Request For Information - 70FB8025I00000004.pdf

RFI 70FB8025I00000004

FEDERAL EMERGECNY MANAGEMENT AGENCY (FEMA)

SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE - REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

TRANSITIONAL SHELTERING ASSISTANCE PROGRAM OVERVIEW

70FB8025I00000004

DISCLAIMER: THIS IS A SOURCES SOUGHT ONLY. This Sources Sought is issued solely for information and planning purposes – it does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a promise to issue an RFP in the future. This Sources Sought does not commit the Government to contract for any supply or service whatsoever. In accordance with FAR 52.215-3, the Government does not intend to award a contract based on this solicitation or to otherwise pay for the information solicited. Your response will be treated as information only.

It shall not be used as a proposal. Further, the Government is not at this time seeking quotes and will not accept unsolicited proposals. In accordance with FAR 15.201(e), responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Respondents are advised that the U.S. Government will not pay for any information or administrative costs incurred in response to this Sources Sought; all costs associated with responding to this Sources Sought will be solely at the interested party’s expense. Not responding to this Sources Sought does not preclude participation in any future solicitation, if any is issued. Further, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is not at this time seeking proposals and will not accept unsolicited proposals. Not responding to this Sources Sought does not preclude participation in any future RFP, if one is issued. Responses to this Sources Sought will not be returned. Respondents will not be notified of the result of the review.

Respondents shall identify any proprietary information in its Sources Sought response.

Information submitted in response to this confidential insofar as permitted by law, including the Freedom of Information and Privacy Acts. FEMA reserves the right to utilize any non-proprietary technical information in the anticipated PWS or solicitation. Vendors should not send any material that requires a non-disclosure agreement or identify information that is business sensitive.

Although it is not necessary to address in their response, respondents shall be aware of any potential, actual, or perceived organizational conflicts of interests. Any real or potential conflicts must be sufficiently mitigated prior to a contract award. For further guidance, refer to the Federal Acquisition Regulation, Part 9.5.

Background: FEMA's mission is to help people before, during, and after disasters.1 After an emergency or major disaster has impacted a community, various FEMA services and programs are implemented to assist disaster survivors. A central aspect of the recovery process includes identifying temporary housing solutions that keep disaster survivors in or near their community while planning for their long-term needs. When authorized, FEMA’s Individual Assistance (IA) Division, Transitional Sheltering Assistance (TSA) program provides short-term sheltering assistance to eligible individuals and families. Over the past 5

1FEMA receives its authority from the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (Stafford Act), P.L. 93-288, as amended in 4 U.S.C. 5121-5207.

years, FEMA has activated TSA for 17 disasters and partnered with the private sector to ensure the success of this critical mission providing temporary lodging for over 319,000 households.

FEMA seeks to improve the simplicity and effectiveness of the TSA program for disaster survivors, participating lodging partners, and the taxpayer. This includes expanding partnerships, use of innovate technological solutions, and a scalable service to the government.

Currently survivors who cannot return to their home and are unable to meet their housing needs by insurance, shelters, or rental assistance, may benefit from TSA—which provides a safe, temporary place to stay until they can find a short or longer-term housing solution. The TSA program partners with private-sector businesses to meet the demand for survivor lodging following a disaster. Based on recent events, a “TSA Mission” after a disaster can range from one or two hotels in a town or require hundreds of lodging partners and other properties across multiple states. This program also runs concurrently alongside other TSA Missions, each on their own timelines for delivery of assistance.

The survivor must apply for assistance with FEMA to determine eligibility for TSA. Once determined as eligible for TSA, the survivor is notified of their eligibility through automated messaging (i.e, text message or email) or can create an account to monitor the progress of their application online. They can then use a TSA Hotel Locator website to find a participating lodging venue that fits their individual needs (i.e., location, proximity to schools, place of business, disability accommodations, pets, etc.). Survivors currently must contact hotels outside of this website to determine room availability and book their lodging themselves.

As allowable under the program guidance, FEMA pays the cost of lodging, taxes, and some other non-refundable or incidental fees to participating lodging providers through contractor-facilitated invoicing and payment processes, integrated to federal financial management systems. Survivors that are no longer eligible for TSA, due to their recovery status or other factors, are notified of ineligibility approximately 7 days prior to a required check- out date from the lodging facility. The survivor is responsible for checking out of the lodging facility and reviewing outstanding charges that may not be covered by FEMA. Other incidentals costs and fees would be the responsibility of the survivor.

Summary: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Transitional Sheltering Assistance (TSA) Program, is seeking to maintain and enhance the delivery of assistance in order to provide safe, lodging services to eligible disaster survivors nationwide to include states and territories outside of the continental United States (OCONUS). This requires a flexible and scalable suite of services that can activate quickly following a declared disaster and provide lodging to survivors—which may mean partnering with one hotel to shelter a handful of eligible survivors to a large, multi-state effort helping thousands of survivors across hundreds of potential lodging properties.

The TSA program seeks to understand the depth of industry capacity and experience to support our objectives to provide enhanced: 1) Survivor Processing Portal and Database Systems, 2) System Integration, 3) Payment Management System, and 4) Lodging Provider

Relationships, Coordination, and Outreach.

