AHF Sues Mayor Garcetti, City of L.A. Over Illegal HHH Funding Bid Process

Press Teleconference: Tuesday, Nov. 5^th 10:00 am PT

City received 19 HHH fund applications, with one from AHF, in response to its RFP seeking “… to provide support for innovative housing production and/or financial models,” with six awards ultimately granted.

AHF lawsuit asserts “The City acted arbitrarily and capriciously in its procurement process for the RFP…” to award a portion of $1.2 billion in Prop. HHH housing funds. Lawsuit seeks to compel the city to “…adhere to its own regulations when engaging in competitive bidding for award of City Funds.”

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) will host a PRESS TELECONFERENCE Tuesday, Nov. 5^th, at 10:00 am PT to announce its filing last week of a lawsuit against Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and officials working for the Los Angeles Housing+Community Investment Department (HCIDLA) among others over what AHF asserts was the city’s illegal procurement and bid process in its recent award of a portion of $1.2 billion in Proposition HHH housing funds intended to help alleviate the homeless and housing affordability crisis in Los Angeles.

WHAT:	PRESS TELECONFERENCE: AHF Sues City of Los Angeles, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti for their refusal to release public records on its bid award process for part of $1.2B HHH housing funding
WHEN:	TUESDAY, November 5^th, 2019—10:00 am PT
	Teleconference Dial in information: +1.877.411.9748 participant code #7134323
WHO:	Michael Weinstein, President, AHF
	Jeffrey Blend, Assistant General Counsel
	Tom Myers, General Counsel and Chief of Public Affairs for AHF
	Other Speakers TBD
CONTACT:	Ged Kenslea, AHF Senior Dir. of Communications [phone] cell

The legal action, which seeks a writ of mandate to compel the city to “…adhere to its own regulations when engaging in competitive bidding for award of City Funds…” was filed last week in Superior Court of the State of California for the County of Los Angeles (Case # 19STCP04532).

In response to the RFP, AHF submitted a proposal to HCIDLA in June detailing AHF’s qualifications and requesting a loan in the amount of $24,800,000 to construct between 248-262 units of permanent supportive housing for single adults and older adults, including LGBTQ individuals and persons living with chronic health conditions in the Skid Row area of Los Angeles.

As part of the RFP process, HCIDLA, the Mayor’s Office, and a panel of judges reviewed all the proposals and assigned point scores to each proposal. The final point score assigned to each proposal was used by the City to make recommendations for funding/support. In late August, AHF received notification from HCIDLA that the City declined AHF’s proposal despite the fact that:

• AHF had the lowest bid, and
• AHF was the only project that also actually owned the land for the proposed housing units.

On August 27, AHF filed a timely appeal of the decision “…pursuant to the express terms of the RFP, alleging that the RFP review and scoring process was flawed and that resulting (funding) recommendations were arbitrary and capricious.” AHF also subsequently submitted several public records requests to both the housing investment department and the Mayor’s office, requests that were repeatedly rebuffed or denied.

AHF’s lawsuit asserts it exhausted its administrative remedies prior to filing this suit and that the procurement process for the RFP for HHH funding fails to comply with the City’s own regulations.

AHF is now asking that the Court set aside its decision denying funding to AHF under the RFP and have the City reconsider whether an award of funds for AHF under the RFP is proper in light of the requirements imposed on it under City law and reconsider evidence favoring an award of funding to AHF under the RFP.

In a related and prior action, AHF filed a lawsuit in late September in Superior Court of the State of California for the County of Los Angeles (Case # 19STCP04094) against the City and Mayor Eric Garcetti over the city’s failure to comply with the California Public Records Act (CPRA) in response to AHF’s repeated and unfulfilled public records requests regarding the same flawed and illegal HHH funding RFP bid process.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to over 1.3 million individuals in 43 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Eastern Europe. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us @aidshealthcare.