Mayor's Office of Strategic Planning
City of Buffalo, NY
65 Niagara Square
Room 920
Buffalo, NY 142102

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

HUD 5 YEAR CONSOLIDATED PLAN 2020-2024

The City of Buffalo is seeking a consultant to develop a Five-Year Consolidated Plan and associated documents for the 2020 – 2024 program years. The city is requesting proposals from qualified firms, or individuals with proven experience developing Consolidated Plans in compliance with all associated federal laws and regulatory requirements. The city intends to submit the Consolidated Plan to HUD by July 22, 2020.

Questions regarding bid submittal, process, or project scope should be directed to Rashika L. Hall, HUD Grants Manager, at HUDAdministrator@city-buffalo.com. All questions must be submitted via email no later than June 10, 2019.

Proposals must be submitted as a pdf attachment emailed to Ms. Hall, and must not exceed 20 pages and 10mb, as larger attachments will not make it past the city's firewall. Ms. Hall must receive your proposal no later than 11:00 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, July 2, 2019.

The city encourages minority and women-owned business enterprises to submit proposals. No firm, or person will be discriminated against on the grounds of race, color, national origin or any other protected class.

Scope of Services

1. Citizen Participation and Consultation: Using a list of housing and community development stakeholders provided by the city, ensure meaningful involvement of citizens, community-based organizations, businesses, elected officials, housing and service providers in the planning process. Conduct regular consultation with city staff, as well as meaningful language access to persons with Limited English Proficiency. Listing is flexible and may be adjusted as necessary.
2. Housing Market Analysis and Needs Assessment: Collect and analyze statistical information that provides an overall picture of the housing needs of the city. At a minimum, this assessment should include the following:
   • Housing supply and demand
   • Housing affordability analysis
   • Cost-burdened households
   • Housing types
   • Housing conditions, including substandard units
   • Disproportionate racial/ethnic group housing needs
   • Specific housing objectives
   • Public Housing needs
   • Inventory of local, state and federal assisted housing
   • Barriers to affordable housing
   • Lead based paint hazards
3. Homeless Needs Assessment: At a minimum, this assessment should include the following:
   • Inventory of emergency shelters, transitional housing and permanent housing for the homeless
   • Needs of sheltered and unsheltered homeless
   • Needs of subpopulations
   • Needs of persons threatened with homelessness
4. Non-Homeless Special Needs Assessment: At a minimum, this assessment should include the following:
   • Special Independent Living needs and issues for persons with physical and mental disabilities
   • HIV/AIDs population housing needs
   • Supportive service needs
5. Community Development Needs Assessment: Identify non-housing community development needs, including:
   • Public facilities and infrastructure improvement needs
   • Accessibility needs
   • Historic preservation needs
   • Economic development needs
   • Planning needs
   • Public service needs
   • Other community development needs
6. Consolidated Plan: Based on the data gathered and analyzed above, develop a Consolidated Plan that brings needs and resources together in a coordinated housing and community development strategy. At a minimum, this should include the following:
   • Establishment of priority needs
   • Obstacles to meeting housing goals and objectives
   • The need for a targeted geographic area implementation plan or targeted economic development area (ie: Opportunity Zones)
   • Alleviation of overcrowding
   • Concentration of racial/ethnic minorities
   • Involuntary displacement
   • Affordable housing strategy
   • Anti-poverty strategy
   • Programs to assist households with incomes below the poverty level
   • Coordination with other programs and agencies
   • Community development priority analysis and strategy
   • Institutional structure
   • Housing and Non-Housing Community Development Needs
   • Public Services
   • Community development
   • Strengths and gaps in the institutional structure
   • Coordination and implementation of housing and community development strategy.
7. Annual Action Plan: Based on the Consolidated Plan developed above, prepare an Annual Action Plan to be implemented for the 2020-2021 program year.
8. Broadband Access Analysis: Consultation with public/private organizations, including broadband internet service providers and other organizations engaged in narrowing the digital divide with respect to availability of broadband access.
9. Resilience to Natural Hazard Risk Analysis: Consultation with emergency management, and other agencies whose primary responsibilities include the management of flood prone areas, public land, or water resources regarding the vulnerability of housing occupied by low-or moderate-income households to natural hazards associated with climate change.
10. Potential Funding Sources: Identify potential state and federal funding sources for housing and community development activities. Suggest financial terms for CDBG and HOME projects based on project type or related factors.

Deliverables

Provide one paper copy and one electronic copy for HUD's eCon Planning Suite of the Consolidated Plan and Annual Action Plan, to include:

1. Consolidated Plan for the 2020-2024 period that clearly identifies goals and priority needs with outcome indicators.
2. Annual Action Plan for the 2020-2021 program year.
3. Executive Summary for the Consolidated Plan and Annual Action Plan.
4. Resource binder of supporting documentation used to develop the Consolidated Plan and Annual Action Plan, including:
   • Source documentation and data;
   • Interim reports, memorandums, addendums, etc;
   • Public notices as published (or scripts, if broadcast);
   • Information packets, surveys, questionnaires, and other materials handed out at public meetings;
   • Formalized notes from and/or descriptive narrative of events;
   • Copies of written public comments, summaries of verbal comments, and responses;
   • Presentation materials for stakeholder meetings, public meetings and hearings; and
   • Any other materials substantially relevant to the process.
5. Should HUD not grant Final Approval of the Consolidated Plan or Annual Action Plan, the Consultant must bring the document to an acceptable level within the HUD-designated time frame.
6. Timely completed plan submitted in the federal IDIS System prior to HUD deadline.
7. Presentation to public, Common Council, and Executive Staff and/or Board.

Schedule

Proposal Contents

Proposals should not exceed 20 pages (excluding resumes), and must include the following:

1. Primary Contact: Name and contact information of the project lead.
2. Project Team: Description of qualifications and previous experience, including similar work that has been successfully completed. On attached budget workbook, list all staff who will be assigned to this project, hourly compensation rates, and approximate hours to be provided by each team member.
3. Scope: Proposed approach to scope of work.
4. Schedule: Provide a detailed schedule showing submission dates, milestone dates, and meeting dates for all deliverables. Work should begin on or about September 2, 2019 with an expected HUD submission date no later than July 22, 2020.
5. Fee: On attached budget workbook, complete the highlighted cells, which will then calculate estimated costs by team member and service.
6. MBE/WBE: Indicate any certified firms on your team, the level of participation anticipated, and the services that will be provided.
7. References: Name, position, and current contact information for at least three prior clients.

Selection Criteria

Proposals will be evaluated by a review team that will make recommendations for interviews. The evaluation criteria will include:

1. Demonstrated knowledge, skills, and experience in preparing Consolidated Plans and Annual Action Plans.
2. Quality and diversity of the team assigned to this project.
3. Ability to meet deadlines and budgets.
4. Value of proposal relative to estimated costs.

Resources

The following resources are on the Office of Strategic Planning's landing page: 2013 Consolidated Plan, 2014 Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice, Current and Prior Year Annual Action Plans, current and prior year Consolidated Annual Performance Evaluation Reports.

You can also access the city's Housing Opportunity Strategy here.