Recommended NAICS Codes: 561599 - All Other Travel Arrangement and Reservation Services

Anticipated Product Service Code (PSC): V231Transportation/Travel/Relocation Travel/Lodging Recruitment: Lodging, Hotel/Motel

Anticipated period of performance start date: The anticipated start date will be October

Response Instructions: Interested contractors shall submit their RFI responses electronically to Lassey Wilson-Bahun, at Lassey.wilsonbahun@fema.dhs.gov and Keturah Stroy, at Keturah.stroy@fema.dhs.gov

Response: No later than 03:00PM Eastern Time (E.T), (April 29, 2025).

Questions: No later than 03:00PM Eastern Time (E.T), (April 15, 2025).

“RFI Response for FEMA Transitional Sheltering Assistance Program Readiness and Delivery” shall be in the subject line of your e-mail. All responses shall be unclassified, with proprietary information clearly marked. The document format shall be either Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx), or Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) formats. Pages shall be 8.5 by 11 inch and shall use a type pitch that is no smaller than a standard 11-point font type, with the exception of charts, graphs, or tables, which shall use a pitch not smaller than 10-point font. Responses shall not exceed (page limit) pages in length including images, data displays, charts, graphs, and tables. Page limitation does not include: 1 cover page. Do not include promotional materials. Any submission exceeding the page limit will not be reviewed.

Responses shall include the following information:

A. Cover Page with the following information:

1. Company Name and Address

2. Unique Entity Identifier (UEI)

3. Point of Contact: Name, Title, Email Address and Phone Number

4. Socioeconomic Business Type (e.g., HUBZone small business concern, service- disabled veteran-owned small business firm, 8(a) contractor, woman-owned small business, or small business). Also, business size in relation to the NAICS code size standards assigned to this acquisition.

5. GSA Schedule Number, Contract Number, and Period of Performance and/or DHS Strategic Sourcing Vehicle Category Name and Contract Number, if applicable

6. Website (if applicable) mailto:Lassey.wilsonbahun@fema.dhs.gov mailto:Keturah.stroy@fema.dhs.gov

B. Contractor Capability Statement (No more than 2 pages in length)

1. A description of your company’s previous experience providing the requirements described in this notice on a as needed basis. Including, but not limited to any existing contracts with the Federal Government that can provide any or all the items required under this source sought. If you provide an existing contract, please provide the contract vehicle, contract number, Federal contact for the contract, and identify the specific items that are available under your company’s current contract(s).

2. What element of this requirement can small businesses effectively perform, and what teaming arrangements could support this effort, if any?

a. Additionally, in the event you require subcontracting, please confirm that you are capable of completing at least 51% of the work in accordance with FAR clause 52.219-14.

b. What challenges do small business face in meeting this scope, and how could the government help mitigate them?

3. Summarization of your company’s technical systems & applications licenses, skills, certifications that are relevant to the survivor processing portal, database systems, and systems integration work discussed in the RFI (e.g., data systems library construction, application design, systems integration).

4. Any other relevant information that is not listed above which the Government should considering in finalizing its market research and acquisition strategy.

C. Contractor Responses to the bellow requirements (No more than 10 pages in length)

Interested companies must submit responses to the below with sufficient information to facilitate FEMA’s understanding of industry and technology capabilities and shortcomings.

Requirement 1: Survivor Processing Portal and Systems Development

1. Describe your (a) prior experience and (b) capacity to develop flexible and editable system architecture integrating multi-user platforms (e.g., TSA requires customer facing, lodging-provider facing, and government facing systems).

2. Describe what strategies you use to populate data from multiple systems with near to real time updating capability of the records, as well as your approach to identify, report, and resolve discrepancies.

3. Describe your approach to ensuring technology solutions are simple for users and reliable for clients.

Requirement 2: System Integration

1. Provide examples of systems your company has integrated into federal databases, program management portals, financial systems, or other IT platforms while ensuring compliance with network and systems security, data sharing, privacy protocols and requirements.

2. Highlight products developed to formalize procedures and user guides, training tools and activities to support in-person and hybrid training events for system users.

3. Describe your (a) experience and (b) capacity to design system architecture configurable to support multiple disaster response activities across government and non-governmental entities.

Requirement 3: Payment Management Systems

1. Describe your (a) experience and (b) capability to develop and manage a direct payment system for accounts with volumes ranging from tens to thousands of customers, including processing payment on authorized invoices and delivering invoicing reports for a government established account.

2. Describe your capability in generating comprehensive invoicing reports and maintaining account reporting for government-regulated accounts servicing thousands of transactions relating to individual and/or private sector partnerships.

3. Describe your (a) experience and (b) capability to develop a direct payment management system for accounts with volumes ranging from tens to thousands of customers that is adaptable to contain varied billing cycles, varied rate types, taxes, and fees; also, the ability to change rates and other details of the accounts.

4. Describe your experience with (a) conducting in-house audits and (b) responding to government identified audits and reviews of the payment management system to identify and resolve discrepancies on the accounts.

Requirement 4: Provider Relationships, Coordination & Outreach

1. Describe your (a) established relationships and (b) capability to develop relationships with varied lodging providers (e.g., hotels, motels, AirBnB, leased properties, etc.) across the United States, to include states and territories outside of the continental United States (OCONUS). Please describe the extent to which your operational capability exists at all of the following levels: local, state, regional, and national level.

2. Describe your strategy to ensure recruitment, preparation, relationship management, and closeout for participating lodging providers while overcoming the challenges faced by communities overwhelmed by lodging demand, to meet the goal of securing safe lodging solutions for survivors.