HomeMy WebLinkAbout040620_ra02 JEFFERSON COUNTY
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
AGENDA REQUEST
TO: Board of County Commissioners
FROM: Philip Morley, County Administrator
Lizanne Coker, Homeless Housing Task Force Faci i at•
DATE: April 6, 2020
RE: Award Recommendations of Joint Oversight Board
STATEMENT OF ISSUE: The Board of County Commissioners will consider the
recommendations of the Joint Oversight Board to fund proposals by community organizations
to provide Affordable Housing and Homeless Housing services, and may direct that grant
agreements with those organizations be prepared for subsequent Board approval.
ANALYSIS: Pursuant to a 2018 Interlocal Agreement Jefferson County and the City of Port
Townsend created and participate in a Joint Oversight Board (JOB)to make recommendations
on affordable housing and homeless housing services and on the use of recording fees collected
by the County Auditor on recorded documents dedicated for those services. The JOB also
established a Homeless Housing Task Force of community stakeholders to help the JOB do its
work. One responsibility was creating and helping to conduct a competitive Request for
Proposal (RFP) process for allocating the funds to eligible organizations and activities.
On December 17, 2019, based on recommendations by the JOB, the County Commissioners
approved a 2020 RFP making available up to $114,000 from Fund 148 (Affordable Housing) and
$241,000 from Fund 149 (Homeless Housing) to be awarded as grants.
The RFP was issued in January of this year, and included the following criteria that would be
used to evaluate proposals:
Evaluation Criteria Max.Points
A. Capacity-Experience Providing Similar Program Services or Developing 25
Similar Projects
B.Alignment-Meets Affordable Housing Plan Priorities 25
C.Planned Approach,Completeness of Proposal and Readiness 25
D.Demonstrated Financial Capacity to Accomplish the Program or Project 25
TOTAL 100
A Screening Panel comprised of Kay Kassinger, Roy Walker and Peggy Webster was formed as a
sub-committee by the Task Force. In response to the RFP, nine proposals were submitted by
five community organizations.
In February the Screening Panel evaluated the proposals based on criteria in the RFP, and asked
questions of the applicants. The Screening Panel reached consensus on their evaluation of the
proposals and made recommendations to the Task Force to fully or partially fund six of the nine
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proposals. The Task Force reviewed the Screening Panel's recommendations and rationale,
found concurrence, and made the same six funding recommendations to the JOB.
In turn,the JOB reviewed the applications and hosted a public meeting regarding the
allocations of funds on Feb. 28th. After conducting its own analysis, the JOB voted to concur
with the Screening Panel's and Task Force's six recommendations, but added a seventh grant to
their recommendation. At its public meeting the JOB questioned a representative of the Winter
Welcoming Center (WWC), and received clarification regarding the number of people served at
the WWC each month. The JOB learned that 70%of the people serviced by the WWC do not
use the Emergency Shelter at the American Legion, and received much of their support through
the WWC. The JOB concluded that the design of the new RFP itself may have inadvertently
worked against the WWC, that the WWC has a significant impact on helping the homeless, and
given the low cost of their request ($4,438), a grant for the WWC should be included in the
JOB's funding recommendations to the County Commissioners.
On March 12, 2020 it was discovered that a tenth application had been overlooked for
processing, and this was immediately corrected. The RFP Screening Panel scored the tenth
application. As before, the Screening Panel developed a set of questions that were
communicated to the applicant. Answers were received on March 18 and the panel met by
telephone on March 19 to score the application using the same criteria for the tenth application
as the previous nine, and the Screening Panel reviewed its entire set of funding
recommendations using the scores from all ten applications. The Screening Panel's funding
recommendations remained unchanged.
On March 25, 2020 the Task Force met again, and reviewed the Screening Panel's
recommendations and rationale once more, this time for all ten applications, and made the
same six funding recommendations to the JOB without change. The JOB met later that same
day, and voted to recommend seven grants (including the Winter Welcoming Center) as shown
in Table 1, below.
TABLE 1: JOB'S RECOMMENDATIONS
Applicant&Project Applicant's JOB's Total From Fund 148 From Fund 149
Request Recommended Affordable Housing Homeless Housing
Dove House—Emergency temporary shelter $ 65,572 $ 65,572 ! $ 65,572 $ -
for victims of domestic violence
Habitat 1-Repair 2 homes for 30%AMI or $ 20,000 $ 20,000 $ 20,000E $ -
less homeowners
Bayside—providing rental subsidy(the $ 51,333 $ 31,980 $13,770 $ 18,210
difference between the lease rate and 30%
of income of resident($3,176 annual)
Olycap—Haines St Cottages—Continuous $ 31,667 $ 31,667 $ -E $ 31,667
housing for 24 months
Olycap—Housing Assistance $ 25,000 $ 15,000 $ - $ 15,000
Olycap—Emergency Shelter ,$ 94,600 $ 94,600 $ -' $ 94,600
Winter Welcoming Center-providing a $ 4,438 $ 4,438 $ 4,438 ( $ -
warming center during the cold winter
season.
Totals $ 292,610 $ 263,257 $ 103,780 $ 159,477
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The amounts recommended by the JOB do not spend all the funds that the RFP had identified
as potentially available. The JOB has recommended grants from Fund 148 (Affordable Housing)
totaling$103,780, compared to up to $114,000 identified in the RFP. From Fund 149
(Homeless Housing), the JOB has recommended grants totaling$159,477, compared to up to
$241,000 in the RFP. Given the likely impact of Coronavirus in the coming months on the
economy and on the number of recorded documents generating revenue for this program,
spending less than the RFP had identified as potentially available seems prudent.
Staff recommends one technical change to the JOB's recommendation. The Winter Welcoming
Center serves the homeless, and it is best funded out of Fund 149 (Homeless Housing), rather
than the JOB's designation of Fund 148 which is intended primarily for affordable housing.
With that change, all grants from Fund 148 (Affordable Housing) would total $99,342 instead of
the JOB's $103,780; and the total of all grants from Fund 149 would increase to $163,915
instead of the JOB's $159,477. As revised by staff, all organizations would receive the same
amount of funding recommended by the JOB, but the Winter Welcoming Center's would simply
be from a more appropriate fund.
Recommended grant awards as revised by staff are shown in TABLE 2, below:
TABLE 2: PROPOSED GRANTS CORRECTED FOR FUND SOURCE
Applicant&Project Applicant's Staff's Total From Fund 148 From Fund 149
Request Recommended Affordable Housing Homeless Housing
Dove House-Emergency temporary shelter $ 65,572 $ 65,572 S 65,572 $ -
for victims of domestic violence
Habitat 1-Repair 2 homes for 30%AMI or $ 20,000 ! $ 20,000 $ 20,000 l $
less homeowners
Bayside-providing rental subsidy(the ! $ 51,333 $ 31,980 $13,770 ` $ 18,210
difference between the lease rate and 30%
of income of resident($3,176 annual)
Olycap-Haines St Cottages-Continuous $ 31,667 $ 31,667 $ - $ 31,667
housing for 24 months
Olycap-Housing Assistance $ 25,000 $ 15,000 $ - ( $ 15,000
Olycap-Emergency Shelter $ 94,600 $ 94,600 $ - I $ 94,600
Winter Welcoming Center-providing a $ 4,438 $ 4,438 $ - i $ 4,438
warming center during the cold winter
E
season. i
Totals $ 292,610 $ 263,257 $ 99,342 $ 163,915
FISCAL IMPACT: See discussion above. In January 2020, the County and the City amended their
Interlocal Agreement to include revenue for Affordable Housing from a local option tax
deducted from the state's share of sales tax (SHB 1406). Those new revenues deducted from
the state's sales tax are not included in the 2020 RFP or the figures above.
RECOMMENDATION: Staff recommends that the Board of County Commissioners approve the
grant award recommendations of the Joint Oversight Board for 2020, but with a technical
correction to fund the Winter Welcoming Center out of Fund 149 (Homeless Housing) as shown
in TABLE 2, and direct staff to prepare grant contracts for subsequent approval by the County
Commissioners.
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