Domestic Violence Housing First Demonstration Evaluation

Notice of Intent: The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) within the Department of Health and Human Services intends to negotiate on a sole source basis with the Washington State Coalition against Domestic Violence (WSCADV) under the authority of FAR 6.302-1 for the project entitled, "Domestic Violence Housing First Demonstration Evaluation" under FAR Part 15 procedures. This contract would acquire research services to conduct a rigorous evaluation of the Domestic Violence Housing First (DVHF) demonstration. This evaluation will build on research conducted during the pilot phase of DVHF, building evidence on the impacts of the program by examining housing stability, survivor safety, and children's wellbeing over time. Rapid-rehousing programs are a recent intervention developed to combat homelessness. Subsequently, DVHF is the only domestic-violence focused rapid rehousing intervention with this scale and level of funding. DVHF was developed and implemented by WSCADV. WSCADV has conducted the first two phases of program evaluation, which includes implementing a standardized program model, collecting uniform data measures, building partnerships with local agencies, and training advocates for the research project. The key tasks of this project include 1) building on early research work to design a rigorous study that ensures high-retention among culturally marginalized, vulnerable populations; 2) developing instruments and data collection tools; 3) pre-testing data collection instruments and procedures; 4) recruiting and training data collectors; 6) implementing evaluation design; 7) collecting data; 8) conducting analysis; and 9) developing program and policy insights to inform replication of intervention. All of the tasks in the proposed demonstration are only possible by building on previous program and evaluation infrastructure. Therefore, the proposed contractor is the only contractor able to conduct a rigorous evaluation of DVHF. WSCADV is the only entity with a statewide network of domestic violence programs who has established the buy-in of DVHF to implement a standardized program model. WSCADV is the only state-coalition running the DVHF program and thus there is not a comparable rigorous evaluation that could be conducted of a domestic-violence-focused rapid-rehousing intervention. The success of the project requires seamless execution of the additional, rigorous components of the existing study design, which would be impossible for a new contractor to execute in the required timeframe. Lastly, WSCADV is the only entity in the state where the DVHF program is located with the required network of trained domestic violence advocates who can ensure integrity of service delivery and integration of data collection. The scope of work is available and attached. All responsible sources may submit a capability statement or proposal, which shall be considered by the agency, electronically to Jennifer Eskandari at Jennifer.eskandari@psc.hhs.gov. Responses are due by June 30, 2016 by 12:00 pm EST. Responses will not be accepted after the due date. If no capability statements or proposals are received which specifically demonstrate the ability to perform the requirements above, the Government shall proceed with negotiating a cost plus fixed fee order with WSCADV.