OAHPI: RFP 26-017 Permanent Supportive Housing Property Management

The Portfolio

What OAHPI is buying and who lives there

Oakland Affordable Housing Preservation Initiatives (OAHPI) is the nonprofit affiliate that holds the Oakland Housing Authority’s former scattered-site public housing, roughly 1,539 Section 8 units across 248 sites. This RFP is for a much smaller piece of it: full-service property management for permanent supportive housing, run under a 2020 partnership with the Alameda County Health Care Services Agency and OHA.

The only unit list in the package is an invoice template in Exhibit G: five East Oakland buildings, 23 units, 63 bedrooms, all two- and three-bedroom family units. That matches OHA’s Building Bridges: Key to Home program, which moved 23 families with children out of Project Roomkey hotels into permanent housing. OHA reports 23 of 23 families housed every month in FY 2024 and FY 2025.

This is not a conventional management contract. Tenants arrive through the County’s Coordinated Entry System under California Housing First rules. On top of leasing, maintenance, and books, the contractor owes tenant case management: service plans, benefits advocacy, wellness checks, three contacts in the first 60 days, monthly community meetings, and a public line for neighbors with a two-business-day response. OHA’s 2020 board approval named Housing Consortium of the East Bay as the manager.

Complexity Flags

The three items that decide whether this bid pencils

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The RFP never lists the properties

Section I says the properties are listed in Exhibit A. Exhibit A is the cost form. The five buildings come from an invoice template, not a property schedule. You are pricing a portfolio the RFP never defines. Ask for the list before September 25.

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Case management with no stated payer

On-site wages and payroll taxes are reimbursed from the property operating account. Case managers are never classified. If they come out of a flat monthly fee on 23 units, the contract does not work. Every OHA program document to date places case management with the County and its service partners, so the boundary needs to be written down, not assumed.

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Your fee becomes the rate card

OAHPI can add comparable properties on 30 days’ notice, and the RFP says the management and bookkeeping fees should stay the same. OHA and OAHPI launched a 50-unit family program, Hospital to Home, in April 2026. Price 23 doors as if it could become 73. And on 23 units, one vacancy is 4.3%, so the 2% monthly vacancy standard allows none.

Bottom Line

The verdict and who it applies to

Conditional Bid

This fits a Bay Area manager that already runs permanent supportive housing with case managers on payroll, knows Alameda County Coordinated Entry, and can fold five scattered buildings into an existing East Oakland maintenance route and on-call rotation. It does not fit a conventional affordable or market-rate manager. Section III.C makes PSH management and services to formerly unhoused clients a minimum qualification, and the client references form is a disqualification item.

It is Conditional rather than Strong because the incumbent has run this exact program for five years, at full occupancy in the last two reported years, the case management scope has no payer, and the property list, sample contract, and partnership MOU that define the work are referenced but not attached.

If you qualify, the opening is the part the RFP leaves blank. Put a per-unit assumption behind your flat fee, state exactly where County case management ends and yours begins, and show a scattered-site 24/7 coverage model for five buildings.

Status: open. Questions and contract clause objections close September 25, 2026 at 2:00 PM PT. Proposals due October 5.

Portfolio Map

5 buildings · 2 neighborhoods · roughly 4 miles apart. Shaded areas are approximate. Buildings are shown by neighborhood, not by address.

Cluster A: Deep East Oakland Cluster B: San Antonio

Cluster A: Deep East Oakland (83rd to 95th Avenue)

3 buildings · 42 bedrooms

69.6% of units

Permanent Supportive Housing Families with children Section 8 / local subsidy

Two six-unit buildings and one four-unit building along the numbered avenues: ten three-bedroom and six two-bedroom units. The larger of the two clusters and the likely base for maintenance and on-call coverage. The 24/7 management presence requirement has to be met across both clusters without a staffed office at every address.

Cluster B: San Antonio (East 24th Street)

2 buildings · 21 bedrooms

30.4% of units

Permanent Supportive Housing Families with children Section 8 / local subsidy

A four-unit and a three-unit building on the same street, all three-bedroom units. Closer to downtown than Cluster A, and the natural second stop on any daily route. At three and four units per building, a single down unit takes that building below the 98% market-ready standard on its own.

Unit Mix

Cluster	Buildings	Units	Bedrooms	Mix
A: Deep East Oakland	3	16	42	10 three-bed, 6 two-bed
B: San Antonio	2	7	21	7 three-bed
Total	5	23	63	17 three-bed, 6 two-bed

The portfolio is unconfirmed. Section I.A says the Leased Premises are listed in Exhibit A, but Exhibit A is the Proposed Cost Form. This map reflects the Exhibit G invoice template, which matches the 23 families OHA reports under Key to Home. Confirm the list through the question process before pricing. OAHPI may also add comparable properties on 30 days’ notice.

