A Role in City Contracting for People Experiencing Homelessness

Bringing open contracting to the community, Austin launches competitive contracts with input from those experiencing homelessness

Downtown Austin Community Court (DACC) is championing Austin's current Open Government Partnership open contracting commitment, bringing people experiencing homelessness into the contracting process.

DACC facilitates the Austin Homelessness Advisory Council (AHAC) (previously named the Austin Homelessness Advisory Committee) -- a group of approximately 15 individuals who have lived experience with homelessness in Austin.  AHAC meets on a biweekly basis to provide input on processes, programs, and practices impacting and serving individuals experiencing homelessness.

This month, DACC launched "Requests for Applications" for three city grant opportunities:

• Storage solutions for individuals experiencing homelessness
• Permanent supportive housing and transitional housing, and
• Housing-focused support services

For the first time in city history, these RFAs include a new application scoring component that can factor in points awarded by the AHAC community members who will ultimately receive these housing and storage services.

The contracts' "Scope of Work and Application" section states that short listed applicants may be invited to interview with AHAC and the City in January and provide a general overview of the proposed program, for up to 15 points of their assessment score.  

DACC's leadership in this human-centered approach to contracting may prove to be a standard setter for the City of Austin's social services process, and is certain to be a valuable contribution to the international OGP dialogue.

Austin joined OGP in 2016.  This commitment is part of the city's second OGP Action Plan.  For more information on this open contracting commitment, please contact DACC's Laura Williamson (512-974-1233) or Robert Kingham (512-974-1394).