Post Date: 07/28/2017
Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority was recognized nationally for the creative actions taken to help local entrepreneurs connect with CMHA. The National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) recognizes housing and community development agencies for innovative programs that address the local needs to improve communities across the country. During the past year CMHA rolled out two initiatives geared towards increasing competition from smaller, resident-owned Section 3, Minority-owned and Women-owned businesses. The programs goals were to fairly increase the pool of Requests for Proposal respondents for future business. Janell Duncan, Interim Procurement Officer and Robert Bell, Economic Inclusion Coordinator attended the NAHRO Summer Conference to accept two Awards of Merit on behalf of CMHA. The programs honored with Awards of Merit are Building for the Future and the Pre-Proposal Workshops.
Businesses were missing out on opportunities because they were overwhelmed by the paperwork and the process of responding to a solicitation. Hands-on training in pre-proposal workshops ensured that smaller, resident-owned Section 3, SBE, MBE & WBE businesses could compete for contracts. And Building for the Future started as an effort to educate and help prepare local small businesses for major construction projects like RAD. The companies applied for SBE, MBE and WBE certifications as well as connected with larger contractors in preparation for work on bigger projects. Building for the Future and the Pre-Proposal Workshop are also being considered for NAHRO Awards of Excellence. The winners will be announced later this year.