Ramsey County board presses staff on warming centers RFP after past solicitations drew too few bids

Ramsey County commissioners pressed housing stability staff on Tuesday about repeated procurement problems for seasonal warming center services after past solicitations failed to attract sufficient vendor responses.

"I just wanted to flag, because I reading through it, I see that this is our third time that we're putting out the ask for vendors," Commissioner McMurtry said, asking the county to clarify what "insufficient" responses meant and what threshold the board expected before awarding contracts.

Interim Housing Stability Director Natalie Yang said short service seasons have made it difficult for providers to recruit staff and secure sites and that those constraints contributed to weak responses. Yang told the board the county will post a condensed competitive solicitation this week that "would mimic more a letter of interest," shortening the response requirements to speed the timeline. "So we're hoping that within a shorter time frame, which is probably probably 2 weeks, we'll have the responses that we need in order to continue with the procurement process and enter into contract," Yang said.

Yang also described a contingency plan if the condensed solicitation again fails to produce adequate bids: expand an existing contract or amend the current vendor arrangement rather than leaving warming center operations unstaffed. "So in even in the event that there are no responses to the solicitation, we would still need that solicitation in order to amend the current contract in order to add the additional services to that particular contract," she said.

Commissioners asked about using longer-term contracts or incentives to attract vendors. Yang said the county previously entered a contract with a provider for multiple years where permissible but that performance and operational issues led staff not to renew one contract. Board members discussed interjurisdictional coordination, including conversations with Maplewood and the City of Saint Paul, and the county's work with the sheriff's office and local faith communities to identify spaces.

The board did not adopt new policy at the meeting; staff said they would post the solicitation, seek responses in a shortened window, and return with updates if they must proceed under the Plan B contract amendment.