RFP_4710_PAT3020REBID_ADD_4_v1.pdf

SOLICITATION ADDENDUM

AUSTIN FINANCIAL SERVICES – CENTRAL PROCUREMENT

Revised 10/01/2024

Solicitation: RFP 4710 PAT3020REBID Addendum No: 3 Date: June 05, 2026 Permanent Supportive Services (PSH) Support Services

This addendum is to incorporate the following changes to the above referenced solicitation:

1.0 Extension: The solicitation due date is hereby extended until Tuesday, June 16, 2026, at 2:00 PM (CST)

2.0 Questions:

(Q1) The Healthcare Collaborative covers medical services, and on page 2 of the Scope of Work, it states that "Travis County and the City of Austin will not fund primary medical services which focus on the delivery of personal health services, including behavioral and mental health services by clinicians." Later it does list, as it did in the PowerPoint, that mental health services are an eligible expense. Could we provide counseling services with a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LPCP)? What kind of mental health services are considered an eligible expense and don't overlap with the Healthcare Collaborative?

(A1) The Scope of Work states, “Mental Health Services (example staff role: Qualified Mental Health

Professional): Support Clients in improving their mental health status through a wide range of Community-Based Mental Health Services, including mental health case management and counseling; prescription assistance and medication monitoring; assistance with daily living needs, individual, group, and family counseling and/or therapy; connecting Clients to community-based programs which provide services in approachable, culturally, and linguistically responsive manner; and assisting eligible households to gain access to psychiatric evaluation and appointments . The Healthcare Collaborative will provide access to mental health services to the PSH population, but programs should also work individually with clients on ensuring access to ongoing behavioral health resources.”

The City of Austin will not be able to pay for direct health care or mental health care from medical clinicians as Physician, Psychiatrists, Psychiatric Nurses, or Nurse Practitioners that prescribe medicine, because those services are paid through another taxing entity and through the Healthcare Collaborative.

(Q2) Are costs for behavioral/mental health provider services an allowable expense under this RFP?

(A2) Please reference Question 1

(Q3) On the solicitation Attachment 1-RFP Proposal, Question 21, no plus sign (+) shows up to add rows. Please advise on the best way to get you our complete staffing plan.

(A3) Please submit additional pages to the solicitation with your additional staff.

(Q4) On the solicitation Attachment 1-RFP Proposal, Part 1, Question 7, you ask for Current Board of

Directors Bylaws. Are you seeking our current list of board members, our current organizational bylaws, or both?

(A4) The RFP is asking for your current organizational bylaws.

(Q5) Unit Funding Cap

Is there a maximum number of units that can be supported per award?

(A5) No, there is not a maximum number of units that can be supported per award.

(Q6) Scope of On-Site Health Services For the on-site health services provided by the Healthcare Collaborative, would services be expected or allowed to extend to all residents at the PSH site (e.g., all 80 units), even if RFP funding supports only a subset of units (e.g., 25 units)?

(A6) The Healthcare Collaborative is anticipated to be available for all site-based PSH units regardless of the units funded by this solicitation, but the timing of when each property will have the services available is dependent on the implementation schedule.

(Q7) Allowable Costs – Medical Co-pays

The RFP indicates that medical co-pays are an allowable expense, but that Travis County funds cannot be used for this purpose. Could you clarify how this is intended to work in practice? Will awardees receive guidance post-award on which funding sources may be used for co-pays and how to appropriately allocate those costs?

(A7) The Scope of Work, Section II states, "Each awarded Grantee must enter into an agreement with each funder, depending on budgets and evaluation outcomes." Awardees will receive guidance post-award on which funding sources may be used for co-pays and how to appropriately allocate those costs during negotiation of the awarded contract.

(Q8) Award Amounts and Structure The RFP notes that proposed projects should have an approximate cost of $520,000, with approximately $6.7 million available across three awardees. Could you clarify how awards are anticipated to be distributed? Specifically:

• Is there an expectation that individual award amounts will fall below $520,000?

• Is there a preference for proposals to align closely with the stated per-unit minimum (25 units at approximately $520,000 per year), or for higher total project budgets where justified?

(A8) Individual award amounts will not fall below $520,000, which is the minimum award amount.

