Health and social services to reissue RFP to fund facilitation of lived-experience housing steering committee

Thurston County Public Health and Social Services asked commissioners on April 22 to authorize reissuing a request for proposals to acquire facilitation and administrative support for the county’s Lived Experience Housing Steering Committee.

Director Jenna Breyheif and Tom Webster, senior program manager in the Office of Housing and Homeless Prevention, said the Regional Housing Council set aside $50,000 from homeless services funds to identify a facilitator. The initial solicitation produced a single applicant that the Homeless Services Advisory Board found inexperienced; the Regional Housing Council agreed and declined to make an award. The county proposed reissuing the RFP to award those set-aside funds and have a contractor in place by July 1.

Staff explained the Steering Committee differs from other advisory bodies because its members are people with lived experience of homelessness, receive stipends, and require administrative support to manage stipends and facilitate meetings. The funding source is local document recording fees allocated within the county’s homeless services budget; awards from the broader homeless-services RFP will be presented to the board in June.

Commissioners asked for details on the facilitator scope, stipend policy and how the facilitation role would differ from staffing for other advisory boards. Staff said they would provide a written scope and additional information before the RFP is issued. Commissioners also discussed a separate, county-level policy on stipends for advisory members, noting a draft policy exists and may be revisited for a pilot approach.