Key Dates

From the RFP as issued September 8, 2026. No addenda had been issued at the time of analysis.

Milestone	Date	Status
RFP issued	Sep 8, 2026	Past
Pre-proposal conference (Microsoft Teams, optional)	Sep 21, 2026, 11:00 AM PT	Upcoming
Questions and contract clause objections due	Sep 25, 2026, 2:00 PM PT	Hard gate
Proposals due via Housing Agency Marketplace	Oct 5, 2026, 10:00 AM PT	Deadline
Evaluation, presentations, reference checks	Not specified in RFP	Upcoming
Letter of award or non-award by email	Not specified in RFP	Upcoming
Protest window	5 business days from notice of final selection	Upcoming
Operating Budget and start-up cost statement	Within 30 days of award	Upcoming
Commencement of services	Within 30 days of notice to proceed	Upcoming
First Monthly Property Report	3rd of the second month of the Agreement	Upcoming
Initial term / options	2 years / three 1-year options	Upcoming

September 25 is the real deadline. Questions and contract clause objections close together, ten days before proposals are due. The Sample Contract Agreement you would be objecting to is referenced but not in the package. Request it now, or you sign it as written.

References take the longest. Exhibit D is a questionnaire your clients fill out about you, scoring responsiveness, maintenance, and property condition from 1 to 10. It has to come back before October 5. Send it in week one.

Transition is a handoff, not a lease-up. The template shows zero vacancies. A new manager takes over 23 occupied households with open case files, inside a 30-day mobilization, without interrupting County services. Show that week by week in the Project Approach.

Scoring Strategy

100 points, four criteria

Technical carries 80 of 100 points, but the RFP contradicts itself on award basis. Page 2 says contracts go to qualified contractors “who provide low quotations,” while the reservation of rights says best value. Treat price as more sensitive than 20 points suggests. There are no preference points of any kind.

Criterion	What evaluators want	Points
1. Qualifications & Experience	References from owners with PSH or low-income tenants (public housing, PBV, HCV, LIHTC), financial resources, performance record, client records, business systems	30
2. Staffing	Staffing levels for each property, qualifications for each position from property manager to regional director, job descriptions, resumes	20
3. Project Approach	Understanding and plan, milestones, schedule in elapsed weeks across the full term, resources OAHPI must provide	30
4. Proposed Cost	Compensation structure, hourly rates, administrative fees, chargeable expenses, billing method and frequency	20
Total		100

Two things I would watch. First, Staffing is worth 20 points, but the required response format has no Staffing section. Build one inside Firm’s Qualifications and label it so an evaluator can find it. Second, Proposed Cost is scored on hourly rates and billing method, and the cost form only asks for a monthly management fee and a monthly bookkeeping fee. Answer the rest in a cost narrative, or leave points on the table.

Disclose your AI use. The certification form asks whether generative AI was used to prepare the proposal or the questions. If the answer is yes, say so and explain how, with who reviewed the content.

Who Should Bid

Gates, fit, and the pass signals

Eligibility gates

Experience managing permanent supportive housing and serving low-income, formerly unhoused clients (Section III.C minimum qualification)
Five or more client references, including public housing authorities; missing the form is grounds for disqualification
Completed Vendor Qualification Questionnaires from your clients, submitted with the proposal
Registered on Housing Agency Marketplace (online submission only)
Appropriate licensing and insurance before award: $1M general liability, auto, and workers’ comp, plus $2M contractor’s pollution liability for anyone doing lead or asbestos work

Ideal bidder

A Bay Area PSH operator with in-house property management and case management, Housing First practice, Alameda County Coordinated Entry and HMIS experience, family PSH references, and an existing East Oakland maintenance route that can absorb five small buildings.

Pass if

You have no PSH or formerly-unhoused references, you would need to hire case managers from scratch, you need a defined door count to price, or you cannot carry a flat monthly fee that also has to cover whatever OAHPI adds later.

Get the Full Analysis

The bid decision document and the research behind it

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Executive Summary

16-page bid decision document: verdict, scope, compliance and cost drivers, operating economics, commercial terms, evaluation criteria, submission requirements, and key dates.

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Intelligence Brief

Program history, likely incumbent, OHA board and MTW record, procurement history, and where a challenger can compete.

Submit the form and both PDFs open on the next page.