Carol J. Galante, Deputy
Assistant Secretary
Office of Multifamily
Housing Programs U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
451 Seventh Street, SW, Room
6106
Washington, DC 20410
Dear Deputy Assistant
Secretary Galante:
We are writing on behalf of
the members of the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities (CLPHA), the
National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) and the
Public Housing Authorities Directors Association (PHADA) regarding the
invitation for Submission of Applications for Contract Administrators and
Annual Contributions Contract (ACC) revisions under the Section 8
Performance-Based Contract Administration (PBCA) Initiative.
Public housing authorities
(PHAs) across the country have served as outstanding performers under PBCA and
have a strong and proven track record in providing these services to HUD. As developers, owners and managers of their
own affordable housing portfolios as well as providing a wide range of other
housing services, housing authorities are uniquely qualified to serve this
role.
In order for HUD to ensure cost-effective and high quality services, we
strongly support continued equal access to bidding opportunities for PHAs. We
believe it is in HUD’s best interests to ensure that an open and competitive
process is used to select PBCA contractors. Special preferences or set asides
for certain contractors would undermine this goal. It is particularly important, given the scale
and scope of this contracting process, that there is a level playing field for
all bidders and that the process and criteria for selecting contract
administrators is transparent.
We would like to meet with
you to discuss this matter further. Please let us know if you have any
questions or require additional information. We look forward to an open and
fair bidding process.