Proposals must demonstrate alignment with the minimum requirements set forth in the Scope of Work which include robust services for each unit. Offerors may propose higher or lower per-unit amount but must justify the difference in the proposal.

(Q9) Service Start Timeline Are there expectations that all units must be leased and services fully operational by a certain date

(A9) No dates are specified in RFP. Offerors should be clear about their timeline for occupancy in their proposal. The City or County will work with each awardee during negotiation to develop a program-specific timeline.

(Q10) Minimum Request Language

“Minimum Request: The minimum application may be for 25 units of PSH for an approximate cost of $520,000 over a 12-month term.”

My question:

• Are we allowed to request more than $520,000 for a project with 25 units of PSH? Or is

$520,000 approximately the maximum amount you expect to award to a 25-unit project?

(A10) Offerors are allowed to request more than $520,000 for a project with 25 units of PSH. However, proposals may not be for less than $520,000, which is the minimum award amount.

The $520,000 is not a maximum amount the City expects to award to a 25-unit project. Austin Homeless Strategies and Operations historical contracting information demonstrates that, PSH services cost, on average, $20,800 per unit, across various PSH property configurations. Based on this average,$520,000 may be appropriate for 25-unit project, though this amount may support greater or fewer units depending on the project’s unique characteristics. While the minimum request cannot be for less than $520,000, the projects may be for greater or fewer than 25 units, and offerors should explain the reason for requesting above or below this estimate.

(Q11) In the budget workbook, in the Budget Narrative tab, cells D20:22 and D24 are locked. We have matching funds to cover some of these items. How would you like us to demonstrate this?

(A11) Those categories in the “Budget Narrative” tabs (cells D20-D22) are locked, matching funds should be added to the “All Other Sources” tab under “Program Operations Cost” line item or “Admin Operations Expenses” line item, cell C19 or C20 respectively. The tabs are linked and the amounts from the “All Other Sources” tab will transfer to the “Budget Narrative” tab.

(Q12) Column C of the Budget Narrative tab indicates a 12-month budget, while the PG Budget Roll-up tab indicates 24 months.

(A12) The reference to 24 months on the Budget Roll-up tab is a mistake. Please follow the directions in the application to apportion your funding request into 12 months of funding.

(Q13) We want to apply for two sites. Should we submit one proposal for scattered-site services, or a separate proposal for each site?

(A13) The offeror can submit a proposal to support a single project application to operate two different sites or to submit proposals for each site, separately. The Offeror should carefully consider what program design best suits their agency’s staffing and other resources.

(Q14) In regard to the requirement that “clients must hold long-term vouchers issued prior to PSH project enrollment”, are both tenant based vouchers and project based vouchers acceptable for this opportunity?

(A14) Regarding the requirement that clients must hold long-term vouchers issued prior to PSH project enrollment, only project-based vouchers are allowable. The Scope of Work specifies that the “City, through collaboration outlined in Section IV, is soliciting Applicants with housing subsidy vouchers that have site-based projects.”

(Q15) In Attachment 1-RFP Proposal, Part II-“Scored Section”, Section 1-“Program Design”, Question

3-“Program Services Solicited”, we wanted to ask how the city defines Eligible Services (3a) compared to required Service Components (3b). From the Scope of Work, we are able to identify Eligible Services but want to make sure we answer the required Service Component portion accurately.

(A15) In the Scope of Work, Section IV-Solicitation Requirements, Subsection C-Services Solicited, Section 2. "Eligible Activities and Service Components" includes both eligible costs, services and program components. Service components are the main titles for each lettered item (for example, a. "Program Management and Team Leadership" and b. “Case Management & Service Coordination"). Under each service component are eligible activities and costs for that specific service component.

In Attachment 1 – RFP Proposal definitions for Eligible Services and Service Components:

• 3(a) – Eligible Services: Eligible Services are the specific eligible activities listed underneath each Service Component in the Scope of Work, Section IV-Solicitation Requirements, Subsection C-Services Solicited, Section 2 “Eligible Activities and Service Components.”

These are the detailed tasks, actions, or supports that an Offeror may provide as part of that component.

• 3(b) – Service Components: Service Components are the required major program components listed in items a–o in the Scope of Work, Section IV-Solicitation Requirements, Subsection C-Services Solicited, Section 2 “Eligible Activities and Service Components.”

These components represent the full set of program service areas the City expects to be addressed (for example, Program Management, Case Management, Outreach, Housing Navigation, Mental Health Services, Peer Support, etc.).

(Q16) For the Required Outcome that tracks the number of exits to permanent housing, are we counting the clients that remain housed at the end of the reporting period? Or basing it off the scorecard measure (e.g. the proportion of households who exit to permanent housing or who are retained in the program at the end of the reporting period)? We are wondering how this measure is counted because PSH has a smaller number of exits due to the nature of permanent housing programs.

(A16) Attachment 1-RFP Proposal, Section 2-Data-Informed Program Management, Section 10- Performance Measures, Required Outcome Chart, Column “RFP Outcome Description“ shows Percentage of households that exit the program to permanent housing. Numerator: Households that exit the program to permanent housing. Denominator: Households exiting the program. The Required Outcome counts only households that exit, and it measures only exits to permanent housing. Households that remain housed/retained in PSH at the end of the reporting period are not included in this required measure.

The Offeror may propose other outcomes in the “Additional Outcome measure” section.

(Q17) We have reached out to ECHO, and they have told us that the "HMIS Permanent Supportive Housing Scorecard" (Q16) that is mentioned in the proposal as a report available in HMIS does not exist. They have a new scorecard, that is not PSH specific, the Data Quality Report, but there are several flaws with the report that ECHO has mentioned they are addressing with HSO.

a. Could you please clarify the name of the specific scorecard report as it appears on the

HMIS/Clarity reporting tool?

b. Alternatively, could we only submit the PMQR reports that our PSH programs submit to the city, or would those have to be in addition to the HMIS report?

(A17) a. The HMIS Permanent Supportive Housing Scorecard is a report generated by ECHO for the Continuum of Care Competition, which is generated quarterly based on an HMIS data export by ECHO. If your agency is currently participating in the scorecard process please submit your scorecard.

b. If you are not participating in the scorecard process, please submit the items in section b. of the question: Quarterly performance reports, annual reports providing to the community or Board, or if your agency doesn’t have reports available, provide sample intake forms, reports from a database on past performance, or other documents that can demonstrate experience providing the services in the scope of work.

(Q18) When filling out the budget workbook, the Admin line item is turning red if we request an amount higher than 10% of the total project budget. The workbook and the proposal both state the cap is 15% of the project budget. We just want to confirm that we can move forward by submitting an Admin request of 15% even if the cell in the workbook ('Budget Summary' B:13) signals that it might be over.

(A18) This is confirmed. The Scope of Work, Section IV-Solicitation Requirements, Subsection C- Services Solicited, Section O-Administrative Activities, states “Administrative Activities: The awarded recipient may use up to 15% of its project budget for the payment of administrative costs related to the planning and administration of the project. This does not include staff and overhead costs directly related to implementing activities or services eligible under costs in items 1 through 13 listed above.”

(Q19) For the budget:

-what is the total allowable amount for 12 months.

-What are the allowable administrative expenses (Executive Salaries? Office space?....)

(A19) The total amount available for this solicitation is $6,708,405, or an estimated $1,341,681 per 12 months. Applicants may submit 12 month budget reflecting a minimum amount of $520,000 or an estimated maximum of $1,341,681.

The Scope of Work, section IV.C.2.o. states, “Administrative Activities: The awarded recipient may use up to 15% of its project budget for the payment of administrative costs related to the planning and administration of the project. This does not include staff and overhead costs directly related to implementing activities or services eligible under costs in items 1 through 13 listed above.”

(Q20) Does the Offeror need to own or have master leases on 25 housing units?

(A20) No The Offeror must have obtained sufficient long-term ongoing rental assistance for the identified number of project-based units which they propose to serve.

2.0 ALL OTHER TERMS AND CONDITIONS REMAIN THE SAME.

ACKNOWLEDGED BY:

Offeror Name Offeror Authorized Signature Date

RETURN ONE COPY OF THIS ADDENDUM WITH YOUR RESPONSE PRIOR TO THE SOLICITATION CLOSING

DATE. FAILURE TO DO SO MAY CONSTITUTE GROUNDS FOR REJECTION OF YOUR OFFER.

Solicitation: RFP 4710 PAT3020REBID Addendum No: 3 Date: June 05, 2026