Commissioners move to accept Commerce consolidated-homelessness contract after applicant decline; staff to reassign awards

County staff reported that Mason County has a signed consolidated-homelessness contract with the Washington State Department of Commerce and asked the Board of Commissioners to move the contract to the Aug. 5 action agenda for formal approval. "The amount actually should be 400, 7,453,546," a county staff member said when correcting a prior misstatement of the figure and asking to place the contract on the August 5 agenda. The staff member said the contract and the county's local document recording fees increase the total homeless response system to "a little bit over $8,000,000," with the county retaining 9% for administration over the two-year period (below the 15% maximum allowed). The staff member said that Coastal Community Action Program declined the subcontract that had been awarded to it. The staff member presented the original RFP scoring and told commissioners the Youth Connection scored slightly higher than Crossroads Housing by about three points for coordinated entry. If the commissioners want to split responsibilities as in the prior biennium, the staff member said, the county can assign transitional-age-youth work to Youth Connection and adults to Crossroads Housing and bring subcontracts back in a month for approval. The staff member listed the funding recommendations from June that would be reassigned if Coastal declined, including amounts for on- and off-site emergency shelters, rapid rehousing, permanent supportive housing, eviction prevention and diversion. A reserve of $149,744 for a single-adult emergency shelter remains unawarded; staff said they received no applications for that item and the funds are available should an agency and location be identified later in the year. Commissioners asked for the split options to be put in contract form; the staff member said the draft subcontract language already exists and could be returned to the board for action. Commissioner Trask and other commissioners expressed support for moving the Commerce contract to the action agenda but asked staff to return with the subcontracts and any recommended splits for coordinated entry and housing services. No formal action was taken at this briefing; staff asked the board to accept the Commerce contract at the Aug. 5 action meeting and to consider reawarding Coastal's declined amounts to other applicants based on the original scoring and the split used in the prior biennium.