SECTION 7.38. Competitive Award and Funding Process

(a) An Application may by submitted requesting funds for Program Participant services under street outreach, emergency shelter, homeless prevention, and/or rapid re-housing. Each Application submission will include one uniform Application with information applicable across all Program Participant service types, and then information on each Program Participant service requested. Each Program Participant service reflected in an Application will be treated as a separate Application, assigned a separate Application number per service type, and will be scored and ranked separately for each service type selected. Applicants may be awarded funds for one or more Program Participant services in accordance with this section. Because each Program Participant service is reviewed separately and competes separately, an award of funds for provision of one Program Participant service does not affect an award of funds in any other Program Participant service reflected in that same Application submission.

(b) Applications submitted directly to the Department for under this section will receive points based on experience, program design, budget, previous performance, and performance measures. Applications will be scored and ranked based on selection criteria described in this subchapter.

(c) Applicants for a competitive award will be required to submit a self-score within the Application. In no event will the points awarded to the Applicant exceed the point value of the self-score in any selection criterion.

(d) Tie breakers. Each Application submitted to the Department for a competitive award shall be assigned a number between one and the total number of applications. The number assignment will be determined in a random selection process to occur immediately following the close of the application acceptance period, and Applicants will be notified of said number assignment as soon as possible thereafter. The randomly assigned numbers will be used to resolve ties, with the highest assigned number having the highest priority.

(e) Partial awards. In order to maintain funding within the Allocation Formula amounts designated for each CoC region as determined in this subchapter, an Applicant for a competitive award may be offered a partial award of their requested funds. An Applicant offered a partial award of funds must confirm their acceptance of a partial award, and submit updated information related to the reduction within seven calendar days following the date of notification. Scoring criteria may be updated based on the reduced funding request, but any changes to the scoring criteria must allow the Application to maintain its rank.

(f) Regional Funding Competition. Funding will be recommended first for Applicants within the CoC region up to the Allocation Formula amount designated for the CoC region as determined in this subchapter.

(1) Eligible Applications will be ranked in descending order by score within the CoC region which the Application proposes to serve. Subsection (d) of this section will be used to determine the priority of tied scores.

(2) ESG funds allocated to each CoC region will be awarded starting with the highest ranking Application and continue until the funds allocated for that CoC region are fully utilized, but not exceeded, or until the Applicant for the last Application to be recommended in the region declines an offer of a partial award.

(3) Applications proposing street outreach or emergency shelter will be ranked alongside all Applications in the region, however, a recommendation for a full award of an Application for street outreach or emergency shelter will not be made through the first level of funding if funding recommendations in the CoC region for street outreach and emergency shelter will exceed 60% of the funding remaining in the CoC region after direct Subgrants and acceptance of continuing awards. Applications proposing street outreach and emergency shelter services but causing awards for such services in the region to exceed 60% of the available funding in the region, will be offered a partial award of up to the amount remaining to reach 60% for the region. If no funds remain available that would not exceed 60% at the regional level for a partial award, or if they decline such partial award, the Application will be passed over and recommendation of funding would proceed to the next highest scoring Application(s) in the region in order to fully fund the Formula Allocation amount for the region. Applications that were passed over for funding may be eligible to compete in the statewide funding competition, if no more than 60% of funds have been awarded for street outreach and emergency shelter in the total allocated funds.

(4) A partial award may be offered to the last highest ranking Application which is otherwise eligible for funding within the regional competition to ensure that the amount of funds recommended for a region does not initially exceed the amount identified in the Formula Allocation. Partial awards will be offered under the regional competition only if the funding remaining in the CoC region is more than $30,000.

(A) The Applicant or Applicants that accept an offer of a partial award may be required to amend the Application if the reduction in funds is expected to impact scored items and to adjust performance deliverables based on the reduced amount of funding. The revised score based on the partial award must still ensure the Application ranking would not be affected. If a partial award or the Applicant's subsequent adjustments results in a reduced score that alters their scoring rank within the regional competition, the opportunity to be funded from the first level of funding recommendations will not be offered to the Application.

(B) The Applicant may decline the partial award of funds and instead request to be included for consideration in the statewide competition.

(g) Statewide Funding Competition. If any funds remain after recommendations for all eligible Applications in the regional funding competition, such funds shall collapse and be made available in the statewide competition.

(1) All eligible Applications not recommended to be awarded under the regional funding competition will be ranked in descending order of score with the highest scoring unfunded Application, regardless of region, having the highest priority rank. Subsection (e) of this section will be used to determine the outcome of tied scores.

(2) Funds will be awarded in the statewide funding competition starting with the highest ranked Application and continuing until no funds remain available to award or until there are no eligible Applications left to be recommended for funding.

(3) Applications proposing street outreach or emergency shelter will be ranked alongside all Applications. If the 60% of the allocated funds has been awarded to Applications proposing street outreach and emergency shelter, Applications proposing these activities will not be recommended and will be passed over to fund Applications proposing homeless prevention or rapid re-housing.

(4) The final award in the statewide funding competition and the 60% capped street outreach and emergency shelter funding may be a partial award if an Application cannot be fully funded.

(A) An Applicant that accepts an offer of a partial award may be required to amend the Application if the reduction in funds is expected to impact scored items and to adjust performance deliverables based on the reduced amount of funding. The revised score based on the partial award must still ensure the Application's ranking would not be affected. Partial awards may only be offered if the remaining funding exceeds the minimum award amount as stated in the NOFA.

(B) The Applicant may decline a partial award of funds. Applicants that decline a partial award of funding within the statewide competition will be withdrawn from competition, as there are not sufficient remaining funds to award the Application.

(C) If a partial award or the Applicant's subsequent adjustments result in a reduced score that alters the scoring rank or an Applicant declines a partial award, the next highest ranked Application will be presented with the opportunity to be funded.

(h) If there are still funds available after the statewide funding competition, the Department may offer and recommend award amounts in excess of the funds requested and in excess of the award amount limits identified in §7.33(c) of this subchapter (relating to Apportionment of ESG Funds), starting with the highest scoring Applications already identified to be recommended for an award, not to exceed an award more than 50% greater than their original request. The Department will provide notice of the proposed increase to the impacted Applicants. The budget and Performance targets would increase proportionally to the additional funding received. An Applicant will have the opportunity to accept or reject the recommendation for increased funding prior to final award by the Department.

(i) The Department reserves the right to negotiate the final Contract amount and local Match with a Subrecipient.

Source Note: The provisions of this §7.38 adopted to be effective July 7, 2022, 47 TexReg 3805