Washington County Access Center Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO)

Washington County Department of Housing Services (DHS) seeks to partner with building or landowners interested in utilizing property for Access Centers. This provision of a gap financing capital grant is being offered to help with rehabilitation of existing properties or the acquisition of new potential sites for Access Centers. DHS Local Implementation Plan for the Supportive Housing Services (SHS) program aims to create four (4) Access Centers. Each Access Center will be used as a coordinated entry access point to supportive housing services including: housing navigation service center, inclement weather shelter, and provider of other necessary homeless service amenities, such as showers, laundry, and meal provisions. To achieve this goal, Washington County is seeking partnerships with property owners and community partners to help create four (4) geographically distributed Access Centers throughout the county with an emphasis on equitable access and outcomes. The DHS will work in full partnership with property owners to fund, develop, and support new Access Centers as quickly and effectively as possible to meet our unsheltered community’s urgent needs. The County will also serve as the primary funder and administrator of services offered at the site, working in partnership with the building owner to support the development and ongoing maintenance of the site, and a community-based provider to ensure efficient and effective program operations of the Access Center. The operations contract will be negotiated and executed separate from this process and will result in a single day rate for access center operations. The applicants for these funds should understand that they will need additional operations and match dolla rs. The County anticipates that the property owner and the operations contractor will be the same entity, but that is not a requirement.