How to win public housing authority contracts

The PHA Procurement Handbook, numbered 7460.8, is what your buyer works from, and HUD has replaced the 2007 REV-2 edition with REV 3. The change that matters: REV-2 was built on 24 CFR 85.36, REV 3 on 2 CFR 200.317 through 200.327. A policy still citing 85.36 is quoting a rule that no longer exists.

Four chapters define how you compete: Chapter 5, informal methods, meaning quotes; Chapter 6, sealed bids, HUD's preferred method for construction; Chapter 7, competitive proposals; Chapter 8, noncompetitive awards. Chapter 15 covers cooperative purchasing, Chapter 16 Section 3, and Appendix 1 is a sample policy many small authorities adopted verbatim.

2 CFR 200.320 sets three tiers, with dollar lines from the FAR at 48 CFR part 2, subpart 2.1:

A PHA may set its thresholds lower, and many require three written quotes above $5,000. State or local law can cap the simplified acquisition threshold below $350,000, and none may go above it; raising the micro-purchase threshold takes self-certification, up to $50,000, under 2 CFR 200.320(a)(1)(iv). Bid splitting is prohibited, with one exception: breaking a large scope into smaller ones so small, minority-owned, women-owned, veteran-owned and labor-surplus-area firms can compete. That is your argument for bidding by site rather than portfolio. Price the pursuit using what it costs to bid.

An Invitation for Bids is used when the scope is fully defined and suits a firm fixed price. Bids open publicly, award goes to the lowest bidder conforming to every material term, and narrative counts for nothing. Paving, roofing, unit turns and most modernization arrive this way.

A Request for Proposals is used when approach, staffing and past performance affect the outcome; price is one scored factor and the PHA may negotiate. Security services, property management and design work arrive as RFPs, where a disciplined response and a compliance matrix decide it.

A request for quotes covers everything below the simplified acquisition threshold, with no public opening and often no rejection letter. It is the easiest door into a new authority. See RFP vs RFQ vs IFB.

Section 3 (12 U.S.C. 1701u, at 24 CFR part 75) directs opportunities created by HUD money, to the greatest extent feasible, to low- and very low-income people and the businesses that employ them. The 2020 final rule replaced headcounts with labor hours.

The benchmarks

HUD's benchmark notice at 85 FR 60907, carried forward unchanged in October 2023, sets 25 percent or more of total labor hours worked by Section 3 workers and 5 percent or more by Targeted Section 3 workers. They are safe harbors, not quotas: meeting them and following the priority order in 24 CFR 75.9 means HUD presumes compliance; missing them triggers qualitative reporting, not violation.

Who counts

A Section 3 worker has income below HUD's limit for the previous or annualized year, works for a Section 3 business concern, or is a YouthBuild participant; status holds five years from documentation. A Targeted Section 3 worker on public housing work is one employed by a Section 3 business concern, living in public housing or Section 8-assisted housing, or a YouthBuild participant.

A Section 3 business concern meets any one of three tests, documented within six months: at least 51 percent owned and controlled by low- or very low-income persons; more than 75 percent of its labor hours over the prior three months performed by Section 3 workers; or at least 51 percent owned by current public housing or Section 8 residents. Note the middle test: a crew paid near the local low-income limit can make the whole company a Section 3 business concern, which makes every employee a Targeted Section 3 worker. That is worth more to a small services contractor than any certification it will ever buy.

When it applies, and what you do

For public housing financial assistance, meaning Operating Fund, Capital Fund and development money, there is no dollar threshold. The thresholds people quote belong to Section 3 projects funded by CDBG, HOME and similar programs, raised effective March 16, 2026 from $200,000 to $300,000, and to $150,000 for Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes. Material supply contracts are excluded; installation is not.

24 CFR 75.17 makes the PHA put Section 3 language in your contract and makes you flow it to subcontractors; the clause already sits inside forms HUD-5370, HUD-5370-C and HUD-5370-EZ. Compliance is four habits: certify workers at hire, track hours by category on your existing timesheets, document outreach when hiring, and report on the PHA's schedule. Authorities themselves report annually in the Section 3 Reporting system (S3R), which replaced SPEARS, on form HUD-60002A within 60 days of fiscal year end. HUD's voluntary HUD-4736 and HUD-4737 forms match that format.

Construction. Prime construction contracts over $2,000 are Davis-Bacon (40 U.S.C. 3141-3144, 3146-3148) under DOL rules at 29 CFR parts 1, 3 and 5, with the wage determination attached to the solicitation or referenced by number, modification and date at SAM.gov. Prime and every subcontractor file a payroll report and statement of compliance for each week worked; DOL form WH-347 carries that statement on its reverse, and substitutes must reproduce the exact language. Wages are paid weekly, and over $100,000 the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act adds overtime past 40 hours.

Maintenance. Maintenance laborers and mechanics on contracts over $2,000 for the operation of public housing are paid HUD-determined prevailing wages instead. Those decisions are not on HUD's website; you get them from the solicitation or HUD labor relations staff. Maintenance contracts require no submitted certified payroll, though you keep records, and wages are paid semi-monthly. Excluded entirely: inspection or testing without repairs, lead-based paint testing, warranty inspections, routine servicing of extinguishers, smoke detectors and boilers, routine garbage removal, and pest control without attendant repairs.

The most common failure is apprentices. One may be paid below journeyman rate only if individually registered in a DOL- or state-approved program, and the on-site apprentice-to-journeyman ratio may not exceed the ratio in that program. Anyone unregistered, or beyond the ratio, gets full journeyman rate retroactively. See prevailing wage.

PHA solicitations are built from a standard kit:

HUD-5369-A catches people: it carries the certifications, and an unsigned copy is a rejected bid. Form HUD-51915 covers design agreements, and HUD-2530 is a Multifamily Housing form for mixed-finance development, not a mowing contract.

Bonding runs on 2 CFR 200.326 and, for Capital Fund work, 24 CFR 905.316. On construction over $100,000 every bidder posts a bid guarantee equal to 5 percent of the bid price, and the winner posts one of: performance and payment bonds each at 100 percent of contract price; separate bonds each at 50 percent or more; a 20 percent cash escrow; or a 10 percent irrevocable letter of credit. Form HUD-5369 applies the same 5 percent guarantee down to construction and equipment contracts over $25,000, a certified check works in place of a bond, and the surety must appear on Treasury Circular 570, the T-List. See bid bonds.

Insurance is clause 36 of form HUD-5370: workers compensation per state law, commercial general liability at a combined single limit the contracting officer fills in, automobile liability on owned and non-owned vehicles, and builder's risk on construction. HUD does not set the liability figure, the PHA does; $1 million per occurrence is the common fill-in, with a $2 million aggregate on construction. Certificates must show 30 days notice of cancellation, for every subcontractor, before work starts.

The Board of Commissioners adopts the procurement policy and approves contracts above a limit that policy sets. The executive director is normally its delegate, and whoever holds that delegation is the contracting officer, a function rather than a title. Only a contracting officer binds the authority, so a site manager's enthusiasm is not an award, and above the board threshold your award waits for the next board meeting, usually monthly.

Print advertising for a sealed bid should run at least once a week for two consecutive weeks. Capital Fund money runs on hard clocks: obligate each grant within 24 months of funds becoming available, expend within 48 months, no extension beyond an approved obligation extension. Unspent money is recaptured, which is why capital work clusters in bursts and an authority near a deadline is a motivated buyer.

There is no national board for this work, which is why the channel stays uncrowded:

1. The authority's own site, under Doing Business or Procurement.
2. Housing-sector platforms. The Housing Agency Marketplace at housingagencymarketplace.com is built for PHAs, free for vendors, and carries solicitations from over 200 housing agencies in 41 states.
3. General platforms. Bonfire, now Euna, hosts the Philadelphia Housing Authority portal at pha.bonfirehub.com; the Chicago Housing Authority runs its own supplier portal; others use Public Purchase, DemandStar or BidNet Direct.
4. Newspaper notices and email. Small authorities still advertise in the paper of record and email packets from a bidders list, often the only notice.

Getting on the list is a call and an email: ask to be added for your trades, send a capability statement, W-9, insurance certificates and any Section 3, MBE, WBE or veteran certifications, then ask when the current contract expires and whether it has option years. Run the same play on nearby municipalities, counties and special districts.

• Missing bid guarantee. HUD-5369 says failure to submit one with the bid results in rejection. No cure period.
• Unacknowledged amendments. Acknowledge every addendum before opening, by signing and returning it or noting its number and date on the bid form. Missing one that carried substantive information means rejection.
• Unsigned HUD-5369-A. The certifications page comes back signed or the bid is dead.
• Late delivery. The exceptions are narrow, mostly certified mail postmarked five days out.
• No Section 3 plan where one is requested, or a plan with no numbers in it.
• Exclusion or debarment. PHAs check SAM.gov exclusions and HUD's Limited Denial of Participation list before award, for you and your subs. A SAM registration is often not required; an exclusion is fatal.
• Missing licenses or insurance certificates.

If you lose, ask for a debrief first. PHAs need not keep written protest procedures, but the protest and dispute clauses live in HUD-5369 and HUD-5370 and most have them anyway. The clock runs from when you knew the grounds, and a protest against solicitation terms is late once offers are due, so raise a bad specification during the question period. See debriefs and bid protests.

On construction, clause 27 of form HUD-5370 governs. Progress payments come roughly every 30 days against the Schedule of Amounts for Contract Payments, on form HUD-51001, and the PHA retains 10 percent. Past 50 percent complete, if the contracting officer and architect find performance satisfactory, the PHA may pay the remainder in full, and may reinstate retainage if performance slips.

On service contracts, invoice monthly and expect payment two to six weeks after the invoice clears inspection. Most states have prompt payment statutes covering political subdivisions, but under 2 CFR 200.441 penalties and interest generally cannot be paid with HUD funds without advance written permission, so authorities resist conceding late fees. Capital work is slower still, because the money moves through federal draws rather than a local treasury.

Pick the three housing authorities in your radius, download each procurement policy, get on each bidders list, and register on the Housing Agency Marketplace. Open solicitations are on our opportunity hub; if you would rather someone tracked them and wrote the responses, book a call.