Action Plan 2 Reflections: Open Contracting

OGP is preparing final summaries of Austin's second Action Plan, including our homeless services contracting commitment

Austin's Action Plan 2 contracting commitment focused on including the homeless in the city’s Downtown Austin Community Court (DACC) contracting process to ensure DACC’s contracts for homelessness services meet true community needs.  DACC’s Robert Kingham and the Austin Homelessness Advisory Council (AHAC) led this effort.

AHAC is a group of approximately 15 individuals who have lived experience with homelessness in Austin.  DACC facilitates AHAC’s biweekly meetings.  

As a result of this commitment, DACC and AHAC revised the city contracting process to include AHAC and require their scoring on contracts related to personal storage, supportive/transitional housing, and housing support services (City of Austin Action Plan 2 Report, at 5).

This year, OGP is gathering final feedback from OGP Local members completing their second Action Plans. As part of this process, DACC’s Robert Kingham reflected on the co-created outcome, stating "DACC has codified this in our purchasing processes, ensuring that individuals with lived experience are included in all elements. We are taking this a step further and working with Austin Public Health to integrate the same standards in their department.”

This successful commitment is already a model for other departments, cities and jurisdictions.  OGP featured the work's impact in an OGP video that has received hundreds of views.

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Next month, our OGP Bloomfire blog will share reflections from Action Plan 2's third commitment, focused on displacement. Stay tuned!