Cumberland County staff to negotiate unhoused support center contract with Family Endeavors after review

County staff presented results of RFP No. 26 on Dec. 11, asking the Board of Commissioners to allow staff to negotiate a contract with Family Endeavors to operate a new in‑house unhoused support center and return a negotiated contract to the board for final approval.

Assistant staff said the county received four proposals but judged two nonresponsive; Family Endeavors and Manna Church were scored. Staff reported Family Endeavors’ total operating proposal was roughly $3.2 million and Manna Church’s proposal was about $2.8 million; those figures include pre‑opening consulting costs, according to staff. The recommendation was to move forward with Family Endeavors and return a negotiated contract for board review.

Several commissioners pressed staff and the bidders on differences in how the proposals allocated pre‑opening consulting, salary and term assumptions. “I thought the board wanted both organizations to respond to the same line items so we could make an apples‑to‑apples comparison,” Commissioner Tyson said, urging staff to obtain comparable 1‑year line‑item breakouts. Vice Chair Jerome Jones said the county’s unhoused committee will meet ahead of the next board meeting and asked staff to circulate additional breakdowns so the committee can review them.

Staff said it will request the requested line‑item comparatives from the two responsive bidders and bring negotiated contract terms back to the board. The board did not approve a final operator on Dec. 11; it directed staff to begin negotiations with the recommended provider and to return a contract for formal approval at a future meeting.

Next steps: staff will seek the detailed, comparable cost breakdowns from both responsive bidders, hold the subcommittee meeting noted by Vice Chair Jones, and present the negotiated contract to the full board for final action.