on projects of similar size and scope with similar jurisdictions
F. General Disclaimer of the City
This RFP does not commit the City of Philadelphia to award a contract. This RFP and the process it describes are proprietary to the City and are for the sole and exclusive benefit of the City. No other party, including any Applicant, is intended to be granted any rights hereunder. Any response, including written documents and verbal communication, by any Applicant to this RFP, shall become the property of the City and may be subject to public disclosure by the City, or any authorized agent of the City. The City is not liable for any costs incurred by Applicants in preparing and submitting a proposal in response to this RFP or for any costs and expenses incurred in meeting with, or making oral presentations to the City if so requested.
II. Scope of Work
A. Project Details
The City of Philadelphia Office of Homeless Services is seeking proposals for professional consulting services to assist the City and its Continuum of Care through the process of developing a community-wide strategic plan to effectively work towards making homelessness rare, briefing, and non-recurring in the City of Philadelphia. The plan’s duration will be 3.5 years, and its timeline will be Summer 2018 – December 2021.
The plan must:
· Include the mission, goals, objectives, and specific strategies/ action steps that will guide the community for the next three years;
· Be data-driven;
· Move the system toward adopting a Housing First and trauma-informed care approach with a housing focus and an emphasis on right-sizing Philadelphia’s homelessness system to reduce reliance on emergency shelter and increase prevention and permanent housing resources;
· Include recommendations for how existing resources be maximized, streamlined, and targeted;
· Identify additional resources necessary;
· Identify opportunities for increasing participation of homeless services providers and community stakeholders to coordinate efforts more effectively to prevent and end homelessness among veterans, people experiencing chronic homelessness, families with children, and households headed by youth under age 25; and