The California Department of Technology has published a request for proposals on behalf of the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal ICH) for maintenance and operations of its Homeless Data Integration System.
That system is a statewide data warehouse that “consolidates complex, relational data from 44 regional Continuums of Care (CoCs) across California,” according to the solicitation. Each independent CoC maintains its own Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) that then feeds data into the state’s integration system.
It’s worth noting that CoCs are made up of a variety of service providers, ranging from local governments to nonprofit organizations.
“The current system provides the state with an unduplicated count of people accessing services while experiencing homelessness in California, and allows the state to gain insights into the characteristics of people accessing services and their patterns of service use,” the solicitation reads.
According to the document, the system was launched in 2021 and contains data sets from as far back as 2017. The vendor tapped for this maintenance and operations contract will be expected to keep the system operational while also adhering to applicable personally identifiable information and data security policies.
Analysis of the data provided to HDIS is critical to Cal ICH work products, including annual statewide action plans to address homelessness, open data portals and meeting the legal obligations outlined in more than a dozen statutory requirements.
“HDIS supports policy development and public transparency through de-identified visualizations and robust analytics. The system is designed to be extensible, with compatibility for automated connectors and future enhancements, and operates under strict data privacy and security standards,” the solicitation reads.
The RFP was first published on July 10, and the last day to submit proposals is Nov. 13 at 5 p.m. A list of other key action dates is included in the RFP.
The point of contact for this solicitation is Hashmat Mohmand.
Homeless Data Integration System in Need of M&O Vendor
The system, used to gather homelessness data from continuums of care across the state, needs a vendor capable of maintaining and operating the dynamic solution to comply with a host of legislative mandates.
