Technology Needs and Opportunities Assessment

The County’s Department of Housing (DOH) has a unique structure that brings together a talented and dedicated staff from the Housing Authority of the County of San Mateo (HACSM) and the Housing and Community Development (HCD) team in addition to administrative and fiscal staff. Having the combined resources of HACSM’s federal funding structure with HCD’s staff expertise in local, State, and federal funding, this structure allows DOH to collaborate and create innovative housing programs. The department is led by Director, Raymond Hodges and Housing Authority Executive Director, Debbie McIntyre, who guide teams working to provide housing opportunities in one of the least affordable housing markets in the United States.

DOH operates in two divisions:

• Housing & Community Development (HCD) – HCD’s 36 team members collaborate with diverse stakeholders to facilitate the development and preservation of affordable housing using local, state, and federal funding. HCD uses low-interest loans, grant funding, and technical assistance to advance best practices and innovative policies for affordable housing development. HCD also supports public service agencies, organizations that affirmatively further fair housing, microenterprises, and housing for county residents experiencing homelessness by supporting operations at transitional shelters and by providing permanent supportive housing.
• Housing Authority of the County of San Mateo (HACSM) – HACSM’s 56 team members serve low-income households by providing rental subsidies so that they may rent in privately owned properties in San Mateo County's expensive housing market. By leveraging its Moving-To-Work (MTW) status and collaborating with HCD, HACSM also provides funding and support to preserve existing affordable housing units and to develop new, affordable housing units.

DOH’s Mission, Vision and Core Values

MISSION: DOH collaborates with partners as a catalyst to increase the supply of affordable housing and create opportunities for people at all income levels and abilities to prosper by supporting livable and thriving communities.

VISION: To foster a dynamic, diverse, and productive team that leads change through the creation of innovative strategies and solutions to housing challenges in San Mateo County.

CORE VALUES: 

• Innovative
• Trustworthy
• Client-Focused
• Impactful

Purpose and Background

DOH is seeking a qualified consultant to conduct a wholistic technology needs and opportunities assessment and create an implementation plan for the department that identifies opportunities to leverage data, templates, workflows, and technology to improve service delivery as well as internal efficiencies and quality/consistency of work across the department. The selected consultant will identify the current technology needs and challenges of DOH, and propose solutions as well as an implementation plan.

DOH's current technology environment features a hybrid of physical and virtual servers running Windows Server and Red Hat Linux operating systems. Virtual servers are hosted using on-prem Nutanix infrastructure as well as AWS and Azure cloud IaaS. Rubrik backup and recovery platform is used for servers and data. The County supports the Microsoft 365 platform, network infrastructure, and Avaya Phone System, all of which are utilized by DOH. Staff are provided with PCs and laptops, primarily running Windows 11.