The City of Des Moines seeks to update and develop the following City of Des Moines and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Plans: Comprehensive Plan-PlanDSM, Comprehensive Housing Strategy, Consolidated Plan, and Statement of Housing Needs and Language Access Plan for the DMMHA HUD Annual Agency Plan with a vision that is transformative and engaging, and capable of implementing long term changes to positively impact the community. This vision and plan must also integrate measures that improve quality of life, build prosperity, and enhance community resilience. The proposer must prepare and conduct a virtual presentation that is appealing, easy to understand, and can easily be translated to a variety of media for different audiences using an application approved by the City. Most importantly, the creation of the Five Plans is intended to mobilize the community towards change and create strategies and metrics to measure its success. The Consultant may make recommendations regarding program or process improvements, best practices, and potential new programs.

These five plans collectively hereafter known as "Five Plans" must be consistent with each other and with the City planning and local policies.

The City of Des Moines is seeking qualified, multi-disciplinary consultant teams to submit competitive proposals, which may be one or more firms or a consultant team consisting of individuals, to assist the City of Des Moines, Iowa, with:

• Updating the City's Comprehensive Plan-PlanDSM. The City seeks to cultivate a safe, equitable, inclusive, sustainable, resilient, and vibrant community that reflects the goals set forth in the City's Comprehensive Plan-PlanDSM, and other official plans and policies adopted by the City Council. The plan must align with the Comprehensive Housing Strategy, Consolidated Plan, and Statement of Housing Needs.
• Producing the City's first Comprehensive Housing Strategy. The Comprehensive Housing Strategy will be used to better understand the historical and current housing market and develop strategies to impact the future housing inventory in the City and create a complete and diverse housing inventory. The plan must align with the Comprehensive Plan-Plan DSM, Consolidated Plan, and the Statement of Housing Needs.
• Preparing the 2025-2029 Consolidated Plan with the goal for the planning effort to submit a strategy to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for carrying out programs with Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME), Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) funds, and other Federal Fund Grants.
• Updating the Statement of Housing Needs for the DMMHA HUD Annual Agency Plan. The goal of the planning effort is to submit to the Des Moines Municipal Housing Authority (DMMHA) an approved Statement of Housing Needs for inclusion in the DMMHA HUD Annual Agency Plan. The outcome will chart the course for policy, procedural, and administrative changes that the City pursues to ensure housing equity and access that tracks with the City's abilities to serve the community.
• Updating the Language Access Plan for the DMMHA HUD Annual Agency Plan. The goal of the planning effort is to submit to the Des Moines Municipal Housing Authority (DMMHA) an approved Language Access Plan for inclusion in the DMMHA HUD Annual Agency Plan. The updated Language Access Plan should aim to eliminate or reduce — to the maximum extent practical — limited English proficiency as a barrier to accessing existing services and programs.

Consultant Qualifications

The following qualifications are required for the consultant and Proposers as they relate to the Five Plans:

1. Experience in planning and affordable housing strategies, from homelessness to market-rate housing.
2. Experience with inclusive community and stakeholder engagement, including meeting facilitation, online engagement strategies, and the ability to generate enthusiasm, support, and consensus among diverse groups of stakeholders.
3. Familiarity with a wide range of housing, demographic, and economic data sources.
4. Experience using and producing econometric models, forecasts, and analysis for the housing sector and ability to conduct geospatial analysis using ArcGIS or similar systems.
5. Experience working in a public sector environment using innovative and effective policies and programs that have been successfully implemented in other cities or states.
6. Experience in community planning including land-use, economic development, visioning with graphic communications, and community involvement.
7. Experience producing high quality, engaging materials that convey complicated information that is clear and compelling through written narratives, charts, tables, and graphics.
8. Experience in comparable contexts and experience with the U.S. Green Building Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for Cities and Communities and LEED for Neighborhood Development rating system.
9. Experience with projects related to CDBG Consolidated Plans, Annual Action Plans, and the HOME and CDBG HUD programs.
10. Experience using creative, proven techniques and effective strategies for the Consolidated Plan, Statement of Housing Needs, and the Language Access Plan, and experience with effectively planning for and implementing community involvement, including types of information presented: materials and media used, charts, graphs, models, presentation formats, public meeting process, meeting formats, community education events, etc., as applicable.
11. Thorough knowledge and experience adhering to the current HUD regulations and guidance for completing submission of the 5 Year Consolidated Plan and the current HUD Statement of Housing Needs and Language Access Plan. This includes the ability to obtain authorization and passwords for use of HUD's IDIS online reporting system.

This posting does not represent a complete version of the RFP requirements and submittal questions.

Please visit https://dsm.ionwave.net/Login.aspx to register with the City of Des Moines through the online bidding system to view all bid information and requirements and to submit your bid.