Housing Council Meeting: More Details on OHCS Loss of Section 8 Contract Administration Bid.

At Friday's Housing Council meeting Council received a briefing on the failure of OHCS to receive the Section 8 contract administration bid award from HUD. 

From my notes: 

1. Contract in Oregon was for 275 projects; OHCS has said previously that contract had represented $4.5 million in revenue for OHCS. 
2. OHCS has protested bid with both HUD and GAO. Other HFA's are also protesting awards.
3. Basis for OHCS bid protest is that HUD did not properly advise bidders of the weight that price would have on contract award. If OHCS had known price was weighted so heavily it would have impacted the fee percentage in their bid.
4. OHCS is working with Oregon Department of Justice and is hiring outside counsel to help with bid protests. The Massachusets HFA is using the same outside counsel.
5. OHCS bid on contracts in Oregon, Washington, and Alaska and understood that no state housing finance agencies were bidding on those contracts. 
6. The maximum fee that the solicitation allowed was 2.5%. OHCS bid 2.45% and the winning bidder for Oregon bid 1.88% (That's 23.3% less).
7. OHCS has briefed Oregon's congressional delegation on the awards and their bid protests.
8. OHCS has received expressions of support from partners, and a draft will also be circulated to Housing Council for Council to consider.
9. Contracts with winning bidders have not yet been signed.
10. If awards not reversed, fourteen OHCS Asset Management staff will be laid off, and because revenue from contract was cross subsidizing other operations, non Asset Management operations will also be impacted.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.