Clark County issues severe-weather RFA to expand winter shelter, staffing and outreach capacity; scoring committee recruitment underway

Kayla Williams, program coordinator in Clark County’s Department of Community Services, presented a new request for applications (RFA) intended to expand the county’s ability to respond to severe-weather events this winter.

Scope and purpose: Williams said the RFA pools local reserve funds and leftover contract amounts to support five categories of activities: severe-weather planning, seasonal shelter staffing, operating emergency pop-up shelters or warming spaces, outreach/transportation, and supplies. She emphasized the RFA’s funds are one-time and intended to increase capacity rather than supplant preexisting budgets: “The funding awarded through this RFA is intended to increase the capacity. It’s not meant to replace the plan or shift costs that are already planned and budgeted,” Williams said.

Timeline and process: the county held a pre-submittal workshop and will run technical-assistance office hours in early September. Questions are due before the application deadline; staff will review technical completeness before sending proposals to a scoring committee on Sept. 22. Clark County Council approval is scheduled for Oct. 21 with a target program launch Nov. 1.

Application structure and scoring: Williams said applicants will submit a single consolidated application with a shared “core” tab (agency experience and coordination) plus separate tabs for each service category; the shared core contributes points across program tabs to give established providers credit for system coordination. Each program-type tab carries up to eight points emphasizing expanded capacity and coordination; the core tab carries up to four points that are distributed across program applications.

Partners and expectations: Williams said faith-based sites and other volunteer-run facilities are not eligible to contract directly but can partner through a contracting nonprofit or the planning entity via memoranda of understanding (MOUs). She said the county expects a lead planning entity to coordinate activations and system reach and noted the county will include a modest year‑two cost adjustment (about 3%) to account for inflation in multi-year implementation planning.

Community coordination and concerns: board members raised operational lessons from prior severe-weather responses, including volunteer fatigue among faith partners, the need for training and insurance considerations, transport and geographic coverage. Williams said the RFA design drew on feedback from providers, people with lived experience and ECHO and that the county will work with public health on a weather/dashboard collaboration to target responses.

Scoring committee recruitment: Williams asked CAB members to volunteer to serve on the independent scoring committee; the board had two volunteers at the meeting and sought additional members from CAB and ECHO representatives.

Ending: Williams said the RFA guidance and scoring documents are available in the county procurement portal (Bonfire/Enu) and encouraged applicants to use technical-assistance sessions to prepare competitive proposals. The board did not take formal action at the meeting.