Housing Locator Website RFP (Reissue)

The Illinois Housing Development Authority is requesting proposals for design, development, and implementation of a Housing Locator Website to replace ILHousingSearch.org, with proposals due July 27, 2026. Black Enterprise Program (BEP) participation is a mandatory requirement for proposal responsiveness, and vendors must meet stated BEP goals as a condition of award eligibility.

The scope encompasses a cloud-hosted public-facing website supporting over 40,000 monthly searches across 21,000 listings and 150,000 units, plus an internal waitlist management system serving approximately 500 case managers and 20 administrators. The system must be hosted exclusively on Microsoft Azure, support both standard and customized reporting (up to 100 potential reports), integrate with the City of Chicago's housing database, accommodate Protected Health Information (PHI) with a Business Associate Agreement (BAA), and require Multi-Factor Authentication for administrator accounts and annual penetration testing. All work can be performed remotely. The project start date is between June 1 and July 1, 2026, with desired go-live of August 1, 2028 (25–26 months). SOC 2 Type 2 certification must be completed before contract execution, though certification may be in progress during the RFP phase. Data migration must support .csv formats minimum, document uploads, electronic signatures, and fully electronic referral processing to replace current paper-based workflows. No parallel system operation during migration is required; the incumbent vendor, Emphasys Computer Solutions, Inc., will transfer all data to IHDA upon contract termination.

Vendors must comply with DoIT Cloud Hosting Terms and Conditions, requiring FISMA compliance, NIST SP 800-53 security controls for moderate systems, FIPS 140-2 with AES-256 encryption, annual SOC 1 or SOC 2 Type 2 reports, System Security Plans, quarterly vulnerability assessments, data retention within the contiguous United States, 24-hour breach notification, and disaster recovery documentation with annual testing proof. Prevailing wage and the State Prompt Payment Act apply. General commercial liability insurance must be $1 million per occurrence and $2 million annual aggregate. A $15 Minority Contractor Initiative fee applies for contracts of $1,000 or more.

Pricing must be submitted via the items tab; IHDA will not disclose its budget or acceptable cost range. The current system costs approximately $210,000 annually in maintenance. Commitment to Diversity (C2D) factors into scoring at 20 percent of the technical score and requires documentation of BEP Goal Compliance (5 points), subcontracting with WMDB (10 points), DEI spending (20 points), DEI time (20 points), DEI policies (10 points), and diversity in staffing (35 points). All work product becomes the sole property of the State of Illinois. The State retains the right to terminate for cause immediately or for convenience with 30 days' notice.