Housing Counseling Research Services

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is issuing this sources sought synopsis as a means of conducting market research to identify parties having an interest in and the resources to support this requirement for the Office of Hosing Counseling Program. The result of this market research will contribute to determining the method of procurement. The applicable North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code assigned to this procurement is 561611 - Investigation and Personal Background Check Services. The Product Service Code (PSC) assigned to this procurement is R615 - Support - Administrative: Background Investigation. There is no solicitation at this time. This request for capability information does not constitute a request for proposals; submission of any information in response to this market survey is purely voluntary; the government assumes no financial responsibility for any costs incurred. The page limit for your response is 10 pages. If your organization has the potential capacity to perform these contract services, please provide the following information: 1) organization name, address, email address, website address, telephone number, and size and type of ownership for the organization; and 2) tailored capability statements addressing the particulars of this effort, with appropriate documentation supporting claims of organizational and staff capability. If significant subcontracting or teaming is anticipated in order to deliver technical capability, organizations should address the administrative and management structure of such arrangements. The government will evaluate market information to ascertain potential market capacity to 1) provide services consistent in scope and scale with those described in this notice and otherwise anticipated; 2) secure and apply the full range of corporate financial, human capital, and technical resources required to successfully perform similar requirements; 3) implement a successful project management plan that includes: compliance with program schedules; cost containment; meeting and tracking performance; hiring and retention of personnel and risk mitigation; and 4) provide services under a performance based service acquisition contract. Based on the responses to this sources sought notice/market research, this requirement may be set-aside for small businesses or procured through full and open competition, and multiple awards may be made. Telephone inquiries will not be accepted or acknowledged, and no feedback or evaluations will be provided to companies regarding their submissions. Submission Instructions: Interested parties who consider themselves qualified to perform the above-listed services are invited to submit a response to this Sources Sought Notice by May 21, 2024 at 4:00pm EST. All responses under this Sources Sought Notice must be emailed to contact@example.gov. Additional information on the required services is listed below. If you have any questions concerning this opportunity, please contact: Deidre Neighbors, contact@example.gov. Background: The Office of Housing Counseling (OHC) is responsible for the approval process of housing counseling agencies within the Department's Housing Counseling Program. The primary objective of this program is to educate consumers on home buying, expand homeownership opportunities, improve access to affordable housing and preserve homeownership. Through the Housing Counseling program, housing counseling agencies participate by providing education on home purchases, reverse mortgages, refinancing, foreclosure prevention, predatory lending, and general financial education. In the past, information submitted by such agencies wishing to do business with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has been verified through a research service. There are over 2,700 HUD-approved housing counseling agencies that serve low to moderate income families. OHC is responsible for receiving and approving housing counseling agency applications. To help verify the validity of these organizations and their capacity and functionality, OHC staff use the research service to access background information on each housing counseling agency that applies for HUD approval. HUD staff also use this information to monitor the compliance of each agency. OHC is preparing this statement of work to continue its validation and monitoring activities for the HUD Housing Counseling Program. OHC is required to review housing counseling applications for Housing Counseling Program. Under this procurement, OHC is requesting a subscription to a research service that has a digitized database that contains information on charitable organizations, principals, and board members. The contractor shall provide 50 licenses for On-line Research Services for Housing Counseling Agency Research. This research service is used to verify the names of board members, physical location of agency, mission statements, financial information including IRS form 990's and other relevant information on an organization. OHC can determine if board members are compensated and if a nonprofit agency has sufficient financial capacity to perform housing counseling services reliably. If an agency has no listing in this research service, the review may conclude that the agency is not experienced or has been formed only for the purpose of making an application to HUD. The current fixed-price purchase order 86615620P00004 is awarded to The Foundation Center. Confidentiality And Proprietary Information: The disclosure of HUD/FHA data, proprietary information, or government information obtained through this contract to parties outside of HUD is prohibited. Unless otherwise specified, all information, including but not limited to organizational, product, financial and/or personal data which is produced or otherwise available to the Contractor during their performance of this requirement is considered confidential and proprietary and shall not be used for any purposes other than performance of the work under this requirement. The products of the Contractor's work shall not be shared with anyone or group without written permission of FHA management. Regardless of the form of this data, the Contractor agrees that no employee will disclose or allow disclosure of any such data or derivatives thereof to third parties, except as may be required in the performance of this request during the contract period. All data shall be returned to FHA at the completion of the contract. Working papers, drafts and final guides in hardcopy and electronic formats (and related documentation) are the property of HUD and shall be made immediately available by the Contractor as requested by the COR/SME. Furthermore, in the event credit data are utilized in the performance of work under this request, the Contractor shall be required to execute an agreement governing their use. The Contractor shall implement procedures that will assure that individual employees or subcontractors are made aware of this provision. Any data of a personal nature may also be subject to Privacy Act protection and penalties under the law. General Description of Work: The primary service to be acquired under this agreement is access to a subscription service which includes the following: Verify legal standing of organization. Verify board member status and background. Review organizational mission. Validate organizational location. Check the financial information of the organization and its capacity. Access salary information of key personnel, and other relevant agency information for all nonprofit organizations requesting to participate in the following FHA activities (See IV. TASKS) Tasks The contractor shall provide staff with User IDs and passwords. The contractor shall provide access to the digitized database that contains information on charitable organizations. The contractor shall distribute its quarterly newsletter to HUD Users The contractor shall provide customer service support to HUD Users The contractor shall provide electronic organizational reports. Deliverables - See the attached SOW Contemplated performance metrics: Ability to perform all tasks outlined in the SOW. Contemplated report requirements: Please see the deliverables noted in the SOW. Contemplated dollar value of the project: $414,422.34 Contemplated place of performance: Contractor's Facility