Q: The RFP Guidelines say the RFP is due on Sunday April 9th, so is it due the 8th or 9th?
A: Sunday was a typo, the RFP is due Monday April 9th at 11:59 pm.
Q: Can a 24-hour low barrier shelter in the Lower Valley apply for the award designated for “Emergency Shelter: Overnight – Lower Valley”?
A: Yes, The term “Overnight” was intended to be a minimum requirement. If your agency provides services above and beyond, the project award’s minimum requirements, state so in your application. This could assist in receiving higher scoring.
Q: Are the 2163 dollars to be awarded as a grant?
A: Yes 2163 funds will be awarded as grants.
Q: Upon appendix A of the RFP today, is each figure listed for the full two-year cycle?
A: Yes, the amounts shown in Appendix A are projected awards for Program Years 2018 and 2019 (7/1/18-6/30/20)
Q: Does there need to be a separate proposal for every proposal type checked?
A: Yes, there needs to be a separate proposal for each project type.
Q: The RFP asks for letters of support, but folks have told me you indicated you will throw away letters of support?
A: The RFP asks for letters of support for the specific project you are applying for.
Q: Is there any preconceived notion about how many adult and family rapid rehousing providers you were planning for?
A: As indicated on Appendix A (page 14 of the Guidelines), there will be three contracts awarded for rapid rehousing/rental assistance projects. One contract will be specific to serving Young Adults (18-24), and two contracts that can serve all ages throughout Yakima County.
Q: I was not able to attend the grant training workshop. Were there any specific points that I need to be aware of that were clarified in the meeting?
A: All questions raised during the meeting will be addressed in this FAQ
Q: When applying for a project, should we only apply for the award amounts stated on Appendix A or apply for the actual cost?
A: When listing what amount you are applying for, you should list what you believe your project will cost and if your project scores well, you will be matched with the award most appropriate to your application. Awards will be for the amount listed on Appendix A.
Q: Regarding ’11B – Service Units’: we answered the question giving the following information
“number of families with children placed in permanent housing, number of chronically homeless placed in permanent housing, and number of homeless veterans placed in permanent housing” is this correct?
A: If those are measurements you will be using to track program services, then this is correct.
The question is intended to show the scorer how the applicant track and monitor services being provided to clients. Responses to this question will vary between project types and should allow you to demonstrate how much time/effort goes into providing the services required for each project.
Q: Bill 1570 says that private rent can go to either For Profit landlords or Non-profit facilities, is this going to be allowable in program year 2018 or will that be one of the changes in the new contract year (July 2019)? Also, the bill states that 45% must go to Private Rent; does this mean that our 36% requirement to For-Profit will be going up to 45% Private Rent?
A: The change that will include non-profit landlords in ‘private rent’ won’t go into effect until the next contract period, starting July 1, 2019. The For-Profit cap is set based on a number of things, some of which I don’t completely understand, but we pass down through CHG what is required after taking other things into consideration. I won’t know until the next contract period what that cap will be, but it likely won’t jump up to 45%. I think what is legislated and what ends up being passed down through Commerce is usually different. Also with the inclusion of non-profit entities, most rent will be included in that category.
(Response provided by CHG Program Manager Julie Montgomery)
Q: The current RFP states that CHG Base has a 15% maximum for administration. Are there similar guidelines for the TANF dollars?
A: Yes, TANF also has a 15% maximum for administration.
Q: In the instructions for Appendix A, it outlines “reasonably expected” budgets. If no entity applies to be an overnight Lower Valley site, could the monies set-aside for this, go toward other projects funded under 2163? Could those funds go toward a hotel/motel voucher request or other projects / programs that could be funded in the event there is no interest in one of the emergency shelter items on the list?
A: If an award from Appendix A is not awarded (either due to no application being received or an application not meeting eligibility criteria), those funds are ‘set aside’ until the governance restructuring is complete and a recommendation from the new advisory committee is made on how best to utilize said funds in accordance with the 5-year plan, can be made to the YVCOG Executive Committee.
NOTE: There will always be more projects or programs that can use the available funds. We are not likely to reallocate these funds to other projects applying for funding without proper vetting, recommendation, and executive committee approval.
Questions from Workshop:
Q: What is the available amount of CHG (you have $879,000 listed in appendix A and $800,000 on page 4)?
A: The reasonably expected amount of CHG funding is $879,000 as stated in Appendix A. The CHG Base amount for program years 1 and 2 should be $439,500 each for a total of $879,000.
(Please see the 2018 RFP Guidelines Change Note in the Library Tab of Zoom Grants)
Q: Can you confirm that Rapid Rehousing and Rental Assistance, funded with CHG, can be paid to a non-profit facility providing Transitional Housing and Permanent Supportive Housing?
A: During the workshop, it was indicated that RRH and RA could be paid to non-profit facilities; however,
after speaking with our CHG program manager, please note this change in requirements will not be in effect until July 2019.
NOTE: For Year 1 contracts (7/1/18 – 6/30/19), ALL rental assistance must be paid to “For-Profit” Landlords.
Q: Can you confirm that the Emergency Policy is still under review pursuant to page 5 where it states that YVCOG can disburse 2163 outside of the RFP process for emergent needs?
A: The Emergency Policy previously adopted by the YVCOG Executive Committee is under review. Emergent needs may still be addressed outside of this RFP process with Executive Committee approval.
Q: Is there a timerframe for relesing the scoring criteria?
A: The scoring criteria will be posted as a link in the Library Tab following the Scoring Committee Workshop on 4/2/2018.
Q: On Question 14 – you call out the category Overnight Only – yet in the meeting you said shelter was the minimum requirement (See designated Award Category Emergency Shelter number 5, Can you clarify.
A: The award for “Overnight – Lower Valley” (on Appendix A, Emergency Shelter, #5) can be applied for by any agency which meets the minimum eligibility requirements of an overnight shelter in the Lower Valley. An agency providing services above and beyond these, may also apply.
Q: Can there we a greater number of allowable characters for questions 7 and 13?
A: Yes, the character limit for these questions has been increased to 5,000 characters
Q: Questions 23 and 24 only allow for a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response.
A: These questions have now been altered to include the addition of a response choice of ‘unknown’
Q: Will awards be split if there are multiple applications for the same service or project type?
A: No. Appendix A outlines reasonably expected funds for the priorities and goals in the 5-year plan. Awards and the award amounts have been set for the reasonably expected funds.
Q: If the awards are predetermined, then clearly only one agency can apply for the 24-hour shelter grant. For this reason, why would this be included in the RFP rather than just allocating the funds directly to the awardee?
A: All providers will have equal opportunity to apply for all funding awards if they qualify for the project. YVCOG would like to provide this opportunity to all service providers. A 24-hour low barrier shelter is a high priority in both the 5-year plan and Washington State’s strategic plan issued by the Department of Commerce. This project meets a large need the community.
Q: Will the scoring committee have subject matter knowledge?
A: The scoring committee will include some subject matter experts. All scorers will know the needs of the communities.
Q: If an applicant is unappy with the score of their application and files an appeal, will the appeal committee be different than the scoring committee?
A: Yes. The appeal committee will not include any of the original scoring committee